Self-evaluation Maintenance Processes Research Articles

Self-Evaluation Maintenance Processes in Sibling Relationships and Birth Order Effect on Friend Relationships

Self-Evaluation Maintenance Processes in Sibling Relationships and Birth Order Effect on Friend Relationships

Marriage in the New Millennium: Is there a Place for Social Cognition in Marital Research?

Although the interchange between clinical and social psychological research has been fruitful in the study of cognition in marriage, it has recently waned. This article therefore illustrates the value of continued interplay between developments in the social cognition and marital literatures, focusing on the role of context in understanding marriage. Several studies show how construct accessibility, including the construct of marital quality, provides a context that influences judgments of partner behavior, the stability of marital quality, and observed marital behavior. The effects of context on reported marital quality are also examined. Finally, an expanded interplay between social cognition and marital research is illustrated using as examples self-evaluation maintenance processes and goals analysis. It is concluded that the social cognitive perspective has the potential to provide a different understanding of marital cognition in the new millenium.

Self-evaluation maintenance processes in time sequential changes of relations between friend choice and school performance

The purpose is to elucidate the sequential change in relations between students' friend choice and their school performance in terms of self-evaluation maintenance model. One hundred and thirty-five elementary school children and one hundred and twenty junior high school students were used as subjects of this survey. On the two questionnaires, each student was asked how he rated his own school performance, that of his friend, and that of his distant classmate, on both the high and low relevant subjects. According to the result of the survey, most students changed the combinations of each factor (relevance, closeness, school performance) in order to maintain their desirable self-evaluation. A time sequential analysis showed that students' self-evaluation maintenance processes were not so much based on their own ratings of school performance as on actual grades. It also showed that self-evaluation maintenance and personality traits were related to each other: As for elementary school children, their personality traits were related to the ratings of their own school performance and of their friends' school performance.

Independent Threats and Self-Evaluation Maintenance Processes

The present study investigated the independence of Self-Evaluation Maintenance (SEM) processes and the larger self-system. SEM processes are activated whenever another's performance is made salient relative to one's own. According to the SEM model, when one is outperformed by a close other on a task high in self-relevance, self-esteem is lowered and a negative affect state is generated. When one is outperformed by a close other on a task low in self-relevance, however, self-esteem and positive affect are actually enhanced, because one can take pride in the other's accomplishments. There are many sources of threat or enhancement to self-esteem, however, that are unrelated to one's performance relative to another's. The present study, using American undergraduates as subjects, examined the impact that these unrelated self-esteem threats or enhancements might have on SEM processes, that is, whether a prior unrelated ego-threatening or ego-enhancing experience modulates the effects of SEM processes. It was expected that a prior ego-threatening experience would augment the impact of SEM variables, whereas an ego-enhancing experience would attenuate the effect. Results, however, indicated little interaction between SEM processes and unrelated threats or enhancements to self-esteem.

Self-evaluation maintenance and the mediational role of emotion: The perception of friends and strangers.

Two studies examined the causal role of emotional arousal in self-evaluation maintenance processes. In previous work, Tesser and Campbell (1982) found that Ss were most charitable in their perception of another's performance when self-relevance was low and the other was close. If emotional arousal mediated this pattern of behavior, then the pattern of behavior should be replicated when arousal is present but attenuated when arousal is misattributed or low. The misattribution hypothesis was tested in Study 1. Study 2 was a correlational study in which physiological arousal and misattribution were measured. The results supported the prediction that SEM processes would be attenuated when arousal was attributed to external sources. The misattribution effect was particularly pronounced among more highly aroused Ss. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the SEM model and person perception.

Self-evaluation maintenance and the mediational role of emotion: the perception of friends and strangers.

Two studies examined the causal role of emotional arousal in self-evaluation maintenance processes. In previous work, Tesser and Campbell (1982) found that Ss were most charitable in their perception of another's performance when self-relevance was low and the other was close. If emotional arousal mediated this pattern of behavior, then the pattern of behavior should be replicated when arousal is present but attenuated when arousal is misattributed or low. The misattribution hypothesis was tested in Study 1. Study 2 was a correlational study in which physiological arousal and misattribution were measured. The results supported the prediction that SEM processes would be attenuated when arousal was attributed to external sources. The misattribution effect was particularly pronounced among more highly aroused Ss. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the SEM model and person perception.