Moderating Role of Emotion Expression Between Self Esteem and Self Regulation Under Ego Threat

Low self-esteem is generally seen as the cause of negative outcomes, however recent studies have shown that high self-esteem can also contribute to numerous undesirable outcomes, including self-regulation failure under certain conditions. Those with fragile high self-esteem (as opposed to secure high self-esteem) have inadequate self-regulation when faced with ego threat. However, it has not been clearly investigated whether the ability to self-regulate changes when persons facing ego threat are permitted to express their emotions. Furthermore, it is unknown how the impacts of emotion expression vary between people who have secure vs. fragile self-esteem. The current study intends to investigate the impact of emotion expression in moderating the difference between individuals with high and low global self-esteem, as well as those with secure and fragile self-esteem, and self-regulation under ego-threat manipulation. The false feedback method is used to create ego threat. After ego threat, some group of participants expressed their emotions, and others not. The results showed that self-esteem and emotion expression were not related to self-regulation. However, among individuals who expressed their emotions, self-esteem stability was not associated with self-regulation failure, whereas for those who did not express their emotions, self-esteem stability predicted self-regulation failure. Explanatory analyses revealed that gender differences are a critical factor in the relationship between self-esteem and emotional expression. Men with low self-esteem had less self-regulation failure than men with high self-esteem when they expressed their emotions under ego-threat manipulation. However, self-esteem and emotion expression were not related to self-regulation failure. The implications of the findings, as well as the contribution of the study to the current work in ego threat and self-regulation, were discussed.