(provided by candidate): Psychologists have reached a broad consensus that self-esteem plays a major role in people's quality of lite and well-being. In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of why certain individuals have high self-esteem and others do not, it is necessary to understand the various factors that contribute to people's overall evaluations of themselves. Although the self-esteem literature suggests a generally positive relation between self-esteem and achievement pride, recent research has demonstrated that the relation between self-esteem and achievement pride actually depends an individual's type of achievement pride. Individuals who have high promotion pride (i.e., pride in their subjective history of successfully attaining positive outcomes) express high self-esteem, whereas there is no relation between self-esteem and prevention pride (i.e., pride in one's subjective history of successfully avoiding negative outcomes). The present proposal suggests that using the strategy best suited for each type of self-regulation (eagerness for promotion and vigilance for prevention) increases the chances of self-regulatory success and that feedback maintains or enhances these strategic orientations. Conceptualizing self-esteem as a form of internal feedback, the present proposal suggests that high achieving individuals alter their expressions of these evaluations of themselves such that their optimal strategic state is maintained. Specifically, we hypothesize that high promotion pride individuals will express having relatively higher levels of self-esteem such that their eager state is maintained. In contrast, we hypothesize that prevention pride individuals will express having relatively lower levels of self-esteem such that their vigilant state is maintained. On a theoretical level, this research would extend the current understanding. of self-esteem's functions. On an applied level, this research would suggest that the beneficial role of high self-esteem advocated by psychologists and educators needs to be reconsidered in terms of an individual's achievement pride and tile strategic orientation that is best suited for him or her to self-regulate effectively.
