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Ideal‐self, self‐focus and value‐behaviour consistency
Author(s) -
Wojciszke Bogdan
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2420170206
Subject(s) - idealism , psychology , honesty , social psychology , consistency (knowledge bases) , ideal (ethics) , cheating , preference , attribution , value (mathematics) , function (biology) , focus (optics) , scale (ratio) , epistemology , mathematics , philosophy , statistics , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , biology , physics , geometry , optics
Two experiments were conducted to examine the role of the ‘idealism’ variable and sew‐focus in value‐behaviour consistency. The idealism variable was measured by means of a questionnaire (Idealism Scale–IS) devised by the author. The scale is based on the assumption that although every individual is able to declare his or her ideal‐self if requested, only some of them actually develop such a structure and use it in their behavioural choices. The first experiment revealed that the level of defensive attribution was a predictable function of the content of the ideal‐self for individuals with high scores on the IS to a greater extent than it was for low scorers. The second experiment showed that both high ‘idealism’ and situationally induced sew‐focus were necessary to obtain a predictable influence of the preference of the value ‘honesty’ on cheating behaviour. Processes which are likely to mediate between ideal‐self content and behaviour are discussed.