The American Freshman Survey asks students to rate how they
compare with their peers in different areas. It's been running since 1966, and
in 2012, analysis of the results showed that over the past 40 years, students
have increasingly been describing themselves – from mathematical ability to
self-confidence and drive to achieve – as "above average".
The psychologist Jean Twenge and colleagues analysed the
data and found a 30% increase in narcissistic attitudes among students since
1979. She says: "What's really become prevalent over the last two decades
is the idea that being highly self-confident – loving yourself, believing in
yourself – is the key to success. Now the interesting thing about that belief
is it's widely held, it's very deeply held, and it's also untrue."
Well, thank God for that. Imagine if that was all there was
to it. Imagine if only your belief that you were special, that your confidence
in your somehow "above average" drive to achieve was all it took. How
would that look? I picture a nation of Apprentice contestants, in cheap suits
and with false grins, saying things like: "I'm not a one-trick pony, I'm
not a 10-trick pony – I've got a field of ponies waiting to literally run
towards this job" and "There are two types of people in the world:
winners and … I don't know how to say the word, I can't say it" (this chap
was gone by the third week).
We'd walk around, with grotesque (the word of the moment)
"entitlement" and we'd be aggrieved when we didn't succeed. I should
know, I used to manage the self-help section in a bookshop, and it was never
empty. From people looking to get the love life they "deserved" to
attracting success into their lives, I saw and eavesdropped on them all. As
with the increased sign-ups to internet dating sites and gyms, the start of the
new year was a good time in the self-help section.
The idea that our success, or its flipside, is down strictly
to us is obviously very seductive. That raw notion was the basis of the slogan
"We built it", seen at the last Republican party convention. The idea
is in essence the American dream: if you believe it, it will come true.
There
are add-ons – the usual blue-collar trope of working hard for example – but
that conviction is the first step. The fabled meritocracy, where ability trumps
practically everything else, "if she's the best, she'll rise to the
top", has been proven not to be true for a whole swath of us: often times,
the best stay in the shallows, because without various connections, that's
where they tend to stay.
So we swing back to the confidence/success thing again: are
people successful because they're confident? Or are they confident because
they're successful? Back in 2011, the BBC programme Who Gets The Best Jobs
looked at internship culture and the restricted access to well-paid jobs.
Talking to reporter Richard Bilton was Alistair Macnaughton, headteacher at The
King's School, Gloucester. He said: "There's so much more [than an
academic education] ... and definitely, the kids have that shine of confidence
about them when they leave the school. You can see that very, very
clearly." And you really can.
Twenge's assertion that self-confidence does not
automatically lead to success is reassuring; up to a point. But that
"shine of confidence" that Macnaughton mentions is ease. It is the
knowledge that they are among peers and they are supposed to be. There is a lack
of awkwardness, a feeling of belonging that is nigh on impossible to learn from
a book. It doesn't necessarily come with working hard and getting there in
spite of the obstacles in your way; that may build up emotional resilience and
grit, but it does not necessarily bring confidence. And as the price of higher
education mounts (both in Britain and the US) and access is further restricted
to all but the wealthy and privileged, maybe that's what these students are
recording.
Maybe this "narcissism" and surprisingly "above
average" scoring across the board is all just ease.
Source: 10 January 2013, The Guardian by Bim Adewumni
No comments:
Post a Comment