The Working Self-Concept in Transference: Significant-Other Activation and Self Change

This research tested the hypothesis that changes in the working self-concept emerge in transference, defined as the activation and application of a significant-other representation to a new person and indexed by relevant inferences and memory (e.g., S. M. Andersen & A. Baum, 1994; S. M. Andersen, N. S. Glassman, S. Chen, & S. Cole, 1995). In an idiographic-nomothetic design, participants learned of a target person who resembled their own or a yoked participant's positively or negatively toned significant other. Results replicated the basic memory effect verifying transference. As predicted, the working self-concept changed in the transference condition. After learning about the new person, participants' freely listed self features shifted; the working self-concept became more infused with aspects of the self reflecting the self when with this significant other. Relevant changes in self evaluation were observed. Hence, changes in the working self-concept occurred in transference.