Relating self-discrepancy to self-esteem: The contribution of discrepancy beyond acutal-self ratings

Investigated whether discrepancy scores derived from an idiographic measure of the actual self (AS) and ideal self (IS) are significant predictors of global self-esteem (SE). 41 university students completed (1) a nomothetically based measure that assessed actual–ideal (AI) discrepancy on a standard set of personality characteristics and (2) an idiographically based measure that assessed AI discrepancy between Ss' self-nominated AS and IS attributes. The relation between AI discrepancy on the nomothetic measure and SE was not significant when the variance due to AS ratings was statistically held constant. The relation between AI discrepancy on the idiographic measure and SE was significant even when variance due to the positivity of AS attributes was statistically held constant. Findings underscore the importance of an idiographic approach to evaluating AI discrepancy.