self-guides

n. Self-guides are self-directive standards. These self-directive standards are a major source of people's emotions and motivation, particularly ideal self-guides representing a person's hopes, wishes, and aspirations and ought self-guides representing a person's beliefs about his or her duties, responsibilities, and obligations. They both directly prompt action as desired end states (i.e., goals to be attained) and, through their use in self-evaluation (i.e., standards to be met), arouse emotions that are themselves motivating.

Self-guides vary in strength. Socialization is a major determinant of self-guide strength. Through interacting with significant others, individuals develop self-other contingency knowledge regarding which kinds of self-attributes others respond to positively and which kinds others respond to negatively. There are four features of socialization that strengthen the self-other contingency knowledge underlying self-guides: (1) frequency of exposure to messages about self-other contingency, (2) consistency of messages, (3) clarity of messages, and (4) significance of messages (i.e., association with important outcomes). There are different modes of strong socialization that produce either strong ideal self-guides or strong ought self-guides. Strong ideal self-guides are produced by interactions with significant others that involve bolstering and supportiveness, as well as love withdrawal for failure to meet an ideal self-guide. Strong ought self-guides are produced by interactions with significant others that involve protection and safeguarding, as well as punishment and criticism for failure to meet an ought self-guide.

When self-guides are strong from socialization, they have high chronic accessibility. They predominate in self-regulation for years. Self-guides can also have high accessibility momentarily by being activated or primed in a particular situation. Success and failure in meeting different strong self-guides arouse different emotions. When people's representation of what they are currently like, that is, their actual-self representation, is congruent with or matches one of their ideal self-guides, they experience cheerfulness-related emotions, such as feeling happy or joyful. When people's representation of their actual selfrepresentation is discrepant (a mismatch) with one of their ideal self-guides, they experience dejection-related emotions, such as feeling sad or discouraged. When people's representation of their actual self-representation is congruent with one of their ought selfguides, they experience quiescence-related emotions, such as feeling calm or relaxed. When people's representation of their actual self-representation is discrepant with one of their ought self-guides, they experience agitation-related emotions, such as feeling nervous or worried.

The motives of people also differ, depending on which type of strong self-guide predominates. When strong ideal self-guides predominate, people have a promotion focus on accomplishment and advancement. They prefer to use eager strategic means to make decisions and perform tasks. They appraise the world and remember past events in terms of the presence of positive outcomes (gains) and the absence of positive outcomes (nongains). When strong ought self-guides predominate, people have a prevention focus on safety and security. They prefer to use vigilant strategic means to make decisions and perform tasks. They appraise the world and remember past events in terms of the absence of negative outcomes (nonlosses) and the presence of negative outcomes (losses).

There are trade-offs, that is, benefits and costs, to having strong self-guides. On the one hand, individuals with strong self-guides are highly motivated to attain those desired end states and are generally more successful in attaining them. Thus, individuals with strong self-guides generally have fewer discrepancies between their actual self and their self-guides. On the other hand, individuals with strong self-guides are highly motivated to evaluate themselves in relation to these self-guides and to have strong emotional reactions to their success or failure in meeting these self-guides. Thus, individuals with strong self-guides generally suffer more emotionally from whatever discrepancies they do have. – ETH