Self-Esteem Essay -- Self Image Self-Perception Theory Essays

As people’s outcomes in life depend heavily on how others perceive and evaluate them, they are 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: â€Å" 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 â€Å"state†. If the condition is something which is an average over a period of time it is known as a â€Å"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: â€Å"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: â€Å"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 def... ... 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 internalisation 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.