Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect.

“27 While should own self-discrepancy (i.e., the discrepancy between the actual self from one ’ s own point and the characteristics one thinks they should oblige to possess) has been associated with anger and hostility, ideal own self-discrepancy (i.e., the discrepancy between the actual self and…”

“Self-discrepancy theory and regulatory fit and focus theories (Higgins, 1987, 1998) further suggest that people are motivated to make comparisons to others to whom they perceive themselves to be similar because this helps them gain information about how to promote their successes and achievements…”

“The key to lasting engagement in personal growth activities may lie in whether the activity is part of one’s ideal self, or the most desired future potential self (Higgins, 1987, 1989; Markus & Nurius, 1986).”

“This pattern aligns with self-discrepancy theory 33 : intrinsically motivated students hold higher standards for cognitive engagement, and when using AI for content generation they may perceive a gap between their expected involvement and the reduced effort afforded by AI, which is associated with…”

“…is that psychological difficulties are formulated as arising from thoughts, intentions, and behaviors that are not aligned with this value system, consistent with broader perspectives emphasizing the role of value–behavior discrepancies in psychological distress (Hayes et al., 2012; Higgins, 1987).”

“Interpersonal Anxiety and Self-Blame Tendency are closely related to peer relationships, social evaluation, failure experiences, and self-related emotional responses (Chiu et al., 2021; Higgins, 1987; Watson and Friend, 1969).”

“Self-discrepancy theory provides a psychological explanation for why inadequate support may be associated with loneliness: emotional distress may arise when individuals perceive a gap between their actual experiences and their expected or ideal self-state (25).”

“It was originally derived from two overarching theories: the possible selves theory by Markus and Nurius (1986) and the self-discrepancy theory by Higgins (1987).”

“This finding supports theoretical models of self-discrepancy (Higgins, 1987) and suggests that repeated exposure to evaluative feedback and social comparison may progressively weaken the alignment between internal experience and external expression.”

“When these are affirmed, psychological well-being improves, consistent with research showing that mismatches between one’s inner standards and outward behavior are linked to anxiety and emotional strain (Higgins, 1987; Debrosse et al., 2018).”

“The emotional experiences can be interpreted through Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1987), which posits that guilt arises when individuals perceive a gap between their actual self and their ideal or socially expected self.”

“Hig-gins [29] proposed that discrepancies between different self-representations, including the actual self, the ideal self, and the ought self, generate psychological distress.”

“More precisely, to increase internal self-relevance, I chose vocabulary used in studies on self-discrepancy theory to address the ideal self (Higgins, 1987).”

“…the socio-educational model of motivation (Gardner, 1985), the theory of possible selves (Markus and Nurius, 1986), and self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), Dörnyei (2005) proposed the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), which consists of three interrelated components: the ideal L2 self,…”

“These patterns are similar to challenges seen in social media, where profiles often reflect different aspects of a person’s identity, such as the actual self, the ideal self, or the ought self [63, 158].”

“8 In the digital age, two factors may shape individuals ’ sense of self during social media engagement: self-presentation and online positive feedback.”

“Third, our longitudinal results support Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1987) in the context of health behaviors.”

“This explanation could also account for our results for plans: Plans have been closely related to self-identity (Carver et al., 1999; Higgins, 1987; Sheldon et al., 1999).”

“…failures that make them aware of the discrepancy between how they currently perceive themselves (i.e., actual self) and how they desire to be (i.e., ideal self) or how they believe they should be (i.e., ought self) in a certain self-domain (e.g., power, appearance, intelligence) (Higgins, 1987).”

“These results are broadly in line with self-discrepancy theory [61], which proposes that perceived discrepancies between one’s actual and ideal selves are associated with lower self-esteem and greater anxiety.”

“The association can be understood through self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), which posits that discrepancies between actual and ideal self are related to dejection-related emotions, with behaviors motivated to resolve the discrepancy and its related negative emotions.”

“The Ideal L2 Self where learners have a vision of their future self as one that they aspire to, and the Ought to Self where learners believe they should become in order to live up to external expectations (Higgins, 1987).”

“Prior research has shown that discrepancies between aspirations and actual acquisitions are directly associated with lower levels of life satisfaction (Campbell et al., 1977 ; Higgins, 1987; Michalos, 1985).”

“In the career planning process, individuals set goals that determine the direction of their career development and make conscious efforts to achieve these goals [21– 23].”

“Its theoretical roots can be traced back to the theory of self-difference proposed by Higgins (1987).”

“When discrepancies between how one sees oneself and how one appears are reduced, psychological coherence increases and appearance-related distress is likely to decrease [14].”

“The ideal self captures users’ engagement with algorithmic outputs that visualize who they wish to become; but when this distance widens, users experience frustration or anxiety (Higgins, 1987), explaining why users withdraw from social platforms.”

“This state of mind, known as “self-discrepancy” (Higgins, 1987), may contradict the “desired outcome” of intercultural learning (Deardorff, 2006).”

“Higgins’ (1987) self-discrepancy theory suggests that people may react differently and experience feelings like depression or anxiety to similar adverse life events, such as TBI.”

“According to the self-concept discrepancy theory, physical injuries caused by NSSI, such as scars or bruises, may undermine individu - als’ cognition of the “ideal body”, thereby triggering greater body shame and negative self-evaluations (Higgins, 1987).”

“One of the most interesting theoretical approaches for understanding the utility of avatars in the psychological field is Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1987).”

“…that individuals experience negative affect when there is misalignment between the attributes they believe they possess (i.e., “the actual self”), the attributes they desire (i.e., “the ideal self”), and the attributes they believe they should possess (i.e., “the ought self”) (Higgins, 1987).”

“According to self-discrepancy theory (Higgins 1987), emotional discomfort in the form of dejection-related emotions (e.g., disappointment, shame) tends to occur upon identifying a misalignment between one's current state and a state one would ideally like to attain, whereas agitation-related…”

“Additionally, Self-Discrepancy Theory (SDT; Higgins, 1987) provides another possible mechanism for understanding how perfectionism and calling may jointly predict IP.”

“It often results from a perceived discrepancy between an individual’s actual physical appearance and their idealized self-image [1,2].”

“This bifurcation of the construct aligns with Higgins’ self-discrepancy theory (1987) and also draws from the self-determination continuum described by Deci and Ryan (1985).”

“This relates to self-discrepancy theory [36], which posits that distress arises when there is a gap between the actual self and the ideal self .”

“Additionally, the Self-Discrepancy Theory of Higgins (1987) offers a theoretical explanation: discrepancies between the actual self (who one is) and the ideal self (who one wants to be) can evoke feelings of disappointment and sadness.”

“Especially on social media platforms, when there is a discrepancy between the identity presented by the individual and the inner self, this may lead to psychological ruptures and a tension between the "real self" and the "ideal self" (Higgins, 1987; Michikyan, et al., 2014).”

“Drawing on self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987; Higgins & Nakkawita, 2021), we conceptualize emotional discomfort as stemming from a misalignment between one's actual self and one's ought self—that is, internalized personal or societal standards, such as egalitarian and anti-discriminatory norms…”

“…appraisal by athletes of their actual versus ideal self as a competitor can support addressing the steps required to gain perspective on the discrepancy between those two selves [44] , and temper the human's emotions, ambitions, and expectations for the speed of progress in their performance.”

“To reduce this cognitive dissonance, individuals engage in self-regulatory efforts designed to bridge these inconsistencies (Higgins, 1987; Markus & Nurius, 1986).”

“Regulatory focus refers to how employees maintain, con - trol, or adjust their thoughts and cognition to achieve organizational goals, which comprises a promotion regulatory focus and a prevention regulatory focus (Higgins, 1987 ).”

“Additionally, future research could investigate whether identification with music artists moderates the relationship between exposure to performance-oriented narratives and ideal, rather than actual, conceptions of the self (Higgins, 1987).”

“Individuals weigh their current perceptions of themselves (i.e., their ‘actual’ self) against what they view as ideal (e.g., their ‘ideal’ self) (e.g., Higgins 1987).”

“Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) distinguishes three different selves that form the basis of the current research: the actual, ideal and ought self.”

“The power of this exercise lies in the surprise element, in which people experience the disconnect between who they think they should be or want to be and who they actually are (Higgins, 1987).”

“For example, Linville’s (1985, 1987) work on self-complexity found that those with complex and multifaceted identities mitigate stress better following failure, relative to those with less complex identities.”

“…between the current self, ideal self, and societal self (the ideal self, approved by the society) in line with Higgin’s Self-Discrepancy Theory [6]; people first try to make sense to reduce the discrepancy between their ideal self and current one, then they seek for societal validation to…”

“Self-representations are images of who the person is in the present—the (Higgins, 1987).”

“This may be particularly relevant for adolescents, who are in a critical stage of identity development and may seek to align their (online) self-presentation to reinforce their evolving self-concept and minimize self-discrepancy (Higgins, 1987).”

“The positive correlation between SCC and post-breakup growth can be elucidated through Higgins’ self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987).”

“Prospect theory was complemented by other cognitive, emotional, and motivational theoretical frameworks to explain different types of framing effects, such as stimulus-response compatibility, [115] regulatory focus theory, [112,127] negativity bias, [42] and fuzzy-trace theory.”

“And they are more motivated to avoid the existence of this adversity and ensure the achievement of ought selves (Higgins, 1987, 1997, 1998).”

“Drawing from the self-concept discrepancy theory, heightened discomfort or agitation arises when disparities emerge between one’s actual self and the ideal (ought) self [20], with severe discrepancies leading to anxiety.”

“While various dimensions of the Self have been articulated in diverse theories, self-discrepancy theory offers a framework for comprehending their interrelationships, proposing two cognitive dimensions: self-domains and perspectives (Barnett et al., 2017; Higgins, 1987).”

“…with the self-discrepancy theory of Higgins, which distinguishes between ‘ actual self ’ self-representation (who an individual feels that they really are) and the ‘ ideal self ’ or ‘ ought self ’ , which are guides for personal aspirations and external in fl uences on development, respectively 20 .”

“This type of discrepancy can generate emotions such as calmness or anxiety, depending on the degree of alignment or discrepancy (Higgins, 1987).”

“From 1970 to 1985, women’s enrollment accounted for 80 percent of total enrollment growth in all institutions of higher education (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES] 1987).”

“Research on the self has explored incongruence between one’s ideal self and how they actually perceive themselves (Higgins, 1987) and their moral self and actual self (e.g., Grubbs et al., 2015, Lewczuk et al., 2021).”