lecture 9 Flashcards
what is Self-esteem
Textbook definition: The positive or negative overall evaluation that each person has of himself or herself
– Evaluative thoughts and feelings about self
what is Trait” self-esteem:
Chronic
what is State” self esteem:
Temporary
what is Implicit” self-esteem
Automatic or nonconscious
Interference effects (i.e., being slowed down when “self” and “bad things” require the same response) indicate higher implicit self-esteem
How do we arrive at our self- evaluations?
Entirely “data-driven,” simply based on a simple consideration of our characteristics, our successes and failures, etc?
• Not likely: Rather, requires construal
what are Self-Evaluation Procedures
How do we arrive at our self- evaluations?
1) Comparison with Standards • self-esteem = “successes/pretensions” 2) Importance of the domain • - Rosenberg (1967) • Overall SE correlates with "likability" only for people rating that an important dimension
3) Attribution:
• McFarland & Ross (1982) test of “social accuracy“
-given success vs failure feedback 12/15 or 3/15 correct
-led to attribute to
-internal cause (“this is a valid test”)
-vs external causes (“this is NOT a valid test”)
-DV: feelings of self-esteem: proud, smart, effective, inadequate, worthless, ashamed, etc
4) Overgeneralization:
• Kernis et al., 1989.
• =spreading of evaluation from a specific domain to more general
• Measure:
– “When even one thing goes wrong I begin to feel bad and wonder if I can do well at anything at all.”
• Compared higher scorers (B and A on midterm) to lower scorers (C and below)
5) Social construction
• Symbolic interactionist view of how self is evaluated through reflected appraisals:
• “A self-idea of this sort seems to have three principal elements: the imagination of our appearance to the other person; the imagination of his judgment of that appearance, and some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification”
