Reducing contingent self-worth: A defensive response to self-threats

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Personality Psychology

Background:

• Individuals with high self-esteem often reduce self-worth contingencies when facing threats.
• This coping mechanism's defensive nature has been previously theorized.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the hypothesis that reducing contingent self-worth following self-threat is a defensive process.
• To investigate the role of self-affirmation and the type of self-esteem (defensive vs. secure) in this process.

Main Methods:

• Study 1: Examined the effect of self-affirmation on high self-esteem individuals' tendency to reduce self-worth contingencies after a self-threat (N=160).
• Study 2: Compared this tendency between individuals with defensive and secure self-esteem (N=286).

Main Results:

• Self-affirmation attenuated the reduction in self-worth contingencies among high self-esteem individuals post-threat.
• The tendency to reduce self-worth contingencies was more pronounced in individuals with defensive self-esteem compared to those with secure self-esteem.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the hypothesis that reducing contingent self-worth after self-threat is a defensive psychological process.
• Implications for theories of contingent self-worth and self-esteem regulation are discussed.