Correlation between the big five and self-discrepancy

The aim of this article is to explore the correlation between self-discrepancy, operationalized through Higgins' concept of actual and ideal self-concepts, and personality traits. The study involved 450 students of the University of Sarajevo, with a mean age of M = 21.2 (SD = 1.6). The following instruments were applied: actual/ideal self-discrepancy scale and the Big Five self-assessment scale. Self-discrepancy was operationalized as an absolute value of the difference between the actual and ideal self. Principal component analysis was conducted first on adjectives and their opposites, for the purpose of assessment of the actual self. The Varimax rotation yielded three interpretable components, which explain 53% of the common variance. The first component is the moral self-concept (19.069 %), second, the social self-concept (18.464 %), and third, the physical self-concept (15.759 %). Discrepancy scores were calculated as the absolute value of the subtraction results of the actual and ideal self items. Factor scores were obtained as the mean of the subtraction values of items. After that, we tested the relation between the discrepancies of factor scores and composite dimensions of the Big Five Model, and obtained statistically significant negative correlations between Emotional Stability, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness and discrepancies of moral, social and physical self-concepts; between Extraversion and Openness and discrepancies of social and physical self-concepts, in the behavioral relation of each dimension with the discrepancy. Results indicate significant presence of basic personality traits in the descriptive self-concept at the latent level of its structure.