Abstract
Three studies examined how people maintain their self-images when they face threat to interpersonal aspects of the self. In Studies 1 and 2, we found evidence that low self-esteem people lower their estimates of their performance when they expect immediate feedback in order to protect themselves from the interpersonal threat inherent in such feedback, and that self-affirmation reduces this tendency among low self-esteem people. In Study 3, we found that when people are self-affirmed they are more likely to engage in upward social comparisons and less likely to engage in downward social comparisons. Together these findings suggest that people can cope with threats to interpersonal aspects of the self by affirming other important aspects of the self.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Allport, G. W., Vernon, P. E., & Lindzey, G. (1951). Study of values. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Ammons, R. B., & Ammons, C. H. (1962). The quick test: Provisional manual. Psychological Reports, 11, 111-161.
Baldwin, M. W., & Holmes, J. G. (1987). Salient private audiences and awareness of the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1087-1098.
Bartholomew, K., & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among young adults: A test of a four category model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 226-244.
Baumeister, R. F. (1982). A self-presentational view of social phenomena. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 3-26.
Baumeister, R. F. (1998). The self. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology (Vol. 1, 4th ed., pp. 680-740). New York: McGraw Hill.
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachment as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529.
Baumeister, R. F., Tice, D. M., & Hutton, D. G. (1989). Self-presentational motivations and personality differences in self-esteem. Journal of Personality, 57, 547-579.
Berger, S. M. (1977). Social comparison, modeling, and perseverance. In J. M. Suls & R. L. Miller (Eds.), Social comparison processes: Theoretical and empirical perspectives (pp. 209-234). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Berscheid, E., & Reis, H. T. (1988). Attraction and close relationships. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology (Vol. 2, 4th ed., pp. 193-281). New York: McGraw Hill.
Brickman, P., & Bulman, R. J. (1977). Pleasure and pain in social comparison. In J. M. Suls & R. L. Miller (Eds.), Social comparison processes: Theoretical and empirical perspectives (pp. 149-186). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Collins, N. L., & Miller, L. C. (1994). Self-disclosure and liking:Ameta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 457-475.
Davila, J., Burge, D., & Hammen, C. (1997). Why does attachment style change? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 826-838.
Dodgson, P. G., & Wood, J. V. (1998). Self-esteem and the cognitive accessibility of strengths and weaknesses after failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 178-197.
Fein, S., & Spencer, S. J. (1997). Prejudice as self-image maintenance: Affirming the self through negative evaluations of others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 31-44.
Ferrari, J. R. (1991). Self-handicapping by procrastinators: Protecting self-esteem, social-esteem, or both? Journal of Research in Personality, 25, 245-261.
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117-140.
Gibbons, F. X. (1986). Social comparison and depression: Company's effect on misery. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 140-148.
Gibbons, F. X., & Boney-McCoy, S. (1991). Self-esteem, similarity, and reaction to active versus passive downward comparison. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 414-424.
Gibbons, F. X., & Gerrard, M. (1989). The effects of upward and downward social comparison on mood states. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 8, 14-31.
Gibbons, F. X., & Gerrard, M. (1991). Downward social comparison and coping with threat. In J. M. Suls & T. A. Wills (Eds.), Social comparison: Theory and research (pp. 317-345). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Gilovich, T.,Kerr, M., & Medvec, V. H. (1993). Effect of temporal perspective on subjective confidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 552-560.
Goethals, G. R., & Darley, J. M. (1977). Social comparison theory: An attributional approach. In J. M. Suls & R. L. Miller (Eds.), Social comparison processes: Theoretical and empirical perspectives (pp. 259-278). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Hakmiller, K. L. (1966). Threat as a determinant of downward comparison. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology Supplement, 1, 32-39.
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511-524.
Heine, S., & Lehman, D. (1997). The cultural construction of self-enhancement: An examination of group serving biases. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1268-1283.
Holmes, J. G. (2000). Social relationships: The nature and function of relational schemas. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 447-495.
James, W. (1910). Psychology: The briefer course. New York: Henry Holt.
Josephs, R., Larrick, R., Steele, C., & Nisbett, R. (1992). Protecting the self from the consequences of risky decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 26-37.
Kashima, Y., Yamaguchi, S., Kim, U., Choi, S., Gelfand, M., & Masaki, Y. (1995). Culture, gender, and self: A perspective from individualism collectivism research. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 69, 925-937.
Kitayama, S., & Markus, H. R. (1999). Yin and Yang of the Japanese self: The cultural psychology of personality coherence. In D. Cervone & Y. Shoda (Eds), The coherence of personality: Socialcognitive bases of consistency, variability, and organization (pp. 242-302). New York: Guilford Press.
Lee, A. Y., Aaker, J. L., & Gardner, W. L. (2000). The pleasures and pains of distinct self-construals: The role of interdependence in regulatory focus. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 78, 1122-1134.
Lockwood, P., & Kunda, Z. (1997). Superstars and me: Predicting the impact of role models on the self. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 73, 91-103.
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self, & society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Morse, S., & Gergen, K. J. (1970). Social comparison, self-consistency, and the concept of the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 148-156.
Murray, S., & Holmes, J. G. (1993). Seeing virtues in faults: Negativity and the transformation of interpersonal narratives in close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 707-722.
Reis, T. J., Gerrard, M., & Gibbons, F. X. (1993). Social comparison and the pill: Reactions to upward and downward comparison of contraceptive behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 13-20.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Schlenker, B. R. (1980). Impression management: The self-concept, social identity, and interpersonal relationships. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Shepperd, J. A. (1993). Student derogation of the Scholastic Aptitude Test: Biases in perceptions and presentations of college board scores. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 14, 455-473.
Shepperd, J. A., & Arkin, R. M. (1989). Self-handicapping: The moderating roles of public selfconsciousness and task importance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15, 252-265.
Shepperd, J. A., Oullette, J. A., & Fernandez, J. K. (1996). Abandoning unrealistic optimism: Performance estimates and the temporal proximity of self-relevant feedback. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 844-855.
Shrauger J. S., (1972). Self-esteem and reactions to being observed by others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 23, 184-191.
Steele, C. M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 261-302). New York: Academic Press.
Steele, C. M., Spencer, S. J., & Lynch, M. (1993). Self-image resilience and dissonance: The role of affirmational resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 885-896.
Taylor, S. E., & Lobel, M. (1989). Social comparison activity under threat: Downward evaluation and upward contacts. Psychological Review, 96, 569-575.
Taylor, S. E., Wood, J. V., & Lichtman, R. R. (1983). It could be worse: Selective evaluation as a response to victimization. Journal of Social Issues, 39, 19-40.
Tedeschi, J. T. (Ed.). (1981). Impression management theory and social psychological research. New York: Academic Press.
Tesser, A. (1988). Toward a self-evaluation maintenance model of social behavior. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 181-227). New York: Academic Press.
Tesser, A., & Cornell, D. P. (1991). On the confluence of self processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 501-526.
Wills, T. A. (1981). Downward comparison principles in social psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 90, 245-271.
Wills, T. A. (1991). Similarity and self-esteem in downward comparison. In J. M. Suls & T. A. Wills (Eds.), Social comparison: Theory and research (pp. 51-78). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Wood, J. V. (1989). Theory and research concerning social comparisons of personal attributes. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 231-248.
Wood, J. V., Giordano-Beech, M., Taylor, K. L., Michela, J. L., & Gaus, V. (1994). Strategies of social comparison among people with low self-esteem: Self-protection and self-enhancement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 713-731.
Wood, J. V., & Taylor, K. L. (1991). Serving self-relevant goals through social comparison. In J. M. Suls & T. A. Wills (Eds.), Social comparison: Theory and research (pp. 23-50). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Spencer, S.J., Fein, S. & Lomore, C.D. Maintaining One's Self-Image Vis-à-Vis Others: The Role of Self-Affirmation in the Social Evaluation of the Self. Motivation and Emotion 25, 41–65 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010659805978
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010659805978