The Complexities of “Minding the Gap”: Perceived Discrepancies Between Values and Behavior Affect Well-Being
Open accessAbstract
Research on self-determination theory and clinical models such as acceptance and commitment therapy has shown that behaving in line with our values is a key to maintaining healthy well-being. Combining work on values and experimental studies on moral hypocrisy and well-being, we experimentally tested how behaving incongruently with values affects well-being. We hypothesized that discrepancies between how one thinks one should have behaved and how one reported one did behave would be more detrimental to well-being when the behaviors were value-expressive and motivationally coherent compared to a control condition; greater perceived gaps between how participants feel they should have acted and how they report they did act would be associated with more negative well-being outcomes; the relationship between value manipulation and well-being would be mediated by perceived behavioral gap; and that personal values would interact with value manipulation to produce differential effects on well-being. One-hundred and fifty-eight first-year psychology students participated in an experiment designed to highlight discrepancies between how participants have behaved in accordance with a certain value and how they think they should have behaved, before reporting their well-being. As hypothesized, greater discrepancies between reported past behavior and how participants thought they should have behaved was associated with negative affect and decreased reports of positive well-being. We found no evidence for differential effects of manipulated value-expressive behaviors on well-being, or for our hypothesis that personal values and manipulated value-expressive behaviors interact. Nevertheless, value content mattered in terms of inducing perceived behavioral gaps. Our study suggests that perceived discrepancies between any value and reported past behavior can have a negative impact on some aspects of well-being. We discuss how the application of our methodology can be used in further studies to disentangle the value-behavior nexus.
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Acting in line with one's values is key to maintaining mental health.
“Studies based on self-determination theory and the ACT clinical model have shown that acting in line with one’s values is key to maintaining mental health, as opposed to impulsive, inactive, or ineffective actions [63,64].”
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- Authors
- Chrystal, M., Karl, J. A., & Fischer, R.
- Affiliations
- Victoria University of Wellington (NZ)
- Corresponding author
- Chrystal, Megan
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2019-04-09
- Volume
- 10
- Pages
- 736-736
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6465641
- OpenAlex
- W2936069227
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 2.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Dublin City University Open Access Institutional Repository (Dublin City University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophical Ethics and Theory
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Keywords
- well-being, moral hypocrisy, self-determination theory, negative affect, positive well-being, personal values
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