Objective self awareness and self esteem

Based on a theory of objective self awareness three experiments were conducted with undergraduates to test the hypothesis that self-focused attention can alter self esteem levels. In Experiments I and II subjects were exposed either to the sound of their own voices or to the sound of another's voice, and while listening to the tape-recording they filled out a self esteem measure. Consistent with the theory, subjects whose attention was focused upon themselves by means of exposure to their own tape-recorded voices showed lower self esteem than subjects who heard another's voice. The impact of the self awareness manipulation on self esteem was greatest when it was first introduced. In Experiment III the variable of positive-negative feedback on a fictitious personality trait was added to the self-focused attention variable. An interaction resulted such that self-focused attention lowered self esteem given negative feedback, while there was a tendency toward the opposite result given positive feedback.