Reactions to Positive and Negative Information About the Self as a Function of Certain Personality Characteristics of the Recipient

摘要

The present study is designed to investigate a variety of adjustive processes resulting from the receipt of discrepant ratings from a friend concerning a set of personal characteristics known to be important to the subject group. Indices of both affective arousal and cognitive resolutions to such discrepancies are compared for groups at three levels of self-esteem. The research is partly a replication of the studies by Harvey, Kelley, and Shapiro (J. Pers., 1957, 25: 393-411), and Harvey (ONR Technical Report No. 8, Contract 2149(02), 1958), where discrepant information given to the subjects was negative in relation to the subjects' own self-perceptions. The use of positive information also, in two experimental conditions of the present study, is in certain respects similar to the study by Harvey and Clapp (Hope, expectancy, and reactions to be expected, in press, 1964) conducted subsequent to the present one. In presenting individuals at varying levels of self-esteem with discrepant evaluations of themselves, the intent of this study is mainly to further the process of description of cognitive-affective responses to discrepant inputs. While the nature of such discrepancies is handled within a theoretical model, there is no attempt to state a more comprehensive theory of self-esteem. (Author)