Self-Esteem, Mood, and Intentions to Use Condoms: When Does Low Self-Esteem Lead to Risky Health Behaviors?

The authors assessed the interactive effects of self-esteem and mood on intentions to engage in unprotected sexual intercourse. Prior research has shown that people with low self-esteem tend to evaluate themselves unfavorably when in a negative mood state, whereas people with high self-esteem are less susceptible to changes in self-evaluation following a negative mood induction. The authors hypothesized that people who engage in negative self-evaluations may be more likely to report intentions to engage in unprotected sexual intercourse. Undergraduate females were randomly assigned to a positive or negative mood induction condition. Consistent with their hypotheses, the authors found that among participants who were in a negative mood state, those with low self-esteem were more likely to report intentions to have sexual intercourse without a condom than were those with high self-esteem. In contrast, among participants in a positive mood, there were no differences between those who were low and high in self-esteem.     

自尊水平与评价性信息的选择性记忆

245名被试完成外显Rosenberg量表、内隐IAT测验和记忆测验。实验结果发现,1）外显自尊有效地预测消极信息的回忆量,低外显自尊个体对消极信息的回忆量显著高于高外显自尊个体,而两类被试对积极信息的回忆量上差异不显著,实验结果证实了相关模型的假设。2）无论是积极信息的回忆率还是消极信息的回忆率,不同内隐自尊水平的个体的回忆量差异不显著,外显自尊与内隐自尊的交互作用与其关系也不紧密,试图通过外显手段区分内隐层面上有差异的两类个体,似乎是行不通的。     

Seeking self-evaluative feedback: the interactive role of global self-esteem and specific self-views

People who verify a negative self-view expose themselves to criticism and rejection. Because people with low global self-esteem are hurt more by negative feedback than are people with high global self-esteem, the authors predicted that they would be less apt to verify a negative self-view in a more specific domain. Three investigations found support for this hypothesis. In all 3 investigations, high self-esteem participants sought (or tended to seek) self-verifying feedback, even if it was negative, but low self-esteem participants sought (or tended to seek) positive feedback, even if it was nonself-verifying. These findings show that low self-esteem people are especially concerned with self-protection and that global self-esteem and specific self-views interact to guide people's responses to self-evaluative feedback.     

Putting the partner within reach: a dyadic perspective on felt security in close relationships

The authors argue that felt insecurity in a partner's positive regard and caring stems from a specifically dyadic perception--the perception that a partner is out of one's league. A cross-sectional sample of dating couples revealed that people with low self-esteem feel inferior to their partner and that such feelings of relative inferiority undermine felt security in the partner's regard. Three experiments examined the consequences of reducing such perceived discrepancies by pointing to either strengths in the self or flaws in the partner. Low, but not high, self-esteem participants reacted to new strengths in the self or faults in the partner by reporting greater felt security in their specific partner's positive regard and commitment and more positive, general feelings about their own interpersonal worth. Thus, putting the partner more within the psychological grasp of low self-esteem people may effectively increase felt security in the partner's regard.     

The dangers of dating the “bad boy” (or girl): When does romantic desire encourage us to take on the negative qualities of potential partners?

People generally strive to maintain positive views of themselves. Even in the face of negative feedback, individuals frequently protect the self-concept from incorporating negative information. Two studies examined a potential exception to that rule: whether and when romantic desire may motivate individuals to spontaneously adopt the negative attributes of a potential partner. Study 1 demonstrated the basic effect such that single individuals spontaneously incorporated negative attributes of a potential romantic partner into their self-concepts, and incorporation was magnified by desire for the partner. Study 2 explored boundary conditions of these effects. Negative attributes were only incorporated if the potential partner expressed self-acceptance about possessing these attributes; when potential partners reported wishing to change the negative attribute, it was not adopted into the self-concept. Attribute extremity also moderated incorporation. The implications of these results for understanding the nuances of motivated self-malleability are discussed.     

When partner caring leads to sharing: Partner responsiveness increases expressivity, but only for individuals with low self-esteem

Two studies examined whether perceiving a partner as responsive leads people to be more expressive with that partner, and whether the effects of perceived partner responsiveness on expressivity are moderated by self-esteem. In Study 1, female undergraduates with high or low self-esteem disclosed to a fictitious partner about a sad event. Participants either received an understanding, caring, and validating written response from their ostensible partner or did not receive a response. In Study 2, participants wrote an email, supposedly to another participant, about a sad event and received either a highly responsive or a non-responsive email response. In both studies, partner responsiveness increased expressivity among individuals with low self-esteem but not among individuals with high self-esteem. These results provide the first experimental evidence for Reis and Shaver's (1988) theorizing about responsiveness and self-disclosure.     

不同自尊者对自我相关信息的记忆偏好

研究主要采用4(自尊类型)×2(词汇效价)混合设计,探讨了178名不同自尊水平或不同自尊类型大学生对自我相关信息的记忆偏好。结果发现:(1)高外显自尊者比低自尊者有更积极的记忆偏好,消极记忆偏好差异不显著;高内隐自尊者则比低自尊者有更弱的积极回忆偏好及更弱的消极回忆偏好。(2)就作为组内差异存在的记忆偏好而言,所有被试均有积极偏好;就作为组间差异存在的记忆偏好而言,脆弱的高自尊者有更强的积极偏好,但低自尊者也没有表现出明显的消极偏好。结果提示不同自尊者对自我相关信息有不同记忆偏好。     

Self-esteem, construal, and comparisons with the self, friends, and peers

Extending the better than average effect, 3 studies examined self-, friend, and peer comparisons of personal attributes. Participants rated themselves as better off than friends, who they rated as superior to generalized peers. The exception was in direct comparisons, where the self and friends were not strongly differentiated on unambiguous negative attributes. Self-esteem and construal played moderating roles, with persons with high self-esteem (HSEs) exploiting both ambiguous positive and ambiguous negative traits to favor themselves. Persons lower in self-esteem exploited ambiguous positive traits in their favor but did not exploit ambiguous negative traits. Across self-esteem level, ratings of friends versus peers were exaggerated when attributes were ambiguous. HSEs seemed to take advantage of ambiguity more consistently to present favorable self-views; people with low self-esteem used ambiguity to favor their friends but were reluctant to minimize their own faults.     

Self-esteem maintenance processes: why low self-esteem may be resistant to change

If most people desire to maximize feelings of self-worth, how do we explain the persistence of low self-esteem? Results from four studies suggest that people with low self-esteem may be less likely to accept positive feedback from themselves than from an outside source but equally likely to accept negative feedback from the self and an outsider. When the self was the source of positive feedback, people high, but not low, in self-esteem incorporated the feedback into their self-views; in contrast, when positive feedback came from a knowledgeable external source, both high and low self-esteem people accepted it. Finally, when self-generated feedback was negative, participants low in self-esteem accepted it. The authors discuss how these findings shed light on the maintenance of low self-esteem.     

Types of high self-esteem and prejudice: how implicit self-esteem relates to ethnic discrimination among high explicit self-esteem individuals

There is increasing recognition that high self-esteem is heterogeneous. Recent research suggests that individuals who report having high self-esteem (i.e., have high explicit self-esteem) behave more defensively to the extent that they have relatively low implicit self-esteem. The current studies test whether individuals with high explicit self-esteem are more likely to discriminate ethnically, as a defensive technique, to the extent that they have relatively low implicit self-esteem. The results support this prediction. Among participants with high explicit self-esteem, all of whom were threatened by negative performance feedback, those with relatively low implicit self-esteem recommended a more severe punishment for a Native, but not a White, student who started a fist-fight. In Study 2, this pattern was not apparent for participants with relatively low explicit self-esteem.     

Images of the self and self-esteem: do positive self-images improve self-esteem in social anxiety?

Negative self-images play an important role in maintaining social anxiety disorder. We propose that these images represent the working self in a Self-Memory System that regulates retrieval of self-relevant information in particular situations. Self-esteem, one aspect of the working self, comprises explicit (conscious) and implicit (automatic) components. Implicit self-esteem reflects an automatic evaluative bias towards the self that is normally positive, but is reduced in socially anxious individuals. Forty-four high and 44 low socially anxious participants generated either a positive or a negative self-image and then completed measures of implicit and explicit self-esteem. Participants who held a negative self-image in mind reported lower implicit and explicit positive self-esteem, and higher explicit negative self-esteem than participants holding a positive image in mind, irrespective of social anxiety group. We then tested whether positive self-images protected high and low socially anxious individuals equally well against the threat to explicit self-esteem posed by social exclusion in a virtual ball toss game (Cyberball). We failed to find a predicted interaction between social anxiety and image condition. Instead, all participants holding positive self-images reported higher levels of explicit self-esteem after Cyberball than those holding negative self-images. Deliberate retrieval of positive self-images appears to facilitate access to a healthy positive implicit bias, as well as improving explicit self-esteem, whereas deliberate retrieval of negative self-images does the opposite. This is consistent with the idea that negative self-images may have a causal, as well as a maintaining, role in social anxiety disorder.     

自尊的记忆效应的实验研究

本实验研究证实了自尊的记忆效应的存在,即自尊水平与词性的交互作用对特质形容诃的回忆量有显著影响。具体而言,对于正向词的回忆量,高自尊组显著高于低自尊组。对于负向诃的回忆量,高自尊组与低自尊组无显著差异;而在高自尊组,正向词的回忆量显著高于负向诃的回忆量。在低自尊组,正向词的回忆量与负向诃的回忆量无显著差异。实验结果支持自尊对记忆影响的忽视——不一致模型。     

A friend is a present you give to your “Self”: Avoidance of intimacy moderates the effects of friends on self-liking

The current research proposes that thinking about friends improves feelings about the self and does so differentially depending on avoidance of intimacy. Based on previous findings that individuals who avoid intimacy in relationships (avoidant individuals) contrast their self-concepts with primed friends whereas those who pursue intimacy in relationships (non-avoidant individuals) assimilate their self-concepts to primed friends [Gabriel, S., Carvallo, M., Dean, K., Tippin, B. D., & Renaud, J. (2005). How I see “Me” depends on how I see “We”: The role of avoidance of intimacy in social comparison. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 156-157], we predicted that friends who embody negative aspects of self would lead avoidant individuals to like themselves more, whereas friends who embody positive aspects of self would lead non-avoidant individuals to like themselves more. A pretest determined that good friends were seen as more similar to positive and ideal aspects of the self, whereas friends about whom participants had more mixed feelings (ambivalent friends) were seen as more similar to disliked and feared aspects of the self. Four experiments supported the main hypotheses. In Experiment 1, non-avoidant individuals like themselves more when good friends were primed. In Experiment 2, avoidant individuals like themselves more when ambivalent friends were primed. In Experiment 3, non-avoidant individuals liked themselves better after thinking about a friend’s positive traits, whereas avoidant individuals liked themselves better after thinking about a friend’s negative traits. In Experiment 4, all individuals under self-esteem threat strategically brought friends to mind who would help them like themselves more.     

The relationship between self-esteem level, self-esteem stability, and cardiovascular reactions to performance feedback

The authors examined the notion that individuals with unstable high self-esteem possess implicit self-doubt. They adopted the framework of the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat and assessed spontaneous cardiovascular reactions in the face of success versus failure performance feedback. Study 1 revealed predicted interactions between feedback condition, self-esteem level, and self-esteem stability, such that participants with unstable high self-esteem exhibited relative threat (a negative reaction) in the failure condition, whereas those with stable high self-esteem exhibited relative challenge (a positive reaction). Study 2 replicated these results and provided additional evidence against plausible alternative explanations.     

Ghosts of the past and dreams of the future: the impact of temporal focus on responses to contextual ingroup devaluation

The authors investigated the impact of temporal focus on group members' responses to contextual ingroup devaluation. Four experimental studies demonstrated that following an induction of negative ingroup evaluation, participants primed with a past temporal focus reported behavioral intentions more consistent with this negative appraisal than participants primed with a future temporal focus. This effect was apparent only when a negative (but not a positive) evaluation was induced, and only among highly identified group members. Importantly, the interplay between temporal focus and group identification on relevant intentions was mediated by individual self-esteem, suggesting that focus on the future may be conducive to separating negative ingroup appraisals from individual self-evaluations. Taken together, the findings suggest that high identifiers' responses to ingroup evaluations may be predicated on their temporal focus: A focus on the past may lock such individuals within their group's history, whereas a vision of the future may open up opportunities for change.     

Affect- and self-based models of relationships between daily events and daily well-being

The present study examined affect- self-based explanatory models of relationships between daily events and daily well-being. Twice a week for up to 10 weeks, participants described the events that occurred each day and provided measures of their daily affect, self-esteem, and depressogenic thinking. Participants also provided trait-level measures of affect, depression, and self-esteem. Measures of daily well-being representing each model covaried jointly and independently with daily negative and positive events. Positive events buffered the effects of negative events on daily self-esteem and daily depressogenic thinking, whereas there was no buffering effect for daily affect. More depressed people were more reactive to positive events, and those higher in trait PA were less reactive to negative events. Buffering effects for self-esteem were pronounced for those with lower trait self-esteem, and buffering effects for daily depressogenic adjustment were now more pronounced for those with higher trait negative affect. The results suggest that affect- and self-based models provide complementary perspectives on relationships between psychological well-being and daily events.     

When rejection stings: how self-esteem constrains relationship-enhancement processes

Three experiments examined how needs for acceptance might constrain low versus high self-esteem people's capacity to protect their relationships in the face of difficulties. The authors led participants to believe that their partner perceived a problem in their relationship. They then measured perceptions of the partner's acceptance, partner enhancement, and closeness. Low but not high self-esteem participants read too much into problems, seeing them as a sign that their partner's affections and commitment might be waning. They then derogated their partner and reduced closeness. Being less sensitive to rejection, however, high self-esteem participants affirmed their partner in the face of threat. Ironically, chronic needs for acceptance may result in low self-esteem people seeing signs of rejection where none exist, needlessly weakening attachments.     

Attachment avoidance and feelings of connection in social interaction

Individuals high in attachment avoidance claim to be indifferent to the opinions of others. Carvallo and Gabriel (2006) showed that dismissive avoidants who received positive social feedback reported higher levels of positive affect and state self-esteem than dismissives in control conditions. Their data suggest that avoidant individuals are sensitive to acceptance cues, despite avoidants' claims to the contrary. However, the affect and self-esteem effects could represent feelings of hubristic pride (and thus superiority) rather than connection (and thus belongingness). In the current study, participants were randomly assigned to interact with either a highly positive or mildly negative research confederate. Low avoidant individuals felt more connected with the positive than negative confederate, but this effect of experimental condition was even stronger for those high in avoidance. These findings affirm that avoidantly attached invidividuals' feelings of belonging are sensitive to the positivity of social conditions, supporting the universality of the need to belong.     

Compartmentalization of positive and negative self-knowledge: keeping bad apples out of the bunch.

Three studies examined whether categorical organization of knowledge about the self explains variance in self-esteem and depression beyond that which is accounted for by sheer amount of positive or negative content. Compartmentalization is the tendency to organize positive and negative knowledge about the self into separate, uniformly valenced categories (self-aspects). As long as positive self-aspects are activated, access to negative information should be minimized. Compartmentalization was associated with high self-esteem and low depression scores for individuals whose positive self-aspects were important; when negative self-aspects were important, compartmentalization was correlated with low self-esteem and high depression scores. An analysis of self-aspect labels showed that individuals with compartmentalized organization define negative self-aspects in especially narrow terms. A possible relationship between compartmentalized organization and cognitive complexity is discussed.     

The robust self-esteem proxy: Impressions of self-esteem inform judgments of personality and social value

People use impressions of an evaluative target’s self-esteem to infer their possession of socially desirable traits. But will people still use this self-esteem proxy when trait-relevant diagnostic information is available? We test this possibility in two experiments: participants learn that a target person has low or high self-esteem, and then receive diagnostic information about the target’s academic success or failure and positive or negative affectivity (Study 1), or watch a video of the target’s extraverted or introverted behavior (Study 2). In both experiments, participants’ impressions of the target’s traits accurately tracked diagnostic information, but impressions also revealed an independent self-esteem proxy effect. Evidently, the self-esteem proxy is robust and influences person perception even in the presence of vivid individuating information.