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Self-Concept Clarity and Psychopathology

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Abstract

Self-concept clarity refers to the coherence of an individual’s identity, how confident one is about one’s attributes, and how consistent and stable these attributes are (Stinson, Wood, & Doxey, 2008). Studies have linked low self-concept clarity to poor psychological adjustment and functioning and high self-concept clarity to adaptive psychological adjustment and functioning. Low self-concept clarity has also been linked to a variety of types of psychopathology, including depression, anxiety, and autism. However, the majority of work on the relations between self-concept clarity and psychopathology has focused on its role in schizophrenia spectrum disorders such as schizophrenia, attenuated psychotic disorder, and schizotypal personality disorder. In this chapter, the relations between self-concept clarity and depression, anxiety disorders, and autism spectrum disorders are briefly reviewed. Then, evidence for disturbances in self-concept clarity in schizophrenia is reviewed and linked to a long history of research dating back to the earliest descriptions of the disorder that conceptualized schizophrenia as a disorder primarily of the self.

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Correspondence to David C. Cicero .

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Cicero, D.C. (2017). Self-Concept Clarity and Psychopathology. In: Lodi-Smith, J., DeMarree, K. (eds) Self-Concept Clarity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71547-6_12

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