Heterogeneous High Self-Esteem And The Electrophysiological Correlates Of Self-Esteem

Although high self-esteem(SE) is typically viewed as an indicator of psychological health,some individuals possess positive self-views that are secure and confidently held, whereas others possess positive self-views that are fragile and vulnerable to threat, leading them to zealously promote and protect their esteem.In others words,there is heterogeneity of high self-esteem.Although there were many descriptions and researchs about heterogeneous high SE,there was no system research about the cognitive and behavioral difference between heterogeneous high SE.The current reseach distinguished high explict SE participants on implicit SE;therefore,there were high explict high implict SE participants and high explicit low implict SE participants.Previous research proved that the P300 arose when higher-order cognitive operations related to selective attention and resource allocation are engaged.It was found that the P300 was as an index of attention to self-relevant stimuli(Gray,Ambady, Lowenthal,& Deldin,2004).Compared to control stimuli,the P300 was augment for self-relevant stimuli.Based on the previous research,the event-related potentials(ERP) was used to seek out the neural basis of explicit SE and implict SE.In experiment 1,263 university students finished Rosenberg scale,implict association test,and the Social Respective scale.The results showed that participants who got high score in Rosenberg scale were also got the high score in Social Respective scale.The homogeneity between heterogeneous high SE was that they want to get high respect from society.It is the reasons that heterogeneous high SE participants got the high score in Rosenberg scale and in Socal Respective Scale.249 university students finished Rosenberg scale,implicit association test,and memory test in experiment 2.In the memory test,participants first viewed a series of evaluative information about themselves.Recognition memory for the information was later tested.The results showed that low explicit self-esteem individuals remembered more negative information than high explicit self-esteem individuals.Fer the recall of positive information,there was no difference between high explicit self-esteem and low explicit self-esteem.There was also no difference between high implicit self-esteem and low implicit self-esteem individuals in their recall of positive and negative information.Relevance model hypothesized that those who were low in self-competence/self-liking tend to be preoccupied with their inability and lack of success.They were therefore quicker than those high in self-competence/self-liking at identifying information suggestive of failure or inefficacy.It was also showed that memory test was an explicit method which was not an appropriate way to distinguish implicit difference.263 university students finished Rosenberg scale,implicit association test,and blackjack gambling game in experiment 3.In blackjack gambling game,all participants were inclined to have defensive ability when the risk was high.The interaction of explicit SE and implicit SE was significant.High explicit but low implicit SE were more associated with defensive than high explicit and high implicit SE.Low implicit but high explicit SE were more associated with defensive than low implicit and low explicit SE.High explicit and implicit SE person have positive self-concept both in conscious and in non-conscious;High self-esteem in conscious coupled with low self-esteem in non-conscious is fragile and so may relate to self-protective and self-aggrandizing strategies.This research provided new experimental evidence to the heterogeneity of high self-esteem.The scale in previous research was not suit for the requirement of event-related potentials techonology.In experiment 4,180 colleague students used four kinds of words to evaluate themselves,positive others and negative others.The words which were used for evaluation were:positive-affirmation,negative-denial,neuter-affirmation and neuter-denial.They also finished Rosenberg self-esteem scale which was used for validity evaluation.The results showed that(1)when participants used positive or negative words to evaluated themselves was consistency with Rosenberg scale;(2) when participants evaluated negative others,they had different opinions,therefore,we deleted negative others evaluation.We used positive others evaluation as a baseline. Event-related brain potentials(ERPs) were measured when 11 healthy participants finished explicit self-esteem test in experiment 5.Results showed that the amplitude of P300 was more positive in posterior scalp when subjects evaluated self based on negative,correlative,and denial adjectives than neutral,denial adjectives.It indicated that P300 was an index of attention to self-relevant stimuli.The results also showed that the amplitude of P300 was more positive in middle scalp in self-evaluation condition than other-evaluation condition based on negative correlative adjectives.The results indicated that P300 was related to emotional value of stimuli.Event-reiated brain potentials(ERPs) were measured when the participants finished the implicit association test(IAT) for implicit self-esteem in experiment 6.The implicit association test(IAT) is a general-purpose procedure for measuring the strengths of automatic association between concepts(Greenwald et al.,1998).The self-esteem IAT is a computerized categorization task that measures automatic associations of self-relevant and non-self-relevant words with positive-meaning and negative-meaning words.During the task,participants press corresponding keys to categorize target words that appear at the center of the computer screen.Each target word is selected from the self or non-self lists or from lists of positive(e.g.,smart) or negative(e.g.,foolish) words.In a congruent condition,self and positive target words are selected by pressing the same key,whereas other and negative target words are selected by pressing another key.In an incongruent condition,self and negative target words are selected by pressing the same key,whereas other and positive target words are selected by pressing another key.The automatic association between concepts is measured by observing the difference in speed between a condition in which self and positive-meaning words shared the same response key and a condition in which self and negative-meaning words shared the same response key.Robust behavioral data indicated that the participants responded relatively rapidly in the congruent condition when associating self with positive items,supporting the hypothesis that most people have a positive attitude toward self.Scalp event-related brain potentials analysis revealed that self items in the congruent condition elicited a more positive ERP deflection than those in the incongruent condition between 350 and 450 ms after the onset of the self items(P300). P300 has been shown to be an index of attention to self-relevant.From the experiments above,the following conclusions are put forward:The homogeneity between heterogeneous high SE was that they want to get high respect from society.The risky decision making is an implicit method which was approptriate to distinguish implict difference between heterogeneous high SE participants.The P300 component was elicited both in explict SE and implict SE,which has been shown to be an index of attention to self-relevant.