subject: Teens Rate Self Esteem Higher Than Sex, Money [print this page] Researchers at the Ohio State University and the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory were surprised to find that teens and young adults prefer praise over sex, good food, alcohol, hanging out with friends or receiving a fat paycheck.
Lead author of the study, Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University in Columbus stated, It is somewhat surprising how this desire to feel worthy and valuable trumps almost any other pleasant activity you can imagine.
We found that self-esteem trumped all other rewards in the minds of these college students.
Two experiments conducted
In a bid to determine what the youth of today desire most, the researchers questioned 282 students at the University of Michigan in two separate studies.
The study participants were asked how much they liked certain activities like their favorite food, sexual activity, receiving a paycheck, hanging around with a best friend, drinking alcohol, and ego boosting experiences.
They were then asked to rate them all in terms of the least pleasant (1) to the most pleasurable (5).
The second study focused more on how much they wanted and liked the pleasurable contributing activities described in the first study.
Findings of the study
The study found that the students liked all the pleasure giving activities more than they wanted or needed them, which the psychologists believe is a healthy sign.
Although, it did not border to addiction, the investigators perceived the smallest distinction between liking and wanting on the issue of self-esteem.
Bushman stated, It wouldnt be correct to say that the study participants were addicted to self-esteem. But they were closer to being addicted to self-esteem than they were to being addicted to any other activity we studied.
Intellectual test
The participants also took a test to evaluate their intellectual ability.
After receiving the results, the students were asked to wait for another 10 minutes for re-evaluation of the test scores using a new computational algorithm that is known to yields higher scores.
It was observed that most of the youngsters who waited an additional 10 minutes were those who valued self esteem highly.
Co-author of the study, Jennifer Crocker, a psychology professor at The Ohio State University said, "The problem isn't with having high self-esteem; it's how much people are driven to boost their self-esteem.
"When people highly value self-esteem, they may avoid doing things such as acknowledging a wrong they did. Admitting you were wrong may be uncomfortable for self-esteem at the moment, but ultimately, it could lead to better learning, relationships, growth and even future self-esteem."
Details of the study have been published online in the latest issue of the esteemed scientific 'Journal of Personality.'
by: Priyanka Verma
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