The ideal self: schematic processing of perfectionistic content in dysphoric university students

This study assessed ideal-self-schematic processing, recall of perfectionistic content rated as not descriptive of the actual self or ideal self, and content-specific processing as a function of dysphoria. College students (n = 219) made structural (ST), ideal-self (IS), and actual-self (AS) ratings on perfectionistic, negative, and neutral words, and completed an incidental recall task. Words rated with the IS task were recalled better tha words rated with the ST task, but recall did not differ between the IS and AS tasks. Subjects recalled no-rated perfectionistic words better with the IS and AS tasks than with the ST task. Finally, dysphoric and nondysphoric subjects did not differ in processing specific content. The results support the belief that the IS functions as a schema and suggest that non-self- and non-ideal-self-descriptive perfectionistic content is involved in ideal- and actual-self-schemas.