Does the Self Conform to the Views of Others?* Alicia D. Cast Indiana University Jan E. Stets and Peter J. Burke Washington State University * An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1998 annual meetings of the American Sociological Association. The research reported here is part of a larger longitudinal study of first-married couples, “Socialization into Marital Roles,” funded by Grant MH46828 from NIMH. The research was conducted under the direction of Irving Tallman, Peter J. Burke, and Viktor Gecas. The authors wish to thank Viktor Gecas and members of the Social Psychology Graduate Training Seminar in the Department of Sociology at Washington State University for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. Please direct all correspondence to Alicia D. Cast, Department of Sociology, Ballantine Hall 744, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 (
[email protected]). The Self and the Views of Others Abstract The interactionist tenet that we come to see ourselves as others see us has received only inconsistent support throughout its history, in part because of a number of factors that can disrupt the process. In this study we address several elements that have been suggested as important, including which others might be influential, the self’s agency in protecting self-views from change, the time frame involved, and the individuals’ openness to change. We address these factors using data from newly married couples over a two-year period. Regarding who may be influential, we draw on expectation states theory and hypothesize that views held by the spouse with higher status than the partner will be more likely to influence the partner’s self-views. The higher-status spouse also should influence the lower-st