Objective self‐awareness as a nonaversive state: Effect of anticipating discrepancy reduction

Abstract

ABSTRACIThe possibility that self-aware subjects in previous objective sellawareness studies displayed heightened negative affect and avoidance reactions because they were made to focus on pernmnent negative discrepancies was investigated in the present research. Subjects were first induced to regard a negative real-ideal discrepancy as either permanent or reducible in size, and then were either made or not made objectively self-aware. As expected, those self-aware subjects who anticipated no reduction in discrepancy size were found to be more negative in mood and quicker to exit from the experimental room than were their counterparts in the other three conditions. It was concluded that selffocused attention only generates aversive reactions when it brings to awareness a negative real-ideal discrepancy which the individual feels cannot he altered.Objective self-awareness theory (Duval & Wicklund, 1972;Wicklund, 1975) proposes that conscious attention is bidirectional in nature, capable of being directed at any moment toward the self (objective self-awareness) or the environment (subjective self-awareness). According to the theory, when people direct their attention toward themselves, they analyze their status on salient trait dimensions and focus upon the discrepancies that exist between their ideals and their actual, or real, positions on these dimensions. It is hypothesized that objectively self-aware individuals experience unpleasant affect when their attention is directed toward a negative discrepancy, and that foUovdng an initial reaction of self-criticism, they seek to avoid self-focusing circumstances or, if inescapable, to bring about discrepancy reduction.

Self-awareness, alcohol consumption, and reduced cardiovascular reactivity.

“…Franzoi and Brewer (37) argue that individuals low in private self-consciousness engage in selective self-attention, characterized by the tendency to avoid the selfaware state when it is unpleasant or negative. Others have demonstrated that manipulations designed to increase self-awareness are accompanied by a concommitant increase in negative affect (38,39), and that individuals will work to avoid self-awareness (40,41), supporting the contention that self-awareness can be aversive. Conceivably, then, for individuals low on private self-consciousness, forced self-awareness may prove especially aversive given that the natural tendency is to avoid the self-aware state.…”

How Emotion Shapes Behavior: Feedback, Anticipation, and Reflection, Rather Than Direct Causation

“…The most plausible interpretation is that self-focused people seek to improve their performance or behavior to enable themselves to feel better. In support of that view, Steenbarger and Aderman (1979) showed that people responded to failure by becoming self-aware and trying to change for the better-but only when there was some prospect of improvement. When there was no chance to improve, people responded to failure by seeking to escape from and avoid self-awareness.…”

Self-regulatory perseveration and the depressive self-focusing style: A self-awareness theory of reactive depression.

“…Carver and Seheier; on the other hand, argue that it is only when there is a low probability of successfully reducing a negative discrepancy that selffocus is aversive and that discrepancy-reduction occurs independently of the arousal of affect. (For a detailed discussion of this and other differences between the two formulations, see Carver, 1979, or Carver & Seheier, 1981 Although research generally supports Carver and Seheier's contention that self-focus is avoided only when there is a low probability of successfifl discrepancy reduction (e.g., Carver, Blaney, & Scheiet;Steenbarger & Aderman, 1979), the role of negative affect in motivating discrepancy-reducing behavior is less clear.…”