| Summary: | Previous research has indicated that high self-esteem persons
persist more than low self-esteem persons after failure. A
study was conducted to test the hypothesis that this finding
would be reversed when people have the opportunity to pursue
alternate goals in the face of failure. After receiving
failure feedback, 120 subjects high and low in chronic self-esteem
worked under conditions in which they a) could persist
in the failed goal domain only, b) had the option of
persisting or pursuing a new goal, or c) had the option of
persisting or trying an alternate route to the failed goal.
The main dependent measure was the minutes subjects continued
to work on the original (failed) task. Contrary to
predictions, high and low self-esteem subjects persisted
equally in the failed goal domain, regardless of condition.
However, high self-esteem subjects did persist more than low
self-esteem subjects on the new task option, whether it
represented a new goal or an alternative route toward the
initial goal. Discussion centers on the interpretation of
this pattern of effects, as well as how the present results
point to the need for a more complex analysis of the self-esteem
persistence relationship.
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