Contingencies of Self-Worth: Implications for Self-Regulation and Psychological Vulnerability

Contingencies of self-worth represent the domains in which success or failure leads to increases or decreases in self-esteem, respectively. Because people seek to protect, maintain, and enhance their self-esteem, contingencies of self-worth serve an important self-regulatory role; people seek out situations and engage in activities that provide opportunities for them to achieve success and avoid failure in domains on which their self-worth is staked. These contingencies also constitute an important psychological vulnerability, however. Successes and failures lead to greater increases and decreases in self-esteem when they occur in domains of contingency. These fluctuations of self-esteem, in turn, are associated with increases in depressive symptoms. Thus, the pursuit of self-esteem, while guiding much of our behavior, comes at considerable cost.