Which traits do determine our self-esteem? Recent research has shown that self-assessment concerning agentic traits like competence and assertiveness is a better predictor for global self-esteem than self-assessment of communal traits like friendliness and reliability. Given the facts that communal values are more appreciated in society than agentic values and that people judge their communal qualities to be higher than their agentic qualities, this finding is surprising.
Within this project we therefore investigate different explanatory approaches why communion showed little or no relationship with self-esteem in previous research and analyze if there are certain conditions under which communal traits are important for self-esteem.
Funding:
Third-party funding of the Special Fund for Scientific Work (FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg)
Leading Researcher:
Nicole Hauke
Student Degree Theses within the Project:
V. Probst: Differences in the definition of self-esteem between the actor and the observer perspective
K. Schug: How does objective self-awareness affect our self-esteem?