Contextualized self-views and sense of identity

• A moderated mediation model linking role overlap to sense of identity was tested.
• Integrative self-knowledge fully mediated the overlap's effect on identity.
• Reflection moderated the path from overlap to integrative self-knowledge.
• Need for cognition moderated the path from integrative self-knowledge to identity.

Research has yielded conflicting views of the adaptiveness of features of self-structure. Particularly interesting are the implications of contextually-based self-concept variability for the capacity to organize one's self-experience into a stable and coherent identity. In the past, this issue has been addressed from two contrasting perspectives: the fragmentation and the flexibility (specialization) hypothesis. This paper adds to the literature by examining the mediating and moderating effects of cognitive-motivational dispositions on the relationship between trait overlap among self-aspects and sense of personal identity. The analyses suggest this relationship is more complex than previously believed. There was no direct effect of overlap on sense of identity. However, support was found for moderated mediation: higher overlap was associated with higher integrative self-knowledge, which was in turn related to enhanced sense of identity, and the strength of this relation increased with the level of need for cognition (second-stage moderator). Yet, this was true only for individuals low and moderate in reflective self-focus (first-stage moderator).