Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect.

“Thus, young people should set their goals very clearly, define them very well, be as specific as possible, and, perhaps most importantly, they have to learn to monitor the progress towards their achievement, thus managing these discrepancies (Higgins, 1987).”

“…language learning could be fuelled by the correct interaction between the L2 learner’s actual self and the future vision of self as an L2 speaker (Higgins, 1987), Dörnyei (2005, 2009) included three major pillars within his framework: an ideal L2 self , an ought L2 self , and the L2 learning…”

“In the field of SLA, the future is clearly operationalized in Dörnyei’s (2009) L2 motivational self-system (L2MSS), drawing as it does from Higgins’ (1987) proposal that humans are motivated to reduce the mismatch between their present self and their desired future self.”

“Building on the principles of the Malleability Framework (Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2021), the Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model (DSMM, Valkenburg & Peter, 2013), and the Self-discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1987), this experimental study with 451 adolescents examines whether malleability versus fixed, na…”

“…mixed findings, numerous studies indicate a link between anxiety and self-image discrepancies (e.g., Fairbrother & Moretti, 1998; Francis, et al., 2006; Higgins, 1987; Higgins, et al., 1985; 1986; 1987; Kinderman & Bentall, 1996; Philippot, et al., 2018; Strauman & Higgins, 1988; Strauman, 1996).”

“The absence of positive outcomes can cause people to produce an inferiority complex, anxiety, fear, guilt, and other anxiety-related emotions (Higgins et al. 1985; Higgins 1987; Pang 2003).”

“…in a single situation perceive discrepancies from their reference standards in that domain [18,70], and the perception of large or small discrepancies is, in turn, responded to with the development of behaviors or symptoms of mania, depression, anxiety, and presumably psychopathy [18,57,71–73].”

“Satisfaction can arise from the achievement of desired states (or self), such as ideal, ought (Higgins, 1987), and realistic (or possible) states (Markus & Nurius, 1986) , or from making progress towards desired states (Amabile & Kramer, 2011).”

“self-discrepancy theory, proposed by higgins in 1987, posits that individuals possess three types of self-representations: the actual self (who one believes they are), the ideal self (who one wishes to be), and the ought self (who one believes they should be, based on societal or moral…”

“To reduce this discomfort, individuals may be motivated to minimize the discrepancies (Higgins, 1987).”

“Discrepancy in this study is conceptualized using the self-discrepancy theory by Higgins [14].”

“Teori self-discrepancy menyatakan bahwa apabila actual , ideal , ough t dan virtual self individu tidak saling melengkapi akan menghasilkan berbagai jenis emosi yang berhubungan dengan kesedihan seperti kekecewaan, rasa tidak puas, rasa bersalah dan juga rasa malu (Higgins, 1987).”

“According to SDT, individuals experience distress when there is a mismatch between their actual self and the ought self ((Higgins, 1987).”

“People often can distinguish between their actual attributes versus attributes that they wish they possessed; such (Higgins, 1987, 1989; Higgins et al., 1985).”

“Tory Higgins (1987) developed the self-discrepancy model that explores the relationship between self-concept and emotional well-being.”

“Research evidence broadly supports Higgins’ claim, although there remain some inconsistencies in the findings (Higgins, 1987; Mason et al., 2019; Watson et al., 2014).”

“Following Higgins (1987), the ideal self is defined as “reflecting one’s hopes, aspirations and wishes”, while the ought self is defined as “reflecting one’s sense of duty, obligation, and responsibility” (Bak, 2014, p. 158).”

“Accordingly, and building on self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), this study also tests whether varying levels of thinness and muscularity of female athletes have distinct impacts on women audiences in terms of their appearance social comparison and body satisfaction.”

“These negative attitudes may hinder on (cid:2) es acceptance of their bisexual identity (Higgins, 1987) and be visible at societal level (Mohr, Jackson, & Sheets, 2017; Schuler, Rice, Evans-Polce, & Collins, 2018).”

“From a cognitive-behavioural perspective, it is proposed that those experiencing body dissat-isfaction experience maladaptive appearance-related schemas which result in cognitive biases (Altabe & Thompson, 1996; Higgins, 1987; Markus et al., 1987; Rodgers & DuBois, 2016).”

“As such, the system made visible diferences between individuals’ perceived selves (or, perhaps, ideal selves [24]) and the way(s) in which they actually live their lives.”

“…of self-awareness are correlated 3 with higher levels of anxiety and depression and lower self-esteem among NT individuals (Chen 4 et al., 1998; Higgins, 1987; Wells, 1985) and increased self-awareness, and perhaps the 5 discrepancy between their social desires and abilities, has been found to…”

“…style than men (Abramson et al., 1978; Boggiano & Barrett, 1991) and report greater self-discrepancy (Boggiano & Barrett, 1991), a factor associated with negative emotions (Higgins, 1987) and adversely impacting psychological wellbeing (McDaniel & Grice, 2008; see also Sharma & Sharma, 2010).”

“These emotions are effective in determining what kind of self-regulation strategies will be put into action after the failure(s) experienced in the physical, social, developmental, etc. goals of the motivational system (Higgins 1987, Blaine and Crocker 1993,).”

“The accessibility to a certain type of regulatory focus depends on its frequency of activation, meanings of the stimulus event (Higgins, 1987).”

“Levels of congruence or incongruence in several kinds of selfrepresentation have been linked to emotional problems such as depression, consistent with the results of the current study (Higgins et al., 1986; Higgins, 1987).”

“…model proposed by Dornyei (2005, 2009) which has combined the famous paradigms from the research areas of L2 motivation and motivational psychology such as the theory of possible selves that was introduced by Markus and Nurius (1986) and self-discrepancy theory proposed by Higgins (1987).”

“Behind the self-representation through avatars there is a will to create an ideal version of the self [16,5,13], including both the personality [3] and the appearance [4,14] of the avatars.”

“Normy te mog ą by ć powi ą zane z poczuciem w ł asnej warto ś ci (Higgins, 1999) lub z ukszta ł towaniem to ż - samo ś ci (Mc Farland i in., 2019; Gollwitzer 2018), czyli z mechanizmami Struktury ja.”

“…background: Interpreting L2MSS from new perspectives Drawing on possible selves theory (Markus and Nurius 1986) and self-discrepancy theory (Higgins 1987), L2MSS is grounded in the assumption that the discrepancy between individuals ’ current states (i.e., actual self) and their envisioned…”

“Ideal and actual avatars should be easier to create and more recognizable for someone high in self-esteem, as these selves are closer together [9].”

“Body-image and eating-disorder research further warns that AI-generated visual content may heighten self-discrepancy or appearance-related concerns in vulnerable contexts (Higgins, 1987; Bennett et al., 2026; Craddock et al., 2026; Weinmann et al., 2026).”

“During this stage, individuals often experience a cognitive distortion between their actual and ideal self as they compare their current behavioral reality against who they wish they were [56], which can feel wider for individuals with ADHD [71].”

“Insofar as self-coherence is in tension with correspondence, high 17 More specifically, Higgins ( 1987 ) distinguishes between domain and standpoint; the former includes ideal or normative self-aspects, whereas the latter refers to the perspective to which these are attributed, namely to oneself or…”

“Inconsistencies among these self-representa-tions are likely to engender negative emotions such as depression and anxiety (Higgins, 1987).”

“Higgins (1987) argues that discrepancies among self-representations are associated with distinct forms of emotional vulnerability.”

“Daarnaast maken zij onderscheid tussen hoe leraren zichzelf daadwerkelijk zien ( actual self ), hoe zij idealiter zouden willen zijn ( ideal self ) en hoe zij vinden dat zij zouden moeten zijn ( ought self ) (Higgins, 1987).”

“This could also be explained through the self-discrepancy theory [11], which, as Loewen et al. found, showed that when there was a high discrepancy between the actual and ideal self, users preferred creating and playing as an idealized avatar [14].”

“By reducing the discrepancy between the actual and ideal self (37), weight underestimation may attenuate emotional distress and reduce the perceived urgency to modify health-related behaviors.”

“This theory proposes that people compare these different “selves” and that a gap between the actual self and the ideal self can lead to feelings of worthless-ness and, ultimately, low self-esteem [31].”

“Actual-ideal self-discrepancy, the perceived gap between the actual and ideal selves, is a key antecedent of psychological maladjustment such as depression and social anxiety (20, 47).”

“Different types of self-discrepancy have been shown to exert distinct effects on an individual’s motivation and emotions (Higgins, 1987; Zhang, 2025).”

“S-DT S-DT (Higgins, 1987) explains why such divergence is psychologically costly: when an individual’s “actual self” (e.g., feeling lonely on a Friday night) is repeatedly juxta-posed with an “ideal self” projected online (e.g., posting a glamorous night-out photo), the resulting discrepancy…”

“Higgins (1987) noted that self-discrepancy causes psychological distress, leading to negative emotional states.”

“Drawing on self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), students in high-ability contexts are likely to set higher standards for their ideal or ought self in terms of academic performance than those in low-ability contexts, which may affect their self-concept and well-being.”

“…within self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci, 2000), value congruence and self-discrepancy within moral and identity-based frameworks (Higgins, 1987; Aquino and Reed, 2002), and autonomy support and responsiveness within relational models (Deci et al., 1989; Reis and Gable, 2015;…”

“These findings provide evidence of support of Self-Determination Theory and Self-Discrepancy Theory by showing that when consumers feel their actions and values do not align, emotional dissonance may lead them to engage in compensatory behaviour in the form of sustainability.”

“Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) distinguishes ideal-self and ought-self discrepancies but does not distinguish whether the discrepancy arises from the evaluative apparatus or from accumulated mediating conditions.”

“The psychological meaning of this phenomenon can be explained by Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1987), which suggests that psychological distress occurs when one’s self-perception of discrepancy between one’s actual self and one’s ideal self.”

“Second, from the perspective of Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins 1987), avatar identification may help reduce the gap between one's actual self and ideal self (İskender 2023; Klimmt et al. 2009), leading to more positive affect and elevated enjoyment.”

“Further research indicates that this leads to the thin ideal being internalised by the audience of the content creator, through self-discrepancy theory (Higgins 1987; McLean et al. 2015; Wick and Keel 2020).”

“…appearance anxiety can be grounded in several foundational frameworks: self-presentation and impression management theory (Leary & Kowalski, 1990; Leary, 1996), self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), the need to belong (Baumeister & Leary, 1995), and sociometer theory (Leary & Baumeister, 2000).”

“The findings support the assumptions of Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1987), which suggests that psychological discomfort occurs when individuals perceive a gap between their actual self and ideal self.”

“…to these functions are motivated by exploratory interest Loewenstein (1994); Silvia (2008), cognitive load and satiation Sweller (1988); Redden (2008), affective satisfaction and social influence Kotkov et al. (2016); Cialdini & Goldstein (2004), and self-congruence Higgins (1987); Sirgy (1982).”

“…to self-discrepancy and sociocultural perspectives, appearance-related social comparison and the internalization of thin or athletic body ideals may increase the perceived discrepancy between adolescents’ bodies and culturally valued appearance standards (Higgins, 1987; Thompson et al., 1999).”

“Self-discrepancy theory proposes that individuals maintain representations of their actual self and personally meaningful self-guides and that discrepancies between these representations are associated with particular forms of emotional vulnerability (Higgins, 1987).”

“Building upon the possible selves theory [11] and self-discrepancy theory [12], Dörnyei [4,5] proposed the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), which deconstructs motivation into three core components: the ideal L2 self, the ought-to L2 self, and the L2 learning experience.”

“The Self-Discrepancy Theory is an effective framework for research in this area because it demonstrates that patients may experience a decrease in emotional stress when they perceive their appearance to be closer to their ideal self [31].”

“…and regulatory focus accounts likewise suggest that unfavorable feedback may be especially aversive when it activates discrepancies between the actual self and salient ideal or ought standards [25], or when it is experienced in terms of failure prevention rather than growth and advancement [26].”

“On one hand, according to Higgins ’ self-difference theory, the discrepancy be-tween the actual self and the ideal self leads to a lack of positive outcomes, which is associated with depressive emotions (58).”

“Drawing on the possible selves framework (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Henry, 2015; Henry, 2020) and self-discrepancy theory (Higgins et al., 1985; Higgins, 1987), it refers to a learner’s imagined future self as a competent user of an additional language.”

“A significant theoretical advancement in this stage is Dörnyei’s L2 motivational self system (L2MSS), which integrates concepts of possible selves [23] and self-discrepancy theory [24].”

“Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) offers a complementary account of the resulting emotional experience: discrepancies between one’s actual self and one’s ought self (i.e., how one believes one should appear, including to meet others’ expectations) are theorized to produce agitation-related…”

“Some individuals may conceal psychological distress despite high perceived life satisfaction, a phenomenon explained by self-discrepancy and self-concealment theories [44,45].”

“Self-Discrepancy Theory by Higgins (1987) introduces a psychological perspective by identifying three self-domains: the actual self (who one is), the ideal self (who one wants to be), and the ought self (who one believes they should be).”

“Pada individu dengan impostor syndrome , keberhasilan sering kali tidak diakui sebagai hasil kemampuan diri, sehingga muncul evaluasi diri negatif, perasaan tidak mampu, dan kekhawatiran terhadap kegagalan (Higgins, 1987).”

“The L2MSS came as a further explanation of the two factors introduced by Higgins (1987 ), namely the Ideal and Ought Selves.”