Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Graham, Steven

Keywords

Self-Discrepancy Theory, Parents, Students, College, Career, Society

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

This research was designed to test the hypothesis that college students would align their ought-self (how they think society wants them to be) with their parent/guardians ideal-self (how they think their parent/guardian wants them to be) for the student more when they arrive at college, and less as their college career continued. Sixty-five participants from New College of Florida filled out two surveys to determine their self-discrepancies and quality of the relationship they had with a parent/guardian. Self-discrepancies were introduced as a psychological concept by E. Tory Higgins in 1987. These discrepancies are between how a person wants to be, how they actually are, and how they think society wants them to be. When people go to college, they go through many life changes that can be influenced by their relationship with their parents/guardians. Using the Big Five Inventory to measure discrepancies, the only significant result that was found was for neuroticism, though it went against the hypothesis. As students spent more years at New College, their discrepancies decreased, meaning their ought-selves were more aligned with their parent/guardian’s ideal-selves. It is possible that the hypothesis was not proven true because of the type of students that New College attracts.

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