Relation between Social Class and Three Aspects of Self-Concept: Actual, Ideal, and Egocentric Self

Abstract

Summary The relationship between social class and self-concept was examined with an in-home survey of 203 women, aged 18–65, from upper, middle, and lower social classes. Each woman responded to questions about actual self, ideal self, egocentric self (the difference between actual and ideal self), and image-attribute importance (the weight associated with each component of self-concept). Hypotheses that self-concept varied across social class were tested with multivariate profile analysis. The results show that social class was related to differences in both actual and ideal self, but unrelated to self-perception of egocentric self.