An Instrument for Evaluating the Self: The Self-Discrepancies Scale in Non-Clinical Participants

The Self-Discrepancies Scale (S-DS) is a multiple-subscore instrument designed to assess discrepancies between mental representations of the self: the actual self on one hand, and the ideal and socially prescribed selves on the other. Its idiographic subscores rely on the endorsement of self-descriptive traits, while its abstract subscores form an overall judgement of felt self-discrepancies. The objectives of the present study were to (i) evaluate the S-DS in a new non-clinical population, (ii) expand the body of data on the S-DS's convergent validity, (iii) study the idiographic data for the S-DS, and (iv) establish a nomothetic list of traits with a better choice of unwanted traits. We administered the S-DS to a non-clinical sample (N= 422, mean age = 23.26, 90% female), along with a questionnaire measuring personality traits. Two internal reliability results were different to those observed in the primary research. The wanted ideal self (WIT%) was weakly linked to overall measures of discrepancy and distress. The correlations between the two indices of ideal self (WIT% and ideal discrepancy) were weak. One result differs from the literature findings (moderate correlation between the two discrepancy indices). Neuroticism was found to be the highest predictor of ideal discrepancy. The abstract discrepancy subscores (ideal and socially prescribed discrepancies) were better correlated with personality traits than the idiographic subscores (wanted ideal (or socially prescribed) traits). Our present results suggest that the ideal and socially prescribed selves encompassed the same categories of wanted and unwanted traits. There were small quantitative differences (in the number of traits cited) between the two selves. In general, the two types of traits (wanted and unwanted) belonged to different categories. The wanted traits were more strongly endorsed in the ideal self. In conclusion, the present data provided a better assessment of the idiographic aspects of self-discrepancy and add to a grow body of evidence on the convergent validity of the S-DS.