Can Generalized Self‐Efficacy Overcome the Effects of Workplace Weight Discrimination?

Given that 68% of Americans are overweight or obese, research indicates that weight discrimination occurs in the workplace at each stage of the employment process, from selection to separation. Building from attribution, social exchange, and social cognitive theories, this study explores generalized self‐efficacy (GSE) as a moderator to determine if it alters the relationship between perceived weight discrimination (PWD) and the employee attitudes and behaviors of organizational citizenship behavior, organizational commitment (OC), job satisfaction (JS), and turnover intentions. Using ANOVA and moderated hierarchical regression to analyze the data, it was determined that GSE moderated the relationship between PWD and both OC and JS. Implications for practitioners and researchers are indicated.     

Sweets,Sex, or Self‐Esteem? Comparing the Value of Self‐Esteem Boosts With Other Pleasant Rewards

Abstract Many people ascribe great value to self‐esteem, but how much value? Do people value self‐esteem more than other pleasant activities, such as eating sweets and having sex? Two studies of college students ( Study 1 : N=130; Study 2 : N=152) showed that people valued boosts to their self‐esteem more than they valued eating a favorite food and engaging in a favorite sexual activity. Study 2 also showed that people valued self‐esteem more than they valued drinking alcohol, receiving a paycheck, and seeing a best friend. Both studies found that people who highly valued self‐esteem engaged in laboratory tasks to boost their self‐esteem. Finally, personality variables interacted with these value ratings. Entitled people thought they were more deserving of all pleasant rewards, even though they did not like them all that much (both studies), and people who highly value self‐esteem pursued potentially maladaptive self‐image goals, presumably to elevate their self‐esteem ( Study 2 ).     

Narcissistic Subtypes and Contingent Self‐Esteem: Do All Narcissists Base Their Self‐Esteem on the Same Domains?

ABSTRACT It has been suggested that there are two forms of narcissism: a grandiose subtype and a vulnerable subtype. Although these forms of narcissism share certain similarities, it is believed that these subtypes may differ in the domains upon which their self-esteem is based. To explore this possibility, the present study examined the associations between these narcissistic subtypes and domain-specific contingencies of self-worth. The results show that vulnerable narcissism was positively associated with contingencies of self-worth across a variety of domains. In contrast, the associations between grandiose narcissism and domain-specific contingencies of self-worth were more complex and included both positive and negative relationships. These results provide additional support for the distinction between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism by showing that the domains of contingent self-esteem associated with grandiose narcissism may be more limited in scope than those associated with vulnerable narcissism.     

Death? Be Proud! The Ironic Effects of Terror Salience on Implicit Self‐Esteem

Using a variety of approaches and an array of methodologies, research has shown that mortality salience enhances people's self-esteem. In line with previous work on terror management theory, the current study tested the hypothesis that when mortality salience is high, implicit self-esteem (ISE) is, paradoxically, more positive than when mortality salience is low. Participants were given an implicit measure of self-evaluation either before or after completion of a series of terrorism-related questions. As predicted, participants who completed the terrorism questionnaire first exhibited significantly more positive ISE than did those who completed it second. Ironically, it seems that implicitly, people may feel better about themselves in the face of terrorist attacks designed to demoralize them.     

Body Esteem: An Exception to Self‐Enhancing Illusions?1

Participants were 192 university students (96 males, 96 females) who completed the Body Esteem scale (Franzoi & Shields, 1984) under instructions to rate their feelings about their own bodies, rate their feelings about a specific or “average” student's body, and rate the importance they and others attached to these feelings. One of the findings is that when individuals perceived themselves as less positive on a particular desirable physical trait, they also rated the trait as less important to possess in the first place. The only exception to this was women's weight concern. It was also found that men generally rated themselves higher on body‐esteem subscales than they rated other men, while women did not exhibit such self‐serving evaluations of their bodies. One implication from these results is that the same self‐enhancement strategies successfully employed by individuals in other areas of self‐evaluations were not successful in enhancing one's body esteem, especially women's weight concern.     

Avoiding Anxiety,Being in Denial,or Simply Stroking Self‐Esteem: Why Self‐Positivity?

This article studies the presence, resilience, and direction of the self‐positivity bias under various conditions to examine the role of self‐esteem maintenance as an important antecedent for the bias. Experiment 1 manipulates the perceptions of the uncontrollability of cancer and presence of base‐rate information as independent variables that together eliminate the self‐positivity bias in perceptions of the risk of cancer. Experiment 2 shows the same effects using 4 life events that differ in terms of valence and perceived controllability; that is, base‐rate information affects self‐estimates for uncontrollable life events, reducing the self‐positivity bias, but does not affect self‐estimates for controllable events. Experiment 3 shows that these effects only apply to optimistic individuals who fail to incorporate base‐rate information into their self‐perceptions for controllable events. In contrast, pessimists use base rates to update their self‐estimates irrespective of the controllability of the event. Overall, the pattern suggests that self‐positivity is attenuated in conditions that implicate self‐esteem. Implications for health care marketing are discussed.     

Rising High or Falling Deep? Pathways of Self‐Esteem in a Representative German Sample

In many longitudinal studies, self‐esteem has been shown to increase up until around age 50 or 60 and to decrease thereafter. These studies have also found substantial inter‐individual differences in the intra‐individual development of self‐esteem. In the current study, we examined whether this variation in change could be attributed to underlying latent classes of individuals following different trajectories of self‐esteem development over time. By applying general growth mixture modelling to data from the representative German pairfam study (N = 12 377), four latent classes of self‐esteem development across five years were extracted. Based on their mean levels, trajectories, and variability, individuals in the latent classes could be described as having (a) constant and stable high self‐esteem (29.00% of the sample), (b) constant but variable moderate self‐esteem (31.69%), (c) increasing and stabilizing self‐esteem (15.13%), and (d) decreasing and variable self‐esteem (24.18%). Furthermore, these latent classes differed in accordance with findings of prior research on self‐rated, partner‐rated, and objective correlates of the domains of health and well‐being, partner relationships, and occupational status. Thus, the current study shows that inter‐individual variation in intra‐individual change in self‐esteem is not random but reflects specific individual trajectories, or pathways, of self‐esteem. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Spaced Out in Cyberspace? Evaluations of Computer‐Based Information1

This study draws on cognitive elaboration theory to examine when and why people evaluate computer‐based information more favorably than information from a less automated source. Half of participants received information from a computer, while half received the identical information from a less automated source. Moreover, participants were induced to be more vs. less involved in the information‐acquisition process. As predicted, participants in the low‐involvement condition evaluated the information more favorably when it came from a computer than from a less automated source. This difference was eliminated in the high‐involvement condition. Further supporting our reasoning, the interaction effect between information source and level of involvement was more pronounced for participants low, rather than high, in need for cognition.     

Depressed or Just Blue? The Persuasive Effects of a Self‐Diagnosis Inventory1

A self‐diagnosis inventory is both a response instrument and a tool for an individual to assess his or her risk. Three experiments show that the manner in which a depression self‐diagnosis inventory is administered and constructed affects the manner in which a respondent interprets behavioral symptoms. This in turn affects (a) self‐reports of whether the symptoms apply to the respondent; (b) the respondent's perceived risk of depression; (c) the perceived controllability of the behavioral symptoms; and (d) the respondent's likelihood of seeking treatment. Theoretical implications of the content and format of self‐diagnosis inventories are discussed, as are implications for how to persuade people to seek assistance when they are at risk.     

Still Doing Fine? The Interplay of Negative Life Events and Self‐Esteem During Young Adulthood

This longitudinal study investigated the bidirectional relationship between negative life events and self‐esteem during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood (N = 2272). Drawing on theories of human development over the lifespan and just‐world theory, we analyzed age‐graded changes in self‐esteem and their interplay with negative life events at three measurement points over a 12‐year period. We addressed both the short‐term and the longer term effects of single as well as multiple negative life events on changes in self‐esteem (socialization effects). We further investigated whether the pre‐event level of self‐esteem affected the likelihood of negative life events occurring (selection effects) and, finally, whether it had protective effects in terms of helping people adjust to negative events. Latent change models yielded four main findings: (i) self‐esteem increased during young adulthood; (ii) socialization effects were observed over shorter and longer timespans, but (iii) selection effects were only found for multiple negative life events, with low self‐esteem predicting a high number of negative life events; (iv) high pre‐event self‐esteem acted as a protective factor, attenuating declines in self‐esteem after experience of multiple negative life events. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Why Do High Self‐Monitors Emerge as Leaders in Small Groups? A Comparative Analysis of the Behaviors of High Versus Low Self‐Monitors1

The current study examined the relationship between self‐monitoring and leader emergence focusing on the specific observable behaviors that differentiate high and low self‐monitors in small decision groups. Consistent with previous research, high self‐monitors were more likely to emerge as leaders than were low self‐monitors. Further, observational ratings of task‐oriented and relationship‐oriented leader behaviors made by trained raters blind to the purpose of the study indicated that high self‐monitors emerged as leaders by engaging in significantly more task‐oriented leader behaviors. In contrast, no differences were found in relationship‐oriented leader behaviors between high and low self‐monitors. The findings are discussed in the context of behavioral approaches to the study of leadership and research on self‐monitoring. Implications for research on leader emergence, group process, and research methods are also provided, along with directions for future research.     

Was It My Fault? Effects of Counterfactual Mutation Focus and Self‐Presentation Strategy1

A recent perspective proposes that counterfactual thinking mutates controllable events that could have prevented a specific outcome, and so provides knowledge that can be used to prevent similar outcomes in the future. This implies that counterfactual thinking does not necessarily influence causal reasoning, although they may be associated in some circumstances. Results of 2 studies reported here show that, for serious outcomes where actions of the self are antecedents and different self‐actions might have prevented the outcome, there was an associated increase in self‐blame. Findings from these studies also suggest that whether self‐mutations are reflected in public expressions of blame will depend on whether the context favors self‐serving self‐presentation strategies, or mitigating strategies incorporating the face concerns of others.     

Can Self‐Determination Theory Explain the Self‐Perpetuation of Social Innovations? A Case Study of Slow Food at the University of Wisconsin—Madison

This case study of Slow Food at the University of Wisconsin—Madison (SFUW) examines the success of a volunteer social innovation that promotes sustainable food access. Using inductive thematic analysis of 19 in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews of past and current members, advisors, and collaborators, we find that the success of SFUW is consistent with Self‐Determination Theory. We find that among the participants, the organization satisfies the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which in turn support intrinsic motivation. In this way, volunteering tasks become interesting, fun, and are more likely to be performed over time. The findings suggest that needs fulfillment and intrinsic motivation are linked to creating a self‐propagating social innovation where volunteers generate new ideas and successfully transfer skills to others. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stuck in the Muck? The Role of Mindsets in Self‐Regulation When Stymied During the Job Search

Although there is a vast amount of literature on the psychologically harmful effects of unemployment, there has been less scholarship aimed at helping those struggling with the motivational challenges involved in a frustrated job search. This conceptual article draws on theory and extensive research in educational, social, and organizational psychology to explain the likely role of mindsets in self‐regulation during the job search. Specifically, the authors outline how a person's mindset can cue patterns of functional and dysfunctional thoughts, feelings, and behaviors during a range of job search tasks. They then provide practical advice for counseling individuals—and for people helping themselves—through the job search process.     

A Meta‐Analytic Investigation of the Within‐Person Self‐Efficacy Domain: Is Self‐Efficacy a Product of Past Performance or a Driver of Future Performance?

We conducted a meta‐analysis to determine whether the within‐person self‐efficacy/performance relationship is positive, negative, or null and to compare the strength of the self‐efficacy/performance and past performance/self‐efficacy within‐person relationships. The self‐efficacy/performance within‐person corrected correlation was .23 but was weak and nonsignificant (ρ = .06) when controlling for the linear trajectory, revealing that the main effect was spurious. The past performance/self‐efficacy within‐person corrected correlation was .40 and remained positive and significant (ρ = .30) when controlling for the linear trajectory. The moderator results revealed that at the within‐person level of analysis: (a) self‐efficacy had at best a moderate, positive effect on performance and a null effect under other moderating conditions (ρ ranged from –.02 to .33); (b) the main effect of past performance on self‐efficacy was stronger than the effect of self‐efficacy on performance, even in the moderating conditions that produced the strongest self‐efficacy/performance relationship; (c) the effect of past performance on self‐efficacy ranged from moderate to strong across moderating conditions and was statistically significant across performance tasks, contextual factors, and methodological moderators (ρ ranged from .18 to .52). Overall, this suggests that self‐efficacy is primarily a product of past performance rather than the driving force affecting future performance.     

Self‐Regulation and the Problem of Human Autonomy: Does Psychology Need Choice,Self‐Determination,and Will?

The term autonomy literally refers to regulation by the self. Its opposite, heteronomy, refers to controlled regulation, or regulation that occurs without self-endorsement. At a time when philosophers and economists are increasingly detailing the nature of autonomy and recognizing its social and practical significance, many psychologists are questioning the reality and import of autonomy and closely related phenomena such as will, choice, and freedom. Using the framework of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), we review research concerning the benefits of autonomous versus controlled regulation for goal performance, persistence, affective experience, quality of relationships, and well-being across domains and cultures. We also address some of the controversies and terminological issues surrounding the construct of autonomy, including critiques of autonomy by biological reductionists, cultural relativists, and behaviorists. We conclude that there is a universal and cross-developmental value to autonomous regulation when the construct is understood in an exacting way.     

Man Smart,Woman Smarter? Getting to the Root of Gender Differences in Self‐handicapping

Research in self-handicapping has consistently demonstrated a robust yet puzzling gender difference in the use of behavioral self-handicaps. Women not only are less likely to use behavioral self-handicaps when such opportunities present themselves, but are also more punitive in their evaluations of others who utilize these types of handicaps. For years, the literature has considered several possible explanations for these consistent gender differences, with little success. The present work highlights our recent efforts suggesting that the personal value placed on effort, as indexed by the 'Worker scale' ( McCrea, Hirt, Hendrix, Milner, & Steele, 2008 ), is an important mediator of these gender differences in both the use of and evaluation of others' use of behavioral self-handicaps. Discussion centers on the implications of the present results for gaining a better understanding of the motivations and tradeoffs that underlie the use of this self-defeating strategy.