title: Trait Self-esteem Moderates Decreases in Self-control Following Rejection: An Information-processing Account.
abstract: In the current paper, the authors posit that trait self-esteem moderates the relationship between social rejection and decrements in self-control, propose an information-processing account of trait self-esteem's moderating influence and discuss three tests of this theory. The authors measured trait self-esteem, experimentally manipulated social rejection and assessed subsequent self-control in Studies 1 and 2. Additionally, Study 3 framed a self-control task as diagnostic of social skills to examine motivational influences. Together, the results reveal that rejection impairs self-control, but only among low self-esteem individuals. Moreover, this decrement in self-control only emerged when the task had no social implications-suggesting that low self-esteem individuals exert effort on tasks of social value and are otherwise preoccupied with belonging needs when completing nonsocial tasks.
authors.affiliation: Social Science Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vandellen
authors.forename: Megan L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Knowles
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Krusemark
authors.forename: Raha F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Sabet
authors.forename: W Keith
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Jennifer E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: McDowell
authors.forename: Brett A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Clementz