Top down or bottom up?
- 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, parallelClassical 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.…
Author details: | Katrin RentzschORCiDGND, Michela Schröder-AbéORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000393 |
ISSN: | 0022-3514 |
ISSN: | 1939-1315 |
Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34542309 |
Title of parent work (English): | Journal of personality and social psychology / American Psychological Association |
Subtitle (English): | evidence from the longitudinal development of global and domain-specific self-esteem in adulthood |
Publisher: | American Psychological Association |
Place of publishing: | Washington |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2022/09/10 |
Publication year: | 2022 |
Release date: | 2023/03/16 |
Tag: | adulthood; domain-specific; self-esteem; stability; top-down and bottom-up |
Volume: | 122 |
Issue: | 4 |
Number of pages: | 17 |
First page: | 714 |
Last Page: | 730 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Psychologie |
DDC classification: | 1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie |
3 Sozialwissenschaften / 39 Bräuche, Etikette, Folklore / 390 Bräuche, Etikette, Folklore | |
Peer review: | Referiert |