Self esteem

Self esteem is an important thing to be developed from a young age, simply that as a child, those who do not regularly receive positive reactions would have a higher chance of developing low self esteem, Sharp 1992.

A person’s self esteem can be easily dashed, simply by a comment from a teacher or coach. From a personal experience, I found that a small phrase was enough to completely dash my self esteem and self confidence which therefore caused me to make more simple mistakes throughout the rest of the day, but especially when I was still leading my leg.

When on a second Year Mountain Leader trip to the Lake District in March, a group of us took a day up on Crinkle Crags, spilt into different legs, each of us having different sections of the hike to lead. For my leg the cloud had come down, it was the first part of the assent up to a plateau. Whilst climbing the steep path, it was clear that the group would need to take several short stops to catch their breath and rehydrate. Once the first assent was accomplished, the cloud was thicker, which proved to be very disorientating. When I was requested to locate myself, I found that I made the classic mistake of thinking I was further along my leg than I actually was; however I wasn’t the only one who thought so, our leader for the day also thought the same. It was at this point that our leader made a comment which caused my self esteem to falter.

The reason that my self-esteem faltered, was partly due to the fact that I had received, in my eyes, harsh and unnecessary criticism, but it had also been uttered in front of everyone. This caused self consciousness about being criticised in front of my peers unnecessarily; my confidence had been knocked down several pegs. Academic forms of these facts can be found in association with Lowe (1973), cited in Woods (1998), and his research about stress and stressors.

The simple comment had the effect of causing my self esteem and self assurance to drop, in a short space of time, to the point where I felt that I would struggle to make it as a mountain leader as, in my eyes, at that particular moment in time I had not achieved the task set out for me by those who were of superior levels of experience and knowledge.

Something that I picked up from Woods (1998) was that if the comment had been rephrased, then it would not necessarily have been taken the way it was. If the comment had been phrased in a different manner; then the result might have been seen as constructive criticism, therefore not causing my self esteem to drop.

What can be seen from this moment are several things. One of them is for me not to allow myself to be affected by comments like that. Another thing is that maybe it is also the lecturer who needs to be aware of how their comments can affect people’s confidence.

Applying Psychology to Sport, B. Woods. 1998

Acquiring Skill in Sport, B. Sharp. 1992