When kids hit the real world and find they're idea of themselves and their abilities is an inflated lie, what happens? "These young egotists can grow up to be depressed adults."
An excerpt from the article:
Despite a library's worth of self-help books promoting the idea we can achieve anything if we believe we can, there's very little evidence that raising self-esteem produces positive, real-world outcomes.'If there is any effect at all, it is quite small,' said Roy Baumeister of Florida State University, who authored a 2003 paper on self-esteem studies.
Baumeister found that while successful people did have high-self esteem in many cases, it was unclear what actual caused their success if the first place.
Both self-esteem and success were often influenced by another factor.
'Coming from a good family might lead to both high self-esteem and personal success.' Baumeister said. 'Self-control is much more powerful and well-supported as a cause of personal success. Despite my years invested in research on self-esteem, I reluctantly advise people to forget about it.'
Twenge compared it to a swimmer trying to learn a turn who needs to believe that learning the skill is possible but who won't actually be aided in acquiring that skill by their belief.
I know many young people who refuse to grow up. They put off marriage and kids and even a career for fear of boredom. So they pursue graduate degrees because there is no job that is good enough for them. My daughter is 30 and the mother of three children and a stay-at-home Mom. She is an anomaly among many of her former classmates.
ReplyDelete