@article{RentzschSchroederAbe2022,
  author    = {Rentzsch, Katrin and Schr{\"o}der-Ab{\´e}, Michela},
  title     = {Top down or bottom up?},
  series = {Journal of personality and social psychology / American Psychological Association},
  volume    = {122},
  journal   = {Journal of personality and social psychology / American Psychological Association},
  number    = {4},
  publisher = {American Psychological Association},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {0022-3514},
  doi       = {10.1037/pspp0000393},
  pages     = {714 -- 730},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Classical theoretical perspectives have implied that either global self-esteem has an impact on domain-specific self-esteem (top-down) or domain-specific self-esteem affects global self-esteem (bottom-up). The goal of the present research was to investigate whether classical top-down and bottom-up approaches could withstand a thorough test. To do so, we applied elaborate analytical methods in a four-wave longitudinal study across 6 years with preregistered hypotheses and data analyses. We analyzed data from N = 1,417 German participants (30.6\% men, median of 12 to 13 years of education) with an average age of 47.0 years (SD = 12.4, range 18 to 88) at intake. Analyses using latent variable approaches for modeling intraindividual change provided evidence of top-down effects only. For example, participants with higher global self-esteem exhibited an increase in performance self-esteem but not vice versa. Our results also provided evidence of "vertical" associations between global and domain-specific self-esteem, that is, parallel development within the same time frame. In addition, the analyses revealed high rank order stability and a substantial trait component in global self-esteem and the self-esteem domains. The present findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the stability and development of self-esteem in adulthood and advance the understanding of global and domain-specific self-esteem in personality theory.},
  language  = {en}
}