ideal self-guide

n. Self-guides are self-directive standards. These self-directive standards are a major source of people's emotions and motivation. 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. Ideal self-guides represent a person's hopes, wishes, and aspirations.

Ideal self-guides vary in strength. There are different modes of socialization that produce strong ideal 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. When self-guides are strong from socialization, they have high chronic accessibility. They predominate in self-regulation for years. Success and failure in meeting strong ideal 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 selfguides, they experience cheerfulness-related emotions, such as feeling happy or joyful. 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).

-ETH