The unconscious cost of good fortune: implicit and explicit self-esteem, positive life events, and health.
J. D. Brown and K. L. McGill (1989) found that positive life events were associated with better health only for people high in self-esteem. Among people low in self-esteem, positive life events were associated with poorer health. The authors of this study replicated this finding in a self-report survey of 61 male and 110 female college students. In addition, they showed that implicit self-esteem moderated the relation between positive life events and self-reported health in the same fashion as explicit self-esteem did. Whereas people high in implicit self-esteem reported being healthier when they experienced more positive life events, people low in implicit self-esteem reported being healthier when they experienced fewer positive life events. Moreover, the effects of implicit self-esteem were statistically independent of the effects of explicit self-esteem.
Shimizu
Mitsuru
M
Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA. shimizu3@buffalo.edu
Pelham
Brett W
BW
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology