316 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories
which self-discrepancies predict emotional experience (Phillips & Silvia, 2005).
For example, Ann Phillips and Paul Silvia predicted that the negative emotion
experienced from either real-ideal or real-ought discrepancies would be most
extreme when people are more self-focused or self-aware. Being in a state of
self-focus not only makes one more aware of his or her self-relevant traits, but
also makes a person more likely to detect discrepancies and therefore be more
interested in being congruent.
To test their prediction, Phillips and Silvia brought participants into a lab and
induced self-awareness in half of the participants by having them complete question-
naires about self-discrepancies and mood in front of a mirror. The other half of the
sample completed the same questionnaires but while sitting at a normal desk with-
out a mirror present. For obvious reasons, if you are answering questions about
yourself while looking at yourself in a mirror, you are more likely to be self-aware.
As predicted, the phenomenon of experiencing negative emotion as a result of self-
discrepancies occurred only among those participants who were highly self-aware
(i.e., those who completed the questionnaires in front of the mirror).
In yet more research on self-discrepancy, Rachel Calogero and Neill Watson
(2009) examined whether individuals’ perceived real-ideal and real-ought discrep-
ancies predicted a unique form of self-consciousness they termed “chronic social
self-consciousness.” This is characterized by self-focused attention when in public,
and a vigilant monitoring of the self and body. They also examined the extent to
which men and women would differ on the real-ought discrepancy in terms of body
image and self-consciousness. These scholars predicted that real-ought discrepan-
cies should be more strongly related to this tendency to take this vigilant view of
the self as a social object than should real-ideal discrepancies. This is because
real-ideal discrepancies should result in disappointment at not meeting personally
relevant aspirations, whereas real-ought discrepancies produce agitation or fear
because of anticipated punishment for violating social obligations.
If this sounds like a description better suited to women than to men, that’s
exactly what these researchers found. Indeed, in their first study, Calogero and
Watson found that, among 108 undergraduates, real-ought discrepancies, but not
real-ideal, predicted chronic social self-consciousness in females but not males.
In a second study of over 200 female undergraduates, they found that, controlling
for other variables like the importance of physical appearance, real-ought discrep-
ancy continued to strongly predict young women’s chronic social self-consciousness.
If we consider the media’s delivery of narrow and impossible standards of female
physical beauty, it makes a good deal of sense that girls and women develop a
real-ought discrepancy for their own selves, and that this results in a kind of
vigilant attention to themselves as social objects, compared to men.Motivation and Pursuing One’s Goals
One area of research where Rogers’ ideas continue to be influential is goal pursuit.
Setting and pursuing goals is a way for people to organize their lives in a way that
leads to desirable outcomes and adds meaning to daily activities. Setting goals is
easy, but setting the right goals can be more difficult than it seems. According to
Rogers, a source of psychological distress is incongruence, or when one’s ideal self