Review essay: Narcissism and the interpersonal self.

Interpersonal approaches to the concept of a core self are explored in a review of Narcissism and the interpersonal self (John Fiscalini and Alan Grey, Editors) (see record 1993-97836-000). The role of self as system and self as identity--both the interpersonal, adaptive self and the personal, core self--is used to understand the evolution of the Interpersonal School and its varied approaches to narcissism. A formulation integrating subjectively and objectively based models is proposed whereby the "core" self may be understood as the totality and integrity between internal, personal self and reflected, interpersonal self. Narcissism involves an alienation of the reflected self from the inner self, which leads to a particular set of dynamics to regulate self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Getting by with a little help from self and others: Self-esteem and social support as resources during early adolescence.

Influences of social support and self-esteem on adjustment in early adolescence were investigated in a 2-year longitudinal study (N=350). Multi-informant data (youth and parent) were used to assess both overall levels and balance in peer- versus adult-oriented sources for social support and self-esteem. Findings obtained using latent growth-curve modeling were consistent with self-esteem mediating effects of social support on both emotional and behavioral adjustment. Lack of balance in social support and self-esteem in the direction of stronger support and esteem from peer-oriented sources predicted greater levels and rates of growth in behavioral problems. Results indicate a need for process-oriented models of social support and self-esteem and sensitivity to patterning of sources for each resource relative to adaptive demands of early adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem, communicator characteristics, and attitude change.

Characteristic defenses were predicted to cause different Ss to resist influence from different kinds of persuasive communications. In a 3-way factorial design, 88 Ss representing high and low self-esteem were exposed to optimistic and pessimistic communications from communicators who were portrayed as "copers" or "noncopers." Optimism-pessimism unexpectedly produced no effect. However, characteristics of the communicator interacted with characteristics of Ss in producing attitude change. High-esteem Ss were influenced more by the coper and low-esteem Ss by the noncoper, even though all Ss evaluated the noncoper unfavorably. Further investigation indicated that Ss high and low in self-esteem were themselves copers and noncopers, respectively. Ss appeared to accept persuasive influence from the communicator more comparable to themselves, regardless of how they consciously felt toward him. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem and differential responsiveness to success and failure.

This investigation was based on the contention that high self-esteem persons are generally more responsive to success experience than to failure, while lows show the opposite effects. College students were divided into 4 groups, consisting of high or low self-esteem Ss, receiving success or failure treatments. The hypothesized interaction effect of self-esteem levels and treatments upon a measure of responsiveness, i.e., the degree to which the S attended to some aspects of the experimental condition, was demonstrated beyond the .05 level of significance and was considered supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When you and I are "we," you are not threatening: The role of self-expansion in social comparison.

Many theories of self-evaluation emphasize the power of social comparison. Simply put, an individual is thought to gain esteem whenever she or he outperforms others and to lose esteem when he or she is outperformed. The current research explored interdependent self-construal as a moderator of these effects. Two studies used a priming task to manipulate the level of self-construal and investigate effects of social comparison in dyadic (Study 1) and group situations (Study 2). Both studies demonstrated that when the target for comparison is construed as part of the self, his or her successes become cause for celebration rather than costs to esteem. Additionally, gender differences in chronic relational and collective self-construals moderated the patterns of social comparison in a form similar to that of priming relational and collective self-construals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem and the diffusion of leadership style.

Neither simple imitation, nor motivational coincidence, is adequate either to explain the frequent, superficial absence of similarities in leadership style across hierarchical levels (leadership climate) or to prescribe the best means for changing the style involved when climate does occur. Self-esteem of the lower-level supervisor is investigated as a mediating variable in this problem, in the context of an organization in which no formal human relations training had taken place. Variables were measured by questionnaires submitted to 17 foremen and their 330 male subordinates in a packaging materials plant. Hypotheses, all confirmed by the data, relate supportiveness of the foreman's supervisor to the foreman's behavior toward his subordinates through the attendant consequences of the foreman's self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Surface construal and the mental representation of scenes.

What distinguishes scenes from nonscenes? Photographs of objects on both naturalistic and blank backgrounds yielded boundary extension (BE: memory for unseen spatial expanse outside the picture's boundaries). However, line-drawn objects on blank backgrounds did not (Experiment 1). Perhaps the blank background was construed as depicting a real-world surface in the photograph condition but was construed as depicting nothing in the line-drawn condition. To change background construal, the authors used objects cut out of photographs; these were placed on blank backgrounds while viewers watched (Experiments 2 and 3). BE was eliminated. The authors propose that amodal continuation is a fundamental aspect of scene perception. However, not all pictures are scenes--only pictures construed as depicting a truncated view of a continuous world, (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem in schizophrenia: Relationships between self-evaluation, family attitudes, and symptomatology.

Participants with schizophrenia (N=59) were assessed on self-evaluation, symptomatology, and positive and negative affect (expressed emotion) from significant others. An interview-based measure of self-evaluation was used and two independent dimensions of self-esteem were derived: negative and positive evaluation of self. As predicted, negative self-evaluation was strongly associated with positive symptoms, a more critical attitude from family members was associated with greater negative self-evaluation, and analyses supported a model whereby the impact of criticism on patients' positive symptoms was mediated by its association with negative self-evaluation. The interview-based method of self-esteem assessment was found to be superior to the questionnaire because its predictive effects remained after depressed mood was accounted for. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem and need achievement as determinants of selective recall and repetition.

"This study investigates the relationship between self-esteem and the recall and repetition of success and failure experiences… . groups… were selected on the basis of their self-evaluative responses and an evaluation of their self-esteem behaviors. The combinations of these two variables, at their extremes, yielded significantly different patterns on such variables as achievement, ideal self, and sociometric status, and apparently represent distinct types of self-esteem… . two factors [appear]… necessary for the recall and repetition of failure… . the ability to tolerate failure and the motivation and striving to overcome its effects." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Could it happen to you? Predicting the impact of downward comparisons on the self.

Three studies examined the impact of downward comparisons on the self. Worse-off others exerted an impact only when participants drew an analogy between themselves and the other. When participants did draw an analogy, the impact of the other on the self was determined by perceived vulnerability to the other's negative fate. When vulnerability was low, downward comparisons enhanced self-evaluations. When vulnerability was high, downward comparisons deflated self-evaluations, but activated a prevention orientation, boosting motivation aimed at avoiding the negative experience of the other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalized self-efficacy, self-esteem, and negative affect.

In order to help resolve the ongoing debate about the relationship between and the functions of self-esteem and generalized self-efficacy (GSE), the authors tested the hypotheses that GSE predicts future self-esteem and that self-esteem predicts unique incremental variance in future negative affect. Measures of these three constructs were administered to two samples of undergraduates (N = 160 and N = 75) twice over five-six weeks. Time 1 GSE accounted for significant variance in Time 2 self-esteem in both studies, 1.6% of the variance in Study 1 and 4.6% of the variance in Study 2, after controlling for Time 1 self-esteem. Time 1 self-esteem did not predict Time 2 GSE in either study. Self-esteem accounted for significant variance in negative affect in Study 1. Results suggest that GSE and self-esteem are distinct, that GSE may play a role in the development of self-esteem, and that self-esteem may help shape negative affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Flexibility now, consistency later: Psychological distance and construal shape evaluative responding.

Researchers have long been interested in understanding the conditions under which evaluations will be more or less consistent or context-dependent. The current research explores this issue by asking when stability or flexibility in evaluative responding would be most useful. Integrating construal level theory with research suggesting that variability in the mental representation of an attitude object can produce fluctuations in evaluative responding, we propose a functional relationship between distance and evaluative flexibility. Because individuals construe psychologically proximal objects more concretely, evaluations of proximal objects will tend to incorporate unique information from the current social context, promoting context-specific responses. Conversely, because more distal objects are construed more abstractly, evaluations of distal objects will be less context-dependent. Consistent with this reasoning, the results of 4 studies suggest that when individuals mentally construe an attitude object concretely, either because it is psychologically close or because they have been led to adopt a concrete mindset, their evaluations flexibly incorporate the views of an incidental stranger. However, when individuals think about the same issue more abstractly, their evaluations are less susceptible to incidental social influence and instead reflect their previously reported ideological values. These findings suggest that there are ways of thinking that will tend to produce more or less variability in mental representation across contexts, which in turn shapes evaluative consistency. Connections to shared reality, conformity, and attitude function are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The jury and abjury of my peers: The self in face and dignity cultures.

The self is defined and judged differently by people from face and dignity cultures (in this case, Hong Kong and the United States, respectively). Across 3 experiments, people from a face culture absorbed the judgments of other people into their private self-definitions. Particularly important for people from a face culture are public representations—knowledge that is shared and known to be shared about someone. In contrast, people from a dignity culture try to preserve the sovereign self by not letting others define them. In the 3 experiments, dignity culture participants showed a studied indifference to the judgments of their peers, ignoring peers' assessments—whether those assessments were public or private, were positive or negative, or were made by qualified peers or unqualified peers. Ways that the self is “knotted” up with social judgments and cultural imperatives are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identification, authoritarian defensiveness, and self-esteem.

It was hypothesized that if one individual identifies with another with regard to 1 trait, the possession of a 2nd trait by the one with whom S identifies will lead S to assume the possession of even the 2nd trait. The opposite was also hypothesized, i.e., that if a person is made to perceive that he is opposite to a model with regard to a given trait, he will perceive that he is opposite the other trait. The degree of self-esteem will also influence this process; the higher the self-esteem the lower the assumption of similarity. After performing on 4 tasks (identifying associated nouns, finding antonymns, letter-number substitution, making words formed from other words), Ss were presented with material to structure identification or distinction from another S who performed the same or opposite tasks, describing this S in terms of intellectual level. Results supported the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ovarian Cancer Patients' Psychological Distress: The Role of Physical Impairment, Perceived Unsupportive Family and Friend Behaviors, Perceived Control, and Self-Esteem.

Although research has indicated that illness-related and interpersonal stress are associated with greater psychological distress among cancer patients, little empirical attention has been given to mechanisms that account for these relationships. In the present study, 2 mechanisms for the association between illness-related stress (physical impairment) and interpersonal stress (family and friend unsupportive responses) and psychological distress of 143 ovarian cancer patients were examined cross-sectionally. Separate structural equation models tested whether physical impairment impacted patients' distress via decrements in perceived control over their illness and whether unsupportive behaviors impacted patients' distress via decrements in patients' self-esteem. Results supported the proposed models and suggest that perceived control and self-esteem are 2 mechanisms for explaining how illness-related and interpersonal stress may be associated with psychological distress among women with ovarian cancer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dimensional comparisons: An experimental approach to the internal/external frame of reference model.

According to the internal/external frame of reference model (H. W. Marsh, 1986, 1990a), students not only use social comparisons to evaluate their performance (external frame of reference) but they also use dimensional comparisons (internal frame of reference), comparing their own achievement in one subject with that in other subjects. Three experimental studies were conducted to investigate the psychological processes underlying the effects of achievement in one domain on self-perceived competence in another. In Study 1 (N?=?36), high achievement in one domain led to lower self-perceived competence in the other domain. Study 2 (N?=?45) showed inverse effects on self-perceived competence when achievement feedback included explicit dimensional comparison information about students' achievement in both tasks. In Study 3 (N?=?90), dimensional comparison effects were shown even when additional social comparison information was presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conformity, veridicality, and self-esteem.

Prior to the application of group pressure to conform to an erroneous consensus in the Blake-Brehm procedure of counting auditory clicks, a control series was administered in the absence of social pressure to ascertain sheer counting accuracy in 2 groups of experimental Ss selected to differ in the degree of their measured self-esteem. Low self-esteem Ss were found to be significantly less accurate than high self-esteem Ss in counting accuracy under the nonsocial conditions. The results highlight the importance of controlling for competency in conformity research, particularly in studies utilizing such personality variables as self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representations of the self in the near and distant future.

Seven studies provide evidence that representations of the self at a distant-future time point are more abstract and structured than are representations of the self at a near-future time point and that distant-future behaviors are more strongly related to general self-conceptions. Distant-future self-representations incorporate broader, more superordinate identities than do near-future self-representations (Study 1) and are characterized by less complexity (Study 2), more cross-situational consistency (Study 3), and a greater degree of schematicity (Study 4). Furthermore, people's behavioral predictions of their distant-future (vs. near-future) behavior are more strongly related to their general self-characteristics (Study 5), distant-future behaviors are seen as more self-expressive (Study 6), and distant-future behaviors that do not match up with acknowledged self-characteristics are more strongly rejected as reflections of the self (Study 7). Implications for understanding both the nature of the self-concept and the way in which distance may influence a range of self-processes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathy, self-esteem, and birth order.

An experiment to measure empathy following induced identification. Empathy is defined as sharing the presumed feelings of someone with whom you have similarity. ? of 132 lower division college students were arbitrarily assigned an attribute of nonfunctional similarity (having worked on similar tasks) with a paid model. The other ? were treated differently only in this respect. ? the Ss under each of these conditions were exposed to the model's public success, the other ? to the model's public failure. Simultaneously, a 2nd measure of palmar sweat was taken. Retrospective reports of anxiety were then obtained. Anticipated differential palmar sweating among the 4 conditions was not observed. Self-reports indicated empathy when the model was similar, p     

Competition between friends: The joint influence of the perceived power of self, friends, and parents.

Prior research has shown that parents who have low perceived social power make exaggerated use of power-oriented interaction strategies with children. In this study, the authors made predictions regarding (a) the presence of equivalent effects with children and (b) the intergenerational transmission of perceived power. The interactions of children (ages 6–10) and their friends were observed following a potentially competitive task. Children's interactions were assessed for the competitiveness of their style of interaction. High levels of verbal competitiveness were shown by children with powerless mothers—in particular if fathers also had low perceived power. In addition, high levels of dyadic competitiveness were shown when both children and their friends had low perceived power. Parental powerlessness most clearly predicted children's self-praise, and child powerlessness most clearly predicted friend derogation. Intergenerational transmission of perceived power (and mediating effects of child power on verbal competitiveness) reached significance for only mothers and sons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)