Sheltering the self from the storm: Self-construal abstractness and the stability of self-esteem

Self-construal abstractness (sca) refers to the degree to which people construe important bases of self-esteem in a broad,flexible,and abstract rather than a concrete and specific manner. this article hypothesized that sca would be a unique predictor of self-esteem stability,capturing the degree to which people's most important bases of self-worth are resistant to disconfirmation. two studies using a daily diary methodology examined relationships between sca,daily self-esteem,and daily emotions and/or events. in study 1,individual differences in sca emerged as the most consistent and unique predictor of self-esteem stability. furthermore,sca contributed to self-esteem stability by buffering the influence of daily negative emotions on self-esteem. study 2 manipulated sca via a daily self-construal task and found an abstract versus concrete self-focus to buffer the influence of daily negative events on self-esteem. implications of these findings for the study of the self and well-being are discussed. © 2010 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.