The self and social conduct: Linking self-representations to prosocial behavior.

Abstract

Two studies examined how situational variables and personal factors affect peoples ' immediate representations of self and how, once activated, these representations guide behavior. In Study 1, Ss with high self-esteem (HSE) and Ss with low self-esteem (LSE) first experienced success or failure at an alleged test of their intellectual ability. Subsequently, they rated themselves on a series of trait adjectives: Half of the items referred to social traits and attributes, the other half referred to achieve-ment-related traits and attributes. Failure led HSE Ss to exaggerate the positivity of their social qualities; the reverse was true for LSE Ss. Study 2 replicated these results and found that HSE Ss were also especially helpful after failure. These findings indicate that situational variables and personal factors interact to influence peoples ' immediate views of the self and that people behave in accordance with these activated self-representations. Recent research on the self has documented two important points. The first is that self-knowledge is vast and that numer-ous factors influence a person's moment-to-moment thoughts about the self (Markus & Wurf, 1987; Schlenker & Weigold, 1989). The second is that the particular conceptions of the self that are active at any time regulate and direct behavior (Ban-dura, 1989; Markus & Ruvolo, 1989). In this article, we apply these points to the study of prosocial behavior.

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