Leiden University Student Repository

Oelhafen, Imelda von (2025)

Understanding the Interaction Between Self-Esteem, Attachment Styles, Social Feedback Sensitivity and Feedback Expectation: Interaction Between Self-Esteem, Attachment Styles, Social Feedback and Feedback Sensitivity

Master thesis | Psychology (MSc)

Research suggests a prominent relationship between self-esteem and social evaluation, such that individuals with low self-esteem may show biased perceptions of social evaluation. This study examines interactions between self-esteem, attachment styles, and neural sensitivity to social feedback using electroencephalography (EEG). The focus was on the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) component, indicative of neural sensitivity to expectancy violations in social feedback. It was hypothesized that low self-esteem would predict greater FRN during the SELF-Profile task, with insecure attachment styles adding to the variance of this relationship. Individuals with insecure attachment styles were also predicted to underestimate proportions of acceptance feedback received during the task, with low self-esteem and an insecure attachment predicting a lower proportion of expected acceptance feedback. Eighty adolescents aged 12-to-18 years (60 females, 20 males) participated in this study....Show moreResearch suggests a prominent relationship between self-esteem and social evaluation, such that individuals with low self-esteem may show biased perceptions of social evaluation. This study examines interactions between self-esteem, attachment styles, and neural sensitivity to social feedback using electroencephalography (EEG). The focus was on the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) component, indicative of neural sensitivity to expectancy violations in social feedback. It was hypothesized that low self-esteem would predict greater FRN during the SELF-Profile task, with insecure attachment styles adding to the variance of this relationship. Individuals with insecure attachment styles were also predicted to underestimate proportions of acceptance feedback received during the task, with low self-esteem and an insecure attachment predicting a lower proportion of expected acceptance feedback. Eighty adolescents aged 12-to-18 years (60 females, 20 males) participated in this study. Participants completed the SELF-Profile task, involving receiving probabilistic feedback from peers on social-media-like profiles, mimicking real-word scenarios of social feedback and potential uncertainties around these interactions. Participants indicated their perception of the interaction, reporting percentages of perceived social acceptance from peers. EEG recordings were conducted throughout this task. Results demonstrated that participants with low self-esteem exhibited heightened FRN amplitudes in response to positive incongruent feedback, suggesting increased sensitivity to unexpected positive social feedback. Moreover, individuals with insecure attachment styles show trends of amplified neural reactivity to social feedback which was visible in FRN outputs. Regression analyses additionally found significant correlations between self-esteem, attachment style and overall expectation of social feedback (positive and negative), with self-esteem explaining most of the variance. These findings elucidate neural mechanisms underlying feedback processing in relation to self-esteem and attachment, suggesting that low self-esteem and insecure attachment styles influence our social feedback sensitivity and expectation. Results provide insights for clinical practice suggesting the importance of improving self-esteem when working on client difficulties in social settings through positive feedback reinforcement.Show less

self-esteem, attachment, social feedback, feedback sensitivity, FRN, social learning

Author

Oelhafen, Imelda von

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Child and Adolescent Psychology

Supervisors

M. J. W. van der Molen
K. L. Ziemer

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en