Low self-esteem and the formation of global self-performance estimates in emerging adulthood
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: High self-esteem, an overall positive evaluation of self-worth, is a cornerstone of mental health. Previously we showed that people with low self-esteem differentially construct beliefs about momentary self-worth derived from social feedback. However, it remains unknown whether these anomalies extend to constructing beliefs about self-performance in a non-social context, in the absence of external feedback. Here, we examined this question using a novel behavioral paradigm probing subjects' self-performance estimates with or without external feedback. We analyzed data from young adults (N = 57) who were selected from a larger community sample (N = 2402) on the basis of occupying the bottom or top 10% of a reported self-esteem distribution. Participants performed a series of short blocks involving two perceptual decision-making tasks with varying degrees of difficulty, with or without feedback. At the end of each block, they had to decide on which task they thought they performed best, and gave subjective task ratings, providing two measures of self-performance estimates. We found no robust evidence of differences in objective performance between high and low self-esteem participants. Nevertheless, low self-esteem participants consistently underestimated their performance as expressed in lower subjective task ratings relative to high self-esteem participants. These results provide an initial window onto how cognitive processes underpinning the construction of self-performance estimates across different contexts map on to global dispositions relevant to mental health such as self-esteem.
Source: Translational Psychiatry
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Inserm, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, École Normale Supérieure - PSL, Institut Jean Nicod, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Computationnelles, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Utrecht University, Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,590
Awards: Paris Sciences et Lettres, G2659019386, Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, G339059223, G344382115, G3953683450, G4190806336, Frontières en cognition, G434337789, Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, G4631698403, The neurobiology of motivation in health and disease., LEaDing Fellows, G471331628, G4715770543, Improving self-awareness: Manipulating the neural substrates of self-belief, Improving self-awareness: Manipulating the neural substrates of self-belief, G5575036714, G5882669802, G6434262596, G6759105742, G6803667113, G7240651115, G7659019774, G782245399, G8301838711
OpenAlex ID: W4285095580