Chapter 13 Quiz: Self-Esteem, Self-Perception, and Desirability
Instructions: Select the best answer for each multiple-choice question. For short-answer questions, write 2–4 sentences. Review the chapter before beginning.
Multiple Choice
1. According to sociometer theory (Leary, 1995), the primary function of self-esteem is to:
a) Provide a stable foundation of positive affect to support goal-directed behavior b) Monitor one's level of social acceptance and alert the individual when it declines c) Regulate the gap between actual and ideal self-concepts d) Coordinate emotion regulation during interpersonal conflict
Answer: b
2. The self-expansion model (Aron & Aron) proposes that attraction is partly motivated by:
a) The threat reduction that comes from establishing a secure social bond b) The opportunity to incorporate a new person's resources and perspectives into the self c) The evolutionary drive to identify high-quality reproductive partners d) The desire to resolve unconscious attachment conflicts from childhood
Answer: b
3. Research on social media use and self-perceived desirability has found that:
a) Instagram use has no significant effect on appearance satisfaction because users know images are curated b) Only women experience appearance-related self-esteem costs from social media use c) Dating app use has been associated with lower self-worth and higher body dissatisfaction in both men and women d) Upward comparison on social media is harmful only when the comparison target is someone the user knows personally
Answer: c
4. The chapter describes a "mate value self-perception loop." What is the central mechanism of this loop?
a) Physical attractiveness produces match success, which produces confidence, which produces more physical attractiveness b) Self-perceived romantic value shapes approach behavior, which shapes actual outcomes, which reinforces the original self-perception c) High self-esteem causes upward comparison, which causes lower self-esteem in a self-defeating cycle d) Internalized beauty norms produce low self-esteem, which produces avoidance, which confirms the norms
Answer: b
5. Murray, Holmes, & Griffin (2000) found that people with lower self-esteem in romantic relationships tended to:
a) Communicate more openly with partners to compensate for their insecurity b) Overestimate their partners' positive regard, leading to disappointment over time c) Underestimate their partners' positive regard, which eroded relationship satisfaction d) Experience greater relationship satisfaction because their standards were lower
Answer: c
6. "Internalization" of beauty norms, as distinct from mere exposure, refers to:
a) The process of becoming emotionally invested in media depictions of beauty b) The incorporation of external cultural standards into one's own self-evaluation criteria c) The repeated viewing of beauty content until it becomes normalized d) The social process by which peers reinforce media-transmitted beauty ideals
Answer: b
7. The chapter distinguishes between fragile high self-esteem and stable high self-esteem. Which of the following best describes the romantic behavioral implications of fragile (contingent) high self-esteem?
a) It produces the same adaptive outcomes as stable high self-esteem with slightly more volatility b) It tends to produce excessive self-disclosure and attachment-seeking c) It often produces defensiveness and relationship-undermining behaviors as the person protects against perceived threats d) It has no distinct effect on romantic behavior compared to stable high self-esteem
Answer: c
8. "Dating market stigma," as discussed in the chapter, refers to:
a) The embarrassment of being seen using a dating app in a public setting b) The experience of perceiving oneself as racially or otherwise culturally devalued in romantic contexts c) The psychological cost of being ghosted or unmatched on dating platforms d) The stigma attached to seeking therapy for romantic self-esteem issues
Answer: b
9. Which methodological limitation applies most directly to studies linking social media use to self-esteem decline?
a) Studies rely on self-report of social media use, which is often inaccurate b) Most studies use correlational designs that cannot establish causal direction c) The studies have not been replicated across different cultural contexts d) Effect sizes in this literature are too small to be practically meaningful
Answer: b
10. The chapter's discussion of body image and desirability concludes that interventions targeting physical appearance per se are limited because:
a) Physical appearance is genetically determined and therefore largely unchangeable b) Body image is substantially disconnected from objective physical characteristics, so the relationship to the body is the more relevant variable c) Partners rarely actually care about physical appearance as much as media suggests d) Appearance-based interventions tend to increase narcissism without improving romantic outcomes
Answer: b
11. Goffman's dramaturgical model, as applied to courtship, suggests that strategic self-presentation in early dating is:
a) A form of deception that undermines the potential for authentic relationships b) A universal feature of social life that becomes problematic only when the gap between performance and reality is too large c) More common among people with low self-esteem than among those with high self-esteem d) Primarily a feature of online dating rather than face-to-face interaction
Answer: b
12. The chapter concludes that the confidence-attractiveness relationship operates:
a) Primarily from attractiveness to confidence, meaning that confidence is a downstream effect of being found desirable b) Primarily from confidence to attractiveness, meaning that behavioral change is the primary lever c) Bidirectionally, with both processes operating and mutually reinforcing each other d) Only at the level of first impressions, with no significant effect on established romantic relationships
Answer: c
Short Answer
13. Explain why sociometer theory predicts that dating apps would be particularly likely to suppress self-esteem compared to face-to-face romantic contexts. Use at least two features of dating app environments in your explanation.
Sample answer: Sociometer theory predicts that self-esteem will decline when an individual receives repeated signals of non-acceptance. Dating apps amplify rejection signals in several ways. First, the volume of low-cost rejection (left swipes, non-matches, unread messages) is far higher than in face-to-face interaction — a person might experience hundreds of instances of non-acceptance in a week in ways that have no face-to-face equivalent. Second, the explicitness of the match/non-match binary makes rejection more salient and attributable to personal characteristics than typical face-to-face social dynamics. The sociometer is calibrated to read social feedback, and dating apps generate unusually dense rejection signals, which the system processes as sustained evidence of low social acceptance.
14. The chapter distinguishes between the sociometer "reading the room accurately" and "the room having bad information." Apply this distinction to the experience of a racial minority group member receiving below-average match rates on a dating app. What does this imply about the limits of individual therapeutic intervention?
Sample answer: If racialized beauty hierarchies systematically disadvantage certain groups in dating markets, members of those groups will receive genuine signals of social non-acceptance from the market. The sociometer is doing its job — reading the signals accurately. The problem is that those signals carry ideologically distorted information: they reflect cultural bias rather than the person's actual worth or desirability. Individual therapy can help someone understand and contextualize these signals, and CBT or ACT approaches can reduce the degree to which the signals control behavior. But therapy cannot change the market signals themselves, meaning that purely individual-level intervention addresses the response to an unjust environment without addressing the injustice. This suggests that individual therapy is necessary but insufficient — structural critique and cultural change are the logically complete responses.