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Andrea Cornell Sarvady, a left-leaning columnist, writes the commentary this week and Shaunti Feldhahn, a right-leaning columnist, responds.
Commentary
By Andrea Cornell Sarvady
When a study comes out faulting young people for their worldview, I’m inclined to rejoice. Steeped as I am in midlife grumpiness, it’s life-affirming to find any proof that those with endless prospects and perfect muscle tone are actually inferior beings.
So I should be cheered by a recent, well-publicized report that implicates parents and teachers for producing narcissistic adolescents. Explains San Diego State University Professor Jean Twenge of today’s teens, “They don’t set the right goals for themselves because they are overconfident, and that’s when it blows up in their face.”
Hmm. Rather than enjoy the explosion, I question the conclusion. Twenge’s findings were garnered from self-evaluations from 1975 and again in 2006. That’s like comparing Depression-era teens with hippies. In particular, 1975 is an odd year to create a benchmark for teen perspectives; high schoolers in that malaise-filled era viewed everything from Nixon’s resignation to Mom’s liberation with skepticism. I should know.
Today’s teens rate themselves higher as future mates, parents and workers than did their ’70s counterparts; the study seems to attribute this to a rise in teen narcissism. Yet what of the societal changes that might also have influenced 2006 respondents? There have been seismic shifts in gender roles since 1975, easily influencing attitudes about parenting and work.
Equally puzzling are the “increasingly unrealistic” expectations researchers are fretting about. Over 50 percent of high school seniors plan to earn a graduate degree, “although less than 10 percent will likely reach that goal.” So? Won’t that ambition at least create more college graduates?
Twenge acknowledges that in measures of “self-competency” teens rate themselves no better than they did in the ’70s. In other words, they rate themselves highly as people, while still realistically measuring themselves against their peers. That sounds — dare I say it? — mature.
Sure, there’s been some compliment inflation from indulgent adults, but it’s hardly taken away all teenage insecurity. Who knows? Maybe their confidence in the future will get them through the trials of adolescence. Listen, I may begrudge the young their toned muscles, yet I don’t doubt their ability to recover should the college admissions gauntlet or tough employers thwart their plans to rule the world.
Lastly, consider the world that our young people will soon inherit. A surplus of confidence? They’re gonna need it.
Rebuttal
By Shaunti Feldhahn
When preschools teach the song, “I am special, I am special, look at me” to the tune of “Frere Jacques,” American society is drinking too much self-confidence juice. The self-esteem movement began almost four decades ago, and experts such as Professor Twenge worry that what we are producing as a result is not “self-confidence” (which can be healthy) but narcissism.
Andy may not realize that Twenge studied far more than just two points in time. According to an Associated Press interview, Twenge’s workshops include data from more than 16,000 students who filled out a standardized Narcissistic Personality Inventory over 24 years (1982 to 2006). The NPI asks questions like, “If I ruled the world, it would be a better place,” and “I can live my life any way I want to.” NPI scores rose steadily since 1982, with two-thirds of students racking up above-average scores by 2006.
Dr. Carol Dweck, author of “Mindset” and psychology professor at Stanford has also studied self-esteem and academic performance. She found that students praised for their effort do far better and feel more confident in their abilities than those praised for “how smart you are!” By phone, she explained that, “Praising kids for intelligence backfired. Once they hit difficulties, they did not feel they were smart — because if success meant they were smart then failure mean they were not. It made them unwilling to take a different path or tackle anything difficult — and more likely to lie about their results. By contrast, children praised for effort almost universally wanted more and different tasks they could learn from. When we gave those kids harder problems, they thrived on them and performed better.”
We’re not helping our young people in the real world if we foster the illusion that it revolves around them. A COO friend of mine was once approached by his HR director about hiring a consultant who wanted to train the firm on what young hires under 25 expect today: different work styles, different concessions to work-life balance, and so on. My friend shocked his HR director by responding, “Wow! Thank you! So now I know: I just won’t hire anyone under 25, until they grow up and understand that they are here to work for us and not the other way around!”
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Commentary
By Andrea Cornell Sarvady
When a study comes out faulting young people for their worldview, I’m inclined to rejoice. Steeped as I am in midlife grumpiness, it’s life-affirming to find any proof that those with endless prospects and perfect muscle tone are actually inferior beings.
So I should be cheered by a recent, well-publicized report that implicates parents and teachers for producing narcissistic adolescents. Explains San Diego State University Professor Jean Twenge of today’s teens, “They don’t set the right goals for themselves because they are overconfident, and that’s when it blows up in their face.”
Hmm. Rather than enjoy the explosion, I question the conclusion. Twenge’s findings were garnered from self-evaluations from 1975 and again in 2006. That’s like comparing Depression-era teens with hippies. In particular, 1975 is an odd year to create a benchmark for teen perspectives; high schoolers in that malaise-filled era viewed everything from Nixon’s resignation to Mom’s liberation with skepticism. I should know.
Today’s teens rate themselves higher as future mates, parents and workers than did their ’70s counterparts; the study seems to attribute this to a rise in teen narcissism. Yet what of the societal changes that might also have influenced 2006 respondents? There have been seismic shifts in gender roles since 1975, easily influencing attitudes about parenting and work.
Equally puzzling are the “increasingly unrealistic” expectations researchers are fretting about. Over 50 percent of high school seniors plan to earn a graduate degree, “although less than 10 percent will likely reach that goal.” So? Won’t that ambition at least create more college graduates?
Twenge acknowledges that in measures of “self-competency” teens rate themselves no better than they did in the ’70s. In other words, they rate themselves highly as people, while still realistically measuring themselves against their peers. That sounds — dare I say it? — mature.
Sure, there’s been some compliment inflation from indulgent adults, but it’s hardly taken away all teenage insecurity. Who knows? Maybe their confidence in the future will get them through the trials of adolescence. Listen, I may begrudge the young their toned muscles, yet I don’t doubt their ability to recover should the college admissions gauntlet or tough employers thwart their plans to rule the world.
Lastly, consider the world that our young people will soon inherit. A surplus of confidence? They’re gonna need it.