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This article selectively reviews and interprets the literature on self-concept and social change. It summarizes the view that in the 1970s the self-conception of Americans, modally considered, manifested a shift from institution to impulse, from social to reflective. The argument is made that in the 1980s the expression of impulse is becoming bureaucratized, newly formated in rationalization and modernization, effectively being institutionalized by assorted societal agents, including sociologists. Speculations arc offered about the implications of that change. Several suggestions are made regarding future research on self-concept and the broader notion of "self," particularly by symbolic interactionists and for the purpose of application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]