Presenting Different Selves to Different People: Self-Presentation as a Function of Relationship Type and Contingent Self-Esteem

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Past work has established a connection between self-esteem and self-presentation; however, research has not explored how self-esteem that is contingent on one's relationship may influence self-presentational tactics in that relationship. Across two studies, undergraduate students reported on the extent to which their self-esteem depended on their friendship and romantic relationship, as well as the extent to which they engaged in self-presentation behaviors in those relationships. The results suggest that relationship-specific contingent self-esteem predicts relationship-specific self-presentation; however, friendship-contingent self-esteem predicted self-presentation in both friendships and romantic relationships. These results suggest that individuals are keenly and differentially attuned to qualitatively different relationships, and when perceiving potential problems, they attempt to remedy those through their self-presentations. Furthermore, results indicate the possibility that self-esteem tied to a particular relationship may not be as important as self-esteem based more generally on one's relationships.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of General Psychology
Volume142
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)213-237
Number of pages25
ISSN0022-1309
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Oct 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

    Research areas

  • friends, friendship-contingent self-esteem, relationship-contingent self-esteem, romantic partners, self-presentation

ID: 347752432