Us without them: Evidence for an intragroup origin of positive in-group regard.

Four experiments examined whether group formation and positive in-group regard require interaggregate comparison as the in-group-requires-an-out-group assumption of the metacontrast principle implies. The authors fostered novel social aggregates with or without a contrasting aggregate with which members could compare and varied intra-aggregate factors (interaction or interdependence). Regardless of whether interaggregate comparison was feasible, the intra-aggregate factors increased the perceived entitativity of the aggregate and positive regard toward the aggregate (i.e., social attraction and cooperation among members). Mediation analyses were consistent with the possibility that the intra-aggregate factors promoted entitativity, which in turn promoted in-group regard. These data suggest that group formation and in-group regard have intragroup origins and do not require comparison with a contrasting social aggregate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Secure and Defensive High Self-Esteem.

Long-standing theories have suggested high self-esteem (SE) can assume qualitatively different forms that are related to defensiveness. The authors explored whether some high-SE individuals are particularly defensive because they harbor negative self-feelings at less conscious levels, indicated by low implicit SE. In Study 1, participants high in explicit SE but low in implicit SE showed the highest levels of narcissism--an indicator of defensiveness. In Studies 2 and 3, the correspondence between implicit and explicit SE predicted defensive behavior (in-group bias in Study 2 and dissonance reduction in Study 3), such that for high explicit-SE participants, those with relatively low implicit SE behaved more defensively. These results are consistent with the idea that high SE can be relatively secure or defensive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

I Like Myself but I Don't Know Why: Enhancing Implicit Self-Esteem by Subliminal Evaluative Conditioning.

On the basis of a conceptualization of implicit self-esteem as the implicit attitude toward the self, it was predicted that implicit self-esteem could be enhanced by subliminal evaluative conditioning. In 5 experiments, participants were repeatedly presented with trials in which the word I was paired with positive trait terms. Relative to control conditions, this procedure enhanced implicit self-esteem. The effects generalized across 3 measures of implicit self-esteem (Experiments 1-3). Furthermore, evaluative conditioning enhanced implicit self-esteem among people with low-temporal implicit self-esteem and among people with high-temporal implicit self-esteem (Experiment 4). In addition, it was shown that conditioning enhanced self-esteem to such an extent that it made participants insensitive to negative intelligence feedback (Experiments 5a and 5b). Various implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Executive Self, Self-Esteem, and Negative Affectivity: Relations at the Phenotypic and Genotypic Level.

Complementary approaches examined the relations among executive self, self-esteem, and negative affectivity. A cross-sectional (N = 4,242) and a longitudinal (N = 158) study established that self-esteem mediated the relation between executive self and negative affectivity. A 3rd study (N = 878 twin pairs) replicated this pattern and examined genetic and environmental influences underlying all 3 phenotypes. Covariation among the 3 phenotypes reflected largely common genetic influences, although unique genetic effects explained variability in both executive self and negative affectivity. Executive self was influenced by shared environmental influences unique from those affecting self-esteem and negative affectivity. Nonshared environmental influences accounted for the majority of variance in each construct and were primarily unique to each. The unique genetic and nonshared environmental influences support the proposition that the executive self, self-esteem, and negative affectivity capture distinct and important differences between people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A social psychological study of ethnonyms: Cognitive representation of the in-group and intergroup hostility.

Ethnonyms (M. G. Levin & L. P. Potapov, 1964; from the Greek roots meaning "a national group" and "name") are the names an in-group uses to distinguish itself from out-groups. There has been no social psychological research to date exploring the effects of ethnonyms. The authors report the results of 3 studies examining the potential effects of various features of ethnonyms on intergroup behavior. Analyses of archival data indicate that among indigenous African cultures (Study 1), indigenous Native American cultures (Study 2), and African Americans (Study 3), intergroup hostility was greater among in-groups characterized by less complex ethnonyms. Discussion considers the implications of these results and suggests new directions for research in the social psychological study of ethnonyms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptualizing and assessing self-enhancement bias: A componential approach.

Four studies implemented a componential approach to assessing self-enhancement and contrasted this approach with 2 earlier ones: social comparison (comparing self-ratings with ratings of others) and self-insight (comparing self-ratings with ratings by others). In Study 1, the authors varied the traits being rated to identify conditions that lead to more or less similarity between approaches. In Study 2, the authors examined the effects of acquaintance on the conditions identified in Study 1. In Study 3, the authors showed that using rankings renders the self-insight approach equivalent to the component-based approach but also has limitations in assessing self-enhancement. In Study 4, the authors compared the social-comparison and the component-based approaches in terms of their psychological implications; the relation between self-enhancement and adjustment depended on the self-enhancement approach used, and the positive-adjustment correlates of the social-comparison approach disappeared when the confounding influence of the target effect was controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Unconscious Cost of Good Fortune: Implicit and Explicit Self-Esteem, Positive Life Events, and Health.

J. D. Brown and K. L. McGill (1989) found that positive life events were associated with better health only for people high in self-esteem. Among people low in self-esteem, positive life events were associated with poorer health. The authors of this study replicated this finding in a self-report survey of 61 male and 110 female college students. In addition, they showed that implicit self-esteem moderated the relation between positive life events and self-reported health in the same fashion as explicit self-esteem did. Whereas people high in implicit self-esteem reported being healthier when they experienced more positive life events, people low in implicit self-esteem reported being healthier when they experienced fewer positive life events. Moreover, the effects of implicit self-esteem were statistically independent of the effects of explicit self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The importance of being we: Human nature and intergroup relations.

The author discusses the nature of in-group bias and the social motives that underlie ethnocentric attachment to one's own membership groups. Two common assumptions about in-group bias are challenged: that in-group positivity necessitates out-group derogation and that ingroup bias is motivated by self-enhancement. A review of relevant theory and research on intergroup relations provides evidence for 3 alternative principles: (a) in-group attachment and positivity are primary and independent of out-groups, (b) security motives (belonging and distinctiveness) underlie universal in-group favoritism, and (c) attitudes toward out-groups vary as a function of intergroup relationships and associated threats to belonging and distinctiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of in-group favoritism: Between social reality and group identity.

This study examined how social reality restricts children's tendency for in-group favoritism in group evaluations. Children were faced with social reality considerations and with group identity concerns. Using short stories, in this experimental study, conducted among 3 age groups (6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds), the authors examined the trait attribution effects of reality constraints on eye-color differences and national group differences. The results show that the trait attributions of all age groups were restricted by the acceptance of socially defined reality. In addition, when the information about reality was not considered accurate, only the youngest children showed positive in-group favoritism. It is argued that these findings are useful in trying to reconcile some of the divergent and contrasting findings in the developmental literature on children's intergroup perceptions and evaluations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Converging Toward an Integrated Theory of Self-Esteem: Reply to Crocker and Nuer (2004), Ryan and Deci (2004), and Leary (2004).

In this response to the commentaries regarding their terror management analysis of self-esteem (T. Pyszczynski, J. Greenberg, S. Solomon, J. Arndt, & J. Schimel, 2004). the authors focus on the convergence on certain points regarding self-esteem as a way of progressing toward an integrative perspective. In doing so, they briefly discuss how the need for self-esteem relates to anxiety, interpersonal relations, growth, evolution, and death. They also discuss sources of self-esteem, whether the pursuit of self-esteem is good or bad, and whether such a pursuit could fruitfully be abandoned. They conclude that self-esteem buffers anxiety, is greatly influenced by social relations, and can either facilitate or undermine growth and that the value of the pursuit of self-esteem depends on the sources on which it is based but that its pursuit is too inextricably woven into the way people manage their anxieties and regulate their behavior to ever be abandoned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Healthy Pursuit of Self-Esteem: Comment on and Alternative to the Crocker and Park (2004) Formulation.

J. Crocker and L. E. Park (2004) proposed both (a) that the importance of self-esteem lies more in how people strive for it rather than whether it is high or low and (b) that the benefits of pursuing self-esteem are of a limited, short-term nature and are outweighed by the significant costs that entail for functioning in multiple areas. The authors review research that raises questions about the validity of each of these assumptions. They conclude that findings are more consistent with a view in which (a) high self-esteem, or at least the avoidance of low self-esteem, is an important factor contributing to overall health and well-being and (b) the pursuit of self-esteem, when directed toward adaptive ends, can be instrumental in promoting long-term outcomes that are of value to both individuals and society. They also describe an integrative theoretical framework that encompasses both of these possibilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Objectivity in the Eye of the Beholder: Divergent Perceptions of Bias in Self Versus Others.

Important asymmetries between self-perception and social perception arise from the simple fact that other people's actions, judgments, and priorities sometimes differ from one's own. This leads people not only to make more dispositional inferences about others than about themselves (E. E. Jones & R. E. Nisbett, 1972) but also to see others as more susceptible to a host of cognitive and motivational biases. Although this blind spot regarding one's own biases may serve familiar self-enhancement motives, it is also a product of the phenomenological stance of naive realism. It is exacerbated, furthermore, by people's tendency to attach greater credence to their own introspections about potential influences on judgment and behavior than they attach to similar introspections by others. The authors review evidence, new and old, of this asymmetry and its underlying causes and discuss its relation to other psychological phenomena and to interpersonal and intergroup conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Simultaneous Administration of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in 53 Nations: Exploring the Universal and Culture-Specific Features of Global Self-Esteem.

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) was translated into 28 languages and administered to 16,998 participants across 53 nations. The RSES factor structure was largely invariant across nations. RSES scores correlated with neuroticism, extraversion, and romantic attachment styles within nearly all nations, providing additional support for cross-cultural equivalence of the RSES. All nations scored above the theoretical midpoint of the RSES, indicating generally positive self-evaluation may be culturally universal. Individual differences in self-esteem were variable across cultures, with a neutral response bias prevalent in more collectivist cultures. Self-competence and self-liking subscales of the RSES varied with cultural individualism. Although positively and negatively worded items of the RSES were correlated within cultures and were uniformly related to external personality variables, differences between aggregates of positive and negative items were smaller in developed nations. Because negatively worded items were interpreted differently across nations, direct cross-cultural comparisons using the RSES may have limited value. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self as an organized system of valuations: Toward a dialogue with the person.

Suggests that in describing the self as an organized system of valuations, the concept valuation refers to anything a person finds important in his/her everyday situation. A self-confrontation method is described in detail as a means of making a person's system of valuations explicit, with due regard to its affective properties. The method shows how the system is organized and reorganized over the course of time. This procedure is illustrated in a longitudinal case study of a 31-yr-old woman with an identity problem who spontaneously changed her name in the process of solving this problem. Essential for the proposed method of investigation is that the person has the position of self-investigator and reflects on his/her experiences in dialogical relationship with the psychologist. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accountability as a deterrent to self-enhancement: The search for mechanisms.

Although self-enhancement is linked to psychological benefits, it is also associated with personal and interpersonal liabilities (e.g., excessive risk taking, social exclusion). Hence, structuring social situations that prompt people to keep their self-enhancing beliefs in check can confer personal and interpersonal advantages. The authors examined whether accountability can serve this purpose. Accountability was defined as the expectation to explain, justify, and defend one's self-evaluations (grades on an essay) to another person ("audience"). Experiment 1 showed that accountability curtails self-enhancement. Experiment 2 ruled out audience concreteness and status as explanations for this effect. Experiment 3 demonstrated that accountability-induced self-enhancement reduction is due to identifiability. Experiment 4 documented that identifiability decreases self-enhancement because of evaluation expectancy and an accompanying focus on one's weaknesses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The formation of in-group favoritism and out-group prejudice in young children: Are they distinct attitudes?

Although standardized measures of prejudice reveal high levels of ethnocentric bias in the preschool years, it may reflect in-group favoritism or out-group prejudice. A measure that partially decouples the two attitudes was given to White children between 4 and 7 years of age to examine the reciprocal relation between and the acquisition and correlates of in-group and out-group attitudes. The two attitudes were reciprocally correlated in 1 sample from a racially homogeneous school but not in a 2nd sample from a mixed-race school. In-group favoritism did not appear until 5 years of age but then reached significant levels; it was strongly related to developing social cognitions. Out-group prejudice was weaker, but its targets suffer from comparison with the high favoritism accorded in-group members. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Function of Self-Esteem in Terror Management Theory and Sociometer Theory: Comment on Pyszczynski et al. (2004).

By applying different standards of evidence to sociometer theory than to terror management theory (TMT), T. Pyszczynski, J. Greenberg, S. Solomon, J. Arndt, and J. Schimel's (2004) review offers an imbalanced appraisal of the theories' merits. Many of Pyszczynski et al.'s (2004) criticisms of sociometer theory apply equally to TMT. and others are based on misconstruals of the theory or misunderstandings regarding how people respond when rejected. Furthermore, much of their review is only indirectly relevant to TMT's position on the function of self-esteem, and the review fails to acknowledge logical and empirical challenges to TMT. A more balanced review suggests that each theory trumps the other in certain respects, both have difficulty explaining all of the evidence regarding self-esteem, and the propositions of each theory can be roughly translated into the concepts of the other. For these reasons, declaring a theoretical winner at this time is premature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social perception as induction and inference: An integrative model of intergroup differentiation, ingroup favoritism, and differential accuracy.

Three general properties of social stereotypes are the perception of differences between ingroups and outgroups (intergroup differentiation), the perception of ingroups as having more desirable attributes than outgroups (ingroup favoritism), and the greater accuracy of ingroup perceptions (differential accuracy). We present and test an inductive-reasoning model that accounts for all 3 phenomena, and we explicate the relations among them. Based on empirical evidence, the model assumes that most people have a positive self-image, that they project these self-images more strongly to ingroups than to outgroups, and that their self-images are valid cues for judgments about social groups. Two minimal-group experiments using a crossed-categorization paradigm support the model and provide new evidence for underlying psychological processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The Effect of Experimentally Induced Failure, Self-Esteem, and Sex on Cognitive Differentiation": Errata.

Reports errors in the original article by R. Cruz Perez (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1973[Feb], 81[1], 74-79). On Table 2, the numbers for the low self-esteem failure females for the before and after columns, respectively, should be 611.00 and 625.12. The numbers for the low self-esteem control females for the before and after columns, respectively, should be 484.00 and 463.87. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1973-21060-001.) Investigated the effect of experimentally-induced failure upon an immediately-following cognitive differentiation task, on the hypothesis that these effects are differentially mediated by self-esteem and sex variables. 32 male and 32 female undergraduates completed the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory and the Embedded Figures Test (EFT). Ss were then given Raven's Progressive Matrices under time-limit failure or control conditions, and were retested on the EFT. Results support the hypothesis that after the experience of failure, high-esteem Ss would work faster and low-esteem Ss would work slower on the EFT retest. An additional hypothesis that males would work faster than females on the EFT was supported only for the low self-esteem females. Implications of these findings are explored. (25 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)