Children's reasoning about the self‐presentational consequences of apologies and excuses following rule violations

The accounts given by those who have violated a rule are likely to have important self‐presentational consequences, potentially reducing the negative impact of the breach on social evaluations of transgressors. However, little is known about young children's self‐presentational reasoning about such accounts. In the present study, a sample of 120 4‐ to 9‐year‐olds responded to rule violation stories where the transgressor uses either an apology, an excuse, or no account. Results showed that whereas children rated both account types similarly in terms of their impact on punishment consequences, even the youngest saw apologies as leading to significantly more positive social evaluation than excuses. Correspondingly, children were more likely to identify prosocial motives for apologies than for excuses, and more likely to identify self‐protective motives for excuses than for apologies. Explicit references to self‐presentational motives when explaining the accounts increased significantly with age, and were more likely following social‐conventional rather than moral rule violations.     

The self‐esteem roller coaster: Adult attachment moderates the impact of daily feedback

People with different attachment orientations rely on different sources of self‐esteem. This 14‐day diary study examined the impact of different types of feedback on self‐esteem for adults of different attachment orientations. Consistent with theory, higher (vs. lower) anxious participants' daily self‐esteem fluctuated more with daily interpersonal feedback conveying rejection or coming from a romantic partner; they also self‐reported stronger reactions to idiosyncratic negative interpersonal feedback. Higher (vs. lower) avoidant participants showed weaker daily self‐esteem fluctuation with positive interpersonal feedback, and those with a fearful‐avoidant attachment pattern reported stronger reactions to positive agentic feedback. Self‐reported emotional reactions mediated links between attachment dimensions and self‐reported impact of feedback on self‐evaluations. Results highlight the importance of affect‐regulation strategies in influencing regulation of self‐esteem.     

Dissimilar effects of task‐relevant and interpersonal threat on independent–interdependent self‐construal in individuals with high self‐esteem

Previous research has indicated that individuals with high trait self‐esteem (HSEs) become more independent and less interdependent after experiencing a task‐relevant threat. However, these studies have not investigated other sources of ego threats, such as interpersonal threats. Therefore, the moderating effects of the degree of trait self‐esteem on task‐relevant and interpersonal ego threats were investigated in relation to independent, or interdependent self‐construal. It was predicted that in HSEs, the level of task‐relevant stress would be positively–negatively related to their independence–interdependence, whereas the level of interpersonal stress would be negatively–positively related to their independence–interdependence. In individuals with low trait self‐esteem (LSEs), the two types of stresses and independent–interdependent self‐construal may not have a significant relationship. We conducted a questionnaire survey with undergraduates. Correlational analysis of the results indicated that in HSEs, greater task‐relevant stress was related to heightened independence, whereas greater interpersonal stress had the opposite effect, indicating lower independence and heightened interdependence. However, these stresses were not related to the self‐construal of LSEs. These findings suggest that task‐relevant and interpersonal threat could have differential effects on independent and interdependent self‐construal for HSEs, but not in LSEs.     

Antecedents,Consequences, and Mechanisms: On the Longitudinal Interplay Between Academic Self‐Enhancement and Psychological Adjustment

We investigated the reciprocal associations between academic self‐enhancement and key indicators of intra‐ and interpersonal adjustment as well as the role of self‐esteem as a mediator. This longitudinal study involved three assessments in a sample of 709 German children and adolescents (M_age = 11.83; 54% female) over the course of one academic year. We assessed self‐reported subjective well‐being as an indicator of intrapersonal adjustment and peer‐reported popularity as an indicator of interpersonal adjustment. We computed cross‐lagged and longitudinal mediational analyses. Academic self‐enhancement prospectively predicted high subsequent well‐being and popularity. Vice versa, well‐being and popularity prospectively predicted high subsequent levels of self‐enhancement. High self‐esteem mediated the longitudinal associations between self‐enhancement and well‐being in both directions, but not the links between self‐enhancement and popularity. Self‐enhancement and adjustment are bidirectionally linked: Self‐enhancement entails intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits; at the same time, adjustment in both domains fosters self‐enhancement. In terms of intrapersonal, but not interpersonal adjustment, self‐esteem seems to serve as a linchpin, accounting for all longitudinal associations. Furthermore, we present evidence indicating that self‐enhancement indicators that are based on difference scores (instead of residuals) are problematic and might have led to negatively biased results in the literature.     

Loneliness,self‐esteem,and life satisfaction as predictors of Internet addiction: A cross‐sectional study among Turkish university students

This study investigated the relationship among loneliness, self‐esteem, life satisfaction, and Internet addiction. Participants were 384 university students (114 males, 270 females) from 18 to 24 years old from the faculty of education in Turkey. The Internet Addiction, UCLA Loneliness, Self‐esteem, and Life Satisfaction scales were distributed to about 1000 university students, and 38.4% completed the survey (see Appendix A and B). It was found that loneliness, self‐esteem, and life satisfaction explained 38% of the total variance in Internet addiction. Loneliness was the most important variable associated with Internet addiction and its subscales. Loneliness and self‐esteem together explained time‐management problems and interpersonal and health problems while loneliness, self‐esteem, and life satisfaction together explained only the interpersonal and health problems subscales.     

The relationship between perceived religious discrimination and self‐esteem for Muslim Australians

Muslim Australians represent one of the fastest growing migrant groups in Australia. They are also the group who, after Indigenous Australians, experience the most discrimination. Previous research on the minority stress model confirms a link between such discrimination and mental health. However, in relation to self‐esteem and discrimination, the results are mixed, potentially reflecting whether people reject or identify with prejudiced views of them and also the type of discrimination being measured. To explore this issue further in an Australian context, we asked 49 Australian Muslims to complete Rosenberg's Self‐esteem Scale and the Perceived Religious Discrimination Scale. In support of both the minority stress model and the rejection‐identification model, we found that perceived interpersonal and systemic discrimination accounts for a small but significant variation in self‐esteem. Interpersonal discrimination was negatively related to self‐esteem, and systemic discrimination positively related. The effects of interpersonal discrimination on self‐esteem can guide therapists to interventions that help clients resist internalising discrimination experiences. The effects of institutional discrimination support therapists becoming part of the resistance to and challenging of discrimination and inequality.     

Vertical individualism and injustice: The self‐restorative function of revenge

In the current paper, we examine the role of vertical individualism in determining revenge behavior following an injustice. Drawing on existing theory and research, we hypothesized that victims who are more vertically individualistic will be more likely than those who are less vertically individualistic to engage in revenge following the experience of injustice as a means of restoring self‐esteem. The results from three studies—employing different methodologies and operationalizations of revenge—support our reasoning. Moreover, two of the studies provide support for the proposed self‐esteem maintenance mechanism underlying the relation between vertical individualism and revenge. Although much research in psychology and organizational justice has demonstrated that the experience of injustice can threaten one's identity, our data are the first to demonstrate that responding to injustice can restore people's self‐esteem to homeostasis. The present studies thus demonstrate that in some instances revenge may have an intrapsychic benefit for the victim, which helps to explain why some people engage in revenge despite possible negative interpersonal consequences. We discuss implications of our findings for social and organizational justice theory and for potentially mitigating revenge reactions to injustice. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rejection Sensitivity,Social Withdrawal,and Loneliness in Young Adults

Rejection sensitivity (RS) has significant negative impacts on individuals' social cognitions, feelings, and interpersonal behaviors. The present research assessed the hypothesis that the effect of RS on young adults' loneliness is mediated by their tendency to withdraw from social contact so as to avoid possible rejection. Participants completed measures of their RS, their tendencies to engage in social withdrawal to avoid rejection, and their loneliness; as well as measures of their social avoidance and distress, self‐esteem, and social self‐efficacy. Results confirmed the main hypothesis and also indicated that RS is positively related to social avoidance and distress, and negatively related to self‐esteem and social self‐efficacy. Implications of the findings for understanding and counteracting RS are discussed.     

Do we forgive physical aggression in the same way that we forgive psychological aggression?

The present study examined variations in the impact of social proximity, apologies, intent to harm, cancellation of consequences, and attitude of others on the willingness to forgive an aggressor as a function of the type of aggression—physical aggression or psychological aggression. The participants were instructed to express their willingness to forgive in two contexts—physical aggression and psychological aggression—which constituted a within‐subject factor. Five sets of scenarios corresponding to the five between‐subject factors (from social proximity to intent to harm) were used. Participants were 215 adults aged 17–60 years. As hypothesized, the cancellation of the consequences had less impact, and the apologies and the intent to harm had more impact, on the willingness to forgive in the case of physical aggression than in the case of psychological aggression. This result was a robust one; it did not depend on the participant's gender and age. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–12, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Manipulating self‐esteem with subliminally presented words

A method for the unobtrusive manipulation of self‐esteem is presented. In four experiments, participants were subliminally exposed to either negative or positive adjectives paired with a self‐referring word (‘I’). The manipulation affected both self‐esteem and a probable consequence of self‐esteem (self‐serving bias) but did not affect mood or evaluation of a non‐self‐related object. When the adjectives were paired with a non‐self‐referring word, the manipulation had no effects. Together, the findings suggest that a) the method is an effective means of manipulating self‐esteem without side‐effects on mood and b) selective activation of evaluative self‐knowledge is the mediating process. Thus, the method promises to be a useful tool for the experimental investigation of the consequences of self‐esteem. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Individual Factors in Friendship Formation: Considering Shyness,Self‐Esteem,Social Skills,and Defensive Pessimism

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of four individual factors (shyness, self‐esteem, social skills, and defensive pessimism) on the formation of friendships among undergraduate students. Freshmen (N = 93) completed a questionnaire assessing their shyness, self‐esteem, social skills, and level of defensive pessimism. Then, they answered questions about interpersonal indices (number of friends, satisfaction with friendships, their willingness to continue relationships, and their feelings of interpersonal friction). After 3 months, they completed a questionnaire about their anxiety state and behavior when talking with the people they had met since university admission. Moreover, they discussed the interpersonal indices they used in a pre‐questionnaire. Path analysis indicated that shyness directly leads to having fewer friends, whereas social skills lead to having more friends through extroversive behavior. Moreover, self‐esteem was positively related to an increase in the willingness to continue relationships, and reflection and pessimistic thinking (which is one component of defensive pessimism) led to a feeling of being fatigued from the effort of considering and respecting the reactions of others.     

Narcissism and well‐being: A longitudinal perspective

This study used a longitudinal design to examine both concurrent and prospective relations between narcissism and several indicators of well‐being in a non‐clinical population. Consistent with previous research, the concurrent analyses showed that (1) narcissism was related to greater well‐being with self‐esteem fully mediating the association, and (2) narcissism was related to greater self‐esteem contingency on negative interpersonal events. The prospective analyses showed that greater well‐being predicted an increase in narcissism; however, higher narcissism did not predict changes in well‐being. Lower affective reactivity to negative interpersonal events also predicted an increase in narcissism. The “would‐be” narcissist appears to be a person reporting feeling well and not overly concerned by an aversive social environment. However, narcissism does not appear to predict future benefits for one's well‐being. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychosocial Well‐Being and a Multicultural Personality Disposition

This study examined the relationship between psychosocial well‐being and a multicultural personality disposition in undergraduates (N = 124). Measures of universal‐diverse orientation, hardiness, psychosocial‐interpersonal functioning, self‐esteem, and political correctness ideology were administered. Results indicated that the multicultural personality disposition of universal‐diverse orientation significantly predicted psychological hardiness, psychosocial‐interpersonal functioning, and self‐esteem beyond the influence of politically correct responding. These findings suggest that having a multicultural personality disposition (universal‐diverse orientation) may be positively related to psychosocial well‐being.     

Why Narcissists are Unwilling to Apologize: The Role of Empathy and Guilt

We hypothesized that narcissists would be unwilling to apologize for their interpersonal transgressions, and that reduced levels of self‐reported empathy and guilt would serially mediate this effect. Narcissism is characterized by little empathy for the victim, which reduces guilt about one's transgressions. Low guilt, in turn, is associated with unwillingness to apologize. In Study 1, we assessed dispositional narcissism, empathy, guilt, and willingness to apologize. In Study 2, we assessed dispositional narcissism and obtained state measures of empathy, guilt, and willingness to apologize. In Study 3, we manipulated narcissism and collected state measures of empathy, guilt, and willingness to apologize. Narcissism was negatively associated with (Studies 1–2) and decreased (Study 3) willingness to apologize, with this link being explained (i.e., serially mediated) by low empathy and guilt. Finally, in Study 4, we showed that antagonistic narcissism (i.e., narcissistic rivalry), but not agentic narcissism (i.e., narcissistic admiration), was negatively associated with willingness to apologize and apologizing behaviour. In all, narcissists are unwilling to apologize for their transgressions, as they experience little empathy for their victims and lower guilt. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Self‐esteem and self‐certainty: a mediational analysis

Self‐esteem has been found to be related to the certainty with which specific self‐conceptions are held. This study tested a number of competing accounts for this relationship, using a more rigorous idiographic approach. Specifically, it was thought that the relationship between self‐esteem and self‐certainty might be mediated by self‐concept clarity, the positivity of specific self‐conceptions, and impression management concerns. However, none of these fully mediated the relationship between self‐esteem and self‐certainty. Participants with higher self‐esteem were more certain of their central self‐conceptions than were those with lower self‐esteem. This was true even though participants were allowed to generate their most relevant and central self‐conceptions themselves. Discussion focuses on the role of social information in the possibly direct relationship between self‐esteem and self‐certainty. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lingering guilt and shame: Emotional burdens upon those who intended but failed to apologize

ABSTRACT

Prior research has shown that greater willingness to apologize for an offense is prompted by greater guilt but lesser shame. Yet little work examined whether apologies indeed resolve moral emotions. This study investigated how the absence of apology psychologically affects harm-doers when they recall a past offense. Undergraduates (N = 284) were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions wherein they recalled a past incident in which they hurt, offended, angered, or had some other negative effect on another person. Harm-doers who intended but failed to apologize reported greater PFQ-2 state guilt and shame, compared to others who refused to apologize or whose apologies were rejected. However, similar results were not found for ESS state shame. Results suggest that failing to apologize may impede transgressors from relieving moral emotional burdens, but only for those who intended to apologize.     

A meta‐analysis of the predictors and consequences of organization‐based self‐esteem

Organization‐based self‐esteem (OBSE), which represents employees' beliefs about their own value and competence as organizational members, has attracted much recent research attention. In the current paper, we identified several theoretically based predictors and consequences of OBSE. We then conducted a meta‐analysis examining the relationships between OBSE and these variables. Results indicated that several hypothesized predictors, including the work environment and employee dispositions, were related to OBSE. Furthermore, OBSE was related to several hypothesized outcome variables including job satisfaction, organizational commitment, employee health, job performance, and organizational citizenship behaviour. As expected, OBSE generally yielded stronger relationships with work‐related variables than did general self‐esteem and we found evidence that OBSE mediated the relationships between general self‐esteem and work‐related criteria.     

An application of terror management theory in the design of social and health‐related anti‐smoking appeals

• Marketers and public policy makers continue to be plagued with the problem of creating effective communications, which can increase the probability of complying with risk avoidance behavior related to smoking. Using Terror Management Theory (TMT) as a theoretical basis, we provide a rationale as to why traditional anti‐smoking appeals focusing on negative health consequences are not impactful. We use the implications of the theory to predict and show that an appeal focusing on social exclusion should be more motivating than a health appeal to encourage smokers to quit in the short and long run. Specifically, we conduct an experiment designed to investigate the impact of mortality salience and self‐esteem on whether college‐age smokers will comply with anti‐smoking messages. We observe that social exclusion messages compared to health effect messages are particularly effective in reducing intentions to smoke for college‐age smokers who derive their self‐esteem in part from smoking. Overall, our results show that mortality salience interacts with self‐esteem in terms of influencing the probability of smoking in the short run and that social exclusion appeals have a stronger impact than health‐related appeals both in reducing long run smoking intention and emphasizing the salience of health‐related consequences of smoking.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The development of maternal self‐esteem

Although an important theoretical concept, little is known about the development of maternal self‐esteem. This study explores the significance of maternal cognitions, psychopathological symptoms, and child temperament in the prediction of prenatal and postnatal maternal self‐esteem. During pregnancy 162 women completed measures assessing their unhealthy core beliefs, psychopathological symptoms, and self‐esteem. At 1 year postpartum 87 of these women completed measures assessing their self‐esteem and their child's temperament. Overall maladaptive maternal core beliefs and psychopathological symptoms during pregnancy explained 19% of the variance in prenatal maternal self‐esteem. Forty‐two percent of the variance in maternal self‐esteem at 1 year could be explained by a combination of prenatal maternal self‐esteem, mental health symptoms, maternal core beliefs, and more unsociable infant temperament. Underlying maternal cognitive structures may be important in determining the development of maternal self‐esteem.