Social identity theory as developed by Tajfel and Turner argues that there are two distinct aspects of the self-concept: personal identity and social identity (in American terminology, collective identity). Although many self-esteem measures are available in the literature, they allfocus on individuals'evaluation of their personal identity, whether in private or interpersonal domains. No scale currently exists that assesses the positivity of one's social, or collective, identity. A scale was constructed to assess individual differences in collective, rather than personal, self-esteem, with four subscales (Membership esteem, Public collective self-esteem, Private collective self-esteem, and Importance to Identity). Evidence for reliability and validity of the scale was provided by three studies, suggesting that the scale can be a useful research tool. Implications for research and social identity theory are discussed.

The Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale assesses 7 sources of self-esteem in college students: academics, appearance, approval from others, competition, family support, God's love, and virtue. In confirmatory factor analyses on data from 1,418 college students, a 7-factor model fit to the data acceptably well and significantly better than several plausible alternative models. The subscales all have high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, are distinct from other personality measures, and have a simplex structure arrayed on a continuum from external to internal sources of self-esteem. Contingencies of self-worth assessed prior to college predicted how students spent their time during their 1st year of college.

A total of 91 Black, 96 White, and 35 Asian college students completed the Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSES), as well as measures of psychological well-being (personal self-esteem, life satisfaction, depression, and hopelessness). Correlations between the Public and Private subscales of the CSES were near zero for Blacks, moderate for Whites, and strong for Asians. The membership and private subscales of the general CSES were related to psychological well-being, even when the effects of personal self-esteem on well-being were partialed out. However, when the three groups were examined separately, the relation of CSE to well-being with personal self-esteem partialed out was nonsignificant for Whites, small for Blacks, and moderate to strong for Asians. General and race-specific CSE were correlated for all three groups, although the correlations were strongest for Asians. Implications for symbolic interactionist views of the self-concept, for formulations of mental health, and for methodological issues concerning the CSES are discussed.

In addition to personal self-esteem, we propose that there is a second type of self-esteem, collective self-esteem. People who are high in trait collective self-esteem should be more likely to react to threats to collective self-esteem by derogating outgroups and enhancing the ingroup. In a study using the minimal intergroup paradigm, trait personal and collective self-esteem were measured, and subjects received information about the average performance of their group. Subjects high in collective self-esteem varied their ratings of above-average and below-average scorers on the test in an ingroup-enhancing fashion, whereas those low in collective self-esteem did not. Analyses based on personal self-esteem did not show this interactidh. We conclude that collective self-esteem is an individual difference variable that may moderate the attempt to maintain a positive social identity. The relation between collective and personal self-esteem is discussed.

Black Americans are far more likely than White Americans to endorse theories about conspiracies by the U.S. government against Blacks. The present study explored the predictors of these conspiracy beliefs for 91 Black and 96 White college students. Two explanations for belief in these conspiracies were considered, one focusing on political powerless and externality of attributions and the other focusing on system blame for Blacks’ disadvantaged status. Regression analyses supported the view that belief in these conspiracy theories is related to blaming problems of Black Americans on prejudice and discrimination. Race was a powerful predictor of belief in these conspiracies even when socioeconomic status was controlled. Furthermore, the race effect was partially mediated by the system blame measure but not by political powerlessness or greater externality of attributional style. System blame was a much stronger predictor of conspiracy beliefs for Black than for White students. Conspiracy beliefs were positively associated with the racial self-esteem of Black students and negatively for White students. Clinical implications and implications for intergroup relations are discussed.

James (1890/1950) argued that self-esteem fluctuates around a typical level in response to successes and failures in domains on which self-worth is staked. In a test of James’s hypothesis, 32 students applying to graduate school completed a measure of contingencies of self-worth, and then for 2 months reported global self-esteem twice a week and any day they heard from a graduate program. As predicted, participants who were higher in basing their self-esteem on academic competence showed greater increases in self-esteem on acceptance days and greater decreases in self-esteem on rejection days than participants low in this contingency of self-worth. Daily affect was significantly related to daily self-esteem, but this association was stronger for students who based their self-esteem on academic competence, suggesting that affect and self-esteem are more strongly related when events are relevant to one’s contingencies of self-worth. Implications for research on stability of self-esteem are considered.

The unique effects of level of self-esteem and contingencies of self-worth assessed prior to college on academic, social, and financial problems experienced during the freshman year were examined in a longitudinal study of 642 college students. Low self-esteem predicted social problems, even controlling for demographic and personality variables (neuroticism, agreeableness, and social desirability), but did not predict academic or financial problems with other variables controlled. Academic competence contingency predicted academic and financial problems and appearance contingency predicted financial problems, even after controlling for relevant personality variables. We conclude that contingencies of self-worth uniquely contribute to academic and financial difficulties experienced by college freshmen beyond level of self-esteem and other personality variables. Low self-esteem, on the other hand, appears to uniquely contribute to later social difficulties.

The unique effects of level of self-esteem, narcissism, and contingencies of self-worth assessed prior to college on alcohol use during the freshman year were examined in a longitudinal study of 620 college students. Narcissism predicted alcohol use, but level of self-esteem did not. Basing self-worth on appearance predicted more alcohol use, whereas the virtue, God's love, and academic competence contingencies predicted less alcohol use, independent of other personality measures and joining a sorority or a fraternity. Further, the virtue and academic competence contingencies were associated with decreases in alcohol use from the 1st to the 2nd semester.