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Self‐image and predictions about future events
Author(s) -
WENGLERT LEIF,
SVENSON OLA
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1982.tb00428.x
Subject(s) - psychology , set (abstract data type) , social psychology , relation (database) , ideal (ethics) , correlation , reflexive pronoun , subject (documents) , image (mathematics) , cognitive psychology , epistemology , artificial intelligence , data mining , computer science , mathematics , philosophy , geometry , library science , programming language
This study inquires the relation between a person's attitude towards himself and his way of predicting his own and the future of the world, respectively. Estimates of probabilities and utilities were made for 20 personal events and 20 general events. The attitude towards oneself was measured on bipolar Osgood type scales where the subject was asked to judge his or her self and the ideal self. A correlation was found between a person's attitude towards himself and his way of predicting the future. The more positive a person's self‐image, the higher was the correlation between probability and utility estimates for a set of future events. The paper concludes with a critical discussion of the conclusions which may be drawn from data of the type presented in this study and in earlier studies.