Do successes and failures affect self-esteem? The effects of culture and contingencies of self-worth.

Abstract

The effects of successes and failures on self-esteem were explored in the context of two situational factors: culture group (European American versus Asian), and the importance of the domain in which the success or failure occurs (e.g., school competence). Three studies were conducted using North American and Asian undergraduates, testing three hypotheses. The culture hypothesis predicted that the self-esteem of Asians and European-Americans should respond differently to successes and failures. Specifically, the self-esteem of European-American students should increase more than that of Asian students following success while the self-esteem of Asian students should decrease more than that of European American students following failure. Second, the contingency of self-worth (CSW) hypothesis predicted that people whose self-worth is contingent in a domain will experience greater increases in self-esteem following success and greater decreases in self-esteem following failure than people whose self-worth is not contingent in that domain. Third, the interaction hypothesis predicted effects of culture group and CSW would interact. Specifically, the effect of success and failure on self-esteem for European American and Asian students should be found more strongly among people whose self-esteem is highly contingent on events in a domain. In Study 1, a survey was used to measure both self-esteem and CSW in six different domains. Study 2 consisted of a laboratory experiment in which students received false success or failure feedback regarding their performance in a purported visual intelligence task. Study 3 utilized a daily report format in which students reported their grades and self-esteem daily over a three-week period. While results did not support the main hypotheses, across all three studies a relationship between successes, failures and self-esteem was established. In Study 1, students reported that their self-esteem would increase following success and decrease following failure. In Study 2, performance self-esteem decreased following failure versus success at a visual intelligence task. Finally, in Study 3, global daily self-esteem was affected by the grades students received that day.