Secure Versus Fragile High Self‐Esteem as a Predictor of Verbal Defensiveness: Converging Findings Across Three Different Markers

2008/04/28 by Michael H. Kernis, Chad E. Lakey, Whitney L. Heppner · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Personality Traits and Psychology #Cultural Differences and Values #Psychology #Self-esteem #Feeling #Developmental psychology #Nonverbal communication #Possession (linguistics) #Social psychology

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00493.x

openalex publication_date 2008/04/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/07

Abstract

Why is it that many individuals verbally rationalize and distort self-esteem threatening information? We examined whether such verbal defensiveness (Feldman Barrett, Williams, & Fong, 2002) differs as a function of whether individuals' high self-esteem is secure or fragile. Our findings indicated that individuals whose self-esteem was stable, not contingent, or congruent with high implicit self-esteem exhibited especially low amounts of verbal defensiveness. In contrast, verbal defensiveness was considerably higher when individuals' high self-esteem was unstable, contingent, or paired with discrepant low implicit self-esteem. Discussion centers on why the possession of well-anchored and secure high self-esteem obviates defensiveness directed toward enhancing, maintaining, or bolstering feelings of self-worth.

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Cited by

• Name-letter effect [wikipedia]