Self-esteem and emotion: Some thoughts about feelings

Self-esteem has been linked to a diverse array of positive and negative aff ective states. The present research explored the nature of these relationsh ips. Study 1 found that self-esteem (as measured by the Rosenberg Self-Este em Scale) is more closely associated with self-relevant emotional states th an with emotional states that do not directly implicate the self. Study 2 r eplicated these findings and found that although several personality variab les predicted participants' emotional reactions to success and failure, the se effects were eliminated once self-esteem was taken into account. study 3 found that self-esteem predicted participants' self-relevant emotional rea ctions to failure but not their non-self-relevant emotional reactions. Thes e findings provide converging evidence that self-esteem is most closely lin ked to a particular class of emotions that pertain to how people feel about themselves.