The Role of Self-affirmation and Self-expansion on State Self-esteem
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Date
2015-05
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
There is a wide variety of research that has examined the extent to which humans use others for self-enhancement. Previous work has shown that people can expand their sense of self by using close others to boost self-esteem. Additionally, self-affirmation theory is a large part of the human psychological immune system, holding the power to boost the self and potentially protect self-esteem. Recent research has found that when facing negative feedback, people have a tendency to inflate their views of significant others in terms of positive characteristics, possibly to make themselves feel better (Brown & Han, 2012). The present research involves a 2 (self-affirmation) x 2 (success vs. failure feedback) x 2 (friend vs. college student rating) factorial design. A significant three-way interaction revealed effects for state self-esteem, but not for partner ratings or task performance. Non-self-affirming participants who received failure feedback had higher self-esteem ratings versus non-self-affirming participants who received failure feedback and rated a college student.
Description
Ohio State Mansfield Research Frenzy Presentation
Ohio State Denman Forum Presentation
American Psychological Society National Convention Presentation
Ohio State Denman Forum Presentation
American Psychological Society National Convention Presentation
Keywords
Self-expansion, Social Comparison, Self-extension, Self-esteem, Self-affirmation