Daily fluctuations in social status, self-esteem, and clinically relevant emotions: Testing hierometer theory and social rank theory at a within-person level

Abstract

Introduction: Grounded in hierometer theory and social rank theory, this research examined how within-person fluctuations in social status relate to within-person fluctuations in self-esteem and several clinically relevant emotions. Both hierometer theory and social rank theory postulate that particular psychological mechanisms help individuals to navigate social hierarchies adaptively. However, hierometer theory emphasizes self-esteem, whereas social rank theory emphasizes emotions-specifically, depression, anxiety, and shame.

Methods: We conducted a 10-day diary study and analyzed the data using multilevel modeling. Participants (N = 345) completed daily measures of their social status, self-esteem, depression, anxiety, shame, and guilt.

Results: On days when their status was higher, participants reported higher self-esteem and lower depression, anxiety, and shame. On days when their self-esteem was higher, participants reported lower depression, anxiety, and shame. These patterns persisted after controlling for baseline individual differences. Furthermore, multilevel mediation analyses indicated that daily self-esteem mediated the links between daily status, and, individually, daily depression, anxiety, and shame, but not guilt.

Conclusions: Supporting hierometer theory and social rank theory, self-esteem, and the clinically relevant emotions (except for guilt) appear to serve a status-tracking function. Self-esteem plays a more primary role, accounting for the link between status and depression, anxiety, and shame.

Keywords: emotion; hierometer theory; self-esteem; social rank theory; social status; status.