Abstract

The effects of two variables in the interpersonal misunderstandings were investigated, the level of self-esteem and the criterion of self-evaluation. In the Study 1, two personal variables, the levels of self-esteem and the need for affiliation, were investigated. It was found that the subjects with low self-esteem had more self-referent thoughts than the subjects with high self-esteem. Also, the subjects with high self-esteem and low need for affiliation(or low level of sensitivity to rejection) had the least self-referent thoughts. In the Study 2, relative or absolute criterion of self-evaluation was activated in advance of responding to the situations of eliciting interpersonal misunderstandings. The effect of the level of self-esteem found in the Study 1 became more peculiar in the condition when the relative criterion of self-evaluation was activated, whereas it was not found when the absolute criterion of self-evaluation was activated. In the control condition(irrelevant thoughts were activated), the results was positioned in between these two conditions. Impications were discussed.