Task ego-involvement and self-esteem as moderators of situationally devalued self-esteem

Abstract

Conducted 2 experiments to investigate the effects of situationally devalued self-esteem and 2 levels of task involvement on performance on a word-sorting task. In Exp I, 48 male undergraduates completed an 8-min pretest and were told either that they had done poorly or acceptably. Ss then completed a 35-min real test under high or low involvement conditions (which stressed or did not stress the importance of the task). In Exp II, 60 undergraduates completed the same tests but only self-esteem was manipulated. A chronic self-esteem measure derived from a self-assurance scale, was administered to all Ss (see record 1969-03188-001 ). Results indicate increased productivity in the high involvement and high self-esteem conditions, suggesting that protection of self-concept effects occurred (i.e., performance will be increased); however, productivity was not decreased in the low conditions, indicating a failure of self-consistency effects to emerge. (18 ref) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)