Relatively few studies have focused on the connections between self-esteem and basic personality dimensions. The purpose of the present studies was to examine whether self-esteem level and self-esteem instability were associated with the Big Five personality dimensions and whether self-esteem instability moderated the associations that self-esteem level had with these personality features. This was accomplished by conducting a series of studies that included samples from the United States, Israel, and China. Across these studies, self-esteem level was associated with high levels of extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness, whereas self-esteem instability was associated with low levels of emotional stability, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Individuals with stable high self-esteem reported the highest levels of emotional stability, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, whereas those with stable low self-esteem had the lowest levels of openness. The results of these studies suggest that feelings of self-worth are associated with self-reported and perceived personality features.
AikenL. S.WestS. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
2.
BairdB. M.LeK.LucasR. E. (2006). On the nature of intraindividual personality variability: Reliability, validity, and associations with well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 512-527.
3.
Benet-MartinezV.JohnO. P. (1998). Los Cinco Grandes across cultures and ethnic groups: Multitrait-multimethod analyses of the Big Five in Spanish and English. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 729-750.
4.
BrownJ. D.MarshallM. A. (2006). The three faces of self-esteem. In KernisM. (Ed.), Self-esteem: Issues and answers (pp. 4-9). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
5.
BrykA. S.RaudenbushS. W. (1992). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
6.
BrykA. S.RaudenbushS. W.CongdonR. (1998). HLM for Windows 4.03. Chicago, IL: Scientific Software.
7.
CostaP. T.McCraeR. R. (1992). Four ways five factors are basic. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 653-665.
8.
CostaP. T.McCraeR. R.DyeD. A. (1991). Facet scales for agreeableness and conscientiousness: A revision of the NEO personality inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 887-898.
9.
CurranP. J.BauerD. J.WilloughbyM. T. (2006). Testing and probing within-level and between-level interactions in hierarchical linear models. In BergemanC. S.BokerS. M. (Eds.), The Notre Dame series on quantitative methodology, Volume 1: Methodological issues in aging research (pp. 99-129). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
10.
DeNeveK. M.CooperH. (1998). The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 197-229.
11.
DienerE.DienerM. (1995). Cross-cultural correlates of life satisfaction and self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 653-663.
12.
DigmanJ. M. (1997). Higher-order factors of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1246-1256.
13.
Di PaulaA.CampbellJ. D. (2002). Self-esteem and persistence in the face of failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 711-724.
14.
FurrR. M.FunderD. C. (1998). A multimodal analysis of personal negativity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1580-1591.
15.
GoslingS. D.RentfrowP. J.SwannW. B.Jr. (2003). A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 504-528.
16.
JohnO. P.DonahueE. M.KentleR. L. (1991). The Big Five Inventory—Versions 4a and 54. Berkeley: Institute of Personality and Social Research, University of California, Berkeley.
17.
JohnO. P.HampsonS. E.GoldbergL. R. (1991). Is there a basic level of personality description?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 348-361.
18.
JordanC. H.Zeigler-HillV. (2013). Fragile self-esteem: The perils and pitfalls of (some) high self-esteem. In Zeigler-HillV. (Ed.), Self-esteem (pp. 80-98). London, England: Psychology Press.
19.
KernisM. H. (2003). Toward a conceptualization of optimal self-esteem. Psychological Inquiry, 14, 1-26.
20.
KernisM. H.GrannemannB. D.BarclayL. C. (1989). Stability and level of self esteem as predictors of anger arousal and hostility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 1013-1022.
21.
KwanV. S. Y.BondM. H.SingelisT. M. (1997). Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: Adding relationship harmony to self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1038-1051.
22.
LearyM. R.TamborE.TerdalS.DownsD. L. (1995). Self-esteem as an interpersonal monitor: The sociometer hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 518-530.
23.
MarcusD. K.KashyD. A.BaldwinS. A. (2009). Studying psychotherapy using the one-with-many design: The therapeutic alliance as an exemplar. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 56, 537-548.
24.
MeierL. L.OrthU.DenissenJ. J.KühnelA. (2011). Age differences in instability, contingency, and level of self-esteem across the life span. Journal of Research in Personality, 45, 604-612.
25.
PullmannH.AllikJ. (2000). The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: Its dimensionality, stability and personality correlates in Estonian. Personality and Individual Differences, 28, 701-715.
26.
RobinsR. W.TracyJ. L.TrzesniewskiK.PotterJ.GoslingS. D. (2001). Personality correlates of self-esteem. Journal of Research in Personality, 35, 463-482.
27.
RosenbergM. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
28.
RosenbergM. (1986). Self-concept from middle childhood through adolescence. In SulsJ. (Ed.), Psychological perspectives on the self (Vol. 3, pp. 107-136). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
29.
SaucierG.ThalmayerA. G.PayneD. L.CarlsonR.SanogoL.Ole-KotikashL.. . .ZhouX. (2014). A basic bivariate structure of personality attributes evident across nine languages. Journal of Personality, 82, 1-14.
30.
SchmittD. P.AllikJ. (2005). Simultaneous administration of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in 53 nations: Exploring the universal and culture-specific features of global self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 623-642.
31.
StreinerD. L. (2003). Being inconsistent about consistency: When coefficient alpha does and doesn’t matter. Journal of Personality Assessment, 80, 217-222.
32.
Van de VijverF.LeungK. (1997). Methods and data analysis of comparative research. In BerryJ. W.PoortingaY. H.PandeyJ. (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology (pp. 257-300). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
33.
WebsterG. D.KirkpatrickL. A.NezlekJ. B.SmithC. V.PaddockE. L. (2007). Different slopes for different folks: Self-esteem instability and gender as moderators of the relationship between self-esteem and attitudinal aggression. Self and Identity, 6, 74-94.
Zeigler-HillV.BesserA.MyersE. M.SouthardA. C.MalkinM. L. (2013). The status-signaling property of self-esteem: The role of self-reported self-esteem and perceived self-esteem in personality judgments. Journal of Personality, 81, 209-220.
36.
Zeigler-HillV.ClarkC. B.BeckmanT. E. (2011). Fragile self-esteem and the interpersonal circumplex: Are feelings of self-worth associated with interpersonal style?Self and Identity, 10, 509-536.
37.
Zeigler-HillV.FultonJ. J.McLemoreC. (2011). The role of unstable self-esteem in the appraisal of romantic relationships. Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 51-56.
38.
Zeigler-HillV.LiH.MasriJ.SmithA.VonkJ.MadsonM. B.ZhangQ. (2013). Self-esteem instability and academic outcomes in American and Chinese college students. Journal of Research in Personality, 47, 455-463.
39.
Zeigler-HillV.ShowersC. J. (2007). Self-structure and self-esteem stability: The hidden vulnerability of compartmentalization. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 143-159.
40.
Zeigler-HillV.WallaceM. T. (2012). Self-esteem instability and psychological adjustment. Self and Identity, 11, 317-342.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
