Contingencies of self-worth and responses to negative interpersonal feedback

Abstract

The present research examined effects of receiving negative interpersonal feedback on state self-esteem, affect, and goal pursuit as a function of trait self-esteem and contingencies of self-worth. Two same-sex participants interacted with each other and then received negative feedback, ostensibly from the other participant, or no feedback, regarding their likeability. Participants then reported their state self-esteem, affect, and self-presentation goals—how they wanted to be perceived by others at the moment. Among participants who received negative feedback, those who more strongly based their self-worth on others' approval experienced lower state self-esteem, positive affect, and greater negative affect than those whose self-worth was less contingent on others' approval. Participants with low self-esteem showed greater desire to appear physically attractive to others the more they based self-worth on others' approval and received negative feedback. In contrast, participants with high self-esteem showed greater desire to appear warm/caring/kind the more they based self-worth on others' approval and received negative feedback. Implications for self-esteem, motivation, and interpersonal processes are discussed.

Acknowledgments

The research reported in this article was based on portions of LP's doctoral dissertation while at the University of Michigan and was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and National Institute of Mental Health grants R01 MH58869 – 01 and K02 MH01747 – 01 awarded to JC.

We thank Meredith Wine for assistance with data collection.

Notes

1. Analyses of gender and race revealed that, overall, African Americans showed less desire to appear likeable/sociable/popular, β = −.25, p < .04, Asians tended to experience less positive affect, β = −.19, p < .08, and women showed greater desire than men to appear warm/caring/kind, β = .34, p < .01. We included these demographic variables because research has shown that women tend to score higher on the others' approval contingency than men, and African American students are less likely than White students to base their self-worth on the regard of others (Crocker & Lawrence, 1999; Crocker et al., 2003b).

2. We also ran analyses replacing approval contingency with the other six contingencies of self-worth to examine whether they could explain our effects. These analyses revealed no significant effects of wanting to appear attractive/good-looking/physically fit or warm/caring/kind. The only significant findings were for state self-esteem and negative affect. Specifically, the competition, virtue, and family support contingencies of self-worth all predicted more negative affect in the negative feedback condition, and the family support contingency also predicted lower state self-esteem in this condition.