women feel like doctors; military and religious uniforms are indispens -
able in creating the sense of commitment and identification that is re -
quired by these institutions.
A number of clinicians have remarked on the discrepancies be -
tween the face we present to the world—our persona or mask, as Jung
called it—and our real sense of self. Alienation and a sense of meaning -
lessness may result from acting out roles with which we cannot identify .
Conversely , we may identify too closely with superficial roles at the riskof being at best shallow , at worst seriously out of touch with our owninner needs.
Why do we identify with some roles and not others? Sheldon,
Ryan, Rawsthorne, and Ilardi (1997) showed that traits are one determi -
nant. They asked people how they behaved in various circumstances
and how they felt about themselves in those roles. They found that peo -
ple did vary somewhat in their behavior but maintained a kind of loy-
alty to their basic traits: People felt happiest and most genuine whenthey acted in accordance with their enduring dispositions. An introvertwho needs the money may take a job as a salesman, for example, but hemay never really feel he belongs there.
The idea that people identify with roles that are consistent with
their personality traits has a corollary , namely , that people who readilyadopt a variety of roles are likely to have a shaky and uncomfortableidentity . This view runs counter to other models of adjustment that sug-gest that role flexibility ought to be adaptive. After all, people mustwear many different hats and act in somewhat different ways for eachrole; wouldn’t it make sense to argue that a highly differentiated self-concept would lead to greater psychological adjustment?
Donahue, Robins, Roberts, and John (1993) tested these alternative
hypotheses by giving a measure of self-concept differentiation to a sam -
ple on whom longitudinal observations had been made over many
years. What they found was that more differentiated people were lesswell-adjusted and had been for many years. It seems likely that Neuroti -
cism interferes with the development of an integrated self-concept. It is
perhaps not surprising that individuals high in Neuroticism, whose au -
thentic nature is to be miserable, keep trying new self-definitions, like
an insomniac who cannot find a comfortable position in bed.
Openness to experience may also figure in the correspondence be -
tween inner and outer versions of the self, and provide a sense in which
flexibility isadaptive. Those who are open to their own feelings, willingInfluences of Personality on the Life Course 229