Moral Identity Complexity and Incompleteness-Compensation : Comparing Actors vs. Non-Actors

Abstract

Despite of drama and role-play being a widespread and popular interest, the amount of research about the effects of role-play on humans is limited. Nonetheless, research in this domain can provide insightful perspectives on various aspects of the human self. This thesis puts three theories on different angles of the self in context with each other and investigates the effect of frequent acting on individuals. Therefore, the present experiment was conducted in German with an overall sample of 97 participants, consisting out of actors and non-actors. Stages of the experiment included questionnaires assessing self-complexity and moral identity, two scene tasks, one to induce incompleteness and another one to measure the incompleteness compensation. Both samples were then analytically compared to each other. Results showed support for the hypothesis that actors have a higher complexity in terms of their moral identity than non-actors. Furthermore, the hypothesis that high self-complexity is positively correlated to less incompleteness compensation across roles is not being supported by the findings of this thesis. Lastly, it was hypothesized that in comparison to non-actors, actors compensate incompleteness less across roles. Due to an unsuccessful manipulation, this prediction could not be fully investigated. However, it is partly supported by our findings, because sample (actor, non-actor) was found to be a significant predictor for moral behavior. The present study was conducted in a one-participant-at-a – time between group design.