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Self‐esteem and anxious responses to partner feedback: Parsing anticipatory and consummatory anxiety
Author(s) -
Luerssen Anna,
Ayduk Özlem
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/pere.12270
Subject(s) - psychology , anticipation (artificial intelligence) , feeling , anxiety , context (archaeology) , negative feedback , romance , developmental psychology , social psychology , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , voltage , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , computer science , psychoanalysis , biology
We hypothesized that people with lower self‐esteem (SE) may perceive feedback from romantic partners in threatening ways and display maladaptive reactions during these events. Although prior research suggests that SE is mostly unrelated to emotional reactions to partner feedback, we predicted that differences in anxious emotion exist, but emerge before the feedback is delivered, at anticipation. We evaluated these predictions through a series of studies in which participants received feedback from ongoing and ostensible dating partners. As in prior research, SE was unrelated to anxiety at feedback delivery. In contrast, and consistent with predictions, participants with lower SE anticipated feeling more anxious when receiving positive and negative feedback. These results are discussed in the context of broader relationship dynamics.