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Updated: May 31, 2026

Assessment of Social Interaction Behaviors
Published on: February 25, 2011
Anticipating evaluative social interactions involving persons with disabilities
1Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA. asantuzzi@niu.edu
Purpose:
Similar to other types of social interactions, the expected outcomes of interactions between persons with and without disabilities likely are influenced by global self-esteem such that individuals with high self-esteem should fare better than those with low self-esteem. The present set of laboratory studies examined whether simple and complex evaluative situations affect the role of self-esteem when anticipating interactions with individuals who have a physical disability.
Design:
In Study 1, participants completed a measure of global self-esteem and then were randomly assigned to expect either a brief (5 minutes) or extended (45 minutes) interaction with a confederate in a wheelchair. Participants then completed measures of state affect and meta-evaluations (expected evaluations from the partner). Study 2 replicated the design of Study 1 and additionally randomly assigned participants to be outcome-dependent on the partner or not.
Results:
Study 1 found that individuals reported affective experiences and expected meta-evaluations that were consistent with global self-esteem when expecting a brief interaction but not an extended interaction with the partner. Study 2 replicated and extended the results from Study 1, demonstrating that self-esteem resumed a priority when participants expected an extended interaction that also placed the participant in an outcome-dependent role.
Implications:
Taken together, the results seem to support a dilution of the role of self-esteem in simple evaluative situations but not in situations that are nonevaluative or situations with combined evaluative factors.
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