From chump to champ: people's appraisals of their earlier and present selves.
The authors present and test a theory of temporal self-appraisal. According to the theory, people can maintain their typically favorable self-regard by disparaging their distant and complimenting their recent past selves. This pattern of appraisals should be stronger for more important attributes because of their greater impact on self-regard and stronger for self-ratings than for ratings of other people. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that participants are more critical of distant past selves than of current selves, and Study 3 showed that this effect is obtained even when concurrent evaluations indicate no actual improvement. Studies 4 and 5 revealed that people perceived greater improvement for self than for acquaintances and siblings over the same time period. Study 6 provided support for the predicted effects of temporal distance and attribute importance on people's evaluation of past selves.
Wilson
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Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. awilson@wlu.ca
Ross
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M
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors