a misinformed trend (i.e that you are consistently underperforming). Evidence in support Support for Sociometer Theory has come from an international, cross sequential study conducted in the Netherlands, assessing self-esteem in 1599 seven and eight year olds. The study examined firstly how self-esteem would develop in childhood, and secondly whether self-esteem develops alongside changing peer and family relationships. Inter-individual differences and intra-individual changes in social support over time were assessed. Mean-level self-esteem was found to remain stable in middle childhood and elicited no alterations. Additionally, both within and between person level assessments elicited positive reports of self esteem, showing a more robust social network from self-report measures that participants completed after these assessments. Cameron and Stinson again showed evidence in support for Sociometer Theory by demonstrating acceptance and rejection experiences can have a strong influence on self-esteem levels both in the short and long-term. Self-esteem is responsive to social acceptance and rejection: State self-esteem (self-esteem in the immediate situation) is heavily responsive to both social acceptance and rejection. It is known that that acceptance causes increases in state self-esteem and rejection elicits negative views in self-esteem to occur. In a laboratory setting, these alterations are due to future projections of social rejection/acceptance or remembering past experiences in which social rejection/acceptance occurred which can allow an individuals self-esteem to subjectively deviate from normal levels. Global self-esteem is associated with perceptions of social worth: Social worth is a concept that can be utilised as a sociometer to measure self-esteem. Furthermore, this association is thought to exist because global self-esteem influences self-views in a top-down manner. In this top-down process, the traits that are normally associated with the sense of belongingness in social situations act to mediate self-esteem. Additionally, if this top-down manner of global self-esteem influences self-views, then an individuals perceptions of their belongingness and social worth should be positively correlated with global self-esteem. Self-esteem regulates responses to acceptance and rejection: Sociometer theory emphasises that a negative alteration in self-esteem should disrupt the self-esteem system balance, alarming the sociometer to distinguish these discrepancies, allowing for behaviour that restores this balance by restoring belongingness and an individuals self-worth in social situations. See also Assertiveness Body image Clinical depression Deep social mind Evolutionary psychology and culture Fear of negative evaluation Identity Inner critic Invisible support List of confidence tricks Optimism bias Outline of self Overconfidence effect Passiveness Performance anxiety Primate empathy Self image Self-affirmation