| The present study tested Rogers's (1959) and Higgins's (1987) hypothesis that self-discrepancies lead to anxiety and depression. It also tested Higgins's hypotheses of the differential relations of the real-ideal and real-ought discrepancies to anxiety and depression. A sample of college undergraduates (N = 282) completed three measures of both discrepancies and three measures of both anxiety and depression at two points in time four weeks apart. Latent variables were modeled for the self-discrepancies, anxiety, and depression. An initial CFA demonstrated the convergent and discriminant validities of all four factors. In a series of increasingly complex SEM models, depression was consistently found to be a significant and unique predictor of change in the real-ought self-discrepancy and in anxiety (p ≤ .05). Self-discrepancies did not predict change in negative affect, providing no support for Rogers's and Higgins's hypothesis. Also, results contradicted Higgins's differential hypotheses. The present results, together with the results of studies that have found that priming the discrepancies leads to change in anxiety and depression (Higgins, 1986; Strauman, 1989; Strauman & Higgins, 1987), suggests that the causal relation may be bidirectional. |
