Final answer:
Tory Higgins described self-guiding standards as the benchmarks that individuals use to organize information and motivate behavior, which align with personal and societal values.
Step-by-step explanation:
Tory Higgins described self-guiding standards as standards that individuals use to organize information and motivate appropriate behavior. These self-guiding standards help individuals align their behaviors with their personal goals and values. They may correlate with societal standards which represent the values a society aims to embrace and live up to. In any professional situation, individuals might utilize standards to maintain impersonality, ensuring that personal feelings do not interfere with decision-making processes. In social settings, an individual's standards are often influenced by their in-group, which is a group they identify with and consider an essential part of their identity.
Furthermore, the standards people apply in their lives can involve conforming to the expectations within a certain cultural or social role. These roles can impose specific behaviors or practices expected of group members, prompting conformity and potentially influencing attitudes and behaviors. This adherence to norms is a key aspect of social conformity, which is reinforced by a desire to fit into a group and by the belief that the group possesses accurate information. It is also an element of normative ethics which looks at establishing norms and standards to guide moral conduct.