Multiple vs.
Unified Self  Openness
By Rita Carter
Who is Rita Carter
 Born in Essex, England
 Trained as a journalist in London
 An anchor for the London nightly news
program, “Thames News”
 An award-winning medical and science
writer, lecturer, broadcaster, and is an
English medical journalist
 Author of the book called “Mapping Mind”
which was published in 1998
 Contributed to The Independent, New
Scientist, Daily Mail, and Telegraph
What is Multiplicity (Rita Carter: The New
Science of Personality)
 Producing a joyful household of
personalities
 Demonstrating how to distinguish various
versions of oneself
 Enabling our personalities to participate in
functioning to be successful in life
Difference Between Multiple Selves and Unified
Self
 Multiple selves is a spectrum; it is not
limited to a specific set of characteristics,
thus, it varies
 Unified self refers to the “self” that includes
all of the other personalities that exist within
a person’s interactional manner (AlleyDog,
2020)
What are Multiple Selves?
 According to Carter, the occurrence of
multiple selves are described as others
have defined them
The Division of Multiple Selves
 Major Selves
-a personality with thoughts, desires,
intentions, emotions, ambitions, and beliefs
-single major
-double major
 Minor Selves
-Merely enough to deal with a particular
condition such as necessity to argue with
certain people, or smoking in certain
circumstances
-multiple minors
 Micro
-It is the “building blocks of personality –
individual responses, thoughts, ideas, habit”
as small as physical or vocal contraction or
a renewed interfering thought or emotion
-A major plus a minor
-several majors and minors
Assessments of our Multiple Selves
I. The Big 5 OCEAN Personality Dimensions
 Conscientiousness
 Extroversion
 Agreeableness
 Neuroticism
II. The Typology of Selves
 Defenders- protects and guards against
threats
 Controllers- drives and steers one’s
behaviour
 Punishers- defenders or controllers whose
energy has become misdirected
 Role-players- the personalities created for a
particular situation or purpose
 Relics- the old minors that no longer have a
useful function
 Creatives- originates new ideas, it aims, and
visions
The Unified Self
 For the impression of a unified self, Carter
discuses that every individual has a group
of personalities who are all working together
 The unified self is the integration of the
subselves into one, however, integration is
a task for the later part of life
Summary
 Rita Carter accepts the existence of multiple
selves
o She published a book entitles
“Multiplicity: The New Science of
Personality.” This book guides us on
how to know ourselves better
 There are two types of selves: multiple
selves and unified self
o Multiple Selves: is described as
others have defined them
o Unified self: the integration of the
subselves into one
 Multiple selves has three divisions: Major,
Minor, and Micros
o Major: personality with thoughts,
desires, intentions, emotions,
ambitions, and beliefs
o Minor: enough to deal with a
particular condition
o Macros: the “building blocks of
personality”
 Two types assessing ourselves: The BIG 5
OCEAN Personality Dimensions and the
Typology of Selves