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Self-Esteem, Failure Feedback, And Physiological Reactivity: Implications For Working Memory And Aggression, John Patrick Ryan

Psychology Dissertations

Research has recently begun to focus on separable conscious and subconscious aspects of self-esteem. Meanwhile, research on aggressive behavior has found that some individuals with high self-esteem are more prone to aggressive behavior. Based on a biopsychosocial approach, research has shown that appraisals of threat/challenge are marked by distinct physiological responses – threat appraisals are marked by activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, whereas challenge appraisals are marked by activation of the sympathetic adrenal-medullary axis. The present study examines the relationship between failure feedback, implicit and explicit self-esteem, appraisals, working memory and aggression in a series of three experiments. Experiment 1 …