Low self-esteem, induced failure and the adrenocortical stress response

The present study investigated the association between self-esteem and free cortisol stress responses with regard to experimentally induced success or failure. 52 subjects (29 women and 23 men, mean age 22.9 +/- 2.8 years) were exposed to a computer-generated mental stressor consisting of arithmetic tasks to be calculated under time pressure. For one half of the subjects, the computer produced tasks which were easy to solve (success condition), the other half was confronted with a significantly higher level of difficulty (failure condition). Testing was performed in groups of ten subjects at a time in the same room. After each of three sets of arithmetic tasks, individuals had to report their outcome in front of the group. Results indicate that test difficulty had a profound impact on the performance of the subjects. More important, subjects' performance covaried with his/her self-esteem, i.e. persons scoring high in self-esteem achieved better results in the mental arithmetics than their counterparts in the same condition. Moreover, there was a significant negative correlation between the free cortisol response to this stress task and self-esteem in the 'failure' condition (r = -47, p = 0.01), however not in the 'success' condition (r = -0.26; p = 0.20). These results suggest that self-esteem is affecting the endocrine stress response. Furthermore, they indicate that the impact of this personality characteristic on the human cortisol stress response is also situation dependent. Inclusion of success and failure conditions turned out to be a crucial factor for revealing the role of self-esteem in endocrine stress responses. Future study designs should therefore include those variables, or assess subjective perception of success and failure, when investigating the role of personality differences in stress responses. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.