When Do Ego Threats Lead to Self-Regulation Failure? Negative Consequences of Defensive High Self-Esteem

High self-esteem (HSE) is increasingly recognized as heterogeneous. By measuring subtypes of HSE, the present research reevaluates the finding that HSE individuals show poor self-regulation following ego threat (Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1993). In Experiment 1, participants with HSE showed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality & social psychology bulletin 2006-09, Vol.32 (9), p.1177-1187
Main Authors: Lambird, Kathleen Hoffman, Mann, Traci
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bias
Defense Mechanisms
Defensive behaviour
Ego
Female
Goals
Humans
Internal-External Control
Male
Personality
Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data
Psychology
Self Concept
Self image
Selfesteem
Selfregulation
Students - psychology
Word Association Tests - statistics & numerical data
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Summary:High self-esteem (HSE) is increasingly recognized as heterogeneous. By measuring subtypes of HSE, the present research reevaluates the finding that HSE individuals show poor self-regulation following ego threat (Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1993). In Experiment 1, participants with HSE showed poor self-regulation after ego threat only if they also were defensive (high in self-presentation bias). In Experiment 2, two measures—self-presentation bias and implicit self-esteem—were used to subtype HSE individuals as defensive. Both operationalizations of defensive HSE predicted poor self-regulation after ego threat. The results indicate that (a) only defensive HSE individuals are prone to self-regulation failure following ego threat and (b) measures of self-presentation bias and implicit self-esteem can both be used to detect defensiveness.
ISSN:0146-1672
1552-7433
DOI:10.1177/0146167206289408