The Mechanism by Which Interpersonal Coping Flexibility Influences Self-Esteem

Abstract

The objectives of the present study were to conceptualize interpersonal coping flexibility and to explore how it influences personal adaptation. Two hundred sixty two university students were classified based on their responses to prompts about their degree of prioritizing harmony and the number of coping strategies they employed when dealing with interpersonal conflicts. Four different types of interpersonal coping flexibility were identified: harmonious flexible, discordant flexible, harmonious inflexible, and discordant inflexible. Subsequently, 72 of the participants were randomly assigned to two groups primed by an interpersonally accepting or an interpersonally ostracizing situation. The type of interpersonal coping flexibility and priming had an interactive effect on implicit self- esteem. In the ostracizing priming condition, participants in the discordant inflexible group displayed lower implicit selfesteem.