Volume 8 Issue 2 (2012): New Approaches to Psychodynamic Research
Main Articles

Self-Identity Theory and Research Methods

Mardi J. Horowitz
University of California, San Francisco
Bio
Published November 22, 2012
Keywords
  • self,
  • identity,
  • coherence,
  • personality,
  • self-report

Abstract

Identity disturbances are common in clinical conditions and personality measures need to extend to assessment of coherence in underlying levels of self-coherence. The problem has been difficult to solve because self-organization is a complex unconscious set of mind/brain processes embedded in social roles and values. Theory helps us address this problem and suggests methods and limitations of interpretation that involve self-reports of subjects, observers who rate subjects, and narrative analyses of verbal communications from subjects.