Benefits of Self-Esteem

Question 1

What does lower self esteem in adolescence predict?

Answer 1

Negative outcomes in adulthood - poorer mental and physical health, worse job prospects, more criminal behaviour in adulthood
lower SE predicts depression but not vice versa

Question 2

Strauman et al - anxious, dysphoric and non distressed ppts

Answer 2

Self discrepancy priming manipulation - ppts answered Q’s relating to their self-guides (actual vs ideal) or to those relating of another ppt (control)
Believed: activation of self-discrepency would lead to negative psychological situation, negative affect and an alteration in immune response

Results:
anxious ppts: greater actual-ought discrepancies, priming with self-discrepancies lead to more anxious responses, higher cortisol level (stress) and lower natural killer cell activity
dysphoric ppts: greater actual-ideal discrepensices, priming with self-discrepancies led to more dysphoric responses and lower natural killer cell activity

Question 3

How does self esteem affect physical health?

Answer 3

Could protect your bodies against illnesses, people with low SE have lower immune function

Question 4

Is self esteem an anxiety buffer?

Answer 4

Manipulation of self-esteem: positive/neutral feedback on personality test
positive/no feedback on verbal intelligence test
Manipulation of threat:
watching a video about death
threat of painful electric shocks
Measures of anxiety:
self reported anxiety
skin conductance
Results:
in neutral/no feedback conditions, the threats were associated with increased anxiety
if SE booted, anxiety was significantly reduced for the threat conditions, in some cases to normal levels

Question 5

What is the terror management theory?

Answer 5

Humans are uniquely aware of our own mortality - this is anxiety that we are at risk of, we have an anxiety buffer which is used to avoid terror

Question 6

What are the 2 things we do to buffer against fear of death?

Answer 6

A version of the cultural worldview: set of concepts for understanding the world and ones place in it, set of standards through which someone can attain a sense of personal value

Self-esteem - sense of personal value, attained by believing you are living up to the standards of value which are part of the cultural worldview

Question 7

Is there evidence for the terror management theory?

Answer 7

Reminders of personal mortality lead to:
increased self-esteem strivings
defence of ones cultural worldview
High SE reduces the effects of mortality reminders on cultural world view defence
and reduces accessibility of thoughts about deaths

Question 8

What is the belongingness hypothesis?

Answer 8

Human beings have a desire to form and maintain lasting positive and significant interpersonal relationships

Question 9

What is the sociometer hypothesis?

Answer 9

Self-esteem systems function as a sociometer - how well we are doing at filling our belongingness. SE monitors the quality of interpersonal relationships and motivates behaviours that help people to maintain a maximum level of acceptance by others

Question 10

What is the evidence for the sociometer theory?

Answer 10

State SE fluctuates with inclusion and exclusion
Trait SE correlates with perceived appreciation or devaluation by others
Primary dimensions of SE reflect attributes relevant to being valued as a relational partner
Public events affect SE more than private
Importance people place of dimensions in interpersonally and culturally determined

Question 11

Review of concomitants of self-esteem

Answer 11

SE correlates with dysphoric emotions, substance abuse, irresponsible sexual behaviour, aggression, eating disorders - all of these understood just as well as the consequences of rejection, maybe it isn’t SE, just need to belong (effects of real, anticipated or imagined rejection)

Question 12

Evaluating sociometer theory

Answer 12

Explains why self-esteem should be important - evolutionary basis, related to survival value of belonging
Evidence supports self-esteem/belonging link
but self esteem may have other functions as well

Question 13

Taylor and Brown: What are the 3 positive illusions widespread amongst normal populations?

Answer 13

Unrealistically positive views of the self
Exaggerated perceptions of personal control - more control
Unrealistic optimism - things more likely to happen to me
all of these illusions are good, and are weaker or absent among depressives and people will low SE, they might be more accurate at perceiving the world

Question 14

What do positive illusions promote?

Answer 14

Happiness and content - positive illusions cause positive mood
Ability to care for others - could be due to positive mood
Capacity for creative and productive work - help creative functioning, enhance motivation, persistence and performance

Question 15

Who criticised the positive illusions and what did they say?

Answer 15

Colvin and Block
Are these illusions actually prevalent - most the research on uni students
Are they really illusions? how is reality operationalised, defined by the experimenter, typically group level
Are they really associated with better mental health? depressives, but not psychotics lack these, depressives are more negative, not accurate, lots of evidence focused on short term benefits only

Question 16

Studies on the characteristics of self-enhancers

Answer 16

Ppts rated their personality characteristics, and they were rated by examiners or friends. Ratings compared to favourability prototype.
Enhancement as discrepancy between favourability of own and others ratings - illusion, disagreement with social reality
Friends and assessors hold negative impressions of people who self enhance. Eg, fluctuating moods, can’t trust, hostile, compared with cheerful, interesting, social skills
Self enhancement = ego brittleness - very defensive to threats
Could be circularity in the method - opinions of ppts by friends were used to determine self enhancement and then part of the outcome - might not like them anyway

Question 17

What to Taylor and brown clarify?

Answer 17

Their position - accuracy is not neccessary for mental health, illusions foster happiness, caring, growth, creativity
this doesn’t mean:
moe illusion is better, all are good, they are neccessary, they can cure physical illness, the human mind can’t detect reality

Question 18

What are the remaining problems of illusions?

Answer 18

Defining self-enhancement operationally - what is reality and what is an illusion - best to use multiple definitions
Statistical problems with discrepancy scores
Defining mental health benefits - is there an optimal margin of illusion? maybe there are short term benefits and long term costs

Question 19

What are people are violent / aggressive / hostile?

Answer 19

Suffering from low self-esteem or aggression may result from high self-esteem, where self-esteem is threatened

Question 20

Is there a relationship between anger and level + stability of self-esteem?

Answer 20

No relationship between level of self-esteem and hostility until stability was considered
highest level of hostility was found among those with high, unstable self-esteem
lowest level of hostility was found among those with high, stable self esteem

Question 21

Self-esteem and violence study

Answer 21

Looked at high or low self esteem among perpetrators of: murder, rape, domestic violence, young youth gangs, political terror, prejudice
little direct psychological evidence using measures of self-esteem. Convergence in findings: no evidence for low self-esteem hypothesis, violent people have favourable views o themselves and violence is intended to demonstrate superiority of the perpetrator to the victim - violence follows threats to self-esteem

Question 22

What is narcissism?

Answer 22

High levels of SE
Unstable SE
Strong motive for self-aggrandisement
Disregard for others
Increased sensitivity to ego threats

e.g: if I ruled the world, it would be a much better place, I am going to be a great person

Question 23

What is the opposite to secure SE?

Answer 23

Inflated unstable views of the self - Narcissism

Question 24

Narcissism and aggression

Answer 24

Measures of self-esteem and narcissism. Ppts wrote pro choice or pro-life essays about abortion. Essay evaluated positively or negatively (manipulation of ego). opportunity to aggress with blasts of noise in competitive task against evaluator
more aggression from:
males, participants with higher narcissism scores, ppts with ego threat
interaction: narcissistic ppts agressed significantly more against source of threat, but not against source of praise or third party - it was directed, only aggressive against the person who evaluated them
no relationships with SE measures

Question 25

Is narcissism the answer?

Answer 25

Focus on narcissism seems to resolve the self-esteem and aggression debate - correlates with many outcomes - sexual coercion, prejudice, belief in paranormal, narcissists are chronic self-enhancers. Is this just a relabelling exercise? - do we really understand what narcissism is

Question 26

Rethinking self-esteem

Answer 26

Not just high or low - more whether if it is secure

Question 27

What are markers of fragile/insecure high self-esteem?

Answer 27

Instability
Contingency - move in response to what happens
Discrepant expplicit and implicit self esteem - saying you have high but are actually low
All associated with greater defensiveness

Question 28

Where does self-esteem come from?

Answer 28

Domain specific self-evaluations
Self enhancement processes
Genetics