Possible Selves and Maintaining Personal Wholeness in a Situation of Violated Expectations

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Recieved: 04/20/0202

Accepted: 12/01/2025

Published: 12/20/2025

Keywords: Possible selves; wholeness; personality changes; violated expectations; life situation

Pages: 65-80

DOI: 10.11621/npj.2026.0106

Available online: 20.12.2025

To cite this article:

Podenkov, A.O., Avanesyan, M.O. (2026). Possible Selves and Maintaining Personal Wholeness in a Situation of Violated Expectations. National Psychological Journal, 21(1) , 65-80. https://doi.org/10.11621/npj.2026.0106

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Podenkov, A.O. Saint-Petersburg State University

Avanesyan, M.O. Saint-Petersburg State University

Abstract

Background. Contemporary personality psychology seeks to understand whether and how exactly changes in a person’s self-perception occur in everyday life, as this allows for a deeper insight into the mechanisms of maintaining personality integrity.

Objective. The aim is to determine whether changes in the content of possible selves occur the in situations of violated expectations.

Study Participants. The study included 20 participants, 10 men and 10 women, aged between 21 and 26 years, students or professionals of different profiles.

Methods. The research design included a semi-structured interview, during which the participants were asked to name their possible selves. The respondents were offered to fill out a diary for 14 days, marking the events of the day that seemed worth mentioning. Each of the events the participant related to one of the possible selves, outlined in the first interview. After two weeks the interview asking to name the possible selves was repeated. Data were processed using inductive content analysis of diary entries.

Results. Four strategies in operating the possible selves in response to situations of violated expectations were identified: maintaining, changing, synchronising, and adding possible selves. On average, each participant named 7.5 possible selves. During the two weeks of keeping the diary, the participants referred to most of the previously outlined possible selves and mentioned an average of 5.5 future self-images. In everyday life, they maintained a constant focus on at least one possible self, referring to it an average of 3.1 times during the diary period. The manifestations of possible selves at three levels of life context: situational, life, and being, were presupposed. The possible selves that emerged against the background of an unexpected disturbance of stability in a particular situation were often short-term and variable. The identified strategies and consideration of contexts allow us to describe how the redefinition or formation of new possible selves occurs in everyday life, as well as how they are interconnected with each other and the situation, which confirms the idea of the fluidity and flexibility of identity.

Conclusions. We suppose that delving into the contextual differentiation of the levels of manifestation of possible selves will help to reduce the gap between a person’s idea about self and their actual behaviour, to preserve and maintain the experience of integrity in the situation of violated expectations.

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To cite this article:

Podenkov, A.O., Avanesyan, M.O. . Possible Selves and Maintaining Personal Wholeness in a Situation of Violated Expectations. // National Psychological Journal 2026. 1. Pages65-80. doi: 10.11621/npj.2026.0106

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