Making sense of misfortune: Deservingness, self-esteem, and patterns of self-defeat.

Abstract

Drawing on theorizing and research suggesting that people are motivated to view their world as an orderly and predictable place in which people get what they deserve, the authors proposed that (a) random and uncontrollable bad outcomes will lower self-esteem and (b) this, in turn, will lead to the adoption of self-defeating beliefs and behaviors. Four experiments demonstrated that participants who experienced or recalled bad (vs. good) breaks devalued their self-esteem (Studies 1a and 1b), and that decrements in self-esteem (whether arrived at through misfortune or failure experience) increase beliefs about deserving bad outcomes (Studies 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b). Five studies (Studies 3–7) extended these findings by showing that this, in turn, can engender a wide array of self-defeating beliefs and behaviors, including claimed self-handicapping ahead of an ability test (Study 3), the preference for others to view the self less favorably (Studies 4–5), chronic self-handicapping and thoughts of physical self-harm (Study 6), and choosing to receive negative feedback during an ability test (Study 7). The current findings highlight the important role that concerns about deservingness play in the link between lower self-esteem and patterns of self-defeating beliefs and behaviors. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Getting “Just Deserts” or Seeing the “Silver Lining”: The Relation between Judgments of Immanent and Ultimate Justice

“…[48]. In a similar vein, Callan and colleagues found that individuals who held stronger beliefs that they deserved bad outcomes engaged in more self-defeating behaviors, including self-handicapping, wanting close others to evaluate them negatively, and seeking negative feedback about their performance during an intelligence test [22]. On the other hand, adopting the belief that one deserves a fulfilling and meaningful life in the future may lead to greater general well-being in the face of illness cf.…”

Derogating Innocent Victims: The Effects of Relative Versus Absolute Character Judgments

“…Specifically, participants read several scenarios that described otherwise "neutral" people either being the beneficiaries of a fortuitous positive outcome (low justworld threat; cf. Callan, Kay, & Dawtry, 2014;Lerner, 1965), or the victims of a fortuitous negative outcome (high just-world threat), and rated the target persons in both relative and absolute terms. This design allowed us to examine whether the interactions observed in Studies 2a and 2b could be replicated in contexts where the person's conduct was not objectively tied to his or her outcome (unlike the "non-innocent" James, who brought about his own suffering by jaywalking).…”

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“…Кроме того, метаиндивидуальная модель деструктивности обеспечивает концептуальные предпосылки (конструктную валидность) для создания нового (многофакторного) инструмента измерения деструкции. (Baumeister, Scher, 1988), негативное мнение о себе (Lundh et al, 2007;Renaud, McConnell, 2007), заслуженное самонаказание (Callan et al, 2014), ментальное поражение, утрата самоидентичности (Ehlers et al, 1998(Ehlers et al, , 2000, бессилие (Frederick, 1986;Herman, 1992), склонность личности испытывать неприязнь и быть придирчивой к себе, бояться успеха и счастья (Hyler, Rieder, 1987) Обладание Власть над людьми Стремление к превосходству, вмешательство, давление…”