2005/09/07 by Michael H. Kernis · 5 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Personality Traits and Psychology #Cultural Differences and Values #Social and Intergroup Psychology
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00359.x
In this article, I report on a research program that has focused on the joint roles of stability and level of self-esteem in various aspects of psychological functioning. Stability of self-esteem refers to the magnitude of short-term fluctuations that people experience in their current, contextually based feelings of self-worth. In contrast, level of self-esteem refers to representations of people's general, or typical, feelings of self-worth. A considerable amount of research reveals that self-esteem stability has predictive value beyond the predictive value of self-esteem level. Moreover, considering self-esteem stability provides one way to distinguish fragile from secure forms of high self-esteem. Results from a number of studies are presented and theoretical implications are discussed.