Easier When Done Than Said!
Implicit Self-Esteem Predicts Observed or Spontaneous Behavior, but Not Self-Reported or Controlled Behavior
Abstract
Evidence for the criterion validity of indirect self-esteem measures is still limited, with only some studies finding effects of implicit (ISE) independent of explicit (ESE) self-esteem. This may be due to the fact that studies predicting actual behavior are particularly rare. The present study contributes evidence to the predictive validity of the Implicit Association Test and a recently developed self-judgment task under cognitive load. We used criteria beyond self-report: experimenter ratings of anxiety, linguistic aspects of anxiety, and spontaneous self-confident behaviors. Using paired criteria, we tested a double dissociation of ISE and ESE. Results supported our hypothesis: ISE predicted self-confident behaviors or aspects of anxiety that ESE was not able to predict, and vice versa. Thus, differential predictive validity of both measures of self-esteem was demonstrated. With behavioral criteria that tapped into impulsive processes, ISE was a better predictor than ESE was.
References
(2002). Double dissociation between implicit and explicit personality self-concept: The case of shy behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 380–393.
(1998). The self. In , The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 1). New York: McGraw-Hill.
(2007). Psychology as the science of self-reports and finger-movements. Whatever happened to actual behavior? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 396–403.
(1989). Trierer Persönlichkeitsfragebogen (TPF) [
Trier personality inventory ]. Göttingen: Hogrefe.(2000). Stalking the perfect measure of implicit self-esteem: The blind men and the elephant revisited?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 631–643.
(2005). Implicit self-attitudes predict spontaneous affect in daily life. Emotion, 5, 476–488.
(2006). What are implicit measures and why are we using them? In , Handbook of implicit cognition and addiction (pp. 11–28). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(1992). Nonverbal behavior and self-presentation. Psychological Bulletin, 111, 203–243.
(2002). Predictive validity of an Implicit Association Test for assessing anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1441–1455.
(1969). The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage and coding. Semiotica, 1, 49–98.
(2008). Personality as manifest in word use: Correlations with self-report, acquaintance report, and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 334–346.
(1995). Variability in automatic activation as an unobtrusive measure of racial attitudes: A bona fide pipeline?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1013–1027.
(2008). When and why do implicit measures predict behavior? Empirical evidence for the moderating role of opportunity, motivation, and process reliance. European Review of Social Psychology, 19, 285–338.
(2001). Personality. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 197–221.
(2000). Using the Implicit Association Test to measure self-esteem and self-concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 1022–1038.
(2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York: Guilford.
(2008). What sources contribute to variance in observer ratings? Using generalizability theory to assess construct validity of psychological measures. Infant & Child Development, 17, 269–284.
(2003). Individual differences in self-esteem: A review and theoretical integration. In , Handbook of self and identity (pp. 3–14). New York: Guilford.
(1968). Personality and assessment. New York: Wiley.
(2001). Linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC): LIWC 2001. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
(2009). Loving oneself deep inside: Implicit self-esteem is higher than explicit self-esteem. Manuscript submitted for publication.
(2008). Through a glass, less darkly? Reassessing convergent and discriminant validity in measures of implicit self-esteem. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 24, 273–281.
(2007). High implicit self-esteem is not necessarily advantageous: Discrepancies between explicit and implicit self-esteem and their relationship with anger expression and psychological health. European Journal of Personality, 21, 319–339.
(2007). Self-esteem discrepancies and defensive reactions to social feedback. International Journal of Psychology, 42, 174–183.
(2006). Die Multidimensionale Selbstwertskala (MSWS) [
The multidimensional self-esteem scale ] Göttingen: Hogrefe.(1999). Unconscious unease and self-handicapping: Behavioral consequences of individual differences in implicit and explicit self-esteem. Psychological Science, 10, 535–539.
(2006). Predicting spontaneous Big Five behavior with Implicit Association Tests. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 22, 13–20.
(2004). Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 220–247.
(2008). Knowing me, knowing you: The accuracy and unique predictive validity of self-ratings and other-ratings of daily behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1202–1216.
(2008). Computergestützte quantitative Textanalyse. Äquivalenz und Robustheit der deutschen Version des Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count [
Computer-aided quantitative text analysis: Equivalence and reliability of the German adaptation of the linguistic inquiry and word count ] Diagnostica, 54, 85–98.
