THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANXIETY AND THE SELF STRUCTURE Thesis fat the: Dam af‘ Ph. D. MECHKEAN STATE UNWERSITY Kin Hing Chow 1965 THESIS LIBRARY Michig. n Statc University |II|IIIII|IIII||IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIOIOIIIIIIIIIII 3 1293 1045 This is to certify that the thesis entitled THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANXIETY AND THE SELFETRUCTURE presented by Kin Ling Qhow has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph.D. degree in Ed. Psxch. Etna“ flunk Q .Qcp'wmw Major professor Date February 16, 1965 0-169 ROOM USE ONLY; ROOM USE ONLY. ABSTRACT The RELATIORSHIF BETJESI ANXIETY AND THJ SELF ST HUCTURB by Kin Ling Chow The main problem an‘"‘lI.lGd was the relationship etween an individual's anxiety level and the interrelation- ship among his perceived self, his "reasonably satisfactory" self, and his ideal self. The "reasonably satisfactory" self was seen as an essential aspect of an individual's self \ structure. An individual's feeling toward his preceived CI H 0 self would be detected by comparing his "reasonably sa 3- factory" self with his nerceive d self and his ideal self. The individual who feels satisfied with himself was believe‘ to have a lower anxiety level than the :crson who does not. It was therefore hynot hesize. that there would be a negative relationship between an individual's anxiety level and the iisere “in y among the three aspects of the self structure. The Children's Form of the ianifest Anxiety Scale and a revised Bills Index of Adjustment and iValues were girls. Each sub- ad~111:,-rei to 247 ninth-grade boys and jeet's anxiety level and his three aspects of the self st ucture were assessed by his re.3ponses to these two tests. As contrasted with previous studies which took the differ— ence betw.e n the perceived and the ideal self, the discrepancy Kin Ling Chow score among the three aspect of the self structure in this study was derived from the difference between the number of traits concerning which an individual had a positive view toward his perceived self and those concerning which he had a negative vie The subject were found to have the ability to dif- ree as rec cts of the self structure. :3. ferentiate among the Girls had a higher mean anxiety sc ore but a lower mean dis- crepancy score than boys. Using the "t" technique to test the hypotheses, the main results of this study me e: l. Subjects with positive discrepancy scores tended to have a lower level of anxiety than those with negative {1. S o *1 d5 :1 o gt“ 4 m (1 O S (D (.1 O 2. Subjects with high positive disc rer an: y scores tended to have a lower level of anxiety than those with low positive discrepancy scores. While boys with high negative ncy scores had a higher level of anxiety than those L] P w (J *1 (0 w‘ 5)) with low negative discrepancy scores, no difference was found between the girls with high and with low negative dis- crefancy scores. 3. The anxiety level of the subjects with extremely high cositive discrepancy scores as a group was found to be lower than those with extremely high negative discrepancy Kin Ling Chow A negative relationship was found between the sub- aspects of the self structure. 3 anxiety level and the discrepancy among the three THE RELATI NSHIP BETJESN ANXISTY AKD THE SELF STRUCTURE By Kin Ling Chow A THESIS Submitted to Kichigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY College of Education 1965 A C KN 0;“! LE D (11le N T3 The author wishes to express her gratitude to the host of peOple who made possible the completion of this study. I To Dr. Bernard H. Corman, Chairman of the Guidance Committee, for his endless patience, valuable suggestions and guidance. To Dr. Loraine V. Shepard, Dr. Willa Norris, and Dr. Charles Hanley for serving as members of the Guidance Committee. To Dr. Louise M. Sause, my former advisor, and Dr. Wilbur B. Brookover for their assistance and encouragement in the preparation for this study. To Mr. Phil O'Connell, Mr. Frank Rutowski, Dr. George R. Myers and Mr. Robert Chamberlain for providing subjects and making arrangements for the administration of tests. To the ninth—grade students (l963—6h) of Kenowa Hills High School and Pattengill Junior High School for their co- operation in serving as subjects for this study. To Dr. Edward Palmer and Mr. Glen Robert Ward for their assistance in administering the tests. To Mrs. Roslyn S. Blum for her assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. ii TABLE OF C HTS} TS A013 IONrLuD CLIENTS o o o o o o o o 0 Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 0 o o o o o The nature of Anxiety . Th3 self 0 O O O O O 0 O O O O O O O O O 0 0 Self and AnXiety o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 Organization of the Study . . . . . . . . . ‘ II. RASVTIEUV OF LITERATURE O O O O O O O O O O O O O The Nature of Anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . The Effects of Anxiety on Human Behavior . . Phenomenological Theory of the Self The Effects of Self Concept as Related to Human Be ehavior . . . . Studies of the Relation of Perceived Self to AnXiety 0000... Studies of the Relationship of to Anxiety . . . . . . An Alternate Hypothesis III. DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY . . Instrumentation . . . . Procedures 0 o o Hypotheses to be Tested IV. ANALYSIS OF DATA 0 o o o o The Ability to Differentiate Results on the Children's Form fest Anxiety Scale . . Results on the Revised Form of of Adjustment and Values . Tests of Hypotheses . . V. SUMMARY AND INTERPRETATIONS Summary...oo.o. Interpretations . . . . BIB LIOGILAPHY o o o o o o o o o 0 Self Accep mt Bills Aspects of the Mani- of Self Index £FPSNDIX A. Revised Bills Index of Adjustment amiVflues B. Children's Form of the Manifest Anxiety scaleoooooooooooooooo iii Table l. 2. 3. 4. 6. 7. LIST OF TABLES Page Distribution of the sample by sexes and schools . Number and percentage of subjects giving identical responses to the three aspects of self structure measured by the revised Bills Index of Adjustment and value S O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 Means and standard deviations for anxiety and lie scores by sexes and schools . . . . . . . . . . Means and standard deviations of children with positive and negative discrepancy scores by sexes and SChOOlS o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o A comparison of the mean anxiety scores of sub- jects with positive and those with negative discrepancy scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A comparison of the mean anxiety scores of sub- jects with high and those with low positive discrepancy scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A comparison of the mean anxiety scores of Sub- jects with high and those with low negative discrepancy scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A comparison of the mean anxiety scores of sub- jects with extremely high positive and those with extremely high negative discrepancy scores iv LO AS 46 A7 #9 SO 51 52 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The Nature of Anxiety Representatives of different schools of thought in psychology generally agree that anxiety is a diffuse appre- hension, unspecific, vague, and objectless. Its special characteristics are the feelings of uncertainty and helpless- ness felt in a threatening situation. As Rollo May defines it, "anxiety is the apprehension cued off by a threat to some value which the individual holds essential to his existence as a personality."1 The measurement of anxiety is, however, quite dif- ficult, since, like pain, it is highly idiosyncratic. A situation with threatening aspects will be experienced difiIfli ferently based upon the degree of threat felt by various individuals. Also, variation in the context of similar situ- ations will cause different anxiety levels for the same in- dividual. Nonetheless, scales have been built to measure an individual's general anxiety level using his self-report WW - lRollo May, The Meanin* of Anxiet , New York: Ronald, 1950, p. 191. 2 of physical or psychological symptoms in a variety of poten- tially threatening situations. In such scales, the individual is assumed to be con- sciously aware of his response. If overt symptoms are re- ported to occur often, it is taken as an indication that anxiety is frequently experienced by a particular individual. The anxiety measured by this kind of scale is termed "mani- fest anxiety" because it reflects conscious awareness. In the present study, anxiety will be assessed by the use of such a scale: the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale.2 We know that anxiety generally has a significant effect on human behavior. Its influences are commonly re- flected in the way peOple perform or handle problems. The general negative results are the closing off of awareness, inefficiency and rigidity during performance, and the use of defense mechanisms in the attempt to release the discom- fort of anxiety. On the other hand, there also exists a positive effect of anxiety. Anxiety may serve to alarm the individual and thereby prepare him to cepe with a potential threat. Many kinds of human achievement are, in part, act- ually the results of anxiety dealt with constructively. A. Castaneda, B. R. McCandless and D. S. Palermo, "The Children's Form of the Manifest Anxiety Scale," Child _D§veloEment, 1956, 27, 317-326. 3 The development of an adequate person is an impor- tant aim of formal education and most teachers seek to help students deal with the negative effects of anxiety by devel- oping their ability to deal constructively with anxiety. But this can only be done if the teacher understands the nature and the source of anxiety. The present study is an attempt to study an essential source of anxiety, namely, the self, and its relationship to anxiety. The Self The values an individual holds essential to his existence as a personality are one of the main components of his self structure. Rollo May’s definition of anxiety, given above, can then be restated: anxiety is the apprehension cued off by a threat to the self. The self is the organized totality of an individual's perception as related to the particular individual. It is "a composite of a person's thoughts and feelings which con- stitute his awareness of his individual existence, his con- ception of who and what he is."3 It is developed throughout the years of his growth. The components of self explored by social scientists during the past decade are (1) the perceived self,.or how 3A. T. Jersild, In Search of Self, New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, I932, p. 9. 1., the individual views himself; (2) the social self, or how he thinks other people think of him; (3) the ideal self, or what he wou1d_most like to be; and (A) self acceptance, or his attitude toward his own self and his personal qualities. Human behavior is significantly determined by a per- son's perception of himself. The way people view themselves and their environment constitutes reality to them. This reality forms the basis for their feelings, thoughts, de- cisions, and actions. As an essential determinant of an individual's reality, the influence of self on behavior in school setting is great. There is evidence that a student's perception of his own ability is closely related to the level of his actual achievement, and his perception of the kind of person he is relates to his personal adjustment. Self and Anxiety Iost of the studies of the relationship between anxiety and the self have dealt either with the perceived self or the individual's self acceptance. Where the rela- tionship has been to the perceived self, it is a common practice to use certain external criteria to evaluate the \desirability of a response--usually with some implicit stand- ard of mental health as a reference point. But if a person's view of himself and his environment constitutes his reality, the valuation against an externally imposed standard is a questionable practice. The self acceptance dimension is believed to be strong 5 I indication of a person's mental health and adjustment. As self acceptance is commonly defined, it involves an "objec- tive and unemotional recognition of one's abilities and lim- itations, one's virtues and faults, without undue sense of pride, guilt, or self-blame."h Psychologists, however, have had great difficulty in obtaining an estimate of these char- acteristics. The index used is generally derived either from a person's self-report of how well he likes some of the traits he has or from differences between his estimates of his per- ceived self and his ideal self. Neither method necessarily reflects how well the individual accepts these traits. The discrepancy between the perceived and the ideal self may be a good picture of the distance of his perceived self and what he 3e (1) U) as expected of him by the society. But depending on whether the individual has or has not internalized society's norms, the discrepancy score may be misleading as an index of the individual's self-acceptance. As the present investigator sees it, there is another aspect of the self structure which is of great significance to a person. It will be called the "reasonably satisfactory" self. The "reasonably satisfactory" self is a kind of inter- mediate goal, a goal that a person would try to attain which does not necessarily have to be the same as his ideal. This is a standard that peOple usually use as a reference for — ‘_ -~ . 4Horace B. English and A. C. English, A Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychological and Psychoanalytical Terms, New york: Longmans, Green and Co.,fi1953, p. #85. 6 their personal judgments of their own competence. Unlike the ideal self, the "reasonably satisfactory" self has more psychological personal meaning for the individual. It serves as the internal criterion which is the crucial source of how an individual feels about himself. In contrast, the ideal self is an external source because it is socially and cul- turally determined. The "reasonably satisfactory" aspect of the self structure is an indication of an individual's feeling about his perceived self. It differs from Bills' measure of self acceptance because the latter involves only an individual's evaluation of his perceived self. The like-dislike dimension used by Bills does not reveal adequately how an individual feels about a certain trait. When an individual indicates that he dislikes one of his traits, there are two possible interpretations. He may feel ashamed of himself for having the disliked trait because he takes it as a defect of his personal worth as an individual. In such case, it is very possible for him to set up a goal high above his perceived attainment; that is, his'reasonably satisfactory'self will be far different from his perceived self. Or, a person may feel perfectly comfort- able to live with the disliked trait. Such a person would feel reasonably satisfied with the particular trait and his "reasonably satisfactory" self will be similar to the per- ceived self. On the other hand, for the traits liked, 7 different persons may also have contrary feelings, comfort— able and uncomfortable. The reasonably satisfactory self would enable us to distinguish these feelings. When a com- fortable feeling is involved, the "reasonably satisfactory" self would be similar to the perceived self; when uncomfort- able, it would be quite different from the perceived self, or very possibly similar to the ideal self. Through the indication of the "reasonably satisfac- tory" aspect of the self structure, with references to the perceived and the ideal aspects, a person's feeling about himself on certain traits may be revealed. The differences among these three aspects may be taken as an indication of the degree of the individual's internal consistency. When the "reasonably satisfactory" self is similar to ideal self rather than the perceived and when these latter differ, an internal inconsistency is indicated. An individual has a tendency to strive toward in- ternal consistency. When a person becomes aware of the existence of inconsistency within himself, anxiety is aroused. An intense state of discomfort is felt until there is certain change which brings the individual back to the state of con- sistency. But this, as we have suggested above, does not mean all kinds of inconsistency felt by an individual are anxiety-inducing. In fact, there are inconsistencies which are unlikely to induce change in an individual. The crucial factor’for the change or nonchange is the significance of 8 the elements involved in the state of inconsistency. All aspects of the self structure do not have the same weight of significance to an individual. But if the individual becomes aware of an inconsistency among two or more aspects of Self structure, and if these aspects are important to him rather than to an external source, then anxiety is likely. The hypothesis of this study is therefore derived. The more a person shows that his "reasonably satisfactory" self is similar to the perceived self rather than the ideal self, the lower would be his anxiety level. Organization of the Study The first chapter of this report is a brief intro— duction to this study. The rationale for the investigation is stated. Chapter II presents a comprehensive review of the relatively pertinent studies in the areas related to this study. Chapter III describes the intruments used, the scoring system specially develOped for this investigation, the procedures of research, and a reformulation of the gen- eral hypothesis. Chapter IV presents the data for each .hyrmthesis as analyzed by statistical techniques. The last ‘chapter includes a summary, interpretations, and suggestions for’further studies. CHAPTER II . REVIEW OF LITERATURE The Nature of Anxiety Rollo May defines anxiety as the apprehension cued off by a threat to some value which the individual holds essential to his existence as a personality.5 That is, when anxiety is experienced, it is because the very essence of a person's existence as a unique individual is threatened: the perception of one's self as distinct from the world of objects. When this perception is threatened, a person is less able to make adequate evaluation of stimuli. The in- dividual will be aware of the existence of the threat, but incapable of locating exactly where the threat is. There- fore, anxiety is experienced as a diffuse apprehension, un- specific, and vague. Under such circumstances, the appre- hension is generally signalled by feelings of uncertainty and helplessness accompanied by physiological and psycho- logical symptoms. The source of the threat, as further argued by Combs and Snygg, is from inconsistent perceptions of self in the ——- 5May. 9.p_._c_u p. 191. 9 lO process of fulfillment of basic human needs of self enhance- ment. They declare that "the effective satisfaction of need requires an organized self. 'The fact that the phenomenal self has many aspects, however, frequently makes the achieve- ment of self consistency a difficult matter. Differentia- tions leading to enhancement of one aspect of the self may at the same time threaten other aspects. . . . Threat may arise from inconsistencies within the self even when two aspects of self are fundamentally enhancing."6 In such a case, the intensity of threat would be partly a function of the peculiar importance of the particular aspect of self.7 Anxiety has been studied in the clinical and experi- mental situation where it was elicited at the time of in- vestigation. During the last decade Taylor succeeded in the construction of a scale for the measurement of anxiety based on the definition of manifest anxiety implicit in Cameron's description of chronic anxiety reactions.8 These are "characterized by the presence of persistently heightened 6Arthur w. Combs and Donald Snygg, Individual Behav- ior, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959, p._lBA. 7Ibid., p. 176. 8J. A. Taylor, "The relationship of anxiety to the conditioned eyelid response," Journal of Experimental Psychol- .ng, 1951, 41, 81-92; Taylor, "A personality scale of mani- fest anxiety," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1953, 48, 285-29 {fi' ll skeletal and visceral tensions, which disturb a person's habitual rhythms of living and predispose him generally to give exaggerated and inappropriate responses on relatively slight provocation."9 Though Taylor based her test on a different orientation, the characteristics of anxiety with which May was concerned-~feelings of uncertainty and help- lessness--are also explored by items in Taylor's Scale. Taylor's_validation study Supplied evidence that the scores from her Manifest Anxiety Scale do reflect the different potentialities for anxiety arousal.lo The Effects of Anxiety on Human Behavior Impairment of mental functioning has been observed as an outcome of anxiety. By comparing two Rorschachs taken by the same person, May found the one completed under a state of anxiety was characterized by a low degree of pro- ductivity, a lack of originality, little use of either feel- ing or thinking capacities, a predominance of vagueness of response, a lack of capacity for relating to concrete real- ities as compared to the one done under a state of low level of anxiety.11 9N. A. Camberon, The Psychology of Behavior Disorders: A biogocial interpretation, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, l9h7, p. 24 . 10 J. A. Taylor, "Drive theory and manifest anxiety," P§ychologica1 Bul etin, 1956, 53,3 3- 320 . llT'iay, OE. Cit., p. 2480 12 There are different effects of anxiety upon intel- lectual performance depending on the individual's level of intelligence. In one study, increased anxiety felt by the high IQ group was associated with less discriminating judg- ments whereas the reverse was true of the low IQ group.12 The intelligent subject seems to become more impulsive in his responses when he is anxious, while the less intelligent subject becomes more cautious or uncertain in his judgments. Yet, overall, inconsistent results have been reported for the relationship between anxiety and intelligence. Granick, and Kent and Davis'found that anxiety interfered especially in such tasks as block design, reproduction of designs from memory, and other performance subtests of the Wechsler Intel- ligence Scale for Children.13 But a positive relationship was obtained by Amen and Renison between children's Stanford- Binet IQ's and anxiety scores as measured by a projective technique.1h Allison and Ash, introducing anxiety into a 12Jean S. Kerrick, "The effects of manifest anxiety and IQ on discrimination," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psycholo , 1956, 52, 136-133. " 13S. Granick, "Intellectual performance as related to emotional instability in children," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1955, 51, 653-656;~Norma Kent and . . Davis, 'Discipline in the home and intellectual devel- gpmgnt," British Journal of Medical Psychology, 1957, 30, -3. 1h E. W. Amen, and N. Renison, "A study of the rela- tionship between play patterns and anxiety in young chil- dren," Genetic Psychological Monograph, 1954, 50, 3-41. 13 film-learning situation, also found that raising the stu- dents' anxiety was accompanied by an improvement in the scores made on a test.15 A close examination of these studies indicates that the differences in the results may have stemmed from an interaction between the intensity of anxiety and the nature of the task. Since all this research was done in different experimental situations, and the instruments used to measure the two main variables differed, some disagreements among the results might be expected. On the other hand, these contradictions may indicate that an inconsistent relation- ship between anxiety and intelligence exists. The effects of anxiety upon problem-solving have also been intensively studied. A statistically significant correlation between anxiety and task difficulty was dis- covered by Castaneda, gp_gl.16 It was found that the highly anxious children, in comparison with the less anxious ones, tended to perform better on the easy problems and at an inferior level on difficult ones. But the high anxious group made significantly more errors over-all than did the _..‘. A 15s. G. Allison and P. Ash, Relationship of Anxiety pp Leagpingpfrom Films, Pa. State College, Human Engineer- ing Report SDC 269-7-24, April, I951. 16 A. Castaneda, D. S. Palermo, and B. R. McCandless, \UComplex learning and performance as a function of anxiety in children and task difficulty," Child Development, 1956, 27, 327-3320 14 low anxious group in a trial-and—error learning situation. Further evidence of the effect of anxiety upon problem- solving is reported by Cowen and Thompson.17 A positive relationship was found between anxiety and problem-solving rigidity. Though there is no conclusive agreement, most re- search results indicate that anxiety influences mental func- tioning. The intensity of anxiety and the nature of the task to be performed are the two determinants for a facili- tating or interfering effect. Phenomenological Theory of the Self Phenomenological theory seeks to understand human behavior by emphasizing the individual's own concept of himself as a unique person. The self as the individual who is known to himself is given the central role in personality theory. An individual's perception of himself and of his environment are posited as the fundamental determinants of one's behavior. The main representatives of this school of thought are Combs and Snygg, and Rogers. Combs and Snygg hold that each individual lives in his own private world, termed a perceptual field. It is the 17E. L. Cowen and G. C. Thompson, "Problem solving rigidity and personality structure," Journalrongbnormal and Social Psychology, 1951, 46, 165-176. 15 entire universe, including himself, as experienced by the individual at the instant of action.18 Objectively speak- ing, it is the individual's interpretation of reality, but it is reality to the particular individual. "It includes all of a person's perceptions, including those about himself and those about things quite outside of himself."19 They termed these perceptions of the individual himself the "phenomenal self," an organization of all the ways an indi- vidual views himself. Within this organization of percep- tions of the self, Combs and Snygg further differentiated those concepts about self which appear to be most vital and important to the individual himself as "self-concept." There is some confusion concerning the definition of self concept among the phenomenological psychologists. ‘Combs and Snygg define the self concept as the organization of the self perceptions which are of most vital importance to the individual. Rogers does not seem to agree with them. He takes the self structure as self-concept. To him, "the self concept or self structure may be thought of as an or- ganized configuration of perceptions of the self which are admissible to awareness. It is composed of such elements as the perceptions of one's characteristics and abilities; A..— fl..-‘ 1 8Combs and Snygg, op. cit., p. 20. lgIbid., p. 126. 16 the percepts and concepts of the self in relation to others and to the environment; the value qualities which are per- ceived as associated with experiences and objects; and goals and ideals which are perceived as having positive or negative valence."20 This description is analogous to Combs and Snygg's definition of phenomenal self. The perceptual field is also included due to the relation of the self to the environment. This confusion of the definition of the self concept leads to ambiguities in its investigation. Rogers' defini- tion of self concept is adopted by numerous researchers. In fact, because of the private nature of Combs' self con- cept, there are practical problems in carrying out any group study uSing the concept. .It can not be explored unless the vital and important concepts of the self be first discovered for each particular individual. The Effects of Self Concept as Related to Human Behavior The importance of self on the human behavior is well stated by Combs and Snygg. "All behavior, without excep- tion, is completely determined by, and pertinent to the perceptual field of the behaving organism."21 Support for this statement can be found in a number of areas. 20 Carl R. Rogers, Client-centered Therapy, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951, p. 136. 21Combs and Snygg, op. cit., p. 20. 17 Positive self concepts, for example, were found related to generally adequate social functioning. Through a study of the effectiveness of groups of people holding themselves in high or low self-esteem, Mussen and Porter found that peeple who had the highest feelings of adequacy were rated by others as more effective in a discussion group.22 In an experimental situation, Dittes found that persons who were made to feel well accepted in a group felt the group more attractive than did those who were made to feel poorly accepted.23 Self concept was also found to be positively related to school achievement. In a study of fifth- and sixth-grade children by Coopersmith, a correlation of .36 was obtained between self concept and school achievement.24 Walsh's finding of the differences in self concept of the bright underachievers and adequate achievers supplied further evi- dence of the relationship between self concept and school _.__ 22P. H. Mussen and L. W. Porter, "Personal motiva- tions and self concepts associated with effectiveness in emergent groups," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1959, 59, 23-27. 23 r1 0 0 ' J. n. Dittes, "Attractiveness of grou, as function of self-esteem and acceptance by group," Journa of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1959, 59, 77-82. 24S. Coopersmith, "A method for determining types of self esteem," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1959. 59. 87-91.. Cl} 1 achievement.25 She used the Driscoll Play Kit as a measure of the self concept. Each subject was asked to make up ten stories from incomplete stems. As compared to the adequate achiever, the underachiever tended to project the boy doll. as being restricted, not free to pursue his interests and acting defensively. In other words, the underachievers did not have as positive a self concept as the adequate achievers. Further evidence of a positive correlation between self concept and school achievement were obtained by Bledsoe and Garrison, and Brookover §p_gl. in their studies of ele- mentary school pupils.26 Using the Incomplete Sentences technique to provide an indirect index of adjustment, and self ratings of adjectives as an index of self concept, Crandall and Bellugi obtained a positive correlation between self concept and behavior adjustment.27 Much more consistent data regarding the effects of self concept on human behavior are available than those on 25Ann M. Walsh, Self-concepts of Bright Boys with Learninnggfficulties, New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1956. 26Joseph C. Bledsoe and Karl C. Garrison, The Self Concepts of Elementary School Children in Relation to Thai: Agademic Achievement, Intelligence; Interests, and Manifest Anxiet , Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia, 1962, p. a; Wilbur B. Brookover, et al., Self Concept of Ability and .§Qhool Achievement, East Lansing, Michigan: Office of Re- search and Publications, Michigan State University, 1962, p. 27V. J. Crandall and Ursula Bellugi, "Some relation- Shixxs of interpersonal in intrapersonal conceptualizations t0 Imersonal-social adjustment," Journal of Personalipy, 1954, 23. 224-232. 19 the effects of anxiety. There is agreement that a positive relationship exists between self concept and individual per- formance. Studies of the Relation of Perceived Self to Anxiety One of the approaches adOpted by investigators for the study of the relation between anxiety and self concept is to measure the perceived self and then correlate it with a measurement of anxiety. Representative studies were done by Lipsitt and Coopersmith. In Lipsitt's study, the subjects were 300 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade boys and girls.28 The instrument for elicitating the subject's self concept was a list of 22 trait descriptive adjectives. The subject was instructed to indicate how each of these traits was characteristic of himself or herself. A negative relationship between self ‘concept and anxiety was obtained. The Self Esteem Inventory was used in Coopersmith’s study.29 It consists of items involving the subject's per- ceptions in four areas: peers, parents, school and self. An index of self-esteem score was obtained from the subject's responses to each item as "like me" or "unlike me." Children 28 L. P. Lipsitt, "A self concept scale for children and its relationship to the children's form of the Manifest Anxiety Scale," Child Development, 1958, 29, 463-472. 6 ’Coopersmith, loc. cit. 20 with high self esteem were significantly less anxious than those with low self esteem. Both studies dealt with the perceived-self aspect of the self structure. The results indicated agreement that a negative relationship exists between the perceived self and anxiety. However, evidence contrary to these results was provided by Taylor and Combs.30 They found that those children who tended to accept damaging statements about themselves were those with the highest adjustment scores as measured by the California Test of Personality. The problem seems to be that the desirability of traits on both of the first two studies were predetermined by the investigators. It is not likely that the subjects would agree as to the degree of desirability of each trait. The index of self concept as derived from a sum of the sub- ject's responses to individual items may not be an accurate estimation of his self concept as viewed bythe subject him- self. Moreover, this approach is quite inconsistent with the basic emphasis of self theory since subject's viewpoint is not given adequate consideration. Studies of the Relationship of Self Acceptance to Anxiety Bills g; al., in the design of their Index of Ad- justment and Values, made an attempt to apply self theory by “In. 3OC. Taylor and A. W. Combs, "Self acceptance and ggjgstment," Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1952, 16, '10 ‘— 21 trying to obtain the individual's feeling regarding his perceived self.3l Their index includes a self acceptance measure. The subjects were asked, "how do you feel about being this way" after they had answered the question "how often are you this sort of person?" They were instructed to respond on a scale with a "very much like" to "very much dislike" continuum. The self acceptance score became the subject's evaluation of his perceived self. The main problem of Bills Index seems to lie in the "very much like" to "very much dislike" scale. A self evaluation is not necessarily an indication of a person's self acceptance. As stated by McCandless, ". . . there is a very real difference between the person who sees himself as being not perfect, yet manages to live comfortably with himself as he is; and the person who tortures himself with inferiority feelings and self-doubts."32 A self evaluation of the perceived self would enable us to find the person who sees himself as not perfect, but not to distinguish the two types of persons suggested by McCandless. In fact, “-cr- .u---.."~"-~ 31R. E. Bills, E. L. Vance, and O. S. McLean, "An Index of Adjustment and Values," Journal of Consulting_Psy- chology, 1951, 15, 257-261; R. E. Bills, Index of Adjustmepp and Valuggy_Manua1, Auburn, Alabama: Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Mimeographed, undated. 32 B. R. McCandless, Children and Adolescents, New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1961, p. 191. 22 Bills found a correlation of .90 between the perceived self and his self acceptance scores. This may be interpreted to mean that those with high self concept tend to rate them- selves higher than those with 1ow self concept. On the other hand, the correlation may simply indicate that the construct validity of Bills Index is questionable. Another score Bills used as an index of self accep- tance was the discrepancy between the perceived and the ideal self. The rationale was that discontent with self would be shown through the discrepancy score. Discontent with self is generally believed to be related to a person's emotional state. If this is true, there should be a relationship be- tween an individual's anxiety score and the discrepancy score. Numerous studies have been done based upon such rationale. We shall examine some of the pertinent ones and then see whether the rationale is sound. Though not directly attacking the relationship be- tween anxiety and the discrepancy score, Hanlon's, eIQQI. highly significant .70 correlation between total adjustment and discrepancy scores supports strongly the hypothesis that the discrepancy score is an indicator of adjustment.33 *--'--_.—.“-M 33 T. E. Hanlon, P. R. Hofstaetter, and J. B. O'Connor, "Congruence of self and ideal self in relation to person- ality adjustment," Journal of Consulting_Psychology, l95h, 18, 215-218. 23 Along this line, children with low self-ideal discrepancy scores were found less anxious on the Children's Form of Manifest Anxiety Scale.39 The children with high perceived ‘self—ideal discrepancy scores were rated by observers as being significantly less secure., Further evidence supports the claim that positive relationships between anxiety and the discrepancy scores exist not only among children but also in a group of college students.35 The correlation of the discrepancy scores of 106 college freshmen and sophomore women on the Bills Index of Adjustment and Values and Taylor's Manifest Anxiety Scale was found to be .41. Yet there are findings which are not consistent with those just reported. Zimmer's and Grigg's studies did not substantiate the hypothesis that discrepancy score is an indicator of an individual's conflict or emotionality.36 In addition, Bledsoe and Garrison found no significant —-—— “ --_ -W‘- 34?. Bruce, "Relationship of self-acceptance to other variables with sixth-grade children oriented in self-under- standing," Journal of Educational Psychology, 1958, 49, 229- 23 . 35J. V. Mitchell, Jr., "Goal-setting behavior as a function of self-acceptance, over- and under-achievement, and related personality variables," Journal of Edpcational Psy- chology, 1959, 50, 93-lOL. 36 H. Zimmer, "Self-acceptance and its relation to conflict," Journal of ggnsulting_Psychology, 195A, 18, 4A7- hh9; A. G. Grigg, "A validity test of self-ideal discrepancy," Journal of glinigal Psychology, 1959, 15, 311-313. 24 relationship between the discrepancy score and the anxiety score.37 AdoPting Bills Index of Adjustment and Values and the Children's Form of Manifest Anxiety Scale, they found a correlation near zero for the fourth grade boys (.075) and girls (-.034) but -.357 and -.206 for the sixth grade boys and girls respectively. The various results reported do not enable us to draw a firm conclusion as to the relationship between the self-ideal discrepancy score and adjustment, conflict, emo- tionality, or anxiety. The basic rationale of these studies in taking the discrepancy between the perceived self and the ideal self as an index for the particular individual's self content or discontent is questionable. Whether human beings generally judge themselves according to an ideal self is debatable. There are undoubtedly peOple who do take their ideal self as a standard to attain. On the other hand, there are also people who do not take their ideal self as the goal to be attained. Combs and Snygg have similar views: . . . The self ideal is nearly always a kind of report of what we might like to be which provide for the examination of persons who have asked us about the matter. It is rare, however, that the self ideal has any very great dynamic effect in motivating the behavior of individuals. . . . Perceptions and be- havior . . . are immediate, whereas the kinds of self ideals we are encouraged to adOpt are probably far 37Bledsoe and Garrison, op. cit., p. 34. 25 removed from our present state in both time and quality. There is certainly nothing wrong with hav— ing lofty and distant goals for oneself, but unless such distant ends can be converted into more immedi- ate and achieveable goals they will have little or no effect upon the individual. 38 If this argument is valid and if we want to know how a person feels about himself, we should better determine what kind of goal a person would like to attain rather than his ideal self. An Alternate Hypothesis The rationale for the studies of the discrepancy between the perceived self and the ideal self is based on balance theory. Human beings have a tendency to strive toward internal consistency. Festinger in his studies of cognitive dissonance supplied support for this tendency. Heider clarified this theory by an exploration of the con- ditions of the state of balance. He stated, . . a state of harmony or balance exists if entities which belong together are all positive, or if they are all negative. If two closely related entities are of different sign, a state of disharmony or tension re- sults which can be resolved in different ways.39 However, the existence of internal inconsistency does not necessarily cause the arousal of discomfort. The factors involved were analyzed by Festinger. —.—.__ -~ - - ~,--m 38Combs and Snygg, op. pip., p. 361. ‘ 39Fritz Heider, The Psychology of Interpersonal H§_- ns, Iéew York: John ‘wiley and Sons, Inc., 1959, p. 217. 0-”- ‘53.! 26 If two elements are dissonant with one another, the magnitude of the dissonance will be a function of the importance of the elements. The more these elements are important to or valued by, the person, the greater will be the magnitude of a dissonant re— lation between them.40 Brehm and Cohen further clarified this point. They declared, . . . the amount of dissonance associated with a given cognition is a function of the importance of that cognition and the one with which it is dis- sonant. The magnitude of dissonance is also a function of the ratio of dissonant to consonant cog- nitions, where each cognitive element is weighted for its importance to the person. As the number and/or importance of dissonant cognitions increases, relative to the number and/or importance of con- sonant cognitions, the magnitude of dissonance increases.hl Their theories and research findings point out an essential element that must be considered in studies of the consistency within a person's self structure-~the sig- nificance to be given to various aspects of the self struc- ture. As discussed in the preceding section, the personal meaning and the effect of ideal self may not be as important as assumed by many researchers. In fact, some researchers have pointed