Knowing What Is Important: Enhancing Self-Concept Clarity and Authenticity

Abstract

Emerging adulthood is charachterised by changes in identity development that can affect mental health. As part of project You are You: A Roadmap into adulthood, a cognitive sorting task was developed in the form of a digital tool, to help gain insight into what is important to you across different groups. In the current study we test if using this tool helps enhance authenticity and Self-Concept Clarity. A total of 127 people between ages 18 and 29 participated in the study. The study consisted of an online experimen with a pretest and a posttest and three conditions (the tool, a mindfulness exercise, and a sudoku) to which participants were randomly assigned. For the pretest and posstest the Authenticity Scale and the Self-Concept Clarity Scale were used. The groups did not differ on the pretest in authenticity or Self-Concept Clarity. Participants scored higher on the posttest than they did on the pretest for all three conditions and showed no significant differences between the three conditions. Participants that used the tool showed enhanced authenticity and Self-Concept Clarity, but showed no greater improvement than people that did the mindfulness exercise or the sudoku.