Topics related to self and identity have been of considerable interest to social and personality psychologists because people’s self-relevant thoughts play an important role in their cognitions, motives, emotions, and behavior. Most work in the area of self and identity has focused on phenomena that involve a high degree of self-awareness, egocentrism, and egoism. Phenomena characterized by a low level (or even absence) of these egoic characteristics have received comparatively less attention. People who are in a hypo-egoic state focus primarily on the present situation; introspect minimally on their thoughts, motives, and feelings; think about and evaluate themselves primarily in concrete, as opposed to abstract, ways; and pay relatively little attention to other people’s perceptions and evaluations of them. This chapter examines the nature of hypo-egoic mindsets, with a focus on six exemplars of social psychological phenomena that involve hypo-egoic processing: mindfulness, flow, hypo-egoic self-regulation, humility, altruism, and allo-inclusive identity.
Correction of McAdams, D. P., Trzesniewski, K., Lilgendahl, J., Benet-Martinez, V., &
Robins, R. W. (2021). Self and identity in personality psychology
