Publication

Do Discrepancy-Relevant Contexts Activate Self-Discrepancies in Socially Anxious College Students?

Emily Weiss
Citations
Altmetric:
Abstract

Self-discrepancy theory proposes that people are prone to anxiety when their beliefs about how they are differ from their beliefs about how others expect them to be (Higgins, 1987). The empirical evidence, however, does not consistently lend support to predictions from this theory (Mason et al., 2019). Higgins (1999b) argues that three conditions that must be met to observe specific relationships proposed by self-discrepancy theory: (1) participants must have elevated distress, (2) participants should have recent, relevant experience, and (3) self-discrepancies assessed should be relevant to the context of distress. In the current study, 128 participants with high SA provided information about distress and self-discrepancies after experiencing inclusion or exclusion during the Cyberball task. Results did not indicate a specific relationship between ought discrepancies and SA, suggesting that Higgins’ (1999b) conditions may be incomplete. Exploratory analyses revealed that condition and SA interacted to predict ideal discrepancies, offering novel contributions.

Comments
Description
Date
2025-08-29
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Social anxiety, Self-discrepancy theory, State anxiety, Self-presentational theory, Ought discrepancy, Ideal discrepancy
Citation
Emily Weiss. “Do Discrepancy-Relevant Contexts Activate Self-Discrepancies in Socially Anxious College Students?” Georgia State University, 2025. https://doi.org/10.57709/8EG8-5049.
Embargo Lift Date
Embedded videos