Are young people addicted to feeling good about themselves?
Given the choice, young bright college students said they’d rather get a boost to their ego — like a compliment or a good grade on a paper — than eat a favorite food or engage in sex, a new paper suggests.
The researchers question whether the so-called “me generation” of baby boomers has spawned a nation of self-absorbed young people hooked on their own self-esteem. The inflated sense of self in students, they argue, could lead to trouble in the work world and in personal relationships.
Recent books like “The Narcissism Epidemic,” by Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, have described a trend toward increasing levels of self-esteem and narcissism in young people. The idea is not without controversy, as other psychologists have questioned whether young people today are any more self-absorbed than earlier generations. Some believe that the maturation process is simply more protracted, and the delays are misinterpreted as selfishness.
The results of the new paper suggest young people have a compulsion to feel good about themselves that overwhelms and precedes other desires.
“I was shocked,” said the lead researcher, Brad Bushman, professor of communication and psychology at the Ohio State University. “Everybody likes compliments, but more than engaging in your favorite sexual activity? More than receiving a paycheck? I was surprised it was such a powerful thing that it trumped everything else.”
But Carol Landau, a clinical professor of psychiatry and medicine at Alpert Medical School at Brown University, pointed out that sex and alcohol are readily available on many college campuses and within students’ reach. Their accessibility could explain why students are more motivated to get good grades and positive feedback, which may be harder to come by. “The other rewards are somewhat within their control,” Dr. Landau said. “The self-esteem factors are not.”
She also said she was hesitant to generalize from studies in which college students filled out questionnaires. Self-reporting can often be unreliable.
The current paper, published in The Journal of Personality, described two separate studies.
One included 130 University of Michigan students who were asked to think about their favorite food, their favorite sexual activity and their favorite self-esteem-building experience, like getting a compliment or a good grade on a paper. Participants were asked both about how much they “liked” the activity and how much they “wanted” it on a scale of 1, for “not at all,” to 5, for “extremely.”
An analysis of the results showed that the participants generally “liked” various activities, including those that boosted self-esteem, more than they “wanted” them. But compared to other activities, the difference between enjoying and wanting the activity was lowest for activities that boosted self-esteem.
The distinction is important, Dr. Bushman said, because research on addiction suggests that one indication of habituation is that people tend to want or need something more than they actually like or enjoy it.
The participants were also asked to do a timed test of intellectual ability, and then were told they had the option of waiting for an extra 10 minutes to have the test re-evaluated using a different algorithm that produces higher scores. This essentially gave them an opportunity to get a self-esteem boost right there in the lab. Not surprisingly, students who highly valued self-esteem were more likely to be willing to stick around to get the new scores.
In the second study, a group of 152 University of Michigan students were asked about their favorite activity, but were given an expanded list to choose from that included receiving a paycheck, seeing a best friend and drinking alcohol, in addition to eating a favorite food, engaging in a favorite sexual activity and having a self-esteem-building experience. Again, self-esteem trumped all other rewards. This study also ascertained how recently participants had experienced or engaged in their favorite activities. It appeared to make no difference how long it had been since they had last received the rewards, the researchers said.
Some researchers fault the emphasis placed on building and promoting self-esteem in children among certain schools of parenting and education.
“The idea has been that if we build their self-esteem, then they’ll do better in school and in relationships,” said Dr. Twenge, the “Narcissism Epidemic” author. “Well, that puts the cart before the horse. When you break down the research you see that kids who behave well and get high grades develop high self-esteem — not the other way around.”
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