When “who we are” and “who I desire to be” appear disconnected: Introducing collective/personal self‐discrepancies and investigating their relations with minority students' psychological health

Abstract

According to Self‐Discrepancy Theory research, perceiving mismatches between personal aspects of the self‐concept is associated with negative psychological consequences, including depression and anxiety. However, the impact of perceiving mismatches between collective and personal self‐aspects is still unknown. In a first step to address this gap, we introduce collective/personal self‐discrepancies—perceived mismatches between a desired self‐aspect and a collective identity. For cultural minority group members (n = 147), collective/personal self‐discrepancies were associated with more severe anxiety and depression symptoms. Bootstrapping analyses suggest that these relations are mediated by self‐discrepancies experienced at the personal level, but only for group members presenting average or high levels of ethnic identification. This study reaffirms the importance of collective identities, especially as potential antecedents of personal aspects of the self‐concept. The findings are further discussed in terms of their significance for cultural minority group members, who often highly identify with their minority groups.

The chains on all my people are the chains on me: Restrictions to collective autonomy undermine the personal autonomy and psychological well-being of group members.

“…More generally, the present research contributes to a broader social-identity–based theoretical perspective proposing that the manner in which individuals define and perceive themselves is shaped by their social identity and perception of the relevant intergroup context. This literature includes research documenting positive associations between collective esteem and personal esteem (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992), collective control and personal control (Greenaway et al, 2015; Tiessen et al, 2009), collective identity clarity and personal identity clarity (Usborne & Taylor, 2010), and social identity and one’s personal goals, aspirations, and ideal possible-selves (Debrosse, Rossignac-Milon, & Taylor, 2017; Oyserman, 2007). Here, we provide a novel psychological mechanism through which people’s self-concept and personal experience may be influenced by their social identity—collective autonomy.…”

Can Identity Conflicts Impede the Success of Ethnic Minority Students? Consequences of Discrepancies Between Ethnic and Ideal Selves

“…However, we performed post hoc analyses with G*Power 3.1 (Faul, Erdfelder, Buchner, & Lang, 2009), using actual sample sizes. We calculated the power to detect small to medium effects ( R 2 = .06-.15): This is the range found in previous work on ethnic/ideal self-discrepancies (Debrosse et al, 2018). These R 2 values correspond to f 2 values of .05, .10, and .15 in Studies 1 and 2, and to d values of 0.46, 0.67, and 0.84 in Study 3.…”

“… 2. The data of Study 1 were collected as part of a large study investigating ethnic minority students’ psychological health (Debrosse et al, 2018). This study was designed to examine the added value of ethnic/ideal and ethnic/ought self-discrepancies in predicting anxiety and depression symptoms. …”

Self-disclosure in public and private groups of people with mental illnesses in Facebook

“…The question of whether to reveal parts of the true self is weighed up according to the objectives and intentions of disclosure. Usually, people reveal how they perceive themselves in the way they see fit; otherwise, they feel discomfort, disappointment and anxiety about disclosure (Debrosse et al. , 2018).…”

“…The question of whether to reveal parts of the true self is weighed up according to the objectives and intentions of disclosure. Usually, people reveal how they perceive themselves in the way they see fit; otherwise, they feel discomfort, disappointment and anxiety about disclosure (Debrosse et al, 2018). Studies that examined the connection between the need to belong and expressions of the true self in social media pointed to a connection between people's desire to feel that they belong and their concern about missing a chance to communicate with others, and these feelings pushed them to increase their level of expression of their true selves in the network (Wang et al, 2018).…”