I was viewing some advertising about reading material, I noticed that the books aimed at girls would have been better if they were more affirming that its awesome to be awesome, as compared with, a kind of stylistic self deprecation.
One effect I have read about, with a peer reviewed journal reference, is the survey effect. even if people had zero prior conception of "id make a caring forest ranger", or "I like Sweden" if you ask a few hundred people, a few of them will start having urges to be caring forest rangers or Swedophiles.
Over 900 million social networking users are currently known. Thus a parent or even the person, could simply use an app that was a really rapid splash screen before social networking with phrases like
"my personality is really friendly"
"I get thing accomplished when I want to"
The person just chooses whichever affirmation they like more. Then proceed to social networking less than 20 seconds later. that might represent a few hundred or over a thousand reminders of well being a year. If 1 pct of socal networking users used this, possibly as a result of parents, thats near 10 million people with measurably higher self esteem.
Also importantly, measurement based psychologists would actually find out which survey message out of many thousands actually had detectable beneficial effects on improving self esteem.
I know this is super obvious yet it might be a pleasant mutually beneficial piece of software.-- beanangel, Oct 09 2012 you're fat and nobody wants to talk to you.-- WcW, Oct 09 2012 //thats near 10 million people with measurably higher self esteem.//
No it isn't. Thats near 10 million people who have seen an affirmatory statement on their computer screen.
However, such a system must work, because nowadays we spend every third sentence telling children how clever they are, how unique they are, how special they are, how capable they are of being whatever they want to be, and what a good job they've done; and self-esteem is at an all-time high.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 09 2012 I think you should HELP me DEMONSTRATE, MB.-- WcW, Oct 10 2012 This seems redundant; people already use social networks to enhance their self esteem by tallying the 41,000 'friends' they have. These same people probably don't have one person offline they could meet for coffee.-- Phrontistery, Oct 10 2012 I wonder
1: how to measure beneficial effect of affirming statement.
2: whether it matters what is being affirmed: eg is it better to read "my personality is really friendly" or "I like Sweden!". Is a positive affirmation good in itself?
3: is it better to affirm in a vacuum ("my personality is really friendly") vs a comparison ("my personality is friendlier than most people")
+ from me for intent, research basis as well as observation about "stylistic self-deprecation" which I had not heard put that way before.-- bungston, Oct 10 2012 //"Be yourself" - much better.//
That very much depends. I know several people who would be better off being other people.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 10 2012 //does it really benefit anyone for them to pretend they are someone else ?// Yes, often. The intercalary twin, for example, currently has more hands than he would have if he had not pretended he was someone else, at least for the brief time it took to misdirect a machete-wielding opium grower.
How about getting seven billion little plastic cards laminated, one for each person, bearing the words "You are special"? That should help.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 10 2012 Better if they said "You are unique"-- pocmloc, Oct 10 2012 What does self-esteem refer to exactly? Is it the value your personal currency trades at relative to others, or your self-assesment of that value and resulting exchanges?
Self-esteem as a concept has to be some sort of compromise between self-concept and others-concept. Overall it's a bullshit psychology concept. Psychology reduces the mind to an object and expects a self to have some sort of esteem.-- rcarty, Oct 10 2012 //Better if they said "You are unique"// The problem is that everyone _is_ unique, in much the same way that every matchstick is unique.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 10 2012 Since everyone is unique if there was a couple people who were the same that would be unique too.-- rcarty, Oct 10 2012 Yeah, but two people can't both be unique.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 10 2012 //nowadays we spend every third sentence telling children how clever they are, how unique they are, how special they are, how capable they are of being whatever they want to be, and what a good job they've done//
I dunno. I referee youth soccer on the weekends, and some of the stuff I hear a few of the parents and coaches shout at their own kids borders on psychological abuse. I can't believe these parents treat their kids all that much differently when they're off the field.-- ytk, Oct 10 2012 /Yeah, but two people can't both be unique./
Aha! So you admit it!-- rcarty, Oct 10 2012 I've always thought that prisons are filled with people with the highest self esteem and the upper echelons of the arts and sciences are filled with people that had something to prove.
In other words, self esteem can be over rated, especially if it isn't earned through a little effort.
As far as self esteem in kids, actually wanting them gives them a good start, but then you need to show them how to earn self esteem on their own. Just patting them on the head and telling them the sun shines out of their ass is going to give them an un-realistic view of the world.
And I've met plenty of people who really like themselves that really shouldn't.-- doctorremulac3, Oct 10 2012 Nothing unnerves kids like adults telling them how their esteem should be. Except, possibly, mobile phones telling them how their esteem should be.
Even so, I'm bunning this idea for bringing a bit of recognition to Swedophiles, and not before time.
By the way, it's not just girls who struggle with esteem issues. The lack of inclusivity in this idea has left me feeling hollow and unloved. I'm away to pull the wings off a puppy.-- Fishrat, Oct 14 2012 random, halfbakery