Will you still love me tomorrow? Sociometer theory and sexual self-esteem

Abstract

Self-esteem is often conceptualized as a general reflection of how as individual feel about themselves. However, research has shown self-esteem is not only an active component of our social selves, but it is also uniquely tied to different kinds of relationships. Sociometer theory presents an avenue for examining self-esteem as a dynamic system and for exploring changes domain-specific self-esteem such as sexual self-esteem. The present study seeks to examine changes in sexual self-esteem from a sociometer theory perspective. Participants were first exposed to primes related to sexuality/sexual experiences (e.g., positive sexuality condition vs. negative sexuality condition) by completing a scramble-sentence task. After being exposed to one of the two priming conditions, they completed an evaluative priming procedure, embedded within a lexical decision task, in which the words I, me, or myself will be subliminally presented before positively and negatively sexually evaluative words and non-words. Finally, participants completed two subscales (sexual self-efficacy and sexual esteem) of the Multidimensional Sexual Self-Concept Questionnaire (MSSCQ) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. A main effect for valence was found, such that participants responded faster to the positive sexually evaluative words regardless of their priming condition. Likewise, there was no significant difference between scores on the MSSCQ subscale between the two priming conditions. One explanation for these results is that implicit priming for domain-specific self-esteem, such as sexual self-esteem, might not be adequate to activate a domain-specific sociometer. Domain-specific self-esteem might require more explicit tasks that are more overtly related to the psychosocial domain of interest, to access that domain’s sociometer and induce changes in domain-specific self-esteem.