Tuesday 30 March 2010

Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor

Dr Carol Craig

Chief Executive

Centre For Confidence and Well-being

Defining self-esteem

Common definitions of self esteem relate to the emotional judgments people make about their worth as an individual irrespective of their achievements or social position.

Self-esteem - a modern panacea

Advocates claim that boosting young people’s self-esteem will have a strongly beneficial effect on –

• Academic performance• Bullying and violence• Drug/alcohol consumption• Unemployment• Mental health …

Only exceptions to the power of self-esteem …

• Acne • Veruccas• Dandruff

The fly in the ointment -

Lack of evidence

Professor Baumeister to the rescue

Professor Roy Baumeister concluded that his research on self-esteem was ‘the biggest dissapointment of his career’.

Not only was it not too important but he believed that high self-esteem was a bigger problem for society than low self-esteem.

Similar UK research and conclusions

Professor Nicholas Emler - a psychologist at the LSE now at the University of Surrey - commissioned by the Rowantree Trust to look at the evidence base for self-esteem.

What’s undisputed about self-esteem

• Self-esteem exists• Can be measured (e.g Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale)• Is a positive feeling of some value to the individual

The research problem

People who report high self-esteem tend to claim, for example, that they -

• Are good looking• Have good social skills• Are intelligent …

But this is not always corroborated by others.

Summary of Baumeister and Emler’s research findings

LOW self-esteem is positively

correlated with –

• Teenage pregnancy• Eating disorders• Teenage smoking in girls• Unemployment/low income in males• Vulnerability to depression• Suicide and suicidal thoughts• Victims of bullying

Summary of Baumeister’s and Emler’s research findings

HIGH self-esteem is positively correlated with –

• Speaking out in large groups• Initiating relationships with others• Sexual experimentation in young people• Racist attitudes• Violence (bullies, sociopaths etc report high

self-esteem)• Achieving goals through self-regulation• Happiness• Better management of stress so some

positive health outcomes.

Bullies …

• Often the most popular youngsters.

• They defy adults to preserve popularity and gain status.

• They also have good social skills and can act in positive ways.

High self-esteem - includes all sorts

Those scoring high on self-esteem includes those with –

• Authentic high self-esteem

• Inauthentic high self-esteem (need others to boost how they feel about themselves)

• Narcissists

Summary of Baumeister’s and Emler’s research findings

Self-esteem is irrelevant for -

• Many job or performance tasks

• Alcohol or drug abuse

• Academic performance

Self-esteem and academic success

.

White girls and Asian students score low on self-esteem but do well academically, while black boys who score high perform poorly

Research shows that what matters for academic performance is ability, IQ, mindset, family background and social class.

So what happened in the US with self-esteem?

Since self-esteem was portrayed as a

panacea –

• Self-respecting parents saw it as their duty to boost their child's self-esteem

• Schools made it part of their mission to boost their students’ self-esteem.

Self-esteem boosting activities 1

Over the top praise (for not very much)

Self-esteem boosting activities 2

Not giving negative feedback/criticism

Self-esteem boosting activities 3

Encouraging the young person to focus on him/herself and his/her feelings.

Self-esteem boosting activities 4

Restricting competition so that those who don’t win don’t feel bad about themselves.

Self-esteem boosting activities 5

Giving everyone recognition or ‘unconditional positive regard’ no matter what they do.

Self-esteem boosting activities 6

Aspirational grading/restricting opportunities to fail.

What these approaches have in common

These approaches focus on how the young person feels about him/herself in the moment and can easily lead to a lowering of expectations and challenges to preserve self-esteem.

Result of these practices?

• Plummeting academic standards.

• Reduction in young people’s resilience, mental well-being and life skills.

Impact on American education

• Educational standards are a major political issue.• The US spends large sums of money on education

but it does not translate into high standards• US spends $16 billion dollars a year on remedial classes

for University students (English, science, maths)• One study showed that American students are top of the • league if asked to rate their competence in maths but

bottom if asked to demonstrate competence (opposite for Korea)

• Average Scottish pupils/students will be top of theclass if they go to a school/college in the US

Impact on young people’s mental health and life skills 1

Overprotection can

undermine resilience:

We’re trying to bring

children up in too clean a

psychological environment

Impact on young people’s mental health and life skills 2

Bad feelings have a purpose; they galvanise us to do things differently. So by stopping young people meeting adversities it can undermine their motivation to change or improve.

Impact on young people’s mental health and life skills 3

Can easily encourage young people to believe that the most important thing in life is how they feel about themselves.

This results in young people –

• Blowing out of proportion the normal vicissitudes of life.• Seeing themselves as the centre of the world,

thereby undermining meaning.

What has the wicked witch of the west got to do with Scottish

schools?

Where does self-esteem come from?

Professor Nicholas Emler’s research –

• Class, race, gender not very important

• So what effects it?

Where does self-esteem come from?

• 30 per cent genetic (just who you are)

• Remainder mainly affected by parenting style and family circumstances

• Child abuse and neglect have devastating consequences for people’s self-esteem.

The origins of self-esteem

Self-esteem is largely about being loved, approved of and accepted as a child by your parents. This leads the child to see him/herself as a worthwhile individual and to have a good level of self-esteem.

Parenting styles

Cold/firmAuthoritarian

Cold/softNeglectful

Warm/firmAuthoritative

Warm/softIndulgent/permissive

Role of professionals in boosting self-esteem

• Professor Nicholas Emler thinks that teachers influence children’s self-esteem very little.

• Glasgow based educational psychologist, Alan McLean, argues that teachers can’t have much of a positive effect on young people’s self-esteem but they can probably make it worse.

• Early years/social workers or those in loco parentis?

Low self-esteem is positively correlated with –•Teenage pregnancy •Eating disorders•Teenage smoking in girls•Unemployment/low income in males (NEET) •Vulnerability to depression•Suicide and suicidal thoughts.

Does Scotland have a self- esteem problem?

Self-efficacy + optimism

.

Centre’s definition of confidence

Self- efficacy is I can (not how I feel about myself).

It is the belief you can meet specific goals - not a particular set of skills such as public speaking.

.

Centre’s definition of confidence

International figures on self-esteem

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Country

Japan (25.5)

Hong Kong (27.54)

France (29.86)

Scotland (30.13)

Canada (30.22)

New Zealand (30.24)

UK (30.55)

Australia (31.07)

Portugal (31.30)

Finland (31.76)

United States (32.21)

Serbia (33.59)

The Scottish data is based on research by the Centre for Confidence and Well-being. All other data is from the paper ‘Suicide and Self-esteem rates in 55 Nations’ which can be found in the European Journal of Personality, 23(1) 19-32, February 2009.

UK comparisons on self-esteem(%)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Organisation

Scottish secondaryschool pupils (63%)

Scottish secondaryschool/careers guidance(potential NEET) (63%)Top performing Scottishsecondary school pupils(62%)English fee paying schoolpupils (66%)

English youth offenders(59%)

English Universitystudents (66%)

Scottish Universitystudents (65%)

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES) questionnaire was used. The data has been gathered by the Centre for Confidence and Well-being.

Self esteem for secondary school pupils and university students by gender (%)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Gender

Female secondary schoolpupils (61.20%)

Male secondary schoolpupils (65.64%)

Female universitystudents (66.60%)

Male university students(66.96%)

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES) questionnaire was used.The data has been gathered by the Centre for Confidence and Well-being.

Self esteem of Scottish school pupils by quintile (deprivation area)(%)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Quintile (deprivation area)

Quintile 1 (least deprived)(63.95%)

Quintile 2 (63.20%)

Quintile 3 (62.76%)

Quintile 4 (62.60%)

Quintile 5 (most deprived)(61.75%)

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES) questionnaire was used. The data has been gathered by the Centre for Confidence and Well-being.

In conclusion

The Centre is not arguing for the bad old days of criticism, judgment, putdowns and negativity…

A balance needs to be struck

Let’s avoid going from one extreme to another.

‘Yer no the centre of the universe’ might be a better way to foster young people’s well-being than encouraging them to be fixated with themselves and their achievements

Maybe our grannies wereright: