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

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.