The general goal of this chapter is to pursue a synthesis of the information processing properties of the self-concept with prevailing models of social support processes and to explore their combined consequences for health outcomes. Although increasingly indicated in the cast of well-being and health outcome predictors, the roles of social support and the self-concept have been pursued relatively independent of one another. The objective here is to explore mechanisms that serve a social cognitive basis for “transactions” (cf. Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) between the two as well as the relevance of these transactional dynamics for coping and striving efforts and for personal health outcomes. An underlying premise is that the prevailing emphasis on cognitive features of the self-concept predisposes preventive and remedial interventions toward intrapsychic solutions, and that a better understanding of the social interface may argue for a more contextual approach.

Specifically, I will focus on elements within the self-concept and social support systems that bear significantly upon motivation and subsequent motivated or goal-directed activity. In particular, I will emphasize cognitive representations of possible selves, social support appraisals, and their interrelatedness. First, a formulation of the self-concept as both a social product and a social force will be described in terms of the working self-concept and possible selves. The relation of social support processes, particularly support appraisals, to coping processes and to health (including mental health) outcomes will then be sketched.