False self-confidence: the heavy mask of self-deception.

Notes on self-deception and its relation to self-esteem.

In today's article I am going to expose the concept of the false self-confidence.

It is common to talk about the importance of self-esteem. Feeling good about ourselves is fundamental for ourselves and for relating to others. However, psychologists and coaches also refer to self-confidence (self-efficacy), aware of the relationship it has with self-esteem.

False self-confidence: the difference between self-esteem and self-confidence

To better understand the difference between self-confidence and self-esteem, I will first talk about self-concept or self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is what a person believes or thinks about him/herself.

Most experts interpret self-concept as an integrated set of factors of the self, basically three: cognitive (thoughts), affective (feelings) and conative (behaviors), which if identified individually could be classified as follows: the first factor, self-concept the second factor as self-esteem; and the third as self-efficacy or self-confidence. Before discussing false self-confidence, we will focus on self-efficacy. self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is the appreciation of one's capabilities and is centered on one's beliefs that one has the capacity and ability and ability to succeed in a given context. Whereas self-esteem is the general feeling of how valuable one is as a whole and refers to one's appreciation of oneself.

People with a high level of self-confidence tend to set high standards of success for themselves. tend to set high standards of success for themselves. They may not always achieve their goals or their self-esteem may not be as high, but they never give up, they always continue to have confidence in themselves and their abilities. This confidence in one's own ability allows one not to crumble in the face of failure and to move forward in the fulfillment of one's goals and objectives.

Although not all researchers agree, there is some consensus that self-confidence is the same as self-efficacy. Albert Bandura, a professor at Stanford University, was the first psychologist to talk about self-efficacy in the 1970s. For Bandura, self-confidence is "the conviction a person has that he or she can execute, successfully, the behavior required to produce a certain outcome."

The importance of being realistic

Self-confidence, therefore, has to do with the realistic expectation regarding what one can actually do to to achieve a certain objective. It is an internal state that implies a real knowledge of the difficulties to overcome, of one's own resources to do so and, from here, of the real possibilities that one has of achieving success in some aspect of one's life.

The most important factor of self-confidence is not blindly believing that one will achieve all one's goals and that one will never make mistakes, but that the person has the conviction, objectively supported, that he/she possesses sufficient resources to be able to overcome adversities and get up after the mistakes that inevitably occur. and get up after the mistakes that can inevitably be made. It is important to build true self-confidence and not to fall into the error of false self-confidence.

False self-confidence: what is it?

As I have pointed out, self-confidence is an internal state characterized by a realistic conviction that one is effective in coping with the demands of life, and is not just simple verbal manifestations that one will achieve everything one sets out to do. It is not a matter of appearing optimistic all the time, without assessing, in any case, the real possibilities and the accessibility to certain external factors that will be present.

I already commented in the article "Personal Development: 5 reasons for self-reflection" on the importance of an objective analysis of the situation and of not letting oneself be carried away by "hunches" without any kind of control. When one adopts an attitude "outwardly" that does not reflect the mistrust and concern that, in many cases, one experiences, making triumphalist and optimistic statements without foundation, this is known as false self-confidence. This behavior, probably gratifying at the moment of carrying it out, makes the person feel good thinking this way, but this behavior can derive, however, in that the person gets to confuse reality with fantasy. confusing reality with fantasy.

False self-confidence helps to produce a self-deception that allows the person to avoid the true internal state of self-confidence that in many cases is behind the "mask". This form of avoidance, false self-confidence, can have serious consequences on self-confidence, as it becomes weaker and weaker, and more and more distant from reality.