问答题
Passage 1The Research on Self-esteem A Self-esteem is generally considered the evaluative component of the self-concept, a broader representation of the self that includes cognitive and behavioral aspects as well as evaluative or affective ones. While the construct is most often used to refer to a global sense of self-worth, narrower concepts such as self-confidence or body-esteem are used to imply a sense of self-esteem in more specific domains. It is also widely assumed that self-esteem functions as a trait, that is, it is stable across time within individuals. B Self-esteem is an extremely popular construct within psychology, and has been related to virtually every other psychological concept or domain, including personality (e.g., shyness), behavioral (e.g., task performance), cognitive (e.g., attributional bias), and clinical concepts (e.g., anxiety and depression). While some researchers have been particularly concerned with understanding the nuances of the self-esteem construct, others have focused on the adaptive and self-protective functions of self-esteem. Self-esteem has been related both to socioeconomic status and to various aspects of health and health-related behaviors, as has a related construct, self-efficacy. Self-efficacy, a term associated with the work of Bandera, refers to an individual’s sense of competence or ability in general or in particular domains. C Low self-esteem is the universal common denominator literally among all people suffering from addictions to any and all mind altering substances such as alcohol—not genes. In the book Alcoholism: A False Stigma: Low Self-Esteem the True Disease (1996), Candito reports, “Those who have identified themselves as ‘recovered alcoholics’ indicate that low self-esteem is the most significant problem in their lives. Low self-esteem is the true problem and the true disease. Alcohol is but a symptom of an alcoholic’s disease.” Studies have found that 18-year olds who used drugs frequently were using them as early as age seven, already more psychologically troubled than their peers. They were already anxious and unhappy, alienated from their family and peers, and overly impulsive. Low self-esteem, lack of conformity, poor academic achievement and poor parental-child relationships are also indicators of young children likely to end up using drugs. D Candito comes to the conclusion that low self-esteem is the underlying origin f all problematic behaviors, and the true disease that plagues the world, resulting in alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and all other obsessive behaviors including criminal behavior. This conclusion is also shared by Andrew Keegan (1987) who maintains that low self-esteem either causes or contributes to neurosis, anxiety, defensiveness, and ultimately alcohol and drug abuse. The reason why some become alcoholic while others do not is dependent upon their ability to contend with low self-esteem. E However, many of the positive outcomes attributed to high self-esteem are not substantiated by research, according to Brown psychologist Krueger. Krueger, associate professor of psychology and faculty member from three other universities, formed that conclusion after reviewing more than two decades of objective research studies on self-esteem at the invitation of the American Psychological Society. Their report appears in this month’s issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a supplement to Psychological Science. “Across most measures-school and job performance, violence and crime, and health-there were few consistent links between the level of self-esteem and the quality of outcomes,” said Krueger. High self-esteem does not prevent children from smoking, drinking, taking drugs or engaging in early sex, the task force reported. If anything, high self-esteem fosters experimentation, which may increase early sexual activity or drinking. The exception was a connection between high self-esteem and reduced chances of the eating disorder bulimia in females. In adults, according to the task force, occupational success may boost self-esteem rather than the reverse. And neither high nor low self-esteem is a direct cause of violence. F In fact, pleasant feelings and enhanced initiative were the two benefits of high self-esteem found by the task force. High self-esteem has a strong relationship to happiness and low self-esteem is more likely than high to lead to depression under some circumstances. Those with high self-esteem were also found to exhibit more persistence at tasks. Yet the task force also noted that there are basically two types of high self-esteem—that which is realistic, and that which is out of touch with reality. People who fall into the former category accept their good qualities. Those in the latter are characterised as narcissistic, defensive or conceited individuals. In some studies, narcissism led to some negative qualities such as increased aggression in retaliation for wounded pride. G The self-esteem movement began in California during the 1980s with the idea that many of society’s problems were related to low self-esteem. The California legislature financed a task force to increase self-esteem in an effort to reduce welfare dependency, unwanted pregnancy, school failure, crime, drug addiction and other problems, with the goal of saving taxpayer dollars, according to the task force. Since then, there has been a nationwide proliferation of techniques to raise self-esteem—particularly in schools—and a proliferation of books marketed to people helping themselves. Yet, “after a quarter of a century of research, the high hopes of the self-esteem movement have not been realized, and customers of the self-help industry should not look to heightened self-esteem as a panacea,” said Krueger. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once. 1. Researchers focused their studies on varied aspects of self-esteem. 2. Some researchers related problematic drink behaviors to self-esteem. 3. The reason of violence seems not related to the quality of self-esteem. 4. Andrew Keegan agreed that low self-esteem is the underlying origin of all problematic behaviors. 5. Many inventions of methods are stimulated to increase the self-esteem.
