We all know the feeling when others try to soften a bad performance or situation for us. They'll say empathetically, "Don't worry -- you did really well." Deep down, you feel you failed to meet expectations.
Praise can be hard to take, especially if you feel it's undeserved. One study suggests the same might be true for people who give themselves too much unnecessary credit.
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Although the results are mixed on whether self-praise can be linked to feeling happy or depressed, there's a trend showing too much pep talk might not bode well for a person's emotional well-being. Receiving praise from others, on the other hand, has been studied a bit more. Still, some research hinted that even positive feedback from others may negatively affect a person's self-worth. This isn't to say that self-encouragement or other approaches don't help people improve their moods and overall mental health -- they obviously can. Rather, what matters more is whether a person feels he deserves praise to begin with.
In four experiments, researchers looked at approximately 4,000 middle, high school and undergraduate students in the United States and Hong Kong. In two setups, students completed a test and were asked to compare their performances with their classmates. After learning their scores, they also took exams that measured depressive traits.
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But in the other two conditions, students were told they did the opposite of how they really performed. Students who did well were told they did worse, while those who didn't do as hot were told they did better. It turns out that students who exaggerated or downplayed their performance were also more likely to show more depressive traits. This didn't change for students who were told they did well when they really didn't.
Although the findings are intriguing, it's hard to make definitive claims about the value of self-praise. So far, meeting your own expectations and being realistic about your abilities appear to be good ways to avoid feeling dejected.
Photo by .reid./Flickr.com
Tags: Emotions, Mental Health
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