Hitlin -- "Values As the Core of Personal Identity: Drawing Links between Two Theories of Self" (Updated over a year ago)

Personal identity is an underanalyzed level of the self, often regarded erroneously as too idiosyncratic for proper social psychological analysis. The two dominant theories of self-identity theory & social identity theory mention but rarely explicate the concept of personal identity. In this paper, I address this gap by making two moves; one conceptual & one empirical. First, I argue that values are a cohesive force within personal identity. Conceptualizing values as the core of one's personal identity leads toward understanding the cohesion experienced among one's various social identities. In the second, empirical move, I use measures of a key dimension along which values are arrayed (self-enhancement vs self-transcendence) to illustrate how a values-based conception of personal identity influences the formation of a role identity. Specifically, theoretically relevant values along the self-enhancement/self-transcendence dimension are significant predictors of the volunteer identity, even when previous measures of the identity are controlled. I conclude by discussing the utility of values for studying a level of the self often considered too ideographic for sociological analysis. 3 Tables, 1 Figure, 103 References. Adapted from the source document. Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 2, pp. 118-137, June 2003