CAN UNJUSTIFIED HIGHT SELF ESTEEM LEAD TO VIOLENCE
One societal belief widelyheld at the start of the twenty first century is that we should do everything we can to nurture people’s self esteem. High self esteem is usualy viewed as a forerunner of success and accomplishment, ad low self esteem is seen as a problem to be remedied.
But not everyone agrees. According to phychologists Brad Bushman and Roy Raumeister (1998), not only can high self – esteem be pshychologically damaging to the person who holds it can lead to violence if that self esteem is unjustified by actual accomplishment. These researchers suggest not only that some pople who turn to violence see themselves in a positive light, but that their positive view of themselves is exaggerated. Even in the face of events that would typically lead to lower self esteem such as school or work failure such individuals maintain positive views of themselves, and ultimately this unwarrantedly positive self esteem lead to violence.
This view of violent personalities suggest that when people with unjustified high self esteem (a condition known a narcissism) feel challenged, or threatened by others, they react vigorously and often violently by seeking to maintain their positive view of themselves. In contrast, people with lower self – esteem who are challenged or threathened simply see the challenge or threat as confirming their lower self esteem; and those with high, but justified, self – esteem are able to ignore challnges and threats (Baumeister, Bushman, et Campbell, 2000)
Result of experiments support this view. For example, Bushman and Baumeister (1998) asked participants in a study to write and essay, which, for some was greatly critized. The participants then were asked to play a game that gave them the opportunity to blast loud noise at an opponent a measure of aggresion. The result showed that participants with highs unjustified narcissistic self – esteem who had been criticized showed significantly more aggression to their opponents than those with justified high self esteem.
These findings have direct relevance to social programs that uncritically aim to raise self esteem. Feel good messages that seek to instill higher self esteem in everyone (“We’re all special” and “we applaud ourselves”) might be off the target, leading people to develop unwarranted high self esteem. Instead, parents, shcools, ad community institutions should seek to provide opportunities for people to earn self esteem through their actual achievements (Begley, 1998b).
Are there particular social groups for which the isuse of self esteem is of particular importance? For Example, what might be the consequences if a politican – saya, a persidential candidate had unjustified high self – esteem.
