Understanding the relationship between self-esteem and self-clarity: The role of desired self-esteem

• People's desired self-esteem (SE) often differs from their actual SE. • When actual SE and desired SE are incongruent, self-clarity is reduced. • High SE is often desired, so low SE is associated with larger discrepancies. • Discrepancies help explain relationship between SE and clarity. a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o In this research, we examined a novel predictor of clarity in one's self-conceptions: discrepancies between actual and desired levels of self-esteem. Because people tend to desire high self-esteem, such discrepancies are generally larger among individuals low in self-esteem. Among college students (Study 1) and in a more diverse sample (Study 2), we found that the relationship between actual self-esteem and self-clarity was stronger among participants who had high levels of desired self-esteem. Further supporting the causal role of actual-desired self-esteem discrepancies in predicting self-clarity, Study 3 found that a manipulation designed to make high self-esteem seem less desirable reduced the relationship between self-esteem and clarity. These results demonstrate the importance of considering not only people's actual levels of self-esteem, but also their desired levels. Implications for the possible origins and consequences of self-clarity are discussed. Introduction People's self-views are important determinants of how they think, feel, and behave (Swann, Chang-Schneider, & McClarty, 2007). However, there is more to a person's sense of self than the content of their self-concept and self-evaluation, including the organization of self-conceptions. In the present investigation, we explore one of these dimensions – self-clarity, or the perception that one has a clear and coherent sense of self (Campbell et al., 1996) – and its relationship with self-esteem. We posit that the relationship between self-esteem and self-clarity can be influenced by the extent to which people desire a level of self-esteem that differs from their actual self-esteem. Because most people desire high self-esteem, we predict that people low in self-esteem will generally have greater incongruity, and consequently, less clarity. Explanations for the self-esteem—clarity relationship Self-esteem is strongly related to self-clarity, with people higher in self-esteem reporting more clear self-views (Campbell et al., 1996; Wu, Watkins, & Hattie, 2010). The most common measure of self-clarity, the self-concept clarity scale (Campbell et al., 1996), is in turn associated with a variety of important consequences, including reduced symptoms of depression and eating disorders and a reduced likelihood of responding to an ego threat with anger …