Author:

Keywords:

self-esteem, name-letter effect, indirect measures, implicit measures, mere ownership, Social Sciences, Psychology, Social, Psychology, Self-esteem, Name-letter effect, Indirect measures, Implicit measures, Mere ownership, I LIKE MYSELF, MERE OWNERSHIP, IMPLICIT MEASURES, INTERNET ADDICTION, EXPLICIT MEASURES, DISCREPANCIES, DEPRESSION, COGNITIONS, IMPACT, ASSOCIATION, 1701 Psychology, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, 5202 Biological psychology, 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology, 5205 Social and personality psychology

Abstract:

People show a preference for the letters occurring in their name (Name-Letter Effect, Nuttin, 1984), a phenomenon that has inspired the development of a frequently used indirect measure of self-esteem. This article reviews the literature on the Name-Letter Effect as the basis for this measure. It discusses the tasks that have been used to measure name-letter preferences and the algorithms that have been designed to extract self-esteem scores from them. It also reviews the evidence that name-letter preferences are valid indicators of self-esteem. The article shows that current knowledge on the value of name-letter preferences as measures of self-esteem is limited by (a) the inherent difficulty of assessing the validity of implicit measures, (b) the use of different, insufficiently justified algorithms, (c) a historical focus on preferences for initials, and (d) neglect of the state-trait distinction. The article ends with recommendations for the use of name-letter preferences to measure self-esteem.