A Multidimensional, Hierarchical Model of Self-Concept: An Important Facet of Personality

Introduction

Self-concept is one of the oldest and most important constructs in the social sciences. In this chapter, I distinguish between: (a) an older, unidimensional perspective of self-concept that focuses on global self-esteem and (b) the more recent, multidimensional perspective of self-concept that is based on a hierarchical model of self-concept. In support of the multidimensional perspective, I review research showing that specific domains of self-concept are more useful than a general domain for understanding the complexity of the self in different contexts, predicting a wide variety of behaviors, providing outcome measures for diverse interventions, and relating self-concept to other constructs in a variety of ...