RELATING SELF-DISCREPANCY TO SELF-ESTEEM - THE CONTRIBUTION OF DISCREPANCY BEYOND ACTUAL-SELF RATINGS

Discrepancies between actual-self and ideal-self representations have been theoretically associated with low self-esteem. Research to date, however, has failed to establish that actual-ideal discrepancy scores account for a unique proportion of the variance in self-esteem independent of actual-self ratings. Critics such as Wylie (1974) have suggested that this may reflect individual differences in ideal-self standards, and that these differences must be taken into account when devising discrepancy measures. In the current study, subjects completed a nomothetically based measure that assessed actual-ideal discrepancy on a standard set of personality characteristics and an idiographically based measure that assessed actual-ideal discrepancy between subjects' self-nominated actualself and ideal-self attributes. Results indicate that, consistent with previous research, the relation between actual-ideal discrepancy on the nomothetic measure and self-esteem is not significant when the variance due to actual-self ratings is statistically held constant. In contrast, the relation between actual-ideal discrepancy on the idiographic measure and self-esteem is significant even when variance due to the positivity of actual-self attributes is statistically held constant. Furthermore, only positive actual-self attributes that match the ideal-self are related to high self-esteem and only negative actual-self attributes that do not match the ideal-self are related to low self-esteem. These findings underscore the importance of an idiographic approach to evaluating actual-ideal discrepancy. © 1990.