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

Abstract

Using a national sample of adults, we examine the relationship between identity discrepancies and mental health in spouse and worker identities. Building on previous research, we predict that discrepancies between how individuals want to be with respect to a particular identity (aspirations) and perceptions of how others view them in that identity (reflected appraisals) will be associated with depressive symptoms. Alternatively, discrepancies between how individuals feels they should be (obligations) and reflected appraisals will be associated with anxiety symptoms. We further examine whether identity salience moderates the relationship between discrepancies and distress. We find aspiration discrepancies are associated with depression as predicted in the spouse identity but not for the worker identity. With respect to obligation discrepancies, we find evidence for the predicted relationships for the spouse and worker identity only when identities are considered salient. We discuss the implications of our findings for the development of identity models of distress.

Mental Illness as a Stigmatized Identity

“…Burke’s theory assumes that individuals are motivated to confirm self-views. Failure to verify an identity, or identity discrepancy , is negatively associated with self-esteem and self-efficacy (Burke and Harrod 2005; Cast and Burke 2002; Marcussen 2006) and positively associated with psychological distress (Burke 1991; Burke and Harrod 2005; Burke and Stets 2009; Marcussen and Gallagher 2017; Marcussen and Large 2003).…”

“…When individuals experience a discrepancy between reflected appraisals and self-views, they will typically engage in behavior meant to bring the two views back in line with one another. When discrepancies are persistent or when these behaviors are not effective in achieving consistency, they can have negative consequences for self-esteem (e.g., Asencio 2013; Cast and Burke 2002; Marcussen 2006), self-efficacy (Burke and Harrod 2005; Cast and Burke 2002), and psychological well-being (e.g., Burke 1991, 1996; Burke and Harrod 2005; Marcussen and Gallagher 2017; Marcussen and Large 2003). Consistent with self-verification theories (e.g., Higgins 1987; Swann 1983), identity theory suggests that individuals seek to confirm characteristics associated with identities regardless of whether they are positive or negative.…”

Green Stimuli Characteristics and Green Self-Identity Towards Ethically Minded Consumption Behavior with Special Reference to Mediating Effect of Positive and Negative Emotions

“…This situation is clearly explained in the identity discrepancy theory which states that one individual can have more than one identity and inability to comply might cause negative emotions (Marcussen, 2006). Studies have pointed out that more studies on the impact of identity on emotions should be studied including a range of emotional outcomes comparing with present studies (Marcussen & Gallagher, 2017).…”

Stigma Resistance and Well-Being in the Context of the Mental Illness Identity

“…To maintain well-being, individuals seek to verify identities through a process of continuously comparing perceived feedback to their own set of meanings in the identity. Consistency between selfviews and reflected appraisals is associated with well-being, whereas discrepancy between selfviews and reflected appraisals is associated with lower levels of self-esteem (Asencio 2013;Burke and Harrod 2005;Cast and Burke 2002;Marcussen 2006) and higher levels of distress (Burke and Harrod 2005;Marcussen and Gallagher 2017). Because a fundamental assumption of this model is that individuals seek consistency between reflected appraisals and self-views, any discrepancy (whether more positive or more negative relative to selfviews) will result in an interruption to the identity process (Burke 1991(Burke , 1996.…”