• DOI:10.1037/pas0000162
• Corpus ID: 40661494

Self-discrepancy: Long-term test-retest reliability and test-criterion predictive validity.

@article{Watson2016SelfdiscrepancyLT,
  title={Self-discrepancy: Long-term test-retest reliability and test-criterion predictive validity.},
  author={Neill Watson and Brandon Cory Bryan and Todd M. Thrash},
  journal={Psychological assessment},
  year={2016},
  volume={28 1},
  pages={
          59-69
        }
}

• N. Watson, B. C. Bryan, T. Thrash
• Published 2016
• Psychology
• Psychological assessment

Long-term test-retest reliability and predictive test-criterion evidence of validity of scores on measures of the real-ideal self-discrepancy and of the real-ought self-discrepancy were tested over periods of 1 year and 3 years. A sample of 184 undergraduates completed at 2 time points 1 year apart 3 instruments that each measure the 2 self-discrepancies: the idiographic Self-Concept Questionnaire-Personal Constructs, the nonidiographic Self-Concept Questionnaire-Conventional Constructs, and the content-free Abstract Measures. A separate sample of 141 undergraduates completed the instruments 3 years apart. Both samples completed 3 depression instruments and 3 anxiety instruments at the second time point. Results of analyses using latent variables modeled with 3 observed variables showed substantial statistically significant test-retest reliabilities and significant test-criterion prediction of anxiety and depression on the real-ideal and real-ought discrepancy measures over both time periods. Results for the observed variables showed significant 1-year and 3-year reliabilities for scores on all self-discrepancy measures, as well as significant 1-year and 3-year predictive validity for scores on all self-discrepancy measures, except the abstract measure of real-ought discrepancy in predicting scores on all depression measures and on at least 1 anxiety measure. The findings support very strong long-term stabilities of the self-discrepancy personality constructs and their long-term associations with anxiety and depression.