Anyone who has lost a job to which they had dedicated their life will tell you that it felt like their world was ending. A low level of self-complexity exacerbated their predicament.

Similarly, anyone who devoted themselves to a relationship only to have it end will tell you about feeling completely and utterly lost. 

I am a big fan of thinking about ourselves as complex systems. Self-management is our ability to coordinate all the pieces that make up our lives to create a meaningful experience. 

This complexity is not just some unavoidable constraint we have to live with; it is a desirable characteristic we can actively cultivate. 

In this article, I want to explore the concept of self-complexity, its benefits, and how to develop it. 

What Is Self-Complexity?

Patricia W. Linville introduced the concept of self-complexity in the mid-1980s. She defined it as the extent to which a person’s self-concept is composed of multiple and relatively independent aspects, including personality traits, social roles, and skills.  

The greater the number of distinct ways in which we identify ourselves, the greater our self-complexity. People with higher self-complexity have a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of themselves, which can help them better cope with stress and adapt to change.

Just like we diversify our financial investments or income sources, we also benefit from diversifying our sense of identity and cultivating a variety of self-concepts. 

We are more than our current jobs, any of our particular hobbies, or any of our relationships considered in a vacuum. We are complex systems created by the intersection and interconnection between all the various pieces that make up our lives.

Benefits of Self-Complexity

Resilience Against Stress

Based on Linville’s model, people with high self-complexity are more resilient than those with low self-complexity in the face of emotional distress and instability.

Linville’s research indicates that individuals who perceive themselves as having multiple and distinct social identities (athlete, friend, family member, etc.) are better equipped to handle stress and negative events than those who perceive themselves as having just one or a few roles. 

Having self-complexity can prevent people from experiencing extreme reactions to external events. As described in an article on IResearchNet: 

“According to the self-complexity model, those lower in self-complexity will experience greater swings in affect and self-appraisal in response to life events such as success or failure. […]  Why? People who are lower in self-complexity tend to maintain stronger ties among the traits or behaviors describing various self-aspects. Thus, a positive or negative event that has a direct impact on one self-aspect is likely to have a relatively broad overall impact on the self because strong ties among the traits and behaviors describing various self-aspects will lead to greater spillover (generalization) from one trait to another or one self-aspect to another. In contrast, with greater self-complexity, there will be less generalization across traits or self-aspects, so a smaller proportion of the self will be affected by any given positive or negative event.”

Better Mental and Physical Health

In addition to improving our stress management and stabilizing our emotional response to external events, high self-complexity can positively impact our overall health.

People with a high level of self-complexity have better immune systems and are less likely to experience depression and anxiety, as well as physical illnesses such as upper respiratory infections.

In an article published in 1987 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Linville shares:

“Subjects higher in self-complexity were less prone to depression, perceived stress, physical symptoms, and occurrence of the flu and other illnesses following high levels of stressful events. These results suggest that vulnerability to stress-related depression and illness is due, in part, to differences in cognitive representations of the self.”

When one of their self-aspects is threatened or negatively impacted, people with high self-complexity are able to draw upon other self-concepts to maintain an overall sense of self-worth and well-being. 

Higher Chance of Success

No single aspect of your life should account for your entire sense of self. When you put all your eggs in the same basket, you risk losing everything at once. Your sense of self can be completely shattered when you lose the one thing that used to define you. 

By spreading your self-aspects, you can dilute the risk and mitigate single points of failure in your life.

Another reason to diversify your interests, relationships, and sense of identity is to free yourself and others of unrealistic expectations. Expecting your job, children, or partner to fulfill all your emotional, social, and other needs puts an undue burden and too much pressure on them. 

Lastly, to increase your chances of success, you need to be able to overcome failure and bounce back from it. Other research around Linville’s self-complexity model shows that individuals with low self-complexity struggle more with getting past failure. They are “more motivated to escape from self-awareness following failure.” 

How To Cultivate Self-Complexity

Explore Your Sense of Self

Identify and explore different aspects of yourself. Make a list of your various roles, identities, values, interests, and personality traits. Try to describe each one in detail and think about how they interact with each other.

Practice mindfulness and self-reflection. Take time to reflect on your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Try to observe them without judgment or attachment. This can help you develop a more objective and nuanced view of yourself.

Get Comfortable with Contradictions

You may find that you display different personality traits and behavior patterns in different areas of your life. Recognize that it’s okay to have conflicting thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Resist the urge to create overlap across your self-aspects. Keep them as distinct as possible. The whole point of self-complexity is that one component of your life does not have the power to take down your entire sense of Self.

Your intelligence is not tied to your career. No single event can fully define your strength and resilience. Your lovability is not tied to one particular relationship. A past experience does not determine your entire value.

Don’t try to simplify or rationalize away your complexity. Instead, learn to appreciate your own ambiguity and tolerate uncertainty.

Make Time for Hobbies

It is easy to justify neglecting our personal interests and devoting all our time to our paid work or other obligatory activities. But making time for hobbies is an important habit that makes us more resilient and well-balanced individuals.

When you practice your hobbies, you take on a new identity that is different from your usual roles. If you work in an office all day, you may find it energizing to take on the identity of a gardener or a pickleball player in your spare time.

Engaging in hobbies can also provide a sense of mastery and accomplishment. When you develop new skills or create something through your hobbies, you experience a sense of pride and satisfaction. This further contributes to your overall well-being and builds a positive self-concept.

Diversify Your Social Circles

Invest in building a strong and diversified social network while pursuing recreational activities. You may belong to different social groups centered around your varied interests. 

Interacting with people from different backgrounds and experiences will also expose you to a wider range of perspectives and ways of thinking.

The friends you go on vacation with will know a different version of you than your professional network. People in your exercise class will know yet another version of you. Your identity in your faith-based group will be independent of your career and other personal pursuits.

The different social groups you belong to help diversify your sense of identity. Let them each know and appreciate the different versions of you.

If any of your self-aspects gets challenged or destabilized, you will have others to fall back on. 

Keep Your Options Open

Try new things to broaden your horizons. Don’t limit yourself based on your past experiences. Just because you’ve never done something until now doesn’t mean that it is not for you. If it piques your interest, try it out.

Seek feedback and constructive criticism. Ask others for honest feedback about your strengths and weaknesses. Use this information to refine and develop your self-concept.

Be open to reinventing and redefining yourself. This can take many forms, from changing your appearance to making new friends, trying new hobbies, or switching careers. Stay flexible and responsive to the change opportunities your encounter. 

Reinvention can help break old patterns and habits that may have been holding you back. A fresh start and a new perspective on life can be empowering, as it reminds you that you have agency over your life.

Parting Words

Cultivating self-complexity is a lifelong process that demands introspection, curiosity, and a willingness to explore different aspects of ourselves. The next version of ourselves can often be found at the edge of our comfort zone.

By embracing our contradictions and developing a more nuanced and sophisticated sense of self, we create a strong foundation for facing life’s challenges. We develop resilience and make change our ally.

As we continue to evolve and reinvent ourselves, we acknowledge that we are not limited by any single facet of our lives. Instead, we are intricate, resilient, and beautifully complex systems, ready to adapt and flourish.