 27. Identity Negotiation  593
feedback as being more consistent with 
their self-views than it really was (Story, 
1998). Thus, even if targets receive identity- 
inconsistent feedback that they cannot ig -
nore, discount, or reinterpret, they may 
still sustain their self-views—and thus meet 
their need for coherence—  by forgetting the 
threatening feedback or misremembering its 
content.
Thematic  Coherence
When targets negotiate multiple identities in 
the context of a single relationship or across 
multiple different relationships, they may in -
crease the underlying coherence and logic of 
the various identities through a process that 
McAdams (1999) refers to as “selfing.” As 
noted earlier, people can increase compat -
ibility by structuring their multiple identi -
ties around underlying themes and narrative 
tones. For example, themes of agency and 
communion are prevalent in many people’s 
identities, providing cognitive unity to the 
multiple roles that they enact. In a similar 
manner, distinct identities often share a 
common affective tone, such as optimism, 
humor, pessimism, or sorrow. Thus, the 
target who behaves differently and pursues 
different relationship goals across his or her 
various negotiations with a given perceiver 
may still maintain intrapsychic coherence by 
linking all of his or her identities to underly -
ing concerns about agency and connected -
ness, or by imbuing the different identities 
with a similar affective tone.
Compartmentalization
Cognitive compartmentalization may be 
another mechanism through which some 
targets achieve continuity among the dif -
ferent identities that they negotiate. People 
tend to organize their self-views into differ -
ent cognitive compartments or self-  aspects  
(Linville, 1985; Showers, 1992). Whereas 
some people’s self-  concepts contain a few 
broad self-  aspects that encompass most of 
their specific self-views, other people or -
ganize the contents of their self-  concept 
into numerous, nonredundant self-  aspects 
(e.g., “student self,” “religious self,” “self at 
home”). Importantly, experiences that acti -
vate a given self-  aspect should prime associ -ated self-views. Therefore, targets higher in 
self- complexity—  those who organize their 
self-views into numerous nonredundant 
self- aspects—  may find it easier to negotiate 
multiple distinct identities without experi -
encing threats to their sense of continuity. 
For instance, if a professor’s “self at work” 
self- aspect contains the qualities “intro -
verted” and “submissive,” whereas her “self 
at home” contains the qualities “outgoing” 
and “exuberant,” she may find it relatively 
easy to negotiate each of these disparate 
identities in its own context. For this target, 
even though her work and home identities 
differ, interactions in each separate context 
will activate primarily those self-views that 
are relevant to the current setting. In theory, 
then, when targets negotiate very different 
identities with their different relationship 
partners, those with more complex self- 
structures should be less troubled by feelings 
of incompatibility.
A Process Model  
of Identity  Negotiation
We highlight in this section some of the key 
links in the chain of events that make up 
the identity negotiation process. The pro -
cess model of identity negotiation depicted 
in Figure 27.1 guides our excursion. This 
model explicates the dynamically interre -
lated roles of targets’ and perceivers’ identi -
ties and relationship goals in guiding iden -
tity negotiations and their outcomes. Along 
the way, we also illustrate how targets apply 
the interpersonal principles and intrapsychic 
mechanisms described earlier. Note that the 
processes described here presumably operate 
both in new relationships and in long-term, 
enduring relationships.
The Target’s Initial Identity 
and Relationship  Goals
The model begins with the initial identity 
and relationship goals of targets (see Figure 
27.1, small, top box at far left). As noted 
earlier, identity  refers to personal, social, 
and collective self-views, along with the 
narratives that people superimpose on their 
self- knowledge to foster a consistent and co -
herent sense of self. Relationship goals  are 