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This article is a research paper based on questionnaires which are statistically analyzed. Here is a brief statement about what they were looking for in the "Findings" section, just to help you understand the discussion:
"As stated above, we are interested in two empirical issues: The first relates to the structure of the bases of the commitment; the second relates to the effect of commitment on the relationship between identity and behavior." (p. 246)
Regarding the first issue they did factor analyses to determine what were the the bases for the respondents commitments. In any case, individual items can have positive or negative influence.
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But I'm going to come in at the the go to the "Consequences of Commitment" subsection, still in the "Findings" section:"For persons whose commitment level is one standard deviation below the average, the effect of identity is 0.050 (.154 - .104). Thus for people with low commitment, little relationship exists between identity and time in role, but as commitment increases, the relationship becomes significant and strong." (p. 248)
I'm not sure what the "average" commitment level was in the Vienna mission, but I'm sure it was much higher than mine, especially for full-time (2-year commitment) missionaries. To understand how they make the connections you have to see the questionnaire they used and the table of results, but it does follow as they say it does in their research. So if it is generalizable to me, and I think it does fit, that my having low commitment, little relationship existed between my identity and time in role. That never changed, though, while I was in Vienna, although, there were some ups and downs. While I was working with Austrians at first, especially, I still felt like that part of my role connected well with my identity. And the same was true when I went on ministry trips, especially the women's ministry trip. In those times there was a closer connection between my identity and my role, but all the other time it was like I might as well be living someone else's life.
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"Overall the analysis reveals three basic results. First, commitment, as indicated by the bases serving as proxies, moderates the relationship between one's identity and one's behavior (shown in the 'Commitment Basis by Identity' column). Second, the exception is that NEGATIVE does not act in this manner and therefore may not represent a basis of commitment." (p. 248)
I was originally only going to cite part of this, but for it to make sense I needed all of it. This all refers to one column in a table, and there's a third finding, that is not important to my discussion so I didn't include it. So the thing is that people have commitment to school, to work or whatever. And this commitment, according to this study's findings, moderates one's identity and behavior. As I understand that you'd have identity - commitment - behavior, although it doesn't have to be so hard and fast in that order, necessarily, I suppose, but it seems like that would be a logical order. But that's the kind of thing you'd be looking at, anyway.
But in this "Commitment Basis by Identity" column there are 2 negative items, and these must be the ones that are referred to in the exception that don't operate in the manner described above. A negative commitment can hardly serve as a moderator between one's identity and one's behavior now, can it? I think I was more or less in this camp probably most of the time I was with the Vienna mission.
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"People with higher commitment are acting to keep the correspondence between their identity and their behavior more congruent. Identity theory antidipates precicely this effect of commitment." (p. 248)
I didn't have high commitment, but I did have a very big dilemma regarding the correspondence between my identity and my behavior. I really tried to twinkle toe around the really obnoxious stuff so that I wouldn't have to deal with overly much dissonance, but I couldn't always avoid things. The first 18 month the mission did things to me, but the last maybe 6 months or so I finally gave in to them and there began to be more and more incongruency between my identity and my behavior, and that was harder to take than when it was just them doing things to me. That was like the final nail in my coffin. But if I'd stayed any longer they would have started in on my thoughts, so I'm just glad it ended when it did.
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I guess that's all for this article.