the pursuit of self-esteem

7/30/2019 The Pursuit of Self-Esteem

1/15

The Dark Side of High Self-Esteem


2/15

What Is Self-Esteem?

The term is used in three ways

Trait self-esteem (aka, Global self-esteem)

Represents the way people generally feel about themselves

Relatively enduring across time and situations Cognition vs. affect

State self-esteem

Moment-to-moment feelings of self-worth

Is trait self-esteem just the average of state self-esteem over aprolonged period of time?

Self-evaluations (aka, Domain-specific self-esteem)

The way individuals evaluate their various abilities

Ex. a girl who is good at sports may have high athletic self-

esteem


3/15

Relations Among the Three Constructs

Cognitive (Bottom-Up) Model

Evaluative Feedback

Self-Evaluations

State Self-Esteem Trait Self-Esteem

Immediateeffect

Ifenduring


4/15

Relations Among the Three Constructs

Affective (Top-Down) Model

State Self-Esteem

Self-Evaluations

Evaluative Feedback

Trait Self-Esteem xEvaluative Feedback

Trait Self-Esteem


5/15

James (1890) view of self-esteem

So our self-feeling in this world dependsentirely on what we back ourselves to be anddo. It is determined by the ratio of ouractualities to our supposed potentialities; a

fraction of which our pretensions are thedenominator and the numerator our success:thus,

Self-esteem = Successes

PretensionsSuch a fraction may be increased as well bydiminishing the denominator as by increasingthe numerator (James, 1890/1983, p. 296)


6/15

The Pursuit of Self-Esteem

The pursuit of self-esteem has become a centralpreoccupation in American culture

Hundreds of self-help books offer strategies for

increasing self-esteem or raising kids who have highself-esteem

Schools have implemented programs aimed atboosting self-esteem in the hopes of reducing

problems such as high dropout rates, teenagepregnancy, and drug/alcohol abuse

More than 20,000 journal articles on self-esteem havebeen published over the past 30 years


7/15

The Importance of Self-Esteem

Research has documented the many ways people seek tomaintain, enhance, and protect their self-esteem (e.g.,Baumeister, 1998)

The desire to believe that one is worthy or valuable drivesbehavior and shapes how people think about themselves,other people, and events in their lives Example: the best predictor of satisfaction with positive events is their impact

on self-esteem (Sheldon et al., 2001)

The pursuit of self-esteem is so pervasive that manyresearchers have assumed it is a universal and fundamental

human need However, the role of self-esteem as a causal agent in a number of areas(e.g., high academic achievement, good job performance, improvedleadership) has been questioned (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs,2003)

but others have argued that self-esteem still has value as a construct (e.g.,Swann, Chang-Schneider, & McClarty, 2007; Trzesniewski et al., 2006)


8/15

Focus on Level of Self-Esteem

The vast majority of the literature has focusedexclusively on level of self-esteem (i.e., whetherpeople typically have high or low self-regard)

High self-esteem is strongly related to the beliefspeople hold about themselves (e.g., intelligence,attractiveness, acceptance)

Individuals with high self-esteem believe they are

superior to others in many domains (e.g., Campbell,1986) and they expect their futures to be morepositive than the futures of other individuals (Taylor &Brown, 1988)


9/15

The Paradox of High Self-Esteem

Initial research focused on the virtues of high self-esteem such as its connection with indicators ofpsychological adjustment (Diener, 1984; Kaplan, 1975;Robins, Hendin, & Trzesniewski, 2001; Tennen & Affleck,1993)

More recent research has revealed that high self-esteemalso has a dark side Prejudice (Crocker, Thompson, McGraw, & Ingerman, 1987;

Verkuyten, 1996; Verkuyten & Masson, 1995) Aggression (Baumeister, Smart, & Boden, 1996; Papps &

OCarroll, 1998) A variety of self-protective or self-enhancement strategies(Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1993; Baumeister, Tice, &Hutton, 1989; Blaine & Crocker, 1993; Fitch, 1970; Gibbons &McCoy, 1991; Miller & Ross, 1975; Tice, 1991).


10/15

Two Forms of High Self-Esteem

Contemporary theorists (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 1995; Kernis,2003) have proposed that there are actually two forms ofhigh self-esteem: securehigh self-esteem and fragilehighself-esteem.

Secure high self-esteem reflects positive attitudes towardthe self that are realistic, well-anchored, and resistant tothreat Able to recognize and acknowledge their weaknesses without feeling

threatened The solid foundation for their feelings of self-worth protects these

individuals from the normal adversities of day-to-day life

Fragile high self-esteem refers to feelings of self-worth thatare vulnerable to challenge, require constant validation, andrely upon some degree of self-deception Individuals with fragile high self-esteem are believed to frequently utilize

self-protective and self-enhancing strategies in order to preserve theirseemingly precious self-esteem resources


11/15

Secure vs. Fragile Self-Esteem

There are three primary models used todistinguish between secure and fragilehigh self-esteem

Contingent Self-Esteem

Discrepancies Between Implicit and ExplicitSelf-Esteem

Self-Esteem Instability


12/15

Contingent Self-Esteem People differ in what they believe they must be or do to be

a worthy and valuable person, and therefore in what typesof events produce an increase or decrease in their self-esteem (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001; Deci & Ryan, 1995)

Self-esteem reactions to acceptance/rejection letters fromgraduate school (Crocker, Sommers, & Luhtanen, 2002)

Self-esteem reactions to good/bad grades (Crocker,Karpinski, Quinn, & Chase, 2003)

Predict the time that college freshmen spend in variousactivities (e.g., studying, socializing, and grooming; Crocker,Luhtanen, et al., 2003) as well as the problems they

encounter (e.g., academic and financial problems; Crocker& Luhtanen, 2003) Contingent self-esteem has also been linked to

Interpersonal style (Zeigler-Hill, 2006b) Narcissistic subtypes (Zeigler-Hill, Clark, & Pickard, 2008)

Compartmentalized self-concept structure (Zeigler-Hill & Showers, inpreparation)


13/15

Discrepant Self-Esteem

Discrepancies may form between an individuals level of implicit self-esteem and their level of explicit self-esteem (Bosson, Brown, Zeigler-Hill,& Swann, 2003; Jordan, Spencer, Zanna, Hoshino-Browne, & Correll,2003)

This notion that individuals with discrepant high self-esteem are relyingupon overt grandiosity to conceal unacknowledged negative feelings aboutthe self is consistent with classic views concerning narcissism (Kernberg,1970; Kohut, 1971) and has recently received empirical support usingdifferent measures of implicit self-esteem (Jordan et al., 2003; Zeigler-Hill,2006)

A number of other findings may also support the idea that the positiveself-views of individuals with discrepant high self-esteem are defensiveand vulnerable to challenge

Temporal fluctuations in their state self-esteem (Zeigler-Hill, 2006) Display increased self-enhancement tendencies (Bosson et al., 2003) React to uncertainty-threats with strong compensatory conviction (McGregor &

Marigold, 2003, Study 3) Use racial discrimination as a way of maintaining threatened self-images

(Jordan, Spencer, & Zanna, 2005)


14/15

Unstable Self-Esteem

Self-esteem instability refers to temporal fluctuations in state self-esteem(Kernis, Grannemann, & Barclay, 1989; Rosenberg, 1986) Often captured as the within-subject standard deviation of repeated

measurements of state self-esteem

Individuals with unstable high self-esteem behave as if their self-esteem isconstantly at stake (Greenier et al., 1999; Kernis, Brown, & Brody, 2000;Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993; Kernis, Greenier, Herlocker,Whisenhunt, & Abend, 1997; Waschull & Kernis, 1996)

Compared with individuals who possess stable high self-esteem, those withunstable high self-esteem are more likely to Boast about a recent success to their friends (Kernis et al., 1997) Report higher levels of anger and hostility (Kernis et al., 1989) Engage in self-handicapping (Kernis et al., 1992; Newman & Wadas, 1997) Adopt a self-esteem protective orientation toward learning (Waschull & Kernis,

1996) Be highly selective in their acceptance of relevant feedback (Kernis, Cornell,

Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993) Employ immature psychological defenses (Myers & Zeigler-Hill, 2008; Zeigler-

Hill, Chadha, & Osterman, 2008)

Report more dominant/hostile interpersonal styles (Zeigler-Hill & Beckman,under revision)


15/15

Is Self-Esteem Important?

The importance of self-esteem does notappear be tied only to whether it is high orlow

Rather, the motivational consequences ofself-esteem may be related to otheraspects of self-esteem

the pursuit of self-esteem

Documents