Self-Esteem Maintenance Theory Paper

It was recently announced that Chris Webber was going to be traded to the Philadelphia 76’ers this week. He has since started his career there with Alan Iverson on his side as well as the entire city. My roommate, our next door neighbor and I were watching Sports Center when they broke the news that the trade was official and had taken place. My roommate a native of Philadelphia was, needless to say, pleased with the trade. I was relatively unaffected as a Wizards fan, although Webber was, at one point, traded from DC, and the other party, a Charlotte, Bobcats fan was indifferent. My roommate, Phil (not his real name), was happy to say that, “they,” (the 76’ers franchise), acquired Chris Webber. Phil is a fairly big sports fan, and as a sports fan, having a good team and good players is very important, as well as pointing out when other teams, in this case the Wizards and Bobcats, are lacking or no good. I am less of a sports fan and to me the Wizards are not of high importance to me. My knowledge and interest is very trivial, although being from Washington, DC, I would have liked to see Chris Webber stay with the Wizards his whole career. James (also not his real name), the Bobcats fan and also a big sports follower, merely pointed out that the trade was good for the 76’ers. He didn’t mention that the Bobcats really got nobody in the trades, and we all knew that Philadelphia was having the best year in sports of the three cities.

This scenario points out very well the key points of the Self-Esteem/Evaluation Maintenance Theory in all three of the characters. It is important to note first that we are comparing each other on the basis of being a sports fan and supporting your home team. We compare each other through which team is better, and which one of us knows more about sports. Since I do not claim to be a big sports fan, I, figuratively, can sit out this play. Phil, however, must prove to James that his team got the better deal and is a better team. This...