The Ideal and Ought Self-Guides and the Affective Consequences of Identity Verification

Generic Processes in Aligning the Multiple Bases of Identity: The Case of Becoming a Ministry Student

“…Participants pursued “being Christian” in a more personal and intense way after developing significant Christian relationships or experiencing self‐troubles. The group represented an instrumental means of self reformation and a way to anchor experience in a particular moral community (Trettevik and Grindal ).…”

“…For example, “turning points” were important subjective and objective contingencies in the perception and enactment of identity choice, opening and closing possibilities for participants to pursue particular group involvements or roles. Further, when choice was possible, participants pursued group and role involvements they deemed, at least in part, incongruent with their current abilities and dispositions but in line with their ideal selves (Trettevik and Grindal ). This suggests that the “sorting mechanism” nature of person identities is a tendency to not only verify current selves but also challenge and form future selves.…”

“…Participants explained their troubles in reference to problematic personal states, qualities, or dispositions. Discrepancies between their actual selves and their “ideal” or “ought” selves tended to result in negative emotions and a desire to reduce these identity gaps (Trettevik and Grindal ). These ongoing processes of reassessing identity relative to desired images often precede and establish the interpretive framework for disentangling from particular involvements (Prus ).…”

The Role of Aspirations and Obligations in Explaining the Relationship between Identity Discrepancies and Psychological Distress

“…When the process is disrupted, distress occurs. Persistent discrepancy (or nonverification) of identities has been linked to generalized distress (e.g., Burke and Harrod 2005; Cast and Burke 2002) and a range of emotional responses (e.g., Stets 2003; Stets and Asencio 2008; Stets and Burke 2014a; Trettevik and Grindal 2016).…”

“…Moreover, extensions of identity models of emotion (Burke and Stets 2009) advance an argument for further specifying predictions of emotional outcomes based on the source of meaning and the source of discrepancy (self or other). More recently, identity scholars have examined the role that “gaps” between ought/actual dimensions and ideal/actual dimensions play in explaining the relationship between identity discrepancy and positive and negative emotional outcomes in the student identity (Trettevik and Grindal 2016). We similarly seek to make finer distinctions about the relationships between social roles and distress.…”