Wissenschaftliche Studie aus dem Jahr 2011 im Fachbereich Psychologie - Sozialpsychologie, Note: 1.0, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Veranstaltung: Experimentalpraktikum, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Recent findings indicate that evaluation situations, such as a self-presentation in front of others, in which we perceive the social-self as threatened, lead to stress and psychological stress responses such as a lowered self-esteem (Gruenewald, Kemeny, Azid & Fahey, 2004). According to a study by Ditzen et al. (2008), social support can buffer the negative subjective effects of a standardized psychosocial stressor. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of social support in a stressful situation on self-esteem. Methods: 127 subjects were confronted with the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G) (von Dawans, Kirschbaum & Heinrichs, 2010). While preparing for the stressful situation, half of the subjects were randomly assigned to either receive social support or not. Self-esteem was measured using a German version of the State Self-Esteem Scale (Rudolph, Schütz, & Schröder-Abé, 2008). Results: Social support increased overall self-esteem and the two self-esteem subaspects performance and social self-perception. No correlations between how helpful and calming the social support was perceived and the self-esteem were found, but a significant negative correlation between how confusing the social support was perceived and self-esteem emerged. Discussion: Results indicate that, in comparison to handle a stressful situation alone, social support buffers the social threat apperception and secures one`s self-esteem perceptions. Several limitations of this study are discussed.
