Self Discrepancy Essay

The construct of self-discrepancy is defined by the book as “individuals feel anxiety when they fall short of how they ought to be but feel sad when they fall short of how they ideally want to be… People feel guilty if they engage in bad behavior but shame if they feel they are bad persons. ” It is important to denote the differences between the ought self and the ideal self. The ought self is what one’s expectations are for themselves, whereas the ideal self is the goal of who what eventually wants to become. The ought self is present while the ideal self is futuristic. Before diving in, it is important to define a couple of terms. First, guilt must be defined. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines guilt as “a bad feeling caused by knowing or …show more content…
Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This makes it very clear that all human have sinned and are going to continue sinning. It is in our human nature. It is for this reason that humans will continue to feel shame and guilt throughout the course of their lives when they do not measure up to their ought self and ideal self. It is also for this reason that humans need a savior to idolize and look to as they are walking through life. Christians are going to go through seasons of guilt and shame because the ought self and the ideal self are set much high then that of the average human being, but with this also comes the certainty that their sins have been forgiven and that the guilt and the shame that they are feeling will not last forever because someone else has already taken the blame for those actions which they are feeling guilty or shameful …show more content…
Romans 5:5 says, “hope does not put us to shame, because God 's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” This is a fundamental philosophy of the Christian faith, but when applied to psychology and specifically the idea of self-discrepancy because it looks closely at not only shame, but the cure for it. The cure for shame does not come from doing good, but rather is from God’s love through the Holy Spirit, as this passage implies. If this Christian perspective were applied to the general ideas of psychology, suddenly, we would not have shame when the ideal self and ought self are not successfully achieved, but rather we would have hope that the next time would be better and we always have the option to try again. Ephesians 4:22-24 describes the true definition of the ideal self when it says “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” If Christian ideals and principles were applied to social psychology, and the world was viewed through this particular lense, it would make the world seem a much darker place at first, but it would also lead to a more definite