L - 22 The Self VI Flashcards
What is self-esteem?
Global, or trait self-esteem refers to a person’s overall self-evaluation (the way people generally feel about themselves).
What are some correlates of Global Self-Esteem?
Relatively high self-esteem correlates with:
- academic achievement.
- better physical & psychological health.
However, people with high SE think they are more popular but objectively are not.
What are some methodological issues when measuring self-esteem and it’s correlates?
- Shared method variance: both using self-report
measures - ideally have a more objective measure. - Correlation does not imply causation.
What did Trzesniewski et al.’s (2006) longitudinal study on self-esteem at age 11, as a predictor of later life outcomes (age 26)?
Higher self-esteem at age 11 tended to predict better physical and mental health, better economic prospects, and less criminal behaviour at age 26.
These findings held true even with objective and 3rd party measures.
What is Baumeister et al.’s (1996) ego-threat model, and how does it explain the relationship between self-esteem and antisocial behaviour?
They say that antisocial behaviour (e.g. aggression) is NOT associated with low self-esteem, but rather with a form of very high self-esteem.
These individuals will aggress in response to self-threat.
These people tend to have overinflated self-view (narcissistic).
Baumeister and Bushman (1998) tested the ego-threat model by first getting participants to complete measures of narcissism and global self-esteem before giving them bogus feedback on an essay they had written; what did they find?
Global self-esteem did not predict aggression (measured by a noise blast - ofc).
When threatened (poor feedback), narcissism was positively related to aggression. When praised, there was no relationship between narcissism and aggression.
This provides evidence for the ego-threat model.
What relationship between global self-esteem and antisocial behaviour was demonstrated by Donnellan et al. (2005) in their real-world study?
They showed that narcissism was positively related to antisocial behaviour, as well as showing that global self-esteem was negatively related to antisocial behaviour.
What is a self-esteem contingency?
The extent to which self-esteem is contingent upon certain conditions being met
e.g. performance on an exam
What is self-esteem stability?
The degree to which self-esteem varies over time (typically several days) for an individual.
SE stability is related to SE contingency, whereby individuals whose self-esteem is contingent on certain conditions tend to have less stable SE.
