Data for: The impact of self-esteem on the processing of self-related information

The aim of this study was to to investigate the effect of the level and stability of self-esteem on self-referent vs. other-referent feedback recall and to determine which of the opposed self-concept motives, self-enhancement or self-verification, will prevail in adolescents with certain type of self- esteem. In a between-subjects experimental design, 450 high school graduates and freshmen were randomly assigned to a self-referent task (n=230) or other-referent task (n=220) and their self-esteem was measured by repeated administration of the RSE scale. After personality and cognitive ability test, participants in a self-referent task were presented with a bogus feedback which consisted of statements that described a specific positive or negative behaviour that one is likely to do. Participants in the other-referent received the same information, but relating to an unknown person. Memory was tested on a surprise free recall task.