Citation

Perez M, Pettit JW, David CF, Kistner JA, Joiner TE. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 2001; 69(4): 712-716.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee 32306-1270, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, American Psychological Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11550738

Abstract

This study tested R. F. Baumeister, L. Smart, and J. M. Boden's (1996) theory of inflated self-esteem with an inpatient psychiatric youth sample. Participants were assessed on their self-reported self-esteem, self-reported interpersonal problems, and peer rejection (measured by evaluations from 3 or 4 peers). Consistent with the hypotheses, those with low self-esteem reported the most interpersonal problems, followed consecutively by the moderate self-esteem group and then the high self-esteem group, who reported the fewest interpersonal problems. Also in line with the hypotheses, those with low and high self-esteem were rejected by their peers when compared with the moderate self-esteem group. Thus, the high self-esteem group was rejected by their peers but did not themselves report interpersonal problems. These findings provide further support for Baumeister et al.'s theory and generalize the theory to a clinical setting.

Language: en