Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Teale, Nadia E
URN	etd-06302010-130145
Title	Self-Verification and Self-Aggression: The Negative Consequences of Receiving Positive Feedback
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Department	Psychology, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Thomas Joiner Committee Chair Jeanette Taylor Committee Member Jon Maner Committee Member Natalie Sachs-Ericsson Committee Member Mark Winegardner University Representative
Keywords	Self-Verification Self-Aggression
Date of Defense	2010-06-29
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Multiple studies of Self-Verification Theory (e.g. Swann, 1983) have documented people’s tendency to seek out information consistent with strongly held self-views, even when negative. An aspect of self-verification that has received less attention concerns the ways in which people with low self-esteem respond to ambivalence associated with receiving positive (i.e. self-disconfirming) feedback. Preliminary evidence suggests that individuals with low self-esteem who receive positive feedback will take the first opportunity to re-assert negative self-views, though the means by which people may re-assert negative self-views have not been well elaborated. The present study sought to determine whether participants with low self-esteem (relative to those with high self-esteem) who undergo a threat to their self-views would utilize a laboratory analogue of self-aggression to re-assert negative self-views. Though findings did not conform to expectations, a pattern of findings arose suggesting a self-esteem by rejection sensitivity interaction as a predictor of higher self-aggression. Theoretical implications for this and other secondary findings are discussed.
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