With Others, More Myself: Personal Expressiveness as Identity Enactment in Adult Daily Life

Abstract

Abstract Personal expressiveness (PE), the feeling that an activity reflects one’s true self, is a core experiential marker of eudaimonia and identity functioning, signaling that identity commitments are reflective of one’s “daimon.” In adulthood, identity commitments are often organized around relatively stable roles and relationships, suggesting that experiences of personal expressiveness may reflect not only the types of activities individuals pursue but also the relational contexts in which those activities are enacted. The present research examined how social context relates to PE across adulthood. Study 1 analyzed cross-sectional data from 294 adults (M age = 40.19) who reported on a personally expressive activity and its typical social context. PE did not differ reliably across social formats and showed continuity across adult developmental age groups, though descriptively higher levels emerged in socially embedded pursuits. Study 2 used experience sampling with 52 adults (M age = 40.46) to examine momentary associations between PE and social context in daily life. Multilevel mediation analyses showed that above-average momentary PE was associated with a greater likelihood of concurrent social presence and was indirectly associated with continued social presence across adjacent sampling occasions through concurrent social presence. Together, these findings suggest that in adulthood, personal expressiveness may function less as a property of specific activities and more as a momentary process through which established identities are socially enacted in daily life.