Self-confidence

Under the Self-confidence Psychology understands the evaluation of the self in comparison with other people. The neuropsychological model of the body schema is considered to be the anchor point of self-worth. Narcissists suffer from pathological self-esteem.

What is the self-esteem?

Everyone gives themselves a certain evaluation. This evaluation results from one's own positive or negative experiences as well as the comparison of one's own person with others. The result of the comparison is also known as self-worth or self-esteem. Synonymous terms are Self-confidence or Self-respect.

From a neuropsychological point of view, self-confidence is anchored in the body diagram. It can only develop from the perception of one's own body, separated from the environment. However, self-esteem is primarily shaped by social factors. Self-confidence relates to one's own personality, one's own abilities, experiences made or the sense of self and self.

As a concept of scientific psychology, self-confidence is above all a topic of personality psychology and differential psychology. Self-worth is one of three components of self from a psychological point of view. It corresponds to the affective component. The cognitive component is the self-concept. The conative component is known as self-expression.

Function & task

The body schema is a neuropsychological concept that exists from birth. It describes the idea of ​​one's own body including the body-superficial delimitation from the environment. Presumably, the body schema is genetically anchored and develops in the context of interaction with the environment. Language development also contributes to the formation of the body schema. Self-confidence is dependent on a body schema. An evaluation of oneself is not possible without being aware of oneself.

Humans receive self-related information from three different sources. The introspection informs him about behavior and experiences. These observations can be compared with previous events and thus lead to positive or negative self-assessments. The second source is society. Depending on the social comparison with others, people experience themselves differently. Feedback from others is the third source of self-related information.

The individual draws his or her self-worth on the social level from various sources of self-worth. One ephemeral source of self-worth is beauty, for example. These ephemeral sources are more prone to slumps in self-worth.

A person's self-esteem influences each of their behavior and thus, for example, their entire social life. Even small children develop a self-esteem through the ratings “good” or “bad”. In the course of development, the social comparison with others becomes more and more relevant.

At the threshold to new phases of life, self-esteem is usually in transition. Puberty in particular is characterized by self-doubt. In girls, self-esteem falls during this time, as their pubertal development usually does not correlate with socially established ideals of beauty, but their scope of experience is not yet sufficient to understand the exaggeration and artificiality of these ideals.

In adulthood, family and professional successes and failures change the self-esteem developed up to that point. Self-confidence reaches a peak around the age of 60. Due to the changed socio-economic status in old age, things usually decline somewhat afterwards.

Self-confidence can be disturbed in either direction. Too high self-confidence and thus the susceptibility to megalomania is just as unhealthy from a psychological point of view as low self-worth and susceptibility to resignation or self-hatred. Insecurities can trigger both forms of impaired self-worth.

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Illnesses & ailments

One of the most famous diseases with impaired self-esteem is narcissism. Everyday narcissism is not pathological. It is characterized by an inflated, surreally positive self-assessment and self-centeredness or a lack of consideration for others. However, research shows that everyday narcissists are emotionally stable. Modern psychiatry is only interested in narcissism when narcissistic personality traits lead to problems in adapting to individual life situations or one's own living environment. This phenomenon is known as narcissistic personality disorder. Patients struggle with their lives because they cannot meet the increased need for admiration. Emotional instability, bipolarity, feelings of insufficiency and extreme sensitivity to any criticism are the result. Shame, loneliness, and fear or uncontrollable anger can also be symptoms.

Above all, the anchor of narcissism, but also that of most other self-esteem disorders, psychology suspects in the responsiveness of parents during childhood. In the present, however, self-esteem disorders result not least from a comparison with unrealistic media ideals. Disturbed self-esteem can lead to psychological sequelae such as eating disorders. After a certain stage, those affected often suffer from disturbed body awareness.

Self-esteem is most often recorded by psychologists using self-description questionnaires. The 'Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale' is the best-known one-dimensional procedure. Self-esteem theories assume a hierarchical structuring of self-confidence. For this reason, multi-dimensional self-esteem scales are also used today, for example the 'Feelings of Inadequacy Scale'. Some psychologists even try to measure implicit self-esteem. This spontaneous and unconscious self-assessment is determined by methods such as the 'implicit association' test. The reaction times should indicate self-confidence. If there is a discrepancy between the explicit and the implicit self-esteem, there is also a self-esteem disorder.

Severe depression can also be caused by a lack of self-confidence.