This proposal is an application for an Independent Scientist Award for the PI, Jennifer Crocker, Ph.D. to enable her to focus her efforts on research on contingencies of self esteem (SE), and extend that work to test hypotheses about the role of SE in depression, SE and aging, and SE and culture. SE is a central aspect of mental health, and thousands of studies of SE have been published. Yet, several basic disagreements and confusions regarding the nature and functioning of SE remain unresolved. The PI's current R01 grant addresses these basic issues, as well as the role of contingencies of SE in vulnerability to stigma. The K02 award would enable the PI to extend this research to test the following hypothesis: 1) Contingencies of SE, in conjunction with relevant life events, pose a risk for depression mediated through instability of SE, and possibly increases in the stress hormone cortical. 2) Contingencies of SE become more internal, and possibly lower overall, across the lifespan, and this shift in contingencies of SE can account both for continuity of levels of SE across the lifespan, despite many losses associated with aging, and for increases in stability of SE with age. 3) Cultural differences in the direction as well as possibly the content of contingencies of SE can account for the relatively low average levels of SE in Asians and Asian-Americans.
| Breines, Juliana G; Crocker, Jennifer; Garcia, Julie A (2008) Self-objectification and well-being in women's daily lives. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 34:583-98 |
| Crocker, Jennifer; Brook, Amara T; Niiya, Yu et al. (2006) The pursuit of self-esteem: contingencies of self-worth and self-regulation. J Pers 74:1749-71 |
| Garcia, Julie A; Crocker, Jennifer; Wyman, Jean F et al. (2005) Breaking the cycle of stigmatization: managing the stigma of incontinence in social interactions. J Wound Ostomy Continence Nurs 32:38-52 |
| Sanchez, Diana T; Crocker, Jennifer; Boike, Karlee R (2005) Doing gender in the bedroom: investing in gender norms and the sexual experience. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 31:1445-55 |
| Luhtanen, Riia K; Crocker, Jennifer (2005) Alcohol use in college students: effects of level of self-esteem, narcissism, and contingencies of self-worth. Psychol Addict Behav 19:99-103 |
| Park, Lora E; Crocker, Jennifer; Mickelson, Kristin D (2004) Attachment styles and contingencies of self-worth. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 30:1243-54 |
| Crocker, Jennifer; Park, Lora E (2004) The costly pursuit of self-esteem. Psychol Bull 130:392-414 |
| Crocker, Jennifer; Nuer, Noah (2004) Do people need self-esteem? Comment on Pyszczynski et al. (2004). Psychol Bull 130:469-72; discussion 483-8 |
| Crocker, Jennifer; Luhtanen, Riia K (2003) Level of self-esteem and contingencies of self-worth: unique effects on academic, social, and financial problems in college students. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 29:701-12 |
| Crocker, Jennifer; Karpinski, Andrew; Quinn, Diane M et al. (2003) When grades determine self-worth: consequences of contingent self-worth for male and female engineering and psychology majors. J Pers Soc Psychol 85:507-16 |
