Social acceptance and self-esteem: Tuning the sociometer to interpersonal value.

Abstract

The authors draw on sociometer theory to propose that self-esteem is attuned to traits that garner others' acceptance, and the traits that garner acceptance depend on one's social role. Attunement of self-esteem refers to the linkage, or connection, between self-esteem and specific traits, which may be observed most clearly in the association between self-esteem and specific self-evaluations. In most roles, appearance and popularity determine acceptance, so self-esteem is most attuned to those traits. At the same time, interdependent social roles emphasize the value of communal qualities, so occupants of those roles have self-esteem that is more attuned to communal qualities than is the general norm. To avoid the biases of people's personal theories, the authors assessed attunement of self-esteem to particular traits indirectly via the correlation between self-esteem and self-ratings, cognitive accessibility measures, and an experiment involving social decision making. As hypothesized, self-esteem was generally more attuned to appearances than to communal qualities, but interdependent social roles predicted heightened attunement of self-esteem to qualities like kindness and understanding.

All you need is love: Is the sociometer especially sensitive to one's mating capacity?

“…Trait self-esteem and state self-esteem are both aspects of the sociometer. Whereas state self-esteem provides momentary information about how well one is doing as a mate, trait self-esteem may be a more stable representation of one's relational potential over time, being determined by one's past experiences of inclusion and rejection, and by one's presumed standing on and perceived importance of socially desirable traits such as physical attractiveness or social status (Anthony et al, 2007;Leary & Baumeister, 2000;MacDonald, Saltzman, & Leary, 2003). Fluctuations in state self-esteem may occur around individually different, more stable levels of trait self-esteem (Leary, Haupt, et al, 1998), so that the effect of capacity rejection on state self-esteem would be much lower for participants high on trait self-esteem.…”

“…What will have a stronger impact on self-esteem, the mate rejection or the friend rejection? Here, the context and the salient roles might be important, as suggested by Kirkpatrick & Ellis (2001) and by Anthony et al (2007). However, what if one's general capacity to attract a mate was in doubt versus one's general capacity to attract friends?…”

“…Relationship status is likely to affect the workings of the sociometer when we deal with relational rejection (e.g., Anthony et al, 2007). have also shown that-at least for men-relationship status affects the strength of the correlation between self-reported mate value and self-esteem.…”

“…It has also been suggested that from an evolutionary point of view different relationships pose different adaptive problems, so that multiple sociometers should monitor inclusion in functionally distinct relationships (Kirkpatrick & Ellis, 2001;Kirkpatrick, Waugh, Valencia, & Webster, 2002). It has furthermore been suggested that there is an attunement of self-esteem to specific traits depending on the salient social role (Anthony, Holmes, & Wood, 2007): Specifically, for people currently in a romantic relationship, self-esteem was defined more by possessing communal qualities such as kindness and understanding, whereas for people currently not in a romantic relationship, self-esteem was more attuned to social commodities such as appearance or social status.…”

Self-esteem reactions to social interactions: Evidence for sociometer mechanisms across days, people, and nations.

“…These fluctuations have been shown to occur around relatively stable baseline levels of SE, which differ among people (i.e., trait SE). According to Leary and Baumeister (2000), this baseline feeling is partly determined by past experiences of being rejected or included, and also by people's potential for social inclusion by means of their standing on socially desirable traits, such as physical attractiveness or intelligence (Anthony, Holmes, & Wood, 2007).…”