The purpose of our study is to find out how teachers can help their students to learn how to managestage fright. By interviewing high school teachers and high school students and also observe one oftheir classes, we wanted to find out how they think about the causes of stage fright and what youcan do to relieve it. We also wanted to find out how teachers are working to teach students how todeal with stage fright, and how they think that you also could work. As a teacher of music, among other things, the task is to assess and rate the students performancesin music. Several components are based on the students' courage to play on his or her instrument infront of other people. Those who suffer from stage fright find this in many cases hard, which bothinhibit the student's development and hampers the assessment for the teacher. It is assumed, however, implicit in the curriculum of music that stage fright does not exist or that students have thetools to manage it. We want our work to provide an input into how teachers in high school can work with stage frightwith their students and we believe that teachers in other subjects also can use this. There is some research on how to deal with stage fright as a musician, but a lot comes from thesport which for a long time has studied how to perform best under pressure. The results of our studyshow that stage fright can be caused by several things, and that there are also several ways to learn how to manage it. For example, to be well prepared and gain greater self-awareness. Much is basedon strengthening self-esteem and make sure the teacher sees each student's needs. But theinterviewed teachers also feel that they lack skills and education in the area, and they base their thoughts only on their own empirical data.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of false positive and false negative feedback upon the self-efficacy and performance of high and low self-esteem experienced weight lifters. Among a group of volunteers, 65 experienced male weight lifters were classified as either high or low self-esteem following administration of the Global Self-Worth Scale (Neemann & Harter, 1986). Each was qualified by the ability to perform a one repetition-maximum (1RM) bench press between 200 to 350 lbs., which was tested through a series of trials. Self-efficacy estimates for the 1RM bench press were obtained throughout the experiment. Trial sessions were accompanied by manipulated feedback, providing the subjects with either actual, inflated, or deflated values of weights lifted. High and low self-esteem subjects performed tasks differently with respect to the type of feedback received. During the first manipulative treatments, high self-esteem subjects lifted greater weights after receiving false positive feedback and lesser weights after receiving false negative feedback. At all times, low self esteem subjects did not perform differently after the receipt of either false positive or false negative feedback. An analysis of the self-efficacy data demonstrated that predictions for 1RM bench press performances were not influenced by levels of self-esteem. However, both high and low self-esteem subjects predicted that they would lift greater or lesser weights following the administration of, false positive or false negative feedback, respectively, and both groups of subjects predicted there would be no weight differences following administration of actual feedback. Correlation analyses, conducted to determine relationships between self-efficacy and performance, indicated that during the first day of manipulative feedback treatment there was a positive relationship between self-efficacy and subsequent performance change. Previous performance change and subsequent self-efficacy change were correlated only for high self-esteem subjects during day 2 of the treatment. A regression analysis revealed that self-efficacy change was a better predictor of subsequent performance change than previous performance change. In conclusion, false positive feedback increased self-efficacy and performance of high self-esteem subjects. False negative feedback showed no significant change for either low or high self-esteem subjects. / Graduation date: 1993

The present study explored the influence of social support and psychological resources on depression in people living with HIV/AIDS. The mediating role of mastery and self-esteem was examined. Factor analysis of the MOS-SSS supported three dimensions of social support. Findings from a predominantly gay male sample of unemployed individuals living with HIV/AIDS in the Toronto-area indicated high levels of depressive symptomatology, which were negatively related to emotional/informational support, tangible support, and affectionate/interpersonal support. Mediation analyses indicated partial support of the Cognitive Adaptation Model, revealing significant mediating effects of mastery on the relationship between social support and depressive symptomatology. Self-esteem was not found to be a significant mediator of this relationship. Findings suggest the need for social support interventions that help to strengthen mastery in individuals living with HIV/AIDS in order to reduce depression. Attention should be paid to self-esteem and its relationship with gender and employment status in this population.

The present study explored the influence of social support and psychological resources on depression in people living with HIV/AIDS. The mediating role of mastery and self-esteem was examined. Factor analysis of the MOS-SSS supported three dimensions of social support. Findings from a predominantly gay male sample of unemployed individuals living with HIV/AIDS in the Toronto-area indicated high levels of depressive symptomatology, which were negatively related to emotional/informational support, tangible support, and affectionate/interpersonal support. Mediation analyses indicated partial support of the Cognitive Adaptation Model, revealing significant mediating effects of mastery on the relationship between social support and depressive symptomatology. Self-esteem was not found to be a significant mediator of this relationship. Findings suggest the need for social support interventions that help to strengthen mastery in individuals living with HIV/AIDS in order to reduce depression. Attention should be paid to self-esteem and its relationship with gender and employment status in this population.

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Many psychologists have studied the effects of sports on children because it is an issue that is important for children and parents alike. Athletic participation is a popular activity in the United States for children and many begin sports at young ages. Theokas (2009) claimed that the importance of athletics is that sports are more than physical activity—sports have an influence in many other areas of a child’s life. The goal of the current review was to examine how sports affect children in domains such as: friendships, self-esteem, family, and academics. Athletic involvement helps a child in more ways that physical development and it is essential to understand the opportunity for life-long lessons athletics provides. The studies under review generally support child involvement in athletics for multiple reasons and implication of this review is that parents and school administrators should encourage sports in young children.

This study analyzes the impact of self-esteem (high vs. low), situational characterization ("negotiate" vs. "ask"), and gender (men vs. women) on the likelihood an individual initiates negotiation (n = 140). Self-esteem was primed with a prompt and the participants were told they could either "negotiate" or "ask" for more money after completing two tasks. A main effect of situational characterization was found such that negotiation was more likely in the "negotiate" condition than in the "ask" condition. Neither self-esteem nor gender produced significant results. A significant interaction showed that men were more likely to negotiate in the "ask" condition, but there were no gender differences in the "negotiate" condition. Finally, gender differences in anticipated future earnings were found. Men held considerably higher expectations for average salary 5 years after graduating from college than women. These results have important implications for training students to negotiate for the salaries they deserve and moving closer to closing the gender wage gap.

This paper studied whether threats to self-esteem and goal orientation affected an individual?s propensity to ask for help. Eighty-two undergraduate students from the University of Waterloo completed a self-esteem and goal orientation questionnaire in addition to completing two tests. One test was designed to be more self-relevant than the other, making that test more potentially threatening to an individual?s self-esteem. In each test, subjects were given the opportunity to ask for help on each question. The results show that the use of social comparison motivates individuals to engage in self-protection by reducing their willingness to ask for help. In situations where many others had asked for help, help seeking behavior increased. These results extend other research in showing the impact of social comparison on individual behaviour.

Research has recently begun to focus on separable conscious and subconscious aspects of self-esteem. Meanwhile, research on aggressive behavior has found that some individuals with high self-esteem are more prone to aggressive behavior. Based on a biopsychosocial approach, research has shown that appraisals of threat/challenge are marked by distinct physiological responses – threat appraisals are marked by activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, whereas challenge appraisals are marked by activation of the sympathetic adrenal-medullary axis. The present study examines the relationship between failure feedback, implicit and explicit self-esteem, appraisals, working memory and aggression in a series of three experiments. Experiment 1 examined the impact of failure feedback on stress physiology and found that individuals who displayed a physiological response to failure feedback consistent with a challenge response, as indicated by an increase in blood pressure without a concurrent increase in salivary cortisol, were the most likely group to become aggressive. Experiment 2 examined the relationships between implicit and explicit self-esteem in predicting aggressive behavior. Implicit self-esteem predicted behavioral inhibition in response to negative feedback such that higher implicit self-esteem was associated with fewer behavioral inhibition errors. In Experiment 3, threat/challenge motivations were manipulated to determine their impact on working memory performance. Increases in feelings of threat were associated with greater working memory performance, whereas increases in feelings of challenge were associated with decreases in working memory performance. The present study is the first to examine aggression in the context of threat/challenge appraisal responses. Overall, this study suggests that appraisals and physiology can assist in predicting aggressive behavior, although the cognitive mechanism by which this occurs remains elusive.

This study investigates social psychological strategies homeless persons use to develop and maintain the self while homeless. To understand this topic, I apply the identity theory of Stryker, self-esteem ofRosenberg, self-efficacy of Gecas and Schwalbe, and homeless identity meanings and behaviors of Burke. Additionally, I examine what is needed to no longer be homeless. In all, 326 surveys were collected at six different homeless service agencies such as shelters and meal sites. The data analysis includes descriptive statistics and multivariate regression. The results only partially support identity theory in that interactive commitment (increased number of homeless friends) predicts salience (frequently invoking the homeless identity across different situations) which predicts increased length of time in role. However, affective commitment and centrality of the homeless identity have no effect. This study does confirm Snow andAnderson’s findings that homeless persons on the streets for a shorter period of time will distance themselves from the homeless identity, while those on the streets longer will embrace the homeless identity. As opposed to previous research, I find that the majority of homeless respondents do not have low self-esteem or self-efficacy. Instead it is certain factors such as being homeless longer and more often, accepting the homeless identity, viewing the homeless identity as most important, little to no family support and having a high school diploma (or less) that result in homeless persons having low self-esteem or self-efficacy. With homeless identity meanings, people thinking negatively about themselves is the result of having more homeless friends, being homeless longer and more often, possessing low self-esteem and low self-efficacy. Placing great importance on homeless identity behaviors such as helping other homeless people and staying sober influence these outcomes: thinking positively about the self, stronger ties with other homeless people, more homeless friends and invoking the homeless identity more often in different situations. For homeless people to obtain housing, two factors, income and social support systems, are most important. Of all the control variables, sleeping on the streets and multiple disabilities demonstrate the greatest impact for almost all of the independent variables. The implications of these findings are discussed.