Mood and its Impact on Self-Esteem Following a Breakup

Abstract
This paper explores five published articles that report on results from research conducted on individuals who have gone through the dissolution of a romantic relationship. The result of said dissolution was examined in these individuals to see how it impacted their self-esteem and stress levels. This paper further explores this relationship and includes mood into the exploration in order to determine how mood and an imagined breakup affects one’s self-esteem levels. In order to examine this relationship, a sample of 230 students, ages 18-22 years, from a Quantitative Research Methods class at Brock University was taken. These participants were asked to complete two reading exercises followed by completing a number of Likert-scale type questionnaires. These questionnaires were used to determine if negative mood statements affected the participant’s mood, and if those mood statements along with imagined breakup role affected the participant’s self-esteem. It was predicted that those in the negative mood and rejected breakup role condition would have the lowest self-esteem, and that there would be an interaction between mood condition and breakup role, however the majority of the predictions were proven incorrect. Results are analyzed and discussed along with limitations described and suggestions for future research suggestions given.

23 pages