The development and assessment of a theory of esteem support messages
Abstract
This dissertation develops and assesses empirically a Cognitive-Emotional Theory of Esteem Support Messages. Esteem support may be best understood as a particular form of social support that is provided to others with the intent of enhancing how they feel about themselves and their attributes, abilities, and accomplishments. Limited research indicates the importance of esteem support for a variety of personal and relational outcomes; however, very few studies have considered the nature of messages used to convey esteem support. In this dissertation, two studies aided in the development of detailed descriptions of the features of better and worse esteem support messages. A theory of esteem support messages is proposed, identifying the dimensions along which these messages fall, as well as the mechanisms through which sophisticated esteem support messages should have their effects. The merits of this theoretical model were evaluated in a subsequent empirical study that tested whether messages identified by the model as theoretically sophisticated were evaluated as better than less sophisticated messages by naïve actors. Many of the theory’s tenets were supported in this final study. ^ To provide a context for the development of a theory of esteem support messages, Chapter 1 discusses the nature and development of self-esteem, reviews the limited literature on esteem support, and emphasizes the importance of esteem support in shaping self-esteem and other outcomes. In Chapter 2, a model of esteem support interactions is sketched. Chapter 3 focuses specifically on esteem support messages, detailing the normative criteria that may distinguish better and worse forms of esteem support messages, as well as proposing strategies for identifying features of these messages. In this chapter, the general research questions for the dissertation’s three empirical studies are presented. The first empirical study, a retrospective study of esteem support messages, is discussed in Chapter 4. Study 2, a study of participant-generated esteem support messages, is discussed in Chapter 5. The Cognitive-Emotional Theory of Esteem Support Messages is presented in Chapter 6, and Chapter 7 describes the initial empirical assessment of this theory in Study 3. Finally, Chapter 8 concludes the dissertation by discussing implications, limitations, and future directions for the theory developed here. ^
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Brant R. Burleson, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Speech Communication
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.