Does “faking-it” help your level of self-confidence and self-esteem?
Graduation Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of
English Language and Literature
Notre Dame Seishin University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts
by
Mariya Ando
2015
Contents
Chapter One: Body and Brain
1.1 What can Power Posing do, and what About it...... 5
1.2 How to control your mind with your body...... 6
1.2.1 Why do some people have confidence while some do not?...... 6,7
1.2.2 Body language says a lot about you...... 7~8
1.3 Self-Efficacy, Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence ...... 8~9
1.3.1 The Faking-Method ...... 9
1.3.2 Does Fake-it method work?...... 9~10
1.4 Research Questions ...... 10
1.5 Conclusion...... 10~11
Chapter Two: Can one build up self-confidence and self-esteem with the Faking-Method or without?
2.1 Introduction ...... 12
2.2 Experiment ...... 12
2.2.1 Questionnaire...... 12~13
2.2.2 Method...... 13~15
0) Aim...... 13
1) Subjects ...... 13~14
2) Test design...... 14~15
3) Procedure...... 15
2.2.3 Results...... 15~36
2.3 Summary...... 36
Chapter Three: Fake-it method and no Fake-it method explained
3.1 Introduction...... 37~38
3.2 Summary of the results ...... 38
3.2 Discussion of the results ...... 38~40
3.3 Research questions ...... 40~41
3.4 Implications ...... 41~42
3.5. Limitations of the Experiments...... 42
3.5. Further research...... 42~43
3.6. Conclusion...... 43
References ...... 44~45
Appendices ...... 46~51
Abstract
This thesis was about learning how subjects build up their confidence level whilst using the Faking Method or without, and discussing what the connection is between having self-esteem and confidence.It also looked at how speaking clearly (in English) is affected to their confidence level.
The Faking-Method (Power Posing) raises the testosterone level, and makes people be more confident when they face difficulties, and anxieties. This method has led to a lot of positive feedback from the results of the experiment. When subjects receive compliments after they did the Power Posing they felt better and would think positively about themselves. It is important for people to show their true self and true opinions. Positive feelings can lead people to have freedom through difficulties and anxieties.
Subjects without doing the Faking Method did things that motivate and, encourage them to achieve their goals. This took more time to build their confidence level than the Faking Group.
When people face difficulties, problems can be hard to deal with and their confidence level can lower. For example, most of the subjects from this experiment answered, when they talk or stand in front of a lot of people they get very nervous and feel incompetent. Some also answered when they speak by phone they do not feel comfortable, but at the same time they can be confident about other things. It is just as important to notice what one is not good at, and try to deal with it.
Having confidence and self-esteem is different. People have various things they may not be good at, but that does not necessarily make one’s self esteem level lower. Self-esteem is something that one grew up with, culture, life environment, experiences and more. It is one’s personality that changes the level of it. Confidence comes from one’s experience that is how self-esteem is going to be affected. When people have high self-efficacy level, they would think they have the ability to achieve their goals. In this case Faking Method can help build people’s confidence level by forcing themselves to face their difficulties by doing Power Posing primarily.
Chapter 1: Body vs Brain
1.1 What can Power Posing do, and whatis it?
It is interesting to know how confidence, or self-esteem level change without any obvious reason from one’s life background environment, education, and difficulties that contains negative emotions. That is because many people tend to be insecure as we will see later, but in this thesis we are going to discuss a method called “Fake it till you make it”-., or also called “Fake it till you become it” by doing Power Posing to see if people can raise their self-confidence.
An inspiring speech by Cuddy (2013) explained “How your body posture can change your mind” from her experience. In the speech, Cuddy said she has always been an excellent learner, but that was only until one day she had an accident that cause her brain damage. Cuddy was utterly shocked that her IQ level had dropped, and could not imagine what would happen to her future, because something special was taken away from her. After that, one day at her university, she felt that she had to quit, because she thought she was an imposter, but her professor stopped her saying that she must not do it, that must continue making effort, to pretend that she had the power to do it up till the end by forcefully changing her mind that she can actually do it, and Cuddy made it till the end, to change “Fake-it till you make it” to “Fake-it till you become it”-.
The Faking-it method was also explained in an article research report by (Carney, Cuddy, Yap,2010)which said it is about doing high power non-verbal displays, that is also called as “Power Posing” when people are having opposite feelings, also explained it can give people tolerance to be braver and take higher risks. (Carney, Cuddy, Yap, 2010)
But “How does your body posture change your mind?”-. First, this has aroused curiosity through some reasons, one of them is because what people usually do is to think before taking actions, and also they would not quickly notice how they can change how people think, that there is still a possibility to change one’s confidence level by changing their body postures.Power Posing can help people’s anxieties and difficulties when they encounter occasions they do not like or become nervous about.
1.2. How to control your mind with your body
Our body postures change due to our moods and feelings, we see happy people standing straight, sad people slouching their backs, but can people control their minds by changing body postures?
High or low displays can change one’s hormone level to good or bad. That is because high-power non-verbal displays (Power-Posing) or low-power displays cause both neuroendocrine and behavioral changes to people, both women and to men who experience those actions. People who do high-power posing would have high testosterone level which is about having dominance, but a lower cortisol level which is connected with stress. Having a higher level of testosterone,can make people have more confidence, which cortisol does not. (Carney, Cuddy, Yap, 2010). Power-Posing changes one’s testosterone level to a higher level and cortisol level lower. Thus Power-Posing can affect one’s actions to more risky ones. It gives people more confidence. Body can change thoughts, minds.
At the end of the speech, Cuddy told people to actually try out the Power Posing for those who do not have enough confidence to show who they really are, that this idea can lead you to become better with having confidence or have a little more confidence than one feel about his or her previous self.
As general ideas say, having a certain level of confidence level is to show people that you are relaxed, full of experiences and people who are easy to talk to are considered as confident people. People can have problems on having a certain level or self-esteem level, because sometimes they feel they do not have enough experience or do not deserve doing what they want to do, or not enough to level up with other people. We will look at that in the next chapter of how subjects feel that way, because having confidence and self-esteem is different.
Having the idea which people feel they do not deserve that means they have low self-esteem level, but there is always a reason why these things happen, this will be explained in the next section.
1.2.1 Why do some people have confidence while some do not?
There are numerous reasons why people have difficulties on having confidence which also leads to their level of self-esteem change.
Being confident in certain things does not mean they are always confident. One may not be good at drawing but good at singing, but one can be not good at both of that but very good at giving advices to someone, but that is just one of the reasons about being insecure about certain things. That may happen when one is concerned about being good at it but that only depends on each person. Some may not even care even if they are not good at singing or good at math for example. It does not make them feel insecure about themselves, because they are not curious or do not feel the need of being good at certain things. Those types of people can be considered as confident in their own way, because they already feel comfortable with whom they really are now.
We expect there will be two types of ideas about people having that certain level of self-confidence. One is people who are too conscious about their faults, and the others are people who are not. In other words to explain this case, sometimes people feel insecure about something and when that happens they feel negatively, but there are also times that they do not care much about their other insecurities. At times people become vulnerable when they cannot do average things, that is because they compare others to themselves. This statement will be connected to self-esteem. This can also affect how people deal with their difficulties. (Wikipedia, 2012)
1.2.2 Body languagesays a lot about you
It is mostly unconscious that people convey feelings with their actions. When people feel or think negatively, their body posture mostly become smaller. It is not natural to see a depressed person stretching their arms above their head, and we do judge people by their appearances by explaining the former sentence.
People judge and influence each other. From Cuddy’s previous research, in our society, people interact or perceive each other through two types of critical variables; those are called (warmth and competence). Throughout these traits, it will be easy to define how people act. Through that, one can make different kinds of pictures and perspectives about one to another. “Warmth” here meant kindness, trustworthiness, and “Competence” meant for having confidence and knowledge that means one is capable and able to produce something special.
For example, people who are “warm and competent” are likely to be admired, but in the other hand people who are “cold and competent” they are likely to be envied and “Warm and incompetent” people pitied. “Cold and incompetent” people are likely to feel the contempt of others, but of course for all types it is not ideal to over exaggerate. For example elder people are seen usually as -(warm and incompetent)-. Inevitably, people acknowledge others by their appearances, because we judge people by their nationality, gender or race. That is why most of the time people make faulty impressions others, and in vice versa. (Fiske, S.T., Cuddy, A.J., Glick, P. and Xu, J., 2002)
Our body language says a lot about ourselves, but it is a choice how we act towards others to gain trustworthiness and a potential image, of course that is if one desires to, and before judging others it is important to see what is behind people’s faces, and to acknowledge how they feel when being judged.
1.3 Self-Efficacy, Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence
"The construct of self-efficacy differs from the colloquial term 'confidence.' Confidence is a nonspecific term that refers to strength of belief but does not necessarily specify what the certainty is about. I can be supremely confident that I will fail at an endeavor. Perceived self-efficacy refers to belief in one's agentive capabilities that one can produce given levels of attainment. A self-efficacy belief, therefore, includes both an affirmation of a capability level and the strength of that belief. Confidence is a catchword rather than a construct embedded in a theoretical system." Self-efficacy controls one’s emotions, actions, and thoughts. It is the center of the social cognitive theory. (Bandura, 1994)
People who have high level of self-esteem may give the idea of being a confident person, that is why confident people are likely to be seen as a person who has high level of self-esteem, but there is difference between these two concepts. Confidence may give a positive effect towards self-efficacy but not in vice versa.
Self-esteem is about one’s sense of self-worth. For example someone is not good at rock climbing, that does not mean he or she does not have self-esteem, nor feeling worthless but lower self-efficacy level, because one notices that he or she is not good at it, because self-efficacy means having that perception or belief of one’s ability to reach the goal. (Bandura, 1994)
1.3.1 The Faking-Method
“Fake it till you make it” is a catchphrase that means to pretend to be confident in order to be successful in a difficult or negative situation which people have. The belief is that this will generate real confidence. This was experimented in various universities.
One was from Wake Forest University where, scientists primed 50 students to be outgoing, in other words being the opposite of an introvert person. The more students became assertive the more they become happier and positive. (2011, Prevention Magazine). It was found that even doing Power-Posing (faking method) for two minutes before job interviews, speeches, will boost one’s testosterone level that leads to more confidence in one’s self.
People can feel positive when they do the Faking Method in occasions that they do not actually like or do not feel right being in it. Especially for job interviews, the interviewers can really be intense for the participants. Situations that expose people usually make them nervous and insecure for those who hate to stand and participate in front of a lot of people. But does it work and help them to be confident, and change how the way they think about themselves positively?
1.3.2 Does the Fake-it method work?
Fake-it Method works to a person who continues it. It is important because once one have achieved his or her goals whilst doing this they will feel like being a different person. (Cuddy, Ted, 2012)
When they continue doing this method they will feel they have grown up with their experiences, but also one has to be strong to what they feel about themselves to go on. There are tough times in one’s life, it will not be easy forever. Having strong will is necessary as well.
It is also difficult to say whether making big body postures build up confidence decisively for everyonebecause each person has different feelings, confidence level and self-esteem level. If one has low self-esteem it will be difficult for him or her to move on about her difficulties, and problems, but it also depends on situations because one might build up their self-esteem level in a certain situation or environment, the same for confidence level. For example, one is very good at singing but extremely shy to sing in front of many people. There are two statements there, singing is a talent, which means one is being competent while being shy. From an opposite view, one might not be good at singing, but brave enough to make a speech in front of many people. People can be confident about certain things but it does not make one to control everything about his or her feelings.
Faking Method is supposed to build up one’s confidence level to manipulate their hormone levels, and to help them feel positively when they are in difficult times, but there will be times not being able to force one’s feelings.
1.4 Research Questions
1. Can subjects overcome their anxieties without doing the faking-it method?
2. Is it possible that the fake-it method change one’s perspective in a good way?
3. Can subjects change their confidence level positively when they feel negative, and how do they do it?
4. What kind of method did subjects do without faking-it?
5. What image do the subjects have about confidence?
6. What do subjects think about why some people are confident and some are not?
7. Did doing a daily blog influence the subjects’ self-esteem level and confidence level?
1.5 Conclusion
In Chapter One, the two main topics were discussed. They were about what Power-Posing and Fake-It method are. Also explained how people tend to interact and judge each other by their appearances inevitably because of stereotype concepts, the two main topic is to change that idea in a few different ways by actually acknowledging people not by appearances, but stereo type concept is severely infiltrated into humanity, but that does not necessarily mean people cannot open their point of view.