yosb:
listen up yall its time for some social pysch education about self evaluation:
- self-esteem is the positive/negative overall evaluation you have of yourself; you know, the stuff self-help bullshit tries to target: attributes and qualities, successes and failures, etc (within this, theres trait self-esteem and state self-esteem; trait is the enduring level of confidence and regard you have for defining abilities and characteristics across time. state is changeable and dynamic, includes momentary feelings about the self)
- now some assholes crocker and wolfe have proposed a contingencies of self-worth theory, an account of self-esteem maintaining that it is contingent on successes and failures in domains on which a person has based his/her self-worth (these items are self-selected personal schemas because isnt it fucking dandy that human beings have so many self-definitions as a buffer — all praise self-complexity and our capacity for self-illusion)
- now, theres also self-evaluation. in the self-evaluation maintenance model, we are motivated to view ourselves in a favorable light and we do so through two processes: reflection and social comparison
- self-evaluation is about cognitive dissonance: its guided by two conflicting motivations. we want to feel good about ourselves but we desire to know the truth (and this is when scientific studies show the true assholes in us, because we will undermine our friends and strangers in the service of maintaining our self-esteem. we tend to select friends lesser than us in domains that matter to us (favorable social comparison) and seek out people who excel in domains not our own (opportunities for esteem-enhancing reflection)). as gore vidal said, “every time a friend succeeds, i die a little”
- and then theres this bitch called self-presentation who goes by impression management on the streets sometimes. self-presentation is about presenting who we would like others to believe we are and impression management is how we attempt to control the beliefs other people have of us
- we serve face because its the public image of ourselves that we want others to believe
- and because were such messed up fucks, we engage in self-handicapping behaviour, self-defeating behaviours in order to prevent others from drawing unwanted attributions about the self as a result of poor performance
- (thats right tumblr you dont procrastinate because youre an overwrought genius you do it because youre an egotistical fuck who is delusional about your own laziness, skill-set, and intellect)
- in fact, youll probably end up dying to present a favourable self because of social fuckin cohesion and socioeconomic structures
- so just sit there in dejected silence for the rest of your daily dash scroll as your cortisol and fibrinogen do their inexorable work
- tl;dr: self-evaluation =/= self-presentation
- tl;dr: fake it until you make it (pygmalion effect, self-fulfilling prophecy) because its actually objectively “better” for you to believe in lies than to know the truth (youll add morbidity-free years to your life) just also be aware that youll probably engage in dangerous health choices just to save public face because we havent evolved to the point where we can kick ourselves loose of social networks and in-group coherence
i cant even organize my blog, my rl life outside of the internet is completely and irreparably fucked. im patrick bateman. i feel like shit but at least i look great
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