自尊稳定性定义
有些人具有直接的自我价值感,这些感觉每天甚至在给定的一天之内都大大波动。据说这些人具有不稳定的自尊心。其他人具有直接的自我价值感,这些感觉很少会改变。据说这些人具有稳定的自尊心。考虑一下阿什利(Ashley),当被要求考虑一个问题“您此时此刻您有多值得?”每天早晨和晚上持续5天,给出的答案从“我感到非常值得”到“我感到毫无用处”。阿什利拥有不稳定的自尊心。相比之下,希瑟(Heather)对同一问题的回答在同一时期基本相同(“我感到非常值得”),就像马克的回答一样(“我觉得毫无用处”)。希瑟(Heather)和马克(Mark)都具有稳定的自尊心。重要的是,大量研究表明,一个人的自尊心稳定或不稳定的程度对一个人的心理健康和福祉具有重要意义。
Unstable Self-Esteem
Unstable self-esteem reflects fragile and vulnerable feelings of self-worth that are affected by positive and negative experiences that either are internally generated (i.e., a person’s own negative self-evaluations) or externally provided (e.g., getting an A+ on an exam). Moreover, people with unstable self-esteem are said to be highly ego-involved in their everyday activities, which means that they experience their self-esteem as continually being on the line as they go about their lives. For example, whereas someone with unstable self-esteem feels stupid and worthless (reactions that imply negative feelings of self-worth) after receiving a poor grade, someone with stable self-esteem feels badly (e.g., feels disappointed or frustrated) about his or her performance without implicating his or her overall feelings of self-worth. Researchers have examined a number of implications of the heightened self-esteem investment of individuals with unstable self-esteem.
First, daily negative events have a greater adverse impact on individuals with unstable as opposed to stable self-esteem. Researchers found that daily hassles (those irritating events that people experience at times, such as having too much work to do or not enough money to buy what they want), or doing poorly on an important exam, triggers greater increases in depressive symptoms among people with unstable as opposed to stable self-esteem.
其次,自尊心不稳定的人特别关注和响应潜在的自尊威胁。在六年级的孩子中,那些自尊心不稳定的孩子报告说,由于自尊威胁(例如,感到虚弱),而不是促进目标的方面(例如,必须更长的时间),他们更有可能生气负面的人际交往事件(例如,有人在水上喷泉中排在你面前)。
Third, everyday positive and negative events have a greater immediate impact on the self-feelings of people with unstable as opposed to stable self-esteem. When asked to rate the extent to which their most positive and negative daily events made them feel better or worse about themselves over a 2-week period, college students with unstable as opposed to stable self-esteem reported that positive events made them feel better about themselves and negative events made them feel worse about themselves to a greater extent.
第四,自尊心不稳定的人比具有稳定的自尊心的人要比自我确定的较弱(即更少的自我决定,具有相对困惑的自我概念)。拥有强烈的自我意识是积极心理健康的标志。研究表明,比那些对如何控制和压力如何由外界人士和压力的人,对如何根据自己的价值观和利益做出选择的个人(即做出如何基于自己的价值观和利益做出选择)的个人具有更积极的心理健康状况事件。对于那些对自己的身份有清晰而不是困惑意识的个人来说也是如此。研究人员表明,与自尊心稳定的人相比,自尊报告不稳定的人比具有稳定自尊心的人的自主性和自我确定性更少,自我概念较少。
Childhood Factors in Self-Esteem Stability
Of considerable importance is the role that family environments play in the development of children’s self-esteem. Researchers asked 12- and 13-year-old children to report individually on how their mothers and fathers communicated with them. Importantly, children’s perceptions of many aspects of parent-child communication patterns (especially with respect to fathers) related to the extent to which they possessed unstable self-esteem. For example, children who perceived their fathers to be highly critical, to engage in insulting name calling, and to use guilt arousal and love withdrawal as control techniques, had more unstable (as well as lower) self-esteem than did children who did not perceive their fathers in this manner. Moreover, compared with children with stable self-esteem, children with unstable self-esteem indicated that their fathers less frequently talked about the good things that they (the children) had done and were less likely to use value-affirming methods (e.g., hug or spend time with them) when they did show their approval. Still other findings indicated that, compared with fathers of children with low self-esteem, fathers of children with stable high self-esteem, but not unstable high self-esteem, were perceived as using better problem-solving methods to solve disagreements with their children. Perceptions of mothers’ communication styles more consistently related to children’s self-esteem level than to their self-esteem stability. The findings for self-esteem stability that did emerge, however, were largely consistent with those that emerged for fathers.
Levels of Self-Esteem
自尊心水平是指人们的普遍或典型的自我价值感,而自尊的稳定性是指人们的直接自我价值感是否表现出很大的短期波动。这两个自尊成分(级别,稳定性)相对彼此相对独立。因此,人们可以拥有稳定或不稳定的高自尊,或者自尊心稳定或不稳定。大量研究表明,尽管不稳定的高自尊心是脆弱的,但稳定的高自尊心是安全的。例如,高自尊心不稳定的人比稳定的高自尊心更具防御性和自我宣传,但心理健康和福祉的较低。与稳定的高自尊心相比,不稳定的自我价值感觉更加脆弱。与自尊心稳定的个体相比,自尊心不稳定的人更容易受到愤怒和敌意,(b)在面对日常麻烦时可能会显示出抑郁症的增加,(c)在接受采访时口头上的防御关于过去的潜在威胁事件,(d)可能会报告甚至在响应假设的浪漫伴侣违法行为时增加趋势,以及(e)可能报告较低的浪漫关系。这些和其他发现表明,稳定的自尊心是一种健康的自尊形式,而不稳定的高自尊心是一种不健康的自尊形式。因此,对自尊的更完整的理解需要考虑自尊的水平和稳定性。
参考:
- Kernis,M。H.(2003)。朝着最佳自尊的概念化。心理探究,14,1-26。
- Kernis, M. H. (2005). Measuring self-esteem in context: The importance of stability of self-esteem in psychological functioning. Journal of Personality, 73, 1569-1605.
- Kernis,M。H.和Goldman,B.M。(2006)。评估自尊和偶然自尊的稳定性。在M. H. Kernis(编辑)中,《自尊问题与答案:当前观点的资料》(第77-85页)。纽约:心理学出版社。
- Kernis, M. H., Grannemann, B. D., & Barclay, L. C. (1989). Stability and level of self-esteem as predictors of anger arousal and hostility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 1013-1022.