| Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, Vol. 18, Iss. 4, Oct, 2014, pp. 349-369 @2014 Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences Fractal Dynamics in Self-Evaluation Reveal Self-Concept Clarity Abstract: The structural account of self-esteem and self-evaluation maintains that they are distinct constructs.
Trait self-esteem is stable and is expressed over macro timescales, whereas state self-evaluation is unstable and experienced on micro timescales. We compared predictions based on the structural account with those derived
from a dynamical systems perspective on the self, which maintains that self-esteem and self-evaluation are
hierarchically related and share basic dynamic properties. Participants recorded a 3-minute narrative about
themselves, then used the mouse paradigm (Vallacher, Nowak, Froehlich, & Rockloff, 2002) to track the
momentary self-evaluation in their narrative. Multiple methods converged to reveal fractal patterns in the
resultant temporal patterns, indicative of nested timescales that link micro and macro selfevaluation and
thus supportive of the dynamical account. The fractal dynamics were associated with
participants' self-concept clarity, suggesting that the hierarchical relation between
macro self-evaluation (self-esteem) and momentary self-evaluation is predicted by the
coherence of self-concept
organization. Keywords: self-esteem, self-organization, time series, nonlinear dynamical systems, individual differences, 1/f noise |