User:Laurenclifford

My name is Lauren Clifford. I am currently studying Psychology at the University of Southampton. I am part of the Self and Identity Task Force, (a sub-project of  WikiProject Psychology supervised by my lecturer  Aiden Gregg. It is my aim to create a subarticle on the  Security of Self-Esteem.  Research will be reviewed to find out what security of self-esteem refers to and how it can affect individuals self-views and identities.

Here is my provisional plan for creating the Security of Self-Esteem article.

What is Security of Self-Esteem
There are a number of factors that play a role in determining the security of self-esteem. The implicitness of Self-esteem looks at how the concepts of good and self are linked. Self-compassion determines whether there is a capacity to forgive oneself for personal defects and personal errors that have been made. Narcissism is whether self-esteem can be excessive in a negative nature and the Self-esteem stability determines how self-esteem changes over time. Finally, the contingency of Self-esteem can determine how conditions affect the security of Self-esteem.

Implicit Self-Esteem
Implicit self-esteem is the positive or negative self-evaluation by an individual in a spontaneous, automatic or unconscious manner. In contrast, explicit self-esteem is more conscious and reflective self-evaluation. Implicit and explicit measures assess different elements of self-esteem. Explicit measures access more genuine self-esteem where as implicit measures are informative about associations that influence human behaviour. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) looks at the positive and negative associations between the self and others. The IAT is the most commonly used measure for implicit self-esteem. The Name Letter Task is another measure of implicit self-esteem and shows that individuals prefer the letters in their own name, therefore rating connections to themseves more favourable than of others.

People with high implicit self-esteem are more hopeful and accepting of negativity in their lives and this results in a lower level of self-protection. Self-esteem can be fragile or secure and for high implicit self-esteem individuals, security is higher due to their optimism.

Individuals with high explicit self-esteem can have low implicit self-esteem. The positive feelings towards the self that are created by explicit self-esteem are undermined by the fragility of low implicit self-esteem that creates insecurity and negative self-views. This affects the security of self-esteem because there is a battle between elements of explicit and implicit self-esteem. Between the conscious and unconscious.

Self-Compassion
Neff (2007) proposed that self-compassion constitutes three main components. These are self-kindness versus self-judgment, humanity versus isolation and mindfulness versus over-identification. When these elements complement one another they are seen to produce self-compassion. Self-compassion occurs from external or internal suffering. Either from suffering that is not the fault of oneself or from one's own inadequacies.

Why is self-compassion beneficial
Most people will say that they are harsher towards themselves than others. . Self-compassionate people are equally as kind to themselves as to others. They turn inwards to offer themselves a caring and healing approach to the obstacles that life can throw. This creates a more positive well-being and less suffering because self-compassionate individuals see that the struggles of life are shared among humanity and therefore they do not feel alone. Recognition that not all individuals can be perfect all of the time, and that the human race is faced with many imperfections is helpful. Mindfulness is important: Being aware of the present moment experience in a balanced manner means that one neither ignores nor ruminates on disliked aspects of oneself or one's life. It allows a perspective to be taken whereby the individual looks at the situation from the outside, away from the chaos and challenges that are causing the self-dislike. There are other persepectives on self-compassion. See Gilbert (1989;2003). The way that self-compassionate individuals deal with negative life events shows that people with higher self-compassion, measured on the self-compassion scale (SCS) felt less isolated by their problems. However, self-compassion can enhance positive emotions. It has been linked to greater feelings of social connectedness and life satisfaction. Self-compassion is lined with many of the positives of high self-esteem and it is a positive predictor of happiness and optimism and a negative predictor of depression and anxiety.

Narcissism
Narcissism is the love for oneself and the view of self-importance that dominates the individual. Narcissists constantly seek self-validation from other individuals. The most widely referred to model of Narcissism is the dynamic self-regulatory processing model. It describes Narcissism as 'an ongoing personality process' that pursues the highest superior self-views possible. Alongside their self-view of superiority, Narcissists have unstable views of themselves which instigates their strive to be superior over other individuals (interpersonal narcissism). Narcissists take credit for positive outcomes in which they are associated (intrapersonal narcissism). One suggestion is that narcissism can be viewed as a pattern of  addiction to self-esteem. They are intent on establishing dominance so that they feel good about themselves

Do Narcissists have fragile Self-Esteem
People who have high explicit self-esteem but low implicit self-esteem show the highest levels of narcissism. This was found to be a predictor of defensiveness and idicates that high self-esteem is secure or fragile. The security (or not) of self-esteem is related to a mismatch between implicit and explict feelings of self-worth (Jordan et al. 2003). People with discrepant high self-esteem, indicated by high measures of explicit self-esteem but low measures of implicit self-esteem, showed the highest traits of narcissism. High levels of Narcissism are linked to the underlying self-doubt (implicit), being disguised by the superiority (explicit), all at an unconscious level. Individuals with discrepant high self-esteem, self-enhance and show defensive behaviour tendencies. The insecurities of Narcissists subconsciously leads them to rectify the fragility of their self-esteem. Narcissists self-esteem is insecure as is self-esteem as a whole. The feelings of self-worth are diminished when something goes wrong for narcissists.

Stability of Self-Esteem
Stability of Self-esteem refers to the magnitude of short-term fluctuations that people experience in their current and contextually based feelings of  Self-worth. People may vary in how stable thier self-esteem is. Two factors involved are the ego-involvment in daily activities and how well developed their self-concepts are. Research on stability and the importance of confidence strivings create many different views. Self-esteem instability is measured over a period of assessments to determine the standard deviations between the results of these measures. Kernis, (2005) developed a model of self-esteem instability. It is a method of identifying fragile and secure self-esteem. People with high stable self-esteem have a sound ground on which they built their bridges of self-worth and they are relatively unaffected by events. People with high unstable (fragile) self-esteem feel that their self-esteem is frequently being jeopardised by their day to day lives.

Depression
Depression is a very common mental disorder. It is often a reoccuring problem for individuals and is correlated with low self-esteem (American Psychiatric Association, 2002). Unstable self-esteem is associated with depression and the vulnreability to depression. The instability also affects perceived stress and depressed mood. Self-esteem instability may be a better predictor of depression than the level of self-esteem (high vs low.

Defensiveness
Defences are thought to be protective of one's self-concept. Defense styles are associated with instability. If the defenses are classed as immature, for example denial then individuals show higher levels of instability whether self-esteem level is high or low. Mature defenses such as humour, that are only associated with less instability, have been linked to individuals with low self-esteem. Verbal defensiveness is considerably higher when individuals high self-esteem was fragile (unstable) This emphasises how defensiveness can result due to a lack of security of self-esteem.

Contingency of Self-Esteem
It has been proposed that positive and negative events in domains of contingent self-worth can affect momentary levels of trait self-esteem from typical levels. Despite some people having high and some having low self-esteem, people seek the emotional high associated with success and and avoid the emotional lows associated with failure. Contingent self-esteem is unstable because the individual feels controlled by external pressures. Everything in their lives revolves around performance and acceptance. Self-regard becomes jeopardised and feelings are supressed to maintain a sense of self-worth. Crocker and Knight (2005) proposed that contingencies of self-worth are both sources of motivation and areas of psychological vulnerability. In domains of contingent self-worth, people pursue self-esteem by attempting to validate their abilities. The pursuit of self-esteem has costs to learning, relationships, autonomy, self-regulation, and mental and physical health. All of which affect the security of self-esteem. Low self-esteem has been found to uniquely contribute to later social difficulties. Crocker (in press) has proposed the CSW, a 35-item scale assessing seven contingencies on which college students base their self-esteem. These include physical, appearance, approval from others, outdoing others, academic competence, family support, virtue and god's love. A similar scale could generalise beyond students

Egosystem vs Ecosystem
Egosystem refers to self-image goals and these have costs for belonging. ecosystem refers to compassionate goals and are positive and important for an individual to belong. Belonging is important for human kind. In terms of self-goals, self-presentation is a relevant factor for new relationships and fitting in to groups. People want to portray themselves positively. For compassionate goals, people worry about others' views of them and this causes social anxiety. An ecosystem allows the individual to focus on their needs as being part of a bigger picture. Individuals who follow an egosystem come across social situations where they feel a need to fight or flight. To deal with such situations, an individual must adopt the eco-system that allows for the needs of others. This metaphoric model suggests that self-esteem will be higher under the ecosystem.