Standards of Correctness

Abstract

EValuatlon Requires Astandard, some representation specifying a baseline or criterion. Evaluating others, for example, requires standards applying to other people (Biernat & Billings, 2001); evaluating stimuli requires standards related to form, substance, and the relationship between the two. Self-evaluation likewise requires standards applying to the self. Without a criterion that in some sense represents the “good self,” people would be incapable of liking or disliking themselves, of feeling superior or inferior. Understanding self-evaluation, then, requires knowing the intricacies of standards for oneself. We’ll describe the dynamics of standards in self-awareness processes in Chapters 4, 6, and 7. In this chapter we discuss some of the basic issues surrounding standards: their nature, and their origination.

This chapter is based on a dissertation by Neal Lalwani.