Department of Psychology.
Center for Research on Self and Identity.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2023 Mar;152(3):632-656. doi: 10.1037/xge0001286. Epub 2022 Sep 15.
Drawing together insights from two theories-hierometer theory and social rank theory-we investigated the links among social status, self-esteem, and emotion. Both theories address how individuals navigate social hierarchies. Both posit adaptive dynamics whereby a social input (status or rank) shapes one or more psychological mechanisms, which then regulate a behavioral output. However, they emphasize different psychological mechanisms. Whereas hierometer theory emphasizes self-regard-in particular, self-esteem-social rank theory emphasizes emotions-in particular, depression, anxiety, and shame. We tested hypotheses derived from these theories, examining the links among status, self-esteem, and these emotions, across six studies ( = 1,719). In Studies 1 and 2 (cross-sectional), status correlated positively with self-esteem, and negatively with depression, anxiety, and shame (but not guilt). Studies 3-6 established the causal pathways between these constructs for the first time. In Studies 3 and 4 (experimental), increasing status induced higher state self-esteem, and lower depression, anxiety, and shame (but not guilt). In Studies 5 and 6 (experimental), increasing self-esteem induced lower depression, anxiety, and shame. Finally, across studies, self-esteem statistically and causally mediated the links between status and depression, status and anxiety, as well as status and shame. Our research advances theoretical and empirical understanding of self-esteem and emotion as functional trackers of one's place in the social hierarchy. It points to self-esteem playing a more primary role as a tracker of status, helping to explicate how and why status is related to these clinically relevant emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
我们综合了hierometer 理论和社会等级理论的观点，研究了社会地位、自尊和情绪之间的联系。这两个理论都涉及到个体如何在社会等级制度中生存。它们都假设了适应性的动态过程，即社会输入（地位或等级）塑造了一个或多个心理机制，然后这些心理机制调节行为输出。然而，它们强调了不同的心理机制。hierometer 理论强调自我关注——特别是自尊，而社会等级理论强调情绪——特别是抑郁、焦虑和羞耻。我们检验了这些理论所提出的假设，在六个研究中（n=1719）考察了地位、自尊与这些情绪之间的联系。在研究 1 和研究 2（横断面研究）中，地位与自尊呈正相关，与抑郁、焦虑和羞耻（但不是内疚）呈负相关。研究 3-6 首次建立了这些结构之间的因果关系。在研究 3 和研究 4（实验研究）中，提高地位会导致更高的状态自尊和更低的抑郁、焦虑和羞耻（但不是内疚）。在研究 5 和研究 6（实验研究）中，提高自尊会导致更低的抑郁、焦虑和羞耻。最后，在所有研究中，自尊在地位与抑郁、地位与焦虑以及地位与羞耻之间的关系中起到了统计和因果中介作用。我们的研究推进了自尊和情绪作为个体在社会等级制度中地位的功能追踪器的理论和实证理解。它指出，自尊在作为地位的追踪器方面发挥着更主要的作用，有助于解释地位与这些临床相关情绪之间的关系是如何以及为什么存在的。
