Seff-Discrepancies and Biographical Memory: Personality and Cognition at the Level of Psychological Situation

Abstract

This study examined whether persons who possess different types of self-discrepancies are sensitive to different types of psychological situations as evident in their memory for another person's experiences. All subjects read the same essay in which a target person experienced events reflecting different types of psychological situations (e.g., the presence of a positive outcome; the absence of a negative outcome). The target person's experiences were circumstantial and not personality related (e.g., finding money on the street; escaping an unpleasant school day because of an election). Half the subjects were predominant actual: ideal discrepancy persons, who, according to self-discrepancy theory, are oriented toward hopes and wishes and are sensitive to the presence and absence of positive outcomes. The remaining subjects were predominant actual: ought discrepancy persons, who are oriented toward sanction-dictated duties and obligations and are sensitive to the absence and presence of negative outcomes. Events that reflected the presence and absence of positive outcomes should be remembered better by predominant actual: ideal than by predominant actual: ought discrepancy persons, whereas the reverse should be true for events that reflect the absence and presence of negative outcomes. This prediction was confirmed, and the predicted interaction remained significant even when subjects' pre-essay mood, postessay mood, and change in mood were statistically controlled. These results suggest that a chronic pattern of self-beliefs representing a distinct psychological situation produces sensitivity to events reflecting that psychological situation, despite there being no overlap in content or topic between the pattern and the events.