Belongingness and temporal bracketing in personal accounts of changes in self-esteem

First-person accounts of events that raised or lowered self-esteem were collected from a sample of middle-aged women. Descriptions of events that raised self-esteem tended to emphasize the achievement of social belongingness, whereas accounts of losing self-esteem featured failures to connect with others, and these patterns were especially pronounced among people whose trait self-esteem was low. The accounts of raising self-esteem had more inclusive, integrative time spans than the accounts of lowering self-esteem. This could mean that it takes longer to lower self-esteem than to raise it. It also suggests that people seek to separate past losses of self-esteem from their present selves. (C) 1998 Academic Press.