Low self-esteem, induced failure and the adrenocortical stress response

The present study investigated the association between self-esteem and free cortisol stress responses with regard to experimentally induced success or failure. 52 subjects (29 women and 23 men, mean age 22.9 +/- 2.8 years) we re exposed to a computer-generated mental stressor consisting of arithmetic tasks to be calculated under time pressure. For one half of the subjects, the computer produced tasks which were easy to solve (success condition), t he other half was confronted with a significantly higher level of difficult y (failure condition). Testing was performed in groups of ten subjects at a time in the same room. After each of three sets of arithmetic tasks, indiv iduals had to report their outcome in front of the group. Results indicate that test difficulty had a profound impact on the performa nce of the subjects. More important, subjects' performance covaried with hi s/her self-esteem, i.e. persons scoring high in self-esteem achieved better results in the mental arithmetics than their counterparts in the same cond ition. Moreover, there was a significant negative correlation between the f ree cortisol response to this stress task and self-esteem in the 'failure' condition (r = -47, p = 0.01), however not in the 'success' condition (r = -0.26; p = 0.20). These results suggest that self-esteem is affecting the endocrine stress re sponse. Furthermore, they indicate that the impact of this personality char acteristic on the human cortisol stress response is also situation dependen t. Inclusion of success and failure conditions turned out to be a crucial f actor for revealing the role of self-esteem in endocrine stress responses. Future study designs should therefore include those variables, or assess su bjective perception of success and failure, when investigating the role of personality differences in stress responses. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.