Daily fluctuations in social status, self-esteem, and clinically relevant emotions: testing hierometer theory and social rank theory at a within-person level
Daily fluctuations in social status, self-esteem, and clinically relevant emotions: testing hierometer theory and social rank theory at a within-person level
Introduction: Grounded in hierometer theory and social rank theory, this research examined how within-person fluctuations in social status relate to within-person fluctuations in self-esteem and several clinically relevant emotions. Both hierometer theory and social rank theory postulate that particular psychological mechanisms help individuals to navigate social hierarchies adaptively. However, hierometer theory emphasizes self-esteem, whereas social rank theory emphasizes emotions—specifically, depression, anxiety, and shame.
Methods: We conducted a 10-day diary study and analyzed the data using multilevel modeling. Participants (N=345) completed daily measures of their status, self-esteem, depression, anxiety, shame, and guilt.
Results: On days when their status was higher, participants reported higher self-esteem and lower depression, anxiety, and shame. On days when their self-esteem was higher, participants reported lower depression, anxiety, and shame. These patterns persisted after controlling for baseline individual differences. Furthermore, multilevel mediation analyses indicated that daily self-esteem mediated the links between daily status, and, individually, daily depression, anxiety, and shame, but not guilt.
Conclusions: Supporting hierometer theory and social rank theory, self-esteem and the clinically relevant emotions (except for guilt) appear to serve a status-tracking function. Self-esteem plays a more primary role, accounting for the link between status, and depression, anxiety, and shame.
emotion, hierometer theory, self-esteem, social rank theory, social status, status
519-536
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Gregg, Aiden
1b03bb58-b3a5-4852-a177-29e4f633b063
2 April 2023
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Gregg, Aiden
1b03bb58-b3a5-4852-a177-29e4f633b063
Sedikides, Constantine and Gregg, Aiden
(2023)
Daily fluctuations in social status, self-esteem, and clinically relevant emotions: testing hierometer theory and social rank theory at a within-person level.
Journal of Personality, 91 (2), .
(doi:10.1111/jopy.12752).
Abstract
Introduction: Grounded in hierometer theory and social rank theory, this research examined how within-person fluctuations in social status relate to within-person fluctuations in self-esteem and several clinically relevant emotions. Both hierometer theory and social rank theory postulate that particular psychological mechanisms help individuals to navigate social hierarchies adaptively. However, hierometer theory emphasizes self-esteem, whereas social rank theory emphasizes emotions—specifically, depression, anxiety, and shame.
Methods: We conducted a 10-day diary study and analyzed the data using multilevel modeling. Participants (N=345) completed daily measures of their status, self-esteem, depression, anxiety, shame, and guilt.
Results: On days when their status was higher, participants reported higher self-esteem and lower depression, anxiety, and shame. On days when their self-esteem was higher, participants reported lower depression, anxiety, and shame. These patterns persisted after controlling for baseline individual differences. Furthermore, multilevel mediation analyses indicated that daily self-esteem mediated the links between daily status, and, individually, daily depression, anxiety, and shame, but not guilt.
Conclusions: Supporting hierometer theory and social rank theory, self-esteem and the clinically relevant emotions (except for guilt) appear to serve a status-tracking function. Self-esteem plays a more primary role, accounting for the link between status, and depression, anxiety, and shame.
Text
Mahadevan et al., 2022, JOPY
- Accepted Manuscript
Text
Journal of Personality - 2022 - Mahadevan - Daily fluctuations in social status self‐esteem and clinically relevant
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 30 June 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 August 2022
Published date: 2 April 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
We would like to thank Wijnand van Tilburg and the anonymous reviewers, whose thoughtful comments and suggestions significantly improved the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
Keywords:
emotion, hierometer theory, self-esteem, social rank theory, social status, status
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 468691
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/468691
ISSN: 0022-3506
PURE UUID: 2a2f11db-978d-4fcc-a5ed-ee8550675302
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Date deposited: 23 Aug 2022 16:40
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:49
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