Word.ws English Dictionary

self-discrepancy

self-discrepancy noun: the gap in an individual self-perception of what they actually are and what they ought to be.

Noun

self-discrepancy (plural self-discrepancies)

  1. The gap in an individual self-perception of what they actually are and what they ought to be.
    • Higgins in 1987 came up with the self-discrepancy theory to explain people’s motivation. This argues that people have three types of self: the “ideal” self, which is what we hope to become; the “ought” self, which is how we think we should behave to achieve the ideal self; and the actual self...2014 November 20, Dean Burnett, “Motivational posters: do they actually work?”, in The Guardian
    • That urge to reduce self-discrepancy can also come from feeling that you’re not as good as everyone else. Therefore, when you think there’s a special “deal” that you need to get before they do, you’ll rush ahead without stopping to consider how good a deal it actually is. Consider the possibility...2017 December 18, Susan Krauss Whitbourne, “8 Ways Marketers Try to Target Your Inner Narcissist”, in huffpost.com

Examples of self-discrepancy in a sentence

  • Higgins in 1987 came up with the self-discrepancy theory to explain people’s motivation.2014 November 20, Dean Burnett, “Motivational posters: do they actually work?”, in The Guardian:
  • That urge to reduce self-discrepancy can also come from feeling that you’re not as good as everyone else.2017 December 18, Susan Krauss Whitbourne, “8 Ways Marketers Try to Target Your Inner Narcissist”, in huffpost.com:
  • But self-discrepancy in those of use with ADHD can be a straightforward chasm.2024, Jessica McCabe, “How to Change the World”, in Elysia Liang, editor, How to ADHD, New York: Rodale Books, →ISBN, page 367:

Forms of self-discrepancy

pluralself-discrepancies

Origin of self-discrepancy

From self- + discrepancy.

Questions about self-discrepancy

What does self-discrepancy mean?
Self-discrepancy means the gap in an individual self-perception of what they actually are and what they ought to be.
How do you use self-discrepancy in a sentence?
Higgins in 1987 came up with the self-discrepancy theory to explain people’s motivation.
What part of speech is self-discrepancy?
Self-discrepancy is a noun.
What is the plural of self-discrepancy?
The plural of self-discrepancy is self-discrepancies.

Words near self-discrepancy in the dictionary

  1. self-disciplined
  2. self-disclosure
  3. self-disclosures
  4. self-discovery
  5. self-discrepancies
  6. self-discrepancy
  7. self-discrimination
  8. self-disgust
  9. self-disgustedly
  10. self-disorder
  11. self-dissatisfaction

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: self-discrepancy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “self-discrepancy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/self-discrepancy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.