INTERPERSONAL INTERACTION

Interpersonal Interaction

Interpersonal Interaction

1. Introduction

American culture has become preoccupied with the pursuit of self-esteem and a rapidly growing body of literature continues to document the methods people employ to maintain and enhance their self-esteem (Baumeister et al., 2003 and Crocker and Park, 2004). In fact, the human pursuit of self-esteem is so pervasive that it is often assumed to be a fundamental human need (e.g., Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1993). Although the vast majority of the self-esteem literature has focused on the level of trait self-esteem (i.e., whether individuals typically possess high or low self-esteem), Crocker and Park (2004) suggest that the desire for self-esteem—and how individuals go about pursuing self-esteem—may be a more important determinant of behavior than the individual's level of self-esteem.

The refocusing of attention on the means by which individuals pursue self-esteem is based upon two ideas proposed more than a century ago by James (1890). First, James proposed that an individual's trait level of self-esteem is relatively independent of objective circumstances, whereas state self-esteem changes in response to the successes and failures in one's life. Second, James noted that not all successes and failures have an equal impact on state self-esteem. Rather, individuals are highly selective about the domains upon which they base their feelings of self-worth. Crocker and her colleagues (Crocker, 2002, Crocker and Luhtanen, 2003, Crocker and Wolfe, 2001 and Wolfe and Crocker, 2003) have recently proposed a model of contingent self-esteem based on James's ideas. According to the model of contingent self-esteem, individuals should experience an increase in self-esteem following success in a relevant domain, whereas failure in a relevant domain should result in a decrease in self-esteem (Crocker, 2002, Crocker, Luhtanen, et al., 2003, Crocker and Wolfe, 2001 and Wolfe and Crocker, 2003). This idea was supported by the results of Crocker, Sommers, and Luhtanen (2002) which found that among college students applying to graduate school, those who based their self-esteem on academic competence experienced larger increases in self-esteem on days they received acceptance letters as well as greater decreases in self-esteem on days they received rejection letters than students who did not base their self-esteem on academic competence. Similarly, basing self-esteem on academic competence has been found to moderate the effects of bad grades on the self-esteem of engineering and psychology majors (Crocker, Karpinski, Quinn, & Chase, 2003). Contingencies of self-worth have also been shown to predict the time that college freshmen spend in various activities (e.g., studying, socializing, and grooming; Crocker, Luhtanen, et al., 2003) as well as the problems they encounter (e.g., academic and financial problems; Crocker & Luhtanen, 2003).

One dimension upon which the contingencies of self-worth may differ is the degree to which they are interpersonal in nature. Park, Crocker, and Mickelson (2004) defined interpersonal contingencies as “domains in which individuals seek validation, love, or support from others” (p. 1244). Based on this criterion, Park and her colleagues identified the following contingencies of self-worth (CSWs) as interpersonally based: others' approval, appearance, family support, and God's ...