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Concept/Definition
The theory of symbolic self-completion refers to the idea that individuals express themselves through socially recognized indicators that they believe are adequate representations of their self-definition, the self-defined personal identity that individuals are committed to. These personal identities are important to individuals because the identities are understood to have “permanent qualities, which in turn have implications for [the individuals’] future behavioral or thinking patterns”. At the same time, these self-definitions are goals that individuals aspire to reach and perfect through self-symbolizing --the act of seeking to attain “socially recognized indicators of the desired identity” when individuals feel their personal identities are “in question” or “under threat”. These indicators, also called symbols, are socially recognized markers such as material possessions and social status. Because it is through these symbols that individuals build their personal identities around and communicate the identities to others, they are “the building blocks of self-definition”. Thus, the symbols are meaningful to the individual only insofar as they adequately represent individuals’ self-definition, regarding their status of accomplishment in the areas they find are relevant to their personal identities. When individuals lack these symbolic indicators to express their personal identities, they seek to “display alternative symbols of attainment”.

Origins
The theory of symbolic self-completion has its origins in the symbolic interactionist school of thought. As is expressed by George Mead in Mind, Self and Society, symbolic interactionism suggests that the self is defined by the way that an individual’s society responds to him or her. This idea helped shape the central ideas put forth in the book Symbolic Self-Completion, which are that individuals have a tendency to define themselves using symbols of accomplishment and that these symbols are used to communicate to society one’s self definition. Depending on the area of self-definition to which these symbols pertain, a different self-definition is thus exhibited.

Self-Definitional Symbols
Research has shown that when individuals are deficient in any self-definitional area, this produces a state of tension and a sense of incompleteness in one’s self-definition. Individuals are motivated to reduce this tension by using alternate symbols of accomplishment in the relevant self-definitional area. In the study “Symbolic Self-completion, Attempted Influence, and Self-Deprecation,” Robert Wicklund, Peter Gollwitzer and James Hilton asked participants to write an essay teaching people how to perform an activity that was important to them and to then indicate how many people should be required to revise their essay. Results showed that the fewer the years of education or experience participants seemed to have in the relevant area, the higher the number of people they thought should be required to revise their essay. The higher this number was, the more participants put themselves in a position to influence others, which the researchers interpreted as a means of symbolic compensation for lacking the relevant self-definitional area. An additional part of the study asked men to make a statement about their ability in the self-definitional area, and results showed that the less education and experience participants had, the less willing they were to provide a negative evaluation of themselves. This behavior remained consistent even when they were told that the attractive female confederate preferred when men were more critical of themselves. This shows how people are willing to self-symbolize even when they know this behavior will be negatively received by society. This indicates that individuals are more concerned with whether their behavior will be perceived as self-definitional than with whether it induces positive or negative judgments. Altogether, these findings indicate that “influencing others, as well as positive self-descriptions, can further the individual’s sense of having a complete self-definition”.

Self-Definitional Threats
The study “Reactions to self-discrepant feedback: Feminist attitude and symbolic self-completion” shows how a threat to one’s identity also motivates individuals to engage in symbolic self-completion as a means of reducing the tension it causes. The researchers, Rudolf Schiffmann and Doris Nelkenbrecher, asked a group of feminist participants to suscribe to a feminist journal after being given feedback on their feminist attitudes. The women who were described as being less feminist, were more likely to suscribe to the feminist journal as a means of symbolically “completing” their self-definition.

Symbolic Self-Completion in Internet Communication
More recent studies have shown how symbolic self-completion influences our communication through online media platforms. For example, Cindy and Eddie Harmon-Jones and Brandon Schmeichel have shown how individuals’ need for self-definition affects whether they share symbols of attainment online or not. They examined academic web pages and email signature files to see what types of academic departments and professors were more likely to enlist professional titles. They found that the lower an academic department had ranked within National Research Council Rankings, the higher the number of professional titles they displayed in their websites. Similarly, the lower the annual rate of publications and citations professors seemed to have, the higher the amount of professional titles they enlisted in their email signatures. These correlations suggest that the enlistment of professional titles online serve as alternate symbols of accomplishment in their self-definitional area; The more they felt they were lacking in that area, the more likely they were to engage in symbolic self-completion online.

Symbolic Self-Completion in Advertising
The theory of symbolic self-completion has a direct application in advertisements. Exposure to media leads to consumers associating symbols with advertised products directed towards their feelings of “incompleteness”. Although the symbol that they ascribe might be unique to each individual person, these symbols can be used to improve one’s sense of self. These symbols give some users a sense of completeness, since “self-perceptions are influenced by product use/ownership when the product has a strong user image and the consumer does not have a well formed self-image”. For example, some products, such as cars, may appeal to a male’s sense of masculinity and suggest that a man is more ‘macho’ if he uses this product. By then displaying these symbols, a person improves their sense of self and how they feel others perceive them.

Materialism and Symbolic Self-Completion
Much of what is colloquially referred to as the “mid-life crisis” can be explained by the theory of symbolic self completion. Symbolic self-completion holds that when individuals feel their identities are uncertain or threatened, or when they feel insecure in but committed to an identity, they are more likely to value symbols, such as possessions, that reinforce those identities. A classic example of the mid-life crisis, the 40-year old man who buys a red sports car, exemplifies this characteristic. He becomes unsure if he has made the right choices in his life, if he’s in the right career, so he counters his insecurity by purchasing a material object that functions as a status symbol, something that both he and others will recognize as a mark of success. Additionally, the tendency for individuals to externalize their concerns about their own lives by acquiring status symbol objects or possessions that reinforce their identities furthers the relationship between self completion theory and materialism. Much more emphasis is placed on material goods, as they can be recognized and understood as status symbols by a wide audience. Likewise, materialism reinforces symbolic self-completion when a society is structured such consumption of prestigious objects is seen as the best remedy for insecurity; individuals see material wealth as the best source of reassurance.