Subject: Scientific American January 2005

Posted by Richard Turnock on 12/17/2004

Message:

Below is email I sent to Editor Scientific American

Maybe I can maintain the quantity and quality of self-talk to keep my self-esteem higher than my target over time. Maybe there’s a way I can increase my target self-esteem over time. However they require constant effort and reflection as an action.

Richard



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Dear Scientific American,



The excellent article “Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth” (January 2005) about behaviorism missed two key variables. The variables included by the authors were self-esteem and external messages correlated to outcomes. They clearly show that all external intervention will fail to achieve results, positive or negative. However they needed to include two additional variables in their model.



In addition to our actual self-esteem, each of us has a “target” self-esteem. If positive or negative messages are received then the gap between actual and target increases and we use self-talk (positive or negative), the second variable, to close the gap. The authors gave examples of self-talk in the “mixed messages” table in the article however they were delivered as external messages. Internal self-talk is the valve that controls how much and how fast the stock of actual self-esteem changes.

Follow Ups:

Scientific American January 2005 - John Gunkler 12/18/2004