Symbolic self-completion theory

How the theory works

Identities are treated as goals that are never completely finished. A person can only claim to be a good scientist or parent through indicators that others recognize, such as qualifications, tools, titles, and accomplishments. When someone experiences a shortfall in a valued identity, a tension arises. Acquiring or displaying another symbol of that identity can reduce the tension.

• Listing credentials more prominently after feeling inadequate
• Buying equipment or clothing associated with a role
• Telling others about a commitment or attempting to influence them

The role of an audience

A key part of the theory is social recognition. A symbol only completes the self if others can register it, so people in a state of incompleteness tend to seek an audience. Wicklund and Gollwitzer also suggested that insecure individuals might become less attentive to the perspective of those they are addressing, since they are focused on establishing their own claim.

Standing of the evidence

Support comes mainly from experiments conducted in the 1980s, along with later work linking the idea to consumer behavior and materialism. Many of these studies are small and were conducted before modern standards for preregistration and statistical power. Later work suggests that publicly announcing an identity goal can sometimes reduce effort, since the social recognition already feels earned, but that finding also needs stronger replication.