IPreparation of this review was supported by National Science Foundation Grant BNS 76-20490. We are indebted to Masao Ohashi for his help in the early stages, to Cynthia Seaman for careful preparation of the manuscript, and to Bernard Weiner and Scott Wimer for comments on an earlier draft.

Associations between psychosocialjob characteristics and past myocardial infarction (MI) prevalence for employed males were tested with the Health Examination Survey (HES) 1960-61, N = 2,409, and the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES) 1971-75, N = 2,424.

Five studies examined the hypotheses that when people experience positive affect, those low in self-esteem are especially likely to dampen that affect, whereas those high in self-esteem are especially likely to savor it. Undergraduate participants' memories for a positive event (Study 1) and their reported reactions to a success (Study 2) supported the dampening prediction. Results also suggest that dampening was associated with worse mood the day after a success (Study 2), that positive and negative affect regulation are distinct, that self-esteem is associated with affect regulation even when Neuroticism and Extraversion are controlled (Studies 3 and 4), and that self-esteem may be especially important for certain types of positive events and positive affect regulation (Study 5).

People with low self-esteem (LSE) seem to focus on self-protection; rather than trying to achieve gains for their self-esteem, they try to avoid losses. This research examined, in a social comparison context, the hypothesis that LSE Ss seek self-enhancement when they have an opportunity that is "safe," that is, carrying little risk of humiliation. Exps 1 and 2 indicated that LSE Ss sought the most social comparisons after receiving success feedback, whereas high-self-esteem (HSE) Ss sought the most comparisons after failure. Further results suggested that LSE Ss who succeeded were seizing a safe means of self-enhancement and that HSE Ss who failed were seeking to compensate for the failure. Also supporting this interpretation for LSE Ss was Exp 3, in which LSE Ss who succeeded sought the most comparisons when such comparisons promised to be favorable. All 3 studies illustrate the value of a new measure of social comparison selection.

No abstract