No shades of gray: Splitting and self-esteem instability

Splitting refers to the tendency to form cognitive representations of the self and others that are either all-good or all-bad. Previous research and theory concerning splitting has proposed that reliance on this defense mechanism should be associated with unstable self-esteem. The present research examined this hypothesis by measuring the tendency of 183 participants to engage in splitting and then tracking their state self-esteem each evening for seven consecutive days. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses found that the proposed association between splitting of the self image and self-esteem instability only emerged among individuals with relatively high levels of self-esteem. For individuals with low levels of self-esteem, their self-esteem was unstable regardless of whether they relied on splitting or not. The implications of splitting for the stability of self-esteem are discussed.