Self-esteem Vs self-compassion (Part 1)

Welcome to this 2-part episode of the 21st century health nuts,

This will be a two-part release, this post (part-1) will look at the current social and psychological paradigm of self-esteem, its pitfalls, and look deeper into the sociological impacts governed by and contributing to the issues. The following post (part-2) will define, analyse and critically assess the viability of self-compassion as an alternative in our world as it stands. So let's get started...

Self-esteem and the consequences

For the past decade the primary measure of psychological health has been self-esteem [1]. Self-esteem is defined as a global evaluation of your own worth, you ask, 'How good am I?' and you respond 'Hmm pretty poor to be honest' or 'I'm the best thing going!' Recently however, researchers have begun to criticize self-esteem, to ask the question 'How good am I?' must relate to some predetermined standard of what good is, alongside the requirement for social comparison, 'I am better/worse than that person.' This inevitably results in self-evaluation in relation to the performance of others. Social comparison is never a good idea, if you truly are worse than somebody it is detrimental to motivation and happiness (feel of less value), and if you truly are better than them motivation begins to slide and happiness along with it (as a result of complacency and  lack  of  future

goals) [2]. Nowadays, social media sites (such as facebook) make social comparison almost unavoidable, even provoking jealous, envy, or pity with a specific type of status. Furthermore, these standards are typically defined by the media, for example body image has never been a bigger issue than it is now [3] men and women alike are having to compete with the most sexually desirable celebrities to be considered worthy of attraction and affection. It cannot be disputed that low levels of self-esteem is linked with negative psychological mind states such as stress, depression, anxiety, sadness, and suicidal ideation [1]. However, it is less clear that high self-esteem is the panacea suggested. As well as being highly resistant to change [4], if changed to high self-esteem some negative corollaries are associated. For example, Damon [5] and Seligman [6] argue that an over-emphasis on evaluation can result in narcissism, self-absorption, self-centredness, and a lack of concern for others. Which makes sense, how do you present yourself in best light compared to others? You observe the worst traits of those surrounding you. Or as a child lacking the psychological skills to manipulate reality you physically assert superiority (bullying). Supporting this high self-esteem is also correlated to increased prejudice [1,7] and the use of aggression and violence to thwart any person or persons threatening the ego [8].

To be called mediocre or average is nothing short of an insult in the 21st century, we are not content unless we are above average. Obviously we cannot all be above average and so we allow ourselves to inflate our perception of ourselves; enter narcissism (exaggerated view of one's own value, craving for admiration, and selfishness). Recently, our facebook page released a narcissism personality index (NPI) test to see how narcissistic we all are, the reason for this is that narcissism is on the increase, and has been for over 30 years. A study by Twenge & Foster [9] re-assessed the results of three meta-analysis' of contradicting views on narcissism and controlled for the significant effect of different campus' as data collection and comparison points concluding that, between 1982-2009, NPI scores significantly increased a) in a nationwide meta-analysis, b) within campus in large samples from a southern University. It is a perfectly acceptable position to hold that the degree of narcissism in USA college students has not increased at all, but a cultural development has resulted in students being more honest, resulting in increasing NPI scores. However, strong evidence supports the notion that narcissistic behaviour is  increasing;  number  of  unique  names  given  to newborns is increasing [9],

more popular songs include narcissistic and individualistic lyrics [10], high school students express unrealistically high expectations for success [11], and the number of plastic surgery cases is increasing [12]. Additionally, a clinical report [13] employed structured clinical interviews as opposed to self-reported means of data collection deducing that  in a national representative population of 34,653 Americans (2004-2005) 3.2% of subjects aged over 65 had experienced narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), whereas 5.6% aged 45-64, 7.1% aged 30-44, and 9.4% aged 20-29. If there was no newborn cohort then the older subjects with many more years of experience should display a greater percentage of NPD encounters. Narcissism is a serious social and psychological problem, people high in this trait fail to help others unless there is immediate recognition to themselves for doing so. They often trample others in an effort to rise to the top where they believe they belong and are commonly unhappy with the world not recognising their superiority. Narcissists typically display low empathy traits, empathy refers to the ability and tendency to view the world from points of view other than your own, to share in others' joy and sorrow and to care about their well-being. And so with this increase in NPI scores and NPD experiences illustrating the cultural effect of self-esteem it can concluded that the aforementioned negative effects of self-esteem (such as self-absorption, self-centredness, lack of concern for others, increased prejudice, bullying, violence and aggression in defense of own ego) are also unnecessarily existing in our current environment.

Other factors contributing to the 'me' society

Nevertheless, self-esteem only correlates .25 to narcissism and so there must be other cultural changes that have caused increases in self-absorbed personality traits. Interestingly, a decline in children's free-play time with other children has been documented [14,15]. Free-play is linked with increased empathy, the ability to get along with others, the capacity to problem solve and deal effectively with fear and anger (thus effectively safeguard against anxiety and depression) [14]. It has even been recognized that mental disorders in young Americans has steadily increased between 1938 - 2007 [16]. The study concludes by stating that like all individual characteristics psychopathological symptoms are determined by a number of factors, genetics offer much more explanation that an individuals family environment as a predictor of neuroticism. However large changes in the Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI) scores demonstrate that there are also strong cultural influence on psychiatric symptoms. That is, an environmental influence outside of the individual family. Over time, culture has increasingly shifted towards an environment in which more and more young people experience poor mental health and psychopathology, possibly due to an increased focus on money, appearance, and status rather than on community and close relationships. Moreover, free-play is by definition voluntary and so when engaging child X must accept the perspective and wishes of child Y, otherwise child Y will leave. A harsh punishment for a mammalian infant hardwired for communication and growth. And so child X must now try harder to accommodate for child Y, this cycle is perpetually improving the communication and intra- and inter-personal skills of the subjects. Furthermore, children are raised in an extremely competitive environment where winning at any cost is the only option. We have never been more closely linked to celebrities, this proximity to celebrity status has furthered the drive for fame and success, this alongside the life lesson that others are solely obstacles to be beaten or tools to be manipulated to get to the next goal results in an individualistic and self-absorbed society. Of course in this type of society we are going to lack empathy, prejudice those from other background to reinforce the solidity of our origins. And why would we give up our time to help others if it won't fit onto our CV? If not then why bother?

Finally, if all of the points made do not get you questioning whether self-esteem is the best paradigm for yourself and this culture, consider that self-esteem is contingent on success, if we fail our global value must decrease unless everyone else in the world failed too.  How do we remove ourselves from this perpetual battle to perceive ourselves as better than all the rest? 

Conclusion

As you can see there are many flaws with the current aim of promoting , achieving, and maintaining high self-esteem. The benefits of self-esteem come hand in hand with negative psychological traits that are so common we consider them socially desirable. Self-compassion is a contemporary model that offers the benefits of self-esteem without the pitfalls of egotistical isolation upon failure. Many argue that compassion is not only 'fluffy' but a surefire road to passivity, complacency, and being exploited. I sincerely hope that your inquisitive and open-minded nature will encourage you to read the coming post and decide for yourself whether or not self-compassion is non-sense or the pathway to an improved life.

Join the facebook page (tab above) to be kept up to date with the newest posts

Main sources

[1] Neff, K. (2003) Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude towards oneself. Self and Identity, 2: pp85-101.

[2] Hill, K.L. (2001) Frameworks for sport psychologists: enhancing sport performance. Human Kinetics.

[3] Albertson, E.R., Neff, K.D. & Dill-Shackleford, K.E (2014) Self-compassion and body dissatisfaction in women: A randomized controlled trial of a brief meditation intervention. Mindfulness, 1-11.

[4] Swann, W.B. (1996). Self-traps: The elusive quest for higher self-esteem. New York: Freeman.

[5] Damon, W. (1995). Greater expectations: Overcoming the culture of indulgence in America’s homes and schools. New York: Free Press.

[6] Seligman, M.E. (1995). The optimistic child. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

[7] Aberson, C.L., Healy, M., & Romero, V. (2000). Ingroup bias and self-esteem: A meta-analysis. Personality & Social Psychology Review, 4(2): pp157–173.

[8] Baumeister, R.F., Smart, L., & Boden, J.M. (1996). Relation of threatened egotism to violence and aggression: The dark side of high self-esteem. Psychological Review, 103(1): pp5–33.

[9] Twenge, J.M. & Foster, J.D. (2010) Birth cohort increases in narcissistic personality traits among American college students, 1982–2009. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(1): pp96-106.

[10] DeWall, C. N., Pond, R. S., Campbell, W. K., & Twenge, J. M. (2009). Tuning in to psychological change: Linguistic markers of selfishness, loneliness, anger, anti-social behavior, and misery increase over time in popular U.S. song lyrics. Unpublished manuscript.

[11] Reynolds, J., Stewart, M., MacDonald, R., & Sischo, L. (2006). Have adolescents become too ambitious? High school seniors’ educational and occupational plans, 1976 to 2000. Social Problems, 53(2): pp186-206.

[12] Twenge, J.M., & Campbell, W.K. (2009). The narcissism epidemic: Living in the age of entitlement. New York: Free Press.

[13] Stinson, F.S., Dawson, D.A., Goldstein, R.B., Chou, S.P., Huang, B., Smith, S.M., Ruan, W.J., Pulay, A.J., Saha, T.D., Pickering, R.P. Grant, B.F. (2008). Prevalence, correlates, disability, and comorbidity of DSM-IV narcissistic personality disorder: Results from the Wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 69(7): pp1033-1045.

[14] Connolly, J.A., & Doyle, A. (1984). Relation of social fantasy play to social competence in preschoolers. Developmental Psychology, 20(5): pp797–806.

[15] Burns, S.M., & Brainerd, C.J. (1979). Effects of constructive and dramatic play on perspective taking in very young children. Developmental Psychology, 15(5): pp512–521.

[16] Twenge, J.M., Gentile, B., DeWall, C.N., Ma, D., Lacefield, K. & Schurtz, D.R. (2010). Birth cohort increases in psychopathology among young Americans, 1938-2007: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of the MMPI. In press, Clinical Psychology Review 30(2): pp145-154.

Redefining the 21st Century Health Nut

Good afternoon readers!!

This series contains critical reviews of contemporary fads, trends and in some cases myths surrounding the 21st century health industry. Just as important as these scientific analyses this series also proposes philosophical and thought provoking ideas to grapple with the ideologies and infrastructure supporting the current system.

The definition of a '21st century Health Nut' has already been given in the original post of this series 'The 21st Century Health Nuts.' However, I feel this definition falls short of what needs to be conveyed. The definition as it currently stands is 'typically (but not necessarily) relatively young and is obsessed with the prolonging of life through healthy habits, whether this include diet, exercise, mindfulness the health nut covers a wide range of people.' However, after the publication of 'Is the health industry exploiting your desire to live forever?' it became apparent that we are all obsessed with prolonging our lives, it is this innate and sub-conscious 'will to immortality' that creates an existential struggle whilst projecting ourselves into the future. The defining characteristic in the previous definition is the methods by which a person attempts to extend their life; 'healthy habits, whether this include diet, exercise, mindfulness'. Yet, this is a crude method of measurement as the subtlety and sensitivity is near non-existent. Either the subject does partake in one of these methods or the subject does not. As with all things in life a parsimonious model (approach) should be selected over competing models including more assumption (Occam's razor), but this does not justify dramatic reduction excluding vital components. So what are these vital components that contribute to a 21st century health nut? (In no particular order)

Life extension

A health nut wishes and actively seeks out methods of extending the life of themselves and others around them. After all, isn't this why we decide to eat healthy, do exercise and persevere through hardship? However, this quality alone encompasses life as a whole, not just humans. The snake who strikes to defend himself is doing just this, the virus who alters the immediate environment to increase survival percentage cannot be classed as a health nut. The previous defining factor of method as previously mentioned holds no subtlety and so we must look elsewhere to create a holistic definition of a health nut.

Acquirement of knowledge

Knowledge is the engine behind a health nut, without knowledge the subjects survival is less promising than the virus and s/he is more gullible to false information resulting in hapless and inept venture at life extension. It is this procedure of seeking out information that begins to add a certain dynamic to the health nut definition. However, the source of information must be considered and therefore it is the quality of information that highlights a key trait, that is that information is gathered from multiple, high quality sources. Although, this offers no clarity on the processing of information, and could result in  blindly submitting to the conclusions of others. Hence the requirement for 'critique of knowledge.'

Critique of knowledge

There are a myriad of benefits to be had by constantly critiquing the world around you, such as increased self-confidence, motivation, understanding, and rationality. By critiquing information a person separates themselves from subjects being told what to eat and how to train to one capable of wholly understanding what is being suggested and generating their own perspective and fully-informed decision.

Spirituality

Spirituality is vital to the healthy existence of humans, on an individual and global level. Gaia theory suggests that the Earth is a single organism that we partake in. Healthy spirituality can not only aid in the attempt of 'life extension' but also creates harmony and congruence between yourself and your surroundings. In the 21st century it is all too easy to spend your time in your head dwelling in the past or projecting into the future, the now is forgotten (a soon-coming post will look deeper into the need for living in the now and spirituality). After all, the previous components have resulted in you gathering and assessing knowledge to generate your own perspective and lead yourself to the healthy life you dream of. How can this be completed without a true understanding of yourself, your world, and what it is exactly you want, not what you should want.

To Conclude

The absolute grey-ness of the world is difficult to encapsulate with the use of our limited vocabulary but these key components of a successful health nut definitely provide the scaffolding for future definitions to be framed and people to get a grasp of. These traits are not exclusive to the health aspect of your life, to take and appropriately apply certain or all of these will lead to an improved understanding of yourself fostering a better perception and expression of politics, science, literature and even your social life. The capacity for these vital components to spread throughout our lives accentuates our personal responsibility to arm ourselves with correct information and resist the temptation to believe and submit to the large corporations that send messages down the pipelines to get us to partake in the newest method of improving your life (and typically spending money). As suggested in 'The 21st Century Health Nuts' the exponential increase information exposure has resulted in our need to evolve. This revolution is personal and internal before it can become anything greater. And so take it upon yourself to question what you are told, think before you act and spend time getting to grips with yourself and what your goals are, not the goals you are expected to have.

Your very own health nut,

Chris

If you liked this, catch up with previous posts below or select an interest in the 'What would you like to read about' tab on the right

Is the health industry exploiting your desire to live forever?

Hello my Health Nut,

I hope you have enjoyed the recent posts including plenty of science, I have enjoyed creating them. This post however will take a more philosophical look at our 21st century era and how the marketing schemes may be taking advantage of a natural, innate assumption, that we will live forever. Allow me to elaborate. 

Mankind has accomplished many things since the first monkey stood up. We have built, we have destroyed, we have shared, we have stolen, we have been given the ability to talk, express and interpret emotions to name but a few. Unfortunately immortality has not been given to us.....that has not stopped us from trying now has it? I recently read a book called 'Immortality: The Quest To Live Forever and How It Drives Civilisation' by Stephen Cave [1]. Besides being a highly  recommended read, this book contained interesting ideas, one of which i feel I feel is highly adaptable and applicable to the 21st century health industry. But before I can make this claim I must lay some context and to do that I have to use a lot of ideas used in Cave's book so consider sections ('Will to immortality'; 'Immortality paradox'; 'Engineering immortality') a Cave's work.

Will to immortality

Cave identifies four main narratives to achieving immortality: staying alive (live as long as possible through health and medicine), resurrection (resurrection of the same body after death), soul (spirit or independent component of you that supersedes your existence), and legacy (to live through your reputation or biological legacy). These methods can be noted as far back as the ancient Egyptians (medicine, mummification, the ka, and belief in living through reputation) and yet still remain in some form in today's world. Consequently, it must be considered that the drive to achieve immortality - will to immortality - is intrinsic and innate.

Although it sounds relatively mystical and even far-fetched in today's scientifically focused world nothing could be more biologically enhancing than a will to persist into the future. Of course this is not simply applicable to humans, mother nature will unapologetically remove the genes of the apathetic mouse who has no desire to project himself into the future, no hiding from the snake or the owl, simply existing (not for very long). Richard Dawkin's states 'we are survival machines, but ‘we’ does not mean just people. It embraces all animals, plants, bacteria, and viruses.' This will to immortality is the very reason we exist, our ancestors had the strongest will to project themselves into the future and survive. Therefore it is in us all.

Immortality paradox

The separating factor between humans and the virus, bacteria and mice is the capacity of our highly sophisticated brains to generate great awareness of ourselves, and time. As a result we are cursed with the all too horrifying knowledge that one day, like all living things, we will die. Fact. The paradoxical aspect of this statement comes when you try to imagine being dead, go ahead and give it ago (morbid I know)..... some of you may have imagined yourself dying, others a funeral and others a limbo of nothingness. But was it nothingness? I mean after all you are still seeing from a perspective, and so you are still present as an observer right? How can you not exist if you are still around seeing things? The truth of the matter is you can't imagine not existing. Cave and Freud present this problem in eloquent quotes I wouldn't dare take credit for:

'Imagining your own death, our powerful imaginative faculties malfunction: it is not possible for the one doing the imagining to actively imagine the absence of the one doing the imagining' Stephen Cave [1]

'It is indeed impossible to imagine our own death; and whenever we attempt to do so we can perceive that we are in fact still present as spectators’ Sigmund Freud  [2]

That what we can imagine we can accept, stick a folk in a toaster you get electrocuted is easy to imagine and therefore accept as a possibility. But you cannot imagine your own non-existence and therefore we have trouble accepting this possibility, we are subconsciously convinced of our own immortality, this thought has no time limit, and as a result we believe we are somehow apart of the very fabric of the universe, forever. 'All men think all men mortal, but themselves' Edward Young

Engineering immortality

As previously mentioned Cave posits four main immortality narratives, this post will focus on 'staying alive' as the relevance is clear and it is not the purpose of this post to question your beliefs (unless they concern health in anyway shape or form). 'Engineering immortality' is a method of striving to lengthen lives by identifying problems, breaking them down and solving the issues one by one. The possibility that these problems may kill us is what makes them so problematic. in the 21st century new heights have been achieved by dividing and sub-dividing problems to generate new forms of communication, accommodation, travel, medicine, and healthy habits. Breaking down the unmanageable problem of death into the utterly manageable smaller problems generating a to-do list including do cardio, eat healthy, engage in meditation or yoga. We are developing ever finer solutions to solve ever finer problems, Cave states the most comprehensive of the surviving ancient Egyptian papyruses recognises 700 afflictions and remedies, the WHO recognises over 12,000 diseases and counting.

Where you come in

This means the constant release of new activities, hobbies, chores and general habits to include in our lives. But we can't complain as healthy living has certainly extended our life-span, the overall average life-span of a male/female born in 2010) was ~90/88 years, whereas just 100 years ago being born in 1910 reduced your average predicted lifespan to ~56. Furthermore, our life expectancy is only predicted to increase (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Line graph showing cohort expectation of life in relation to year of birth with expected life expectancy for years up to 2050 [3].

But as our media has become more intricately interlaced in our personal lives distribution of the newest to-do activities has never been easier. And so, in the 21st Century we are perpetually bombarded with posts, blogs and friends online suggestions on how to live our lives. However this distribution is not the problem. The problem comes from our innate will to immortality taking over our rational thoughts and wanting to believe the latest fad/work-out programme or healthy diet will extend our lives. Although this may be true for some discoveries there is a point (I believe we are quickly approaching, if not already there) when we health nuts become all too gullible. When the the minority of health industry cease to produce and market products in our best interest. This is not to say all products and strategies nowadays are wrong, far from it. But what does need to change is the trust we associate with something in a pill, or displayed on a screen.

And so 21st Century health nut blog is forged, with the belief that the critical analysis of empirical evidence holds the truth. The next time you get a suggestion on twitter or facebook or one of your friends, listen to what they have to say, consider the source and find out for yourself if it is worth your time. And if you have no time to complete the research? Do not worry my health nut, simply get in contact with this series, we will find out for you soon enough.

Your very own health nut,

Chris 

As always if you found this interesting why not look through the topics on the right hand side? Join the Facebook and Twitter pages to keep up to date with this series

Main sources:

[1] Cave, S (2010) Immortality: the quest to live forever and how it drives civilization. London: UK. Biteback.

[2] Freud, S. (1915b). Zeitgemässes über Krieg und Tod. Imago, 4: 1-21; GW, 8, 324-355; Thoughts for the times on war and death. SE, 14: 273-300

[3] http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_253938.pdf

The 21st Century Health Nuts

What exactly does that mean? In and among all the millions of other bloggers exists this page, my page, and that my soon-to-be loyal reader is part of the problem...

So what is a health nut? Created through the increase in accessible information a health nut is typically (but not necessarily) relatively young and is obsessed with the prolonging of life through healthy habits, whether this include diet, exercise, mindfulness the health nut covers a wide range of people. Unfortunately, this revolution has taken place so unbelievably quickly that we health nuts are unguided and lost, a heard of unique sheep without a shepherd. Or to be more accurate hundreds of thousands of shepherd are shouting 'this way, this way!' are we any less lost?

The Shepherds are of course (in this metaphor) the masses and masses of information freely accessible through the internet. Access to information today is better than it has ever been, previously reserved for the elite, we (the new thinkers) are subject to vast amounts of information, some of it interesting, some not, some of it useful, some not, some it life change, some not and the list really does go on and on. 21st century health nuts (health nut's) are cursed by something that the world has never before experienced; abundance of information. So who the hell do we believe, follow, or trust? The answer has to be ourselves, especially when it comes to your health.

All this information access is far from bad, it is incredible! The progresses that have, are and are going to happen as a result of instant communication/publication/organization is beyond anything that could have been predicted a mere 100 years ago. However, we are left with a bit of a paradox. We must have more information to support our own healthy habits and yet, more information does not necessarily mean more truth. We are left with pages and pages of unsupported 'facts' telling us what to eat, what to do, when to do it and how much to do. As a result of this dramatic increase in information access we are being forced to evolve, our relatively archaic minds are being bombarded with information. It is time for the sheep to learn that the shepherd does not always have the sheeps best interest at heart.

This page will be dedicated to researching these potential truths/myths shoved on our screens daily. Does the most recent work out really cut your fat and produce muscle? is it healthy to eat pills containing 20+ fruit? and what about that cancer cure going about that is being pasted on social media and not the news, fact or the hopeful dreams of those in fear? happiness....can it be achieved through a how to book? And so I implore you to read this and decide for yourself whether or not this is worth your time. The research will be mine, the conclusions will be mine, the decision? Now that's all you my health nut.

Your very own health nut

Chris