Are you what you feel? The affective and cognitive determinants of self-judgments

Subjects recalled an affect-eliciting event that had occurred to them in either an achievement situation or an interpersonal situation. Recalling a positive or negative achievement experience (for which Subjects appeared to take personal responsibility) influenced judgments of their competence in achievement situations. Whereas thinking about a positive or negative interpersonal experience (for which subjects appeared to deny responsibility) did not influence judgments of their competence in social situations. On the other hand, both types of affect-eliciting experiences influenced subjects' judgments of their competence in the domain to which these experiences had no direct implications, and also judgments of their general self-esteem. Implications of these results for a more general conceptualization of self-esteem and its stability are discussed.