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Contents 1 Implicit self esteem 1.1 Overview 1.2 Social identity 1.3 Cultural differences 2 Measures of implicit self esteem 2.1 Name Letter Effect 2.2 Implicit Association Test 2.2.1 Findings 2.2.2 Links with Explicit Self Esteem 3 See also 4 References

[edit] Implicit self esteem

Implicit self-esteem refers to a person's disposition to evaluate themselves in a spontaneous, automatic, or unconscious manner. It contrasts with explicit self-esteem, which entails more conscious and reflective self-evaluation.

• Both explicit and implicit self-esteem are constituents of self-esteem.

Self-esteem was first described as a self-feeling that is determined by comparison between the actual self and the ideal self (William James, 1890). However, following research demonstrated that James' definition was inaccurate.

• self esteem does not reflect an honest evaluation of one's traits and abilities (Rosenberg, 1979)^[1] nor social identity (Crocker & major, 1989)^[2].

Greenwald and Banaji (1995)^[3] defined implicit selfesteem as "the introspectively unidentified (or inaccurately identified) effect of the self-attitude on evaluation of self-associated and self-dissociated objects".

• The overestimation of one's traits and abilities is argued to be a spillover of positive affect from the self to objects associated with the self (Farnham, Greenwald & Banaji, 1999)^[4].
• This "spillover" is automatic and unconscious
• Implicit self esteem therefore offers an explanation of positivity bias for things related to the self. Positive affect spills over to things related to the self; they are also viewed positively.

[edit] Overview

[edit] Social identity

[edit] Cultural differences

[edit] Measures of implicit self esteem

Implicit self-esteem is assessed using indirect measures of cognitive processing. These include the Name Letter Task ^[5] and the Implicit Association Test.^[6] Such indirect measures are designed to reduce awareness of, or control of, the process of assessment. When used to assess implicit self-esteem, they feature stimuli designed to represent the self, such as personal pronouns (e.g., "I") or letters in one's name.

[edit] Name Letter Effect

The name letter effect is the idea that an individual prefers the letters belonging to their own name and will select these above other letters in choice tasks.

This effect has been found in tasks such as Nuttin’s (1985) study, which involved giving participants lists of letters, one of which contained letters from their own name and the other of which contained other letters, and asking them to circle the preferred letter.^[7] This study found that, even when accounting for all other variables, letters belonging to the participants’ own names were preferred.

Similar results have been found in cross-cultural studies, using different alphabets (Hoorens, Nuttin, Herman & Pavakanun, 1990).^[8]

[edit] Implicit Association Test

The Implicit Association Test is an experimental method used within psychology to attempt to tap in to a person's automatic, or subconscious association between a concept and an attribute^[9]. It has been widely used in an attempt to uncover a person's subconscious prejudices against certain members of society, such as those who are overweight, as well as other implicit stereotypes and associations. The test was formatted in order to measure self esteem by Greenwald and Farnham (2000)^[10]. Participants are asked to make rapid associations between themselves ('the self') and positive attributes, as well as negative attributes. In addition to this, they are asked to make associations between someone else ('other') and positive/negative attributes. The speed, or ease of these associations made is said to show a subconscious, or implicit preference for one attribute over another, with regards to the self.

[edit] Findings

Many studies, (for example Greenwald and Farnham (2000), Karpinski (2004)^[11]), have shown that the vast majority of people's implicit self esteem is positively biased. That is, people find it a great deal easier to associate themselves with a positive concept than a negative one. Whether this is truly displaying implicit self esteem is arguable; the findings may instead be linked with illusory superiority, in that people tend to rate themselves as above average on a number of scales.

[edit] Links with Explicit Self Esteem

However, the validity of the Implicit Association Test and implicit self esteem as a measure of self esteem itself is helped by correlations shown between implicit and explicit self esteem. For example, Bosson et al (2000)^[12], in a detailed and comprehensive study of implicit self esteem, found the IAT to weakly, yet consistently correlate with measures of explicit self esteem.

[edit] See also

[edit] References