Do Self-Ideal Discrepancies and Global Self-Esteem Amount to the Same Thing?: An Empirical Investigation

Measures of self-esteem differ considerably in the assumptions they make about the nature of the construct. These differences are often overlooked in discussions of self-esteem. An examination was accordingly conducted of the relationship between measures of the distance between actual self and ideal self (derived from repertory grids) and an adapted version of Rosenberg's measure of global self-esteem. The stability over periods up to 15 months of both kinds of measure was also examined. Two samples (N = 20 and N = 28) of students and recent graduates provided data as part of a longitudinal study of career development. Results differed between samples, but in general indicated that global self-esteem overlaps with but is not the same as the discrepancy between actual self and ideal self. Scores were generally stable over time. Explanations for the results are discussed, together with their implications for how we should construe self-esteem.