Sociometer Hypothesis

The sociometer hypothesis is rooted in the historical tradition of psychology explaining the existence of self-esteem. According to this hypothesis, self-esteem acts as a gauge that measures the quality and state of an individual's relationships with other people. The foundational premise for the hypothesis states that people are pervasively driven to possess and maintain meaningful interpersonal relationships and group memberships. It would then follow that some type of mechanism would evolve that could monitor the status of relationships for individuals so they could then adjust accordingly to maintain their standing within social settings and not risk ostracism. This mechanismthe sociometer constantly assesses cues from the social environment to determine the extent to which an individual is successfully maneuvering through his or her interpersonal relationships.

Psychologists have historically examined self-esteem because it has been seen as an important psychological construct. Researchers have identified two distinct types of self-esteem: trait self-esteem and state self-esteem. Trait self-esteem refers to an individual's general understanding of his or her value in the individual's social world, and state self-esteem refers to the situational fluctuations a person may experience in relation to his or her worth within the individual's social settings. Originally, the sociometer hypothesis was criticized for not considering these differentiated states of self-esteem; however, further clarifications of the hypothesis revealed that both states were accounted for by the sociometer hypothesis. Regarding the hypothesis, state self-esteem could easily be considered a baseline level self-esteem that has accounted for a lifetime's worth of evaluations of relational standing for an individual. State self-esteem, however, offers an evaluation of the current situation for an individual that can lead to fluctuations from the baseline trait self-esteem level depending on whether an individual encounters cues that relay high or low relational standing. If one considers the sociometer to be a gas gauge in a car, where the needle rests, on average, represents the trait self-esteem of a person, and the movement of the needle represents the state self-esteem that is affected by the inputs received from the social cues in an individual's environment.

Considering the sociometer hypothesis attempts to explain the functional existence of self-esteem, other theories have come forward to offer opposing views. One of the most prominent alternative theories is terror management theory. This theory concludes that self-esteem exists because it helps distract people from the fear of death, which is a uniquely human experience because humans are capable of considering their own mortality. Terror management theory has been offered as a more cogent theory to explain self-esteem in contrast to the sociometer hypothesis, and several articles have examined the differences and similarities in their ability to explain the function of self-esteem. However, the authors of the sociometer hypothesis have summarized their own positions on this matter because each theory is useful in explaining certain domains of social behavior.

From social identity theory, people join groups to gain positive self-esteem based on comparisons with other relevant groups. Therefore, it would be most useful to have some mechanism in place that could monitor self-esteem. Also, within social identity theory, self-categorization theory argues that people within any given group will evaluate the characteristics of other group members to determine whether individual members are doing enough to maintain group membership. Based on this information, the sociometer serves an important function because it allows people to understand if their behaviors and attitudes are acceptable to the rest of the group. If the member successfully displays the appropriate behaviors and attitudes, he or she would experience positive self-esteem because his or her standing with in the group would be secure. However, if he or she does not properly display behaviors and attitudes indicative of the group, the individual would experience low self-esteem because this would communicate that he or she was in jeopardy of being ostracized and isolated.

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