The implicit meaning of (my) change

Bibliographic Data

ID6204789
AuthorsEd O''Brien (0000-0002-4481-8408, Booth University College), Ed O'Brien, Michael Kardas (0000-0003-3486-1557, Booth University College)
Year2016
Volume111
Issue6
Pages882-894
Publication date2016-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/pspi0000073
PMID27537272
OpenAlexW2513446942
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited40

The concept of change simply entails the totality of ways in which a particular entity has grown better and grown worse. Five studies suggest that this is not how people actually understand it for themselves. Rather, when asked to assess how they have "changed" over time, people bring to mind only how they have improved and neglect other trajectories (e.g., decline) that they have also experienced; global change is specifically translated as directional change for the better. This tendency emerged across many populations, time frames, measures, and methodologies (Studies 1-3), and led to important downstream effects: people who reflected on "change" from their pasts experienced enhanced mood, meaning, and satisfaction in their presents, precisely because they had assumed to only think about personal improvement (Study 4). A final study shed light on mechanisms: people evaluated the word change in a speeded response task as more positive when they were instructed to interpret the word in relation to themselves versus a friend, while no differences emerged between conditions for nonchange control words (Study 5). This suggests that the basic pattern across studies stems (at least partly) from traditional self-enhancement motives-our own change spontaneously brings to mind only the ways in which we have improved, whereas change in someone else is not so immediately and uniformly associated with improvement. Taken together, these findings reveal novel insights into the content and consequences of change perception, and they more broadly highlight unforeseen biases in when and why people might subjectively (mis)interpret otherwise objective constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record

Cognitive psychology · Meaning (existential) · Mood · Neglect · Perception · PsycINFO · Task (project management) · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology

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