Self Esteem & Self Presentation

Self Esteem & Self Presentation
ATS1262 2015: Week 3 Dr RoseAnne Misajon
Lecture Outline
• SELF – ESTEEM
• SELF – PRESENTATION
SELF-ESTEEM
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• There is a popular belief that low selfesteem causes people to be aggressive and antisocial, and that therefore social institutions should do all they can to nourish
high self-esteem, especially in children. Is it true that high self-esteem is a panacea for society’s ills?
What is ‘self-esteem’?
• Self-Esteem: An affective component of the self, consisting of a person’s positive and negative self-evaluations. i.e. How favorably someone evaluates herself or
himself.
• People with high SE hold very favorable views: i.e. usually means they consider themselves to be competent, likable, attractive and morally good.
What about people with low self-esteem?
• Very few people hold extremely negative views about themselves
• Most common form of low self-esteem is simply the absence of strong positive views about the self
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Secure vs defensive high self-esteem
• Secure high self-esteem: possess positive self-views that are confidently held; these individuals feel good about themselves and do not need constant reassurance
from others to maintain their high self-esteem
• Defensive self-esteem: possess positive self-views that are fragile and vulnerable to threat, these individuals harbor subconscious self-doubts and insecurities, and
require repeated positive feedback from others
Main conclusions about people with low SE
1. They do not want to fail (contrary to early theories)
2. Their ideas about themselves are conflicted and uncertain: ‘self-concept confusion’
3. Focus on self-protection rather than self-enhancement
4. More prone to emotional highs and low
Why do we care? The need for self-esteem
• Sociometer theory: View that self-esteem is linked to social acceptance. Sociometer is a measure of how desirable one would be to other people.
• Terror management theory: The theory that humans cope with the fear or their own death by constructing worldviews that help to preserve their self-esteem
• Simple theory is that it feels good
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Gender, ethnicity, and self-esteem
• Are there gender differences?
• How do different ethnic groups compare?
Self-discrepancy theory
• What determines how people feel about themselves? • Actual vs ideal vs ought selves
• Discrepancy between actual and ought selves: feel guilty, ashamed, resentful • Discrepancy between actual and ideal selves: feel disappointed, frustrated,
unfulfilled and sad
Self-awareness trap
• Self-awareness theory: that self-focused attention leads people to notice self-discrepancies, thereby motivating either an escape from self-awareness or a change in
behaviour
• Just as situations can evoke a state of self-awareness, some individuals are generally more self-focused than others
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How Self-conscious are you?
• Private self-consciousness: A personality characteristic of individuals who are introspective, often attending to their own inner states: • Items that measure
private self-consciousness – I’m always trying to figure myself out – I’m constantly examining my motives – I’m often the subject of my fantasies – I’m alert to
changes in my mood – I’m aware of the way my mind works when I work on a problem
• Public self-consciousness: A personality characteristic of individuals who focus on themselves as social objects, as seen by others • Items that measure public
self-consciousness: – I’m concerned about what other people think of me – I’m concerned about the way I present myself – I’m self-conscious about the way I look – I
usually worry about making a good impression – One of the last things I do before leaving my house is look in the mirror
Work in the 70s and 80s examined whether or not depressed people had distorted view of reality.
Surprisingly, the answer was no. In fact, it was ‘normal’ or nondepressed people that were more likely to hold distorted views
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Positive illusions
• Three ‘positive illusions’ common in well-adjusted, mentally health people:
1. People overestimate their good qualities (and underestimate their faults) 2. People overestimate their perceived control over events 3. People are unrealistically
optimistic
How people ‘fool themselves’
• Self-deception strategies: mental tricks people use to help themselves believe things that are false
– Self-serving Bias: a pattern in which people claim credit for success but deny blame for failure
– Being more skeptical of bad feedback
– Attention & memory
– Self-handicapping
– Basking in the glory of others
– Social comparisons (i.e. downward social comparisons)
– Differential assessments of good traits vs faults
– Even differing definition of what is a good trait
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Benefits of High Self-Esteem
• Two key benefits:
1. Initiative 2. It feels good
Is high SE always good?


Narcissism: a disposition that represents the extent to which people have excessive love for themselves and selfish orientation


Threatened egotism: a hostile, aggressive response to criticism from others, which has been linked to narcissism


High SE also associated with higher prejudice
The pursuit of self-esteem
• Is it true that high self-esteem is a panacea for society’s ills?
• Unfortunately, no
• Pursuit of self-esteem as an end in itself can have harmful consequences
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Characteristics of people with high and low selfesteem


Persistent and resilient in the face of failure


Emotionally stable


Less flexible and malleable


Less easily persuaded and influenced


No conflict between wanting and obtaining success and approval


React positively to a happy and successful life


Thorough, consistent and stable self-concept


Self-enhancement motivational orientation


Vulnerable to impact of everyday events


Wide swings in mood and affect


Flexible and malleable


Easily persuaded and influenced


Want success and approval but are skeptical of it


React negatively to a happy and successful life


Sketchy, inconsistent and unstable self-concept


Self-protective motivational orientation
SELF-PRESENTATION
SELF-PRESENTATION
• Self-presentation: any behaviour that seeks to convey some image of self or some information about the self to other people
• Through self-presentation, people can increase their chances of being accepted by others and can claim a valued identity within the social system, thereby enabling
them to maintain their place in the group
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Strategic self-presentation
1. Self-promotion: an attempt to persuade others that you are competent 2. Ingratiation: an attempt to get others to like you 3. Intimidation: an attempt to get others
to think you are dangerous 4. Exemplification: an attempt to get others to regard you as morally respectable individual 5. Supplication: an attempt to get others to
take pity on you as helpless and needy
Self-validation
• Self-verification: the desire to have others perceive us as we truly perceive ourselves
• Self-presentation and claiming identity: important task of obtaining social validation for your identity claims
• Tradeoff: Favourability vs plausibility • What about modesty?
• Self-presentation and risky behaviour: Selfpresentation is so important to people that sometimes that will risk illness, injury, or even death in order to make a
good impression
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Self-Monitoring
• Self-Monitoring: The tendency to change behaviour in response to the self-presentation concerns of the situation
• i.e. refers to the extent to which people rely on external or internal cues to guide their behaviour.
• High self-monitors pay attention to external cues, such as group norms or what other people want, in deciding how to behave.
• Low self-monitors are largely insensitive to external cues, instead deciding how to behave based on internal states like attitudes and values.
Who are you on the internet?
• Something that many people find burdensome in ‘real’ life is that they feel as though they are defined rather narrowly. • Internet is playing an important role in
‘identity experiments’, for adolescents and adults • Also allows for opportunities to engage in selfdisclosure • Facebook profiles – opportunity for social validation
of claimed identity

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