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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 31, No. 5, 703-713 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167204271559
© 2005 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Self-Awareness and the Emotional Consequences of Self-Discrepancies

Ann G. Phillips

University of North Carolina-Greensboro, agphilli{at}uncg.edu

Paul J. Silvia

University of North Carolina-Greensboro, p_silvia{at}uncg.edu

Several self theories explore the effects of discrepant self-beliefs on motivation and emotion. This research intersected two self theories: self-discrepancy theory and objective self-awareness theory. Self-discrepancy theory predicts that ideal and ought discrepancies cause different negative emotions; objective self-awareness theory predicts that high self-awareness will strengthen the relationship between self-discrepancies and emotions. People (N =112) completed measures of self-discrepancies and emotions (dejection, agitation, positive affect, and negative affect). Self-focused attention was manipulated with a large mirror. When self-awareness was low, self-discrepancies had weak, nonsignificant relations to emotion. When self-awareness was high, however, self-discrepancies strongly predicted emotional experience. These effects were general—ideal and ought discrepancies affected emotions because of their substantial shared variance, not their unique variance. Implications for theories of self-discrepancies and emotions are considered.

Key Words: self-awareness • self-concept • self-focused attention • emotions • self-discrepancy • motivatio


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