Social Self-preservation Theory Research Articles

Can performance pressure hinder service recovery performance? The mediating role of shame and individual contingencies of work meaningfulness and proactivity

Hospitality employees have long been experiencing high pressure at work, due to the strict performance requirements from organizations and excessive socioemotional demands from customers. Although “performing well under pressure” is often considered a prerequisite for competent employees, findings from organizational psychologists regarding employees' responses to perceived performance pressure are divergent. To further elucidate this relationship, drawing upon the social self-preservation theory, this research proposes that performance pressure can elicit frontline employees' emotional experience of shame, which in turn, hampers their service recovery performance. Furthermore, we propose two individual contingencies of work meaningfulness and proactivity that alter employees' reactions to performance pressure. In particular, the experience of shame is more salient when employees perceive lower levels of meaningfulness or possess lower levels of proactivity. A mixed-method approach, involving both scenario-based experiment and multi-wave survey, is adopted. The results support our hypotheses. The findings provide a more holistic understanding of hospitality employees’ responses to performance pressure by uncovering the rarely investigated emotional pathway following performance pressure and identifying two salient individual boundary conditions.

Performance pressure amplifies the effect of evening detachment on next-morning shame: Downstream consequences for workday cheating behavior.

Detaching from work is beneficial because it helps employees recover from work demands. However, we argue that detachment may be a trade-off for employees in organizations with higher (vs. lower) levels of performance pressure. Drawing on social self-preservation theory, we hypothesize that evening detachment leads employees working in higher (vs. lower) performance pressure work contexts to experience increased shame at work the next morning. In turn, we hypothesize that shame motivates employees to engage in cheating behaviors to covertly inflate their performance and reduce the possibility that others will form negative perceptions of them. In three studies-a 2-week experience sampling study and two experiments-we find that evening detachment leads to heightened next-morning shame in higher (vs. lower) performance pressure work contexts, increasing cheating behavior throughout the workday. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Evaluative Threat Increases Effort Expenditure in a Cycling Exercise: An Exploratory Study.

Research shows that negative or threatening emotional stimuli can foster movement velocity and force. However, less is known about how evaluative threat may influence movement parameters in endurance exercise. Based on social self-preservation theory, the authors predicted that evaluative threat would facilitate effort expenditure in physical exercise. In an exploratory study, 27 young men completed a bogus intelligence test and received either low-intelligence-quotient feedback (evaluative threat) or no feedback (control). Next, they were asked to pedal on a stationary bicycle for 30 min at a constant cadence. After 10 min (calibration period), the cadence display was hidden. Findings show that participants under evaluative threat increased cadence more than control participants during the subsequent 20-min critical period. These findings underline the potential importance of unrelated evaluative threat on physical performance.

Examining University Men's Psychobiological and Behavioral Response-Recovery Profile From a Social-Evaluative Body Image Threat.

Negative body image, which often results from social-evaluative body image threats, is common in young men and related to many harmful outcomes. Using social self-preservation theory (SSPT), the present study investigated the psychobiological (i.e., shame and cortisol) and behavioral (e.g., submission) response-recovery profile to a social-evaluative body image threat in university men. Participants (N = 69; Mage = 20.80 years, SD = 1.84) were randomly assigned to a high-threat (n = 34) or low-threat condition (n = 35). Men in the high-threat condition reported greater post-threat body shame, had greater post-threat cortisol levels, and exhibited more shame-relevant behaviors than men in the low-threat condition. There were no significant differences between conditions for body shame or cortisol at the final post-threat time point (after resting for 30 min). These findings are consistent with SSPT and suggest that men respond to, and recover from, body image threats relatively efficiently.

The effect of perceived appearance judgements on psychological and biological stress processes across adulthood.

Social self-preservation theory posits that stress is experienced when an aspect of an individual's identity has the potential to be negatively evaluated. Appearance is a central part of identity; however, little research has examined whether perceived appearance judgements are a source of social-evaluative stress. In addition, stress may be an explanatory link in the association between appearance perceptions and depressive symptoms. This study examined whether perceived appearance judgements were associated with increased stress and greater depressive symptoms among adults. Study 1 examined the associations between self-reported appearance judgements and cortisol stress responses in response to a laboratory stressor (Trier Social Stress Test) among 71 individuals aged 18-65. Study 2 assessed self-reported appearance judgements and depressive symptoms among 498 adults ages 18-65 via an online survey data collection. Appearance judgement was associated with a stronger cortisol response, higher self-reported stress, and greater depressive symptoms. Stress mediated all associations between appearance judgements and depressive symptoms and neither age nor gender moderated these associations. The findings suggest that appearance judgements contribute to psychological and biological stress processes and demonstrated that stress mediated the association between appearance judgements and depressive symptoms.

The effect of individual task conflict on employee creativity: A moderated mediation model

Adopting conflict as a multilevel phenomenon, we theorized and tested how and when individual level task conflict relates to individual creativity. Integrating the motivated information processing view of conflict with social self-preservation theory, we make the case for employee information elaboration being the mediator between individual task conflict and individual creativity. Multisource data were collected from 374 members and their leaders within 57 engineering teams. The results indicated that individual task conflict was positively related to individual creativity through employee information elaboration. Furthermore, we found a curvilinear relationship that individual task conflict has with both individual creativity and employee information elaboration. Finally, we also found that the curvilinear relationship between individual task conflict and employee information elaboration was moderated by team reflexivity, such that a positive relationship was strengthened and a negative relationship weakened, in higher team reflexivity, but not in lower team reflexivity.

The multilevel nomological net of team conflict profiles

PurposeThis paper aims to offer an integrative conceptual theory of conflict and reports on the nomological net of team conflict profiles. Specifically, it integrates social self-preservation theory with information-processing theory to better understand the occurrence of team profiles involving task conflict, relationship conflict and process conflict.Design/methodology/approachThe study collected data from 178 teams performing and engineering design tasks. The multilevel nomological net that was examined consisted of constructive controversy, psychological safety and team-task performance (team level), as well as perceptions of learning, burnout and peer ratings of performance (individual level).FindingsFindings indicated mixed support for the associations between conflict profiles and the hypothesized nomological net.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should consider teams’ profiles of team conflict types rather than examining task, relationship and process conflict in isolation.Practical implicationsTeams can be classified into profiles of team conflict types with implications for team functioning and effectiveness. As a result, assessment and team launch should consider team conflict profiles.Originality/valueThe complexity perspective advanced here will allow research on conflict types to move forward beyond the extensive research examining conflict types in isolation rather than their interplay.

Men Respond Too: The Effects of a Social-Evaluative Body Image Threat on Shame and Cortisol in University Men.

Framed within social self-preservation theory, the present study investigated men’s psychobiological responses to social-evaluative body image threats. University men (n = 66) were randomly assigned to either a high or low social-evaluative body image threat condition. Participants provided saliva samples (to assess cortisol) and completed measures of state body shame prior to and following their condition, during which anthropometric and strength measures were assessed. Baseline corrected values indicated men in the high social-evaluative body image threat condition had higher body shame and cortisol than men in the low social-evaluative body image threat condition. These findings suggest that social evaluation in the context of situations that threaten body image leads to potentially negative psychobiological responses in college men.

Examining Psychobiological Responses to an Anticipatory Body Image Threat in Women

The present study extended the applicability of social self‐preservation theory (SSPT) to an anticipatory body image threat. Women (n = 80) were randomized into either a control or threat group (anticipating having a body composition assessment). Participants completed measures of body shame and social physique anxiety (self‐conscious outcomes), and body dissatisfaction (a non‐self‐conscious outcome), and provided a sample of saliva (to assess cortisol levels) at baseline and immediately following their condition. Findings showed that for the threat condition, body image variables were significantly more negative pre‐ to post‐condition. Findings also showed that self‐conscious outcomes were more sensitive than the non‐self‐conscious outcome. There was not a significant group‐by‐time interaction for cortisol. Findings support SSPT's applicability to the anticipation of a social‐evaluative body‐related threat.

Physiological mechanisms that underlie the effects of interactional unfairness on deviant behavior: The role of cortisol activity.

Although experiencing unfairness is a primary source of stress, there are surprisingly few studies that have examined the physiological underpinnings of unfairness. Drawing from social self-preservation theory, we derive predictions regarding the effects of interactional unfairness on activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, which is one of the body's primary hormonal systems for responding to stress. Using an experimental design with objective physiological measures, we found support for our hypothesis that interactional unfairness triggers the release of cortisol by the HPA axis. This cortisol activity in turn mediated the effects of interactional unfairness on deviant behavior. This indirect effect remained significant after controlling for established attitudinal and self-construal mediators of the justice-deviance relationship. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the occupational stress and organizational justice literatures.

Testosterone and Cortisol Release among Spanish Soccer Fans Watching the 2010 World Cup Final

This field study investigated the release of testosterone and cortisol of a vicarious winning experience in Spanish fans watching the finals between Spain and the Netherlands in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer. Spanish fans (n = 50) watched the match with friends or family in a public place or at home and also participated in a control condition. Consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that testosterone and cortisol levels were higher when watching the match than on a control day. However, neither testosterone nor cortisol levels increased after the victory of the Spanish team. Moreover, the increase in testosterone secretion was not related to participants' sex, age or soccer fandom, but the increase in total cortisol secretion during the match was higher among men than among women and among fans that were younger. Also, increases in cortisol secretion were greater to the degree that people were a stronger fan of soccer. Level of fandom further appeared to account for the sex effect, but not for the age effect. Generally, the testosterone data from this study are in line with the challenge hypothesis, as testosterone levels of watchers increased to prepare their organism to defend or enhance their social status. The cortisol data from this study are in line with social self-preservation theory, as higher cortisol secretion among young and greater soccer fans suggests that especially they perceived that a negative outcome of the match would threaten their own social esteem.

Self-focus and social evaluative threat increase salivary cortisol responses to acute stress in men

This experiment tested the hypothesis that self-focused attention might increase cortisol release. Social self-preservation theory suggests that social evaluation and associated feelings of shame are associated with cortisol reactivity, whereas one implication of objective self-awareness theory is that self-critical awareness and associated feelings of anxiety might be associated with increases in cortisol. 120 participants completed a public speech task either in front of an evaluative panel (social threat), in a non-evaluative setting while watching themselves in real-time on a television (self-focus), or in the mere presence of a non-evaluative person (control). Cortisol increased comparably among men in the social threat and self-focus conditions, but not among men in the control condition. There were no effects for women. Shame was correlated with increased cortisol in the social threat condition, whereas anxiety was correlated with increased cortisol in the self-focus condition. One broad implication of this work is that negative evaluation may increase cortisol regardless of whether this source comes from oneself or others.

A qualitative examination of body image threats using Social Self-Preservation Theory

This study sought to identify and describe comfortable and uncomfortable body-related situations of young women, as well as describe their responses to such situations and strategies they used to cope with body-related threats, using Social Self-Preservation Theory (SSPT) as a guiding framework. Interviews were conducted with college women ( N = 23). A theoretical thematic analysis approach was taken to identify, code, and report themes. In general, participants found it difficult to identify specific comfortable situations and responses in those situations. Comfortable situations were characterized by the presence of supportive others and feelings of general calmness and lowered body awareness or self-presentational concerns. Findings regarding uncomfortable body-related situations indicated that the context (e.g., presence of others, body exposure), responses (e.g., embarrassment, inadequacy, awareness of others’ evaluations, faster heart rate), and coping strategies (e.g., avoidance, concealing behaviors) described by participants were consistent with SSPT.

The psychobiology of trait shame in young women: Extending the social self preservation theory.

The social self preservation theory (SSPT) proposes that social evaluative threat evokes the emotion of shame, which then shapes a coordinated psychobiological response. While this is supported in acute stress studies, there is no data on chronic experiences of shame. We investigated the association of trait shame with activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), and regulation of inflammation in n = 56 young women. Daily profiles of salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase were assessed as indices of HPA axis and SNS activity, respectively. Inflammatory regulation was assessed by lipopolysaccharide-stimulated production and glucocorticoid inhibition of interleukin-6 in vitro. Trait shame was associated with SNS (r = .49; p = .001), but not HPA activity (r = .14; ns). Shame was associated with inflammatory activity (r = .35; p = .006) and glucocorticoid sensitivity (r = -0.43; p = .001). Relationships were not mediated by HPA and SNS activity. Results support SSPT predictions with respect to chronic shame experience and inflammation. Results further suggest the importance of SNS activation related to shame, and the possibility that HPA activation may be limited acute experiences of shame.

Stress on the Dance Floor: The Cortisol Stress Response to Social-Evaluative Threat in Competitive Ballroom Dancers

The social self-preservation theory states that humans have a fundamental motivation to preserve the social self and that threats to the social self perturb biological markers such as cortisol. Five studies were designed to examine the cortisol response to competitive ballroom dancing as a paradigm for real-life social-evaluative threat. Competitive dancing produced substantial increases in cortisol compared to a control day. These increases were not due to the physical strain of dancing and were greater than those found during social-evaluative laboratory stressors. Responses did not habituate across competitions and were mostly elevated under highly focused conditions of threat (couple vs. group competition). These findings support the notion of a social self-preservation system that is physiologically responsive to threats to the social self.