The Tell-Tale Heart: Self-Esteem and Physiological Responses to Social Risk

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dc.contributor.authorHuang, Eric
dc.contributor.supervisorStinson, Danu
dc.date.accessioned2013-09-03T20:10:43Z
dc.date.available2014-08-10T11:22:05Z
dc.date.copyright2013en_US
dc.date.issued2013-09-03
dc.degree.departmentDept. of Psychologyen_US
dc.degree.levelMaster of Science M.Sc.en_US
dc.description.abstractRisky social situations afford the chance to obtain social rewards like acceptance and belonging but also afford the chance of suffering social costs like rejection and social pain. Extant research indicates that social risk triggers approach motivations in higher self-esteem individuals (HSEs) but produces avoidance motivations in lower self-esteem individuals (LSEs; e.g., Stinson et al., 2010). However, no research has investigated the mechanisms that explain this effect: Why does social risk polarize HSEs’ and LSEs’ social motivations? I propose that self-esteem and social risk interact to activate two primal regulatory systems: the challenge-threat evaluation system and the Behavioral Activation-Inhibition Systems. I test this hypothesis by examining whether self-esteem and social risk interact to predict physiological responses consistent with these primal regulatory systems. Participants experienced either a low or high risk social situation, and heart rate reactivity was measured throughout the studies. Across two experiments, for HSEs (i.e., participants scoring one standard deviation above the sample mean), higher social risk increased heart rate reactivity, suggesting activation of challenge appraisals and the behavior activation system. For LSEs (i.e., participants scoring one standard deviation below the sample mean), higher social risk decreased heart rate reactivity, suggesting activation of threat appraisals and the behavior inhibition system. My research provides evidence that the social regulatory function of self-esteem may have developed from more primal regulatory systems, an observation that increases the comprehensiveness of current self-esteem theories.en_US
dc.description.proquestcode0451en_US
dc.description.proquestcode0989en_US
dc.description.proquestcode0621en_US
dc.description.proquestemailhuange@uvic.caen_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/4898
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rights.tempAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectrewardsen_US
dc.subjectcostsen_US
dc.subjectsocial painen_US
dc.subjectchallengeen_US
dc.subjectthreaten_US
dc.subjectbehavioren_US
dc.subjectactivationen_US
dc.subjectinhibitionen_US
dc.subjectheart rateen_US
dc.subjectreactivityen_US
dc.subjectsociometeren_US
dc.subjectacceptanceen_US
dc.subjectrejectionen_US
dc.subjectbelongingen_US
dc.subjectmotivationen_US
dc.subjectself-regulationen_US
dc.titleThe Tell-Tale Heart: Self-Esteem and Physiological Responses to Social Risken_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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