ICPS

2021 APS Virtual Convention

Identity Goal Incompleteness Causes Medical and Law Students to Post More Career-Related Symbols on Instagram

Virtual

Oral · Social Psychology

Applying the theory of symbolic self-completion (SCT; Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1982), three experiments demonstrate that students who sense incompleteness regarding their professional identity goal (e.g., becoming a physician) engage in compensatory self-symbolizing on Instagram by increasing their posting of respective indicators of goal attainment (e.g., wearing medical white coats).

Chairs & Discussants

  • Simona SciaraSpeaker
    Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan
  • Federico ContuDiscussant
    UniSR-Social.Lab, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University of Milan
  • Camillo RegaliaDiscussant
    Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan
  • Peter GollwitzerDiscussant
    University of Konstanz
  • Peter GollwitzerDiscussant
    New York University
  • Peter GollwitzerDiscussant
    Leuphana University of Lüneburg