Different types of self-discrepancies are associated with different negative affects. Two studies were conducted to determine whether automatic activation of specific actual-self: self-guide mismatches, as cognitive structures, would induce distinct emotional states. Subjects possessing significant discrepancies between their actual self and either their ideal self-guide (attributes that someone wishes or hopes the person would possess) or their ought self-guide (attributes that someone believes the person has the duty or obligation to possess) responded verbally to an audiotape while "thinking about other people." Study 1 involved two kinds of priming attributes: self-relevant and yoked (another subject's self-relevant attributes). Activating mismatches induced momentary syndromes of dejection (sadness, decreased arousal) in ideal-discrepant subjects but induced agitation (nervousness, increased arousal) in ought-discrepant subjects. In Study 2, subjects were randomized to either self-relevant/nondiscrepant, self-discrepant, or yoked priming. The findings of Study 1 were replicated for the self-discrepant priming condition alone. Results indicate that (a) mismatches constitute cognitive structures and (b) automatic activation of different mismatches via contextual priming induces distinct types of emotional discomfort.

Two studies explored the relevance of self-discrepancies for body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. In Study 1, actual:ideal self-discrepancies of female undergraduates correlated with body shape dissatisfaction independent of Ss' body mass and number of appearance-related self-beliefs; actual:ought discrepancy was discriminantly associated with anorexic-related attitudes and behaviors. In Study 2 (using a mixed-gender sample), bulimic-related behaviors were associated with a form of actual:ideal discrepancy (unfulfilled positive potential) whereas anorexic-related symptoms were associated with actual:ought discrepancy. Both genders showed the predicted relations between self-discrepancies and disordered eating, and the predicted associations remained even when appearance-related attributes were excluded from scoring of self-discrepancies. Eating disorders represent complex, prevalent, and significant health problems, particularly among adolescents and young adult women. Despite increasing research addressing the etiology of these problems, it remains unclear what psychological characteristics represent precursors of pathological eating behavior (American

Self-discrepancy theory emphasizes the emotional significance of patterns of relations between the self-concept and ideal and ought self-guides and predicts stability within the self related to structural characteristics independent of specific self-beliefs. It was hypothesized that whereas participants' specific self-descriptions would vary substantially over time, magnitude of self-discrepancy, regulatory focus (the individual's dominant self-guide domain), and other structural features would be stable. Participants (N = 47) were recruited from 2 samples that had completed a self-belief interview and a childhood memory cued-recall task 3 years earlier (T. J. Strauman, 1990). As expected, participants' self-descriptions varied, but magnitude and type of self-discrepancy, associations between self-guide domains and childhood memories, and correlates of regulatory focus were stable.

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