Self-Esteem Flashcards
Self-Esteem, General
Starting in the 1970s, there was a movement in psychology that looked toward self-esteem as the cause of most societal ills
Self-esteem related to:
- persistence
- happiness
- quality of praise (context)
- expectations
- externalizing problem
Self-esteem informs parenting and teaching practices
*is constant self-esteem boosting such a good thing?
*how exactly do we define self-esteem?
Baumeister: critique of self-esteem weak correlations theories are overrated difficulties with causation directionality – what changes what?
*it is now known that aggressive bullying is due to high self-esteem, not low
Types of Self-Esteem
Stable vs. unstable self-esteem
Stable self-esteem = better psychological health
Unstable self-esteem = correlated with depression
Contingent vs. Non-contingent self-esteem
Examining non-contingent self-esteem
• provides a better pictures of an individual’s self-esteem; a defense against negative performance
Implicit vs. explicit self-esteem
• Explicit self-esteem = what people are aware of, what they report
• Implicit self-esteem = what people are not consciously aware of
Truly high self-esteem = combination of explicit and implicit
• When there is misalignment, defenses are present, e.g. handicapping, prejudice, attributions
Nock et al., 2010 – “Measuring the Suicidal Mind”
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
The increased tendency to associate death with self versus life with self is correlated with later suicidal behaviors 6 months later
People who have attempted suicide holds significantly
stronger implicit association between death/suicide and self then do psychiatrically distressed individuals who have not attempted suicide
The implicit association of death/suicide with self was associated with approximately sixfold increase in the odds of making a suicide attempt within 6months,
Findings suggest that predictive validity exceeds:
- risk factors (depression, suicide attempt history)
- patients’ and clinicians’ predictions
Name-letter effect
Implicit Egotism: Preferring letters pertaining to our own name
Cross-cultural finding
General theory expands to geographical, career, social, and relational choices
“Moniker Maladies” (Neslon & Simmons, 2007)
Tested name-letter effect / implicit egotism effects on performance
In baseball, those with the letter “K” in their name, struck out more– they weren’t trying to strike out, theory is that the prospect of striking out was less distressful
Career choices – e.g. Dennis and Denise – dentists
Geographical choices – e.g. more Jacks in Jacksonville
Students with letter “A” in name, got more A’s
More willing to accept consolation prize if it is labeled with a letter pertaining to our name – poor performance is not intentional, but more willing to accept negative outcomes – don’t feel so badly since some positive reinforcement received from association from name
Examining death certificates, those with initials that formed positive words (i.e. H.U.G.) as opposed to negative words (i.e. P.I.G.), lived longer
The Need to Belong / Sociometer Hypothesis
Sociometer: Monitor others’ reactions which alerts the individual to the possibility of social exclusion
Stems from belief without self-esteem, we have social exclusion
Possibly stemming from an evolutionary necessity
Twenge et al., (2000) – Self-defeating Behavior
4 experiments tested the idea that social exclusion leads to unintentionally self-defeating behavior
Exclusion was manipulated by telling some people that they were likely to end up alone later in life through the use of bogus personality test which randomly selected individuals to be in the “alone,” “accident-prone,” or “future-belonging groups”
Accident-prone group – negative outcomes would not involve social exclusion
Social exclusion led to significant changes in behavior, even on dimensions that would seem to have little or nothing to do and social exclusion:
Anticipation of social isolation later in life caused people to:
*make high risk choices that offered relatively poor prospects for good outcomes
( lottery with low odds and high reward versus likely low reward)
- select fewer health-enhancing behaviors (type of snacks)
- more procrastination and less practice for an upcoming important test
Reactions to Social Exclusion
Decreased academic/intelligent thought performance
Increased aggression
e.g. school shootings most often conducted by excluded students
• They see others as being more hostile, so they react with hostility
Increased pain threshold/emotional numbness; also results in decreased empathy and prosocial behaviors
• Seem to be projecting internal-state of numbness
Strategies to Counter the Effects of Social Exclusion
Social reconnection
- develop disconnected relationships
- teach prosocial skills
Group identities
- develop and recognize group identities
e. g. online communities, religions, sports, social networks
Anthropomorphism and religion
• Emphasis on forming closer relationships with inanimate objects (i.e. a car or boat), and with God
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Studies have shown….
There is an apparent connection between physical and mental pain
*those who take Tylenol seem to be more likely to engage in social interactions
Warm room
- Cold rooms are linked with loneliness
- One is more likely to drink a warm drink when socially excluded
Money
- Providing an individual with money is correlated with decreased reported loneliness
- People who have wealth are less likely to rely on social interactions
Walton & Cohen, (2011)
Brief social-belonging intervention improved academic and social outcomes of minority students
Supports idea of engaging weekly club meetings stimulates inclusion
Setbacks can induce feelings of not belonging
Terror Management Theory
Implicit awareness of mortality can lead to paralyzing terror, which is managed by means of a two component cultural anxiety buffer:
- Individualized worldview allows understanding the world and one’s place in it, a set of standards, which if lived up to, can provide:
* sense of personal value
* literal immortality
* symbolic immortality (building named after you; live on through children - Self-esteem: a sense that one is living up to their standards of value
Interest in culture/worldview to give meaning and purpose
*self-esteem is created by identifying as a valued contributing member of the culture
Self-esteem acts as a buffer against death anxiety and other types of anxiety
Terror Management Theory studies
Mortality salience is used as a common manipulation in these studies: e.g.”what emotions will you experience when you die?”
*Self-esteem striving – people will boost self-esteem to ward off anxiety associated with death
Most common = Worldview Defense
Following mortality salience, we tend to:
*support ingroup,
*like our cultural leaders more
*tend to be particularly hostile to moral transgressors
*e.g. 9/11, increased patriotism, higher approval rating for President Bush, increased hostility toward foreigners
Self-esteem as anxiety buffer
e. g. feedback given to study participants, either boosted self-esteem, or control (no boost).
* when exposed to scenes of death, those with boosted self-esteem experienced less anxiety
e.g. higher self-esteem = decreased galvanic skin response after being threatened with electric shock
Study: Iranian students primed with mortality salience and controls evaluated students who were for or against martyrdom attacks
- control – do not support martyrdom
- mortality salience primed – supported martyrdom and also said they would personally participate in attack
Effects of terror management
Terrorism
Aggression toward out-groups
Stereotyping out-groups
Charity toward in-groups
Relationship commitment
*bidirectional: relationship loss correlated with increased thoughts of mortality
Urge to splurge
- An alternative self-esteem boost
- Attempt to replace what was lost
- Can lead to symbolic immortality – like naming a building after oneself
- In US, splurging supports cultural views of pro-capitalism
Tanning
- Proximal choice: more likely to use high SPF products
- Distal choice: more likely to use lower SPF products
- *Initially, dealt with immediate death-related views, but over time, self-esteem striving takes place…
- *Looking tan = increases attractiveness and social interaction, inclusion
Strachan et al., (2007) “Terror Mismanagement”
Reminders of death exacerbated several types of phobic and compulsive behaviors:
*Important behaviors are influenced by mortality salience (MS) even when they have no obvious connection to death
MS increased anxious responding to spider related stimuli, but only for participants met criteria for specific phobia
MS increase time spent washing hands, but only for those scoring high on a measure of compulsive hand washing
MS increased avoidance of social interaction, but only for those scoring high on a measure of social interaction anxiety
