Fluctuations in self-esteem help us monitor social acceptance and potential social threats, such as rejection. However, how people interpret and react to social acceptance and rejection depends on...Show moreFluctuations in self-esteem help us monitor social acceptance and potential social threats, such as rejection. However, how people interpret and react to social acceptance and rejection depends on individual differences in how sensitive people are to rejection. Highly rejectionsensitive individuals anxiously expect, readily perceive and overreact to rejection. This study examined how individual differences in rejection sensitivity modulate self-esteem fluctuations in response to social feedback. Participants (n = 190; age - range = 17 - 38) performed a task that entailed receiving acceptance and rejection feedback from raters who differed in their propensity to provide acceptance feedback. Participants were asked to indicate whether they expected the raters to like them and repeatedly reported on their momentary self-esteem after receiving feedback. The findings indicate that self-esteem increased in response to acceptance feedback and decreased in response to rejection feedback, and these effects were exacerbated when rejection was unexpected. Further analyses with a subset of participants (n = 165; age - range = 17 - 31) who completed a rejection sensitivity questionnaire revealed a potential mechanism through which rejection sensitivity may give rise to psychopathology. In addition to expecting rejection more often than participants with low rejection sensitivity levels, highly rejection-sensitive participants showed larger decreases in self-esteem in response to rejection and larger increases in self-esteem in response to acceptance feedback. This sensitivity may exacerbate declines in self-esteem in response to rejection instances in their day-to-day interactions, making them more vulnerable to developing persistent low self-esteem and, ultimately, mental health issues.Show less
How people generally evaluate their self-worth (i.e., their trait self-esteem) determines the extent to which they use social feedback to update their momentary self-esteem. However, it remains...Show moreHow people generally evaluate their self-worth (i.e., their trait self-esteem) determines the extent to which they use social feedback to update their momentary self-esteem. However, it remains unclear if the lack of positive expectations, typical of those with low trait self-esteem, renders them more prone to momentary changes of self-esteem. This study investigated how inter-individual differences in trait self-esteem and expectedness of social feedback moderated the impact of social approval and disapproval (i.e., valence of feedback) on self-esteem updates. Participants (N = 78) performed a social evaluation task, where they repeatedly predicted whether they expected to be approved of or not, and subsequently reported on their level of selfesteem after receiving the social feedback. Results showed that self-esteem updated depending on the valence of feedback, but expectations were only relevant if the person was exposed to social disapproval. To be precise, in both high and low trait self-esteem participants, self-esteem decreased the most when they expected to receive approval but were given disapproval instead. Low trait self-esteem was associated with lower state self-esteem throughout the task, and compared to high, low self-esteem participants had a more unstable self-esteem when faced with repeated social evaluations. However, the extent to which state self-esteem increased following approval and decreased with disapproval was no different from people with high trait selfesteem. These findings suggest that despite their vulnerabilities to social feedback, low selfesteem individuals benefit from social approval and realistic expectations as much as people with higher trait self-esteem. Knowledge of these effects can aid in the creation of interventions to promote a healthy development of self-esteem.Show less
