Get in Touch With Your Authentic Self

"The idea that you are in touch with your true self is at the heart of many theories of psychological adjustment. When your actions start to deviate from your inner compass, this can become distressing and depersonalizing. Meg thinks of herself as someone who can be a good friend to others. She values her honesty, tact, and kindness. Much to her distress, she learns third-hand that others find her distant and aloof, but worse, unkind."

"According to a new paper by University of Hildesheim's Carolin Huber and colleagues (2025), when you are behaving in ways consistent with your true self, you will experience the positive state of authenticity. More formally, self-congruency produces "state authenticity." One problem in prior research on the self-congruency hypothesis is that people rate themselves as most authentic when they're engaging in positive forms of behavior and as inauthentic when they're not."

Authenticity results when behavior aligns with one's internal self-concept (self-congruency), producing a positive state called state authenticity. Deviations from inner values can cause distress and depersonalization. People often hold positively biased self-views and prefer information that confirms their identity, which can obscure accurate self-assessment and lead to surprising feedback from others. Overestimating valued traits can create misalignment between self-perception and behavior. Admitting limitations allows clearer focus on genuine strengths and supports targeted development. Exploring the self-congruency→authenticity relationship requires accounting for positive self-biases that may have confounded earlier findings.

Read at Psychology Today