possible self
a mental representation of what one could become. Possible selves are cognitive manifestations of enduring goals, aspirations, fears, and threats that provide plans and strategies for the future. They may be positive, providing an image of something to strive for, or negative, providing an image of something to be avoided. An individual is free to create any variety of selves, yet the pool of possible selves derives from the categories made salient by the individual’s particular sociocultural and historical context and from the models, images, and symbols provided by the media and by the individual’s immediate social experiences. [proposed in 1985 by U.S. social psychologist Hazel Rose Markus]