Vicious Cycle Of Low Self Esteem example essay topic

SOCIAL & PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY 1 ST YEAR MAJOR COURSE AUTUMN 2001 CONSIDER THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-PRESENTATION AND SELF-ESTEEM. As people's outcomes in life depend heavily on how others perceive and evaluate them, the yare motivated to convey certain impressions of themselves to others and to refrain from conveying other, undesired impressions. Thus, no matter what else they may be doing, people typically monitor and control their impressions, i.e. a process known as: self-presentation. A great deal of human behaviour is, in part, determined or constrained by people's concerns with others' impressions and evaluations of them. Because all human beings are different from one another, the thought process used which results in the self-presentation of a person will also differ from person to person. In this case the potential factor effecting the self-presentation of an individual is that of the self-esteem of the individual.

Self-esteem being: " An affective component of the self, consisting of a persons' positive and negative self-evaluations". (Brehm, 1999). Although most people have high self-esteem, there are various ways in which self-esteem can be measured; for example when someone is referring to a persons condition at a specific moment in time it is referred to as a "state". If the condition is something which is an average over a period of time it is known as a "trait". Someone who has low self-esteem as a trait is considered to be worse off than a person who is in a state of low self-esteem. Low self esteem is though to have several side affects, both mental and physical which inevitably affect the self-presentation of a person.

Low self esteem can lead onto other ailments of negativity such as: anxiety and depression. Once low self-esteem sets into a person it triggers off a self-defeating cycle in which negative expectations impair performance, which in turn reinforces low self-esteem. This cycle is known as: "The Vicious Cycle of Low Self-Esteem" (Brehm, 1999). On the contrary from people with low self-esteem, people with high self-esteem tend to have a much better quality of life and are happier within themselves, healthier, more productive and successful which all reflects on their self-presentation: "People high in self-esteem are confident and bring to new challenges a winning and motivating attitude. In contrast, people low in self-esteem lack confidence and bring to new tasks a losing attitude that traps them in a vicious, self defeating cycle" (Brehm, 1999). (As described above).

People who have entered this cycle of low self-esteem tend to undergo a behaviour al pattern known as "self-handicapping", whereby their behaviour is designed to sabotage They " re own performance in order to provide a subsequent excuse for failure. This behaviour is seen as a face-saving defence mechanism against failure for people low in self-esteem as proved the experiment: "Self-handicapping: To protect or Enhance Self-Esteem" (Tice, 1991). This is an experiment where participants worked on a task that supposedly measured intelligence. When participants were focused on succeeding, those with high self-esteem practised less. When participants were led to become fearful of failure, those with low self-esteem practised less. This difference may reflect a desire to maximis e the self-presentation of high ability by appearing to succeed despite minimal preparatory effort.

Another stage, which can follow low self-esteem, is that of self-awareness. People are not usually self-focused, but certain situations predictably force us to turn inward and become the objects of our own attention. Actions such as looking in the mirror, standing before an audience, watching ourselves on video camera or even talking about ourselves can put us in a state of heightened self-awareness that leads us naturally to compare our behaviour to some standard. We often find ourselves falling short of that standard which temporarily reduces our self-esteem. Thus "people often experience a negative mood state when placed in front of a mirror" (Hass & Eisen stadt, 1990). In fact, the more self-absorbed people are in general, the more likely they are to suffer from alcoholism, depression, anxiety, and other clinical disorders (Ingram, 1990)".

Self-awareness theory: The theory that self-focused attention leads people to notice self-discrepancies, thereby motivating either an escape from self-awareness or a change in behaviour" (Duval, Wick lund, 1973). In summary, the relatively unusual state of self-awareness may occur when self-focus makes us aware of ourselves as objects of perception. This typically leads us to self-discrepancies between the self and some standard, which in turn has self-esteem and motivational consequences. If action seems unlikely to reduce discrepancy, actors will attempt to withdraw from self-awareness.

Inevitably as a result of all this, creates discomfort within the individual. It is proven that self-awareness can create discomfort and lower self-esteem by focusing attention on discrepancies. An obvious way of avoiding self-awareness is by trying not to focus on one self and turning away from unpleasant truths. Most people think very highly of themselves, most of the time. "Consistently, research has shown that participants see positive traits as more self-descriptive than negative ones, rate themselves more highly than they rate others, rate themselves more highly than they are rated by others, overestimate their contribution to team efforts, exaggerate their control over life events, and predict that they have a bright future" (Taylor, 1989) (Brehm, 1999). Known as the mechanism of self-enhancement.

At the University of Ohio in 1981 three experiments were carried out to explore the effects of self-enhancement or self-deprecation on a persons self-esteem as measured in a separate context. In the first experiment, students were influenced, by observing others in a screening interview, to emulate their self-enhancing or self-deprecating behaviour when they themselves were interviewed. This carried over and was reflected in their subsequent self-esteem. In the second experiment, this carry-over effect was replicated in a setting in which students were interviewed while playing the role of a job candidate.

In the third experiment, students instructed to be self-enhancing in an interview subsequently showed elevated self-esteem (unless their interview behaviour was prescribed by the experimenter and thus not self-referring). Students who were instructed to be self-deprecating subsequently showed lowered self-esteem if they had been given a clear choice as to whether to engage in the interview. It was concluded that self-perception theory can account for self-enhancing carry-over, whereas dissonance theory offers a more appropriate explanation for the carry-over or internalization of self-deprecating actions. If the question were to be asked if self-esteem and self-presentation were related, then the answer to that question would undoubtedly be yes. It is interesting to explore the avenues down which the two go hand in hand, as there are many aspects of human behaviour which could be as a result of self-esteem. It is something that determines the quality of life for human-beings.

One's self-presentation is undoubtedly something that reflects, to the outside world, someone's inner most feelings, be they happiness and contention or sadness and despair.