Discrepancia entre el Yo Real y el Yo Ideal en Puerto Rico y en los Estados Unidos

The study described in this paper evaluated the hipothesis that the discrepancy between personality test performance under instructions to describe yourself the way you actually are (Real-Self) and performance under Instructions to describe yourself the way you would like to be (ldeal-Self) depends in part, upon the relative stability of cultural values and ideals. In a culture with relatively stable and long-term values, such as the United States, a large discrepancy between Real- and Ideal-Self has been reponed, the ideal being more c1osely in line with "culturally desirable". In a culture recognized to be in a state of considerable flux, such as Puerto Rico (where a shift from the older Spanish tradition to a North American one is in rapid progress), a smaller discrepancy between Real- and Ideal-Self was expected since the cultural ideal is not clearly identified. The personality test employed was the Pensacola Z Survey, translated into Spanish and standardized for the Puerto Rican administration. The results showed that, while a group of 223 Puerto Rican college seniors responded quite similarly to the original U. S. sample under the Real-Self instructions,their Real-Ideal discrepancy.