We explored ideal, ought, and feared body image self-discrepancies as predictors of social physique anxiety within Carver, Lawrence and Scheier's (1999) and Woodman and Hemmings's (2008) interaction frameworks. One hundred women completed actual, ideal, ought, and feared body self-discrepancy visual analogue scales, the Social Physique Anxiety Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Moderated hierarchical regression analyses indicated that the relationship between ought body fat discrepancies and social physique anxiety was moderated by proximity to the feared fat self. Specifically, the positive relationship between ought fat discrepancies and social physique anxiety was stronger when women were far from their feared body self. The results highlight the importance of considering the feared self in order to more fully understand the relationship between body image and social physique anxiety.Keywords: ideal self; ought self; feared self; body image; social physique anxiety. and anorexic and bulimic eating attitudes and behaviours such as dieting, drive for thinness and perfectionism (Crocker et al., 2003;Diehl et al., 1998;Frederick & Morrison, 1998;Haase & Prapavessis, 1998, 2001Haase, Prapavessis, & Owens, 2002;Reel & Gill, 1996).As social physique anxiety appears to play a crucial role in a number of health-related cognitions and behaviours it is important to understand the factors that contribute to its development. Much of the research on social physique anxiety has been conducted with the view that the further one is from one's ideal body the greater one's social physique anxiety. This body image research typically asks participants to report their 'actual' body self (e.g., actual weight and clothes size) and their 'ideal' body self (e.g., weight and clothes size they would choose if they could be any weight and size they wanted; Anton, Perri, & Riley, 2000). The discrepancy between the actual self and the ideal self, referred to as the ideal discrepancy, has been shown to be related to a number of body-related difficulties (Anton et al., 2000;Halliwell & Dittmar, 2006;Harrison, 2001;Forston & Stanton, 1992;Landa & Bybee, 2007;Snyder, 1997;Strauman, Vookles, Berenstein, Chaiken, & Higgins, 1991) including social physique anxiety (Russell & Cox, 2003;Sabiston, Crocker, & Munroe-Chandler, 2005).Body Self-discrepancies and Social Physique Anxiety 4Higgins's (1987) self-discrepancy theory provides a fruitful framework for examining the relationship between body image discrepancies and social physique anxiety, as it provides specific predictions for how different self-discrepancies will result in distinct types of affect. For example, Higgins proposed that the ideal self is defined by one's hopes and aspirations, and that congruence between the actual and the ideal self results in the presence of positive outcomes such as praise and reward. Discrepancy between the actual self and the ideal self (henceforth referred to as ideal discrepancies) results in the absence of positive outcomes and dejectionr...
