Personal identity formation processes and the characteristics of self-authoring personality

The article presents a study concerning the relations between identity formation processes as theorized by Luyckx and colleagues (2008) and the formation of self-authoring personality according to Obuchowski (2011). The aim of the study was to establish whether and how identity formation processes are related to the overall level of self-authoring (manifesting itself in the levels of agency, intentionality, meaning in life, and creative adaptation), whether and how particular characteristics of self-authoring personality explain the intensity of identity formation processes, and whether and how the intensity of identity formation processes determines the formation of self-authoring personality. The participants were 140 people aged 30 to 39 (M = 33.15, SD = 2.48). The results indicate positive associations of the processes of commitment making and identification with commitment with the overall level of self-authoring and as well as a negative association between ruminative exploration and the overall level of self-authoring. A strong relationship was found between the configuration of variables making up a non-self-authoring personality and the configuration of variables referred to as ruminative moratorium.