UNITATEA 4:

SELF-ESTEEM AND SOCIAL SUCCESS

La sfârşitul acestui curs, studentul va putea:

− să se exprime în limba engleză asupra problemelor legate de stima de sine a
individului în contemporaneitate
− să folosească diferenţiat Present Perfect Tense Simple şi Present Perfect
Tense Continuous

Cunoştinţe privind regulile generale de formare a timpurilor Present Perfect

Tense Simple şi Present Perfect Tense Continuous

Engleza pentru admitere, Bantaş, Andrei, Ed. Teora, Bucureşti, 1995, vol. 1;
Practise Your Tenses, Adamson, Donald, Longman, 1996;
Exerciţii de gramatica limbii engleze, Gălăţeanu-Fârnoagă, Georgiana,
Editura Albatros, Bucureşti, 1987

Două ore
 Pre-reading
1.Express your agreement/disagreement to the 10 statements of the Rosenberg “Self-
Esteem Scale” (1965) below.

Statement Agree Disagree

1.I feel that I am a person of 1 2
worth, at least on an equal plane
with others.
2.I feel that I have a number of 1 2
good qualities.
3.All in all, I am inclined to feel 1 2
that I am a failure.
4.I am able to do things as well 1 2
as most other people.
5.I feel I do not have much to be 1 2
proud of.
6.I take a positive attitude 1 2
toward myself.
7.On the whole, I am satisfied 1 2
with myself.
8.I wish I could have more 1 2
respect for myself.
9.I certainly feel useless at 1 2
times.
10.At times I think I am no good 1 2
at all.

Text: “How Is Your Self-Esteem?”, Sociology, page 142.

Questions to consider

1.List three or four of your major roles and imagine yourself a failure in each of them
in turn. What steps could you take to protect your self-esteem? Are there any roles
where failure could not be rationalised, where failure would damage your self-
esteem?
2.Where do you stand on the self-esteem scale? (Students calculate their score and
compare them to those obtained by other students in their group).

Supplementary Question
What is your opinion about the quality of the test?
 Reading

Text: “How Is Your Self-Esteem?”, Sociology, page 142.

“The ten questions in the box above make up the Rosenberg Self-Esteem
Scale (1965), widely used by psychologists and sociologists to measure self-esteem
(Bohrenstedt & Fisher, 1986; Shamir, 1986).
Some have criticised the scale because it was high social desirability bias;
people may distort their answers to provide more positive images. This is not a
problem, however, because the question at issue is not whether people really do have
anything to be proud of or whether they really are a success or failure. Rather our
concern is how they feel about themselves. Since we are asking about subjective
interpretations rather than objective facts, this is one scale in which everybody really
can be above average.
Some of the more important research findings on self-esteem are the
following:
1.We always think better of ourselves than others do (Wylie, 1979). In this
sense, the looking-glass self is always a little distorted in our own favour.
2.Self-esteem turns out to be very stable. Even blows to major role identities,
such as the loss of a high status job, may not result in much loss of self-esteem
(Shamir, 1986). This stability of self-esteem testifies to the skill most of us have in
negotiating our self-concepts.
3.People with high self-esteem are more confident and hence more open to
new ideas and new relationships. People with low self-esteem, on the other hand, are
defensive and anxious, afraid to challenge themselves or others (Michener et al.,
1986).
____________________________________________________________________
______________

When others’ responses are ambiguous—and they usually are, we

just believe what we want to.
____________________________________________________________________
______________

We cannot all be above average. Yet studies on topics from intelligence to

physical attractiveness show that hardly anybody thinks he or she is below average
and large majorities think they are above average. How do people manage to protect
their self-esteem ? They do so by:
1) Using the identity salience hierarchy to emphasise roles they do well;
2) Being very careful about their choice of looking glasses (Rosenberg, 1979); and
3) Simply interpreting others’ responses in ways that support a positive self-image.
When others’ responses are ambiguous—and they usually are, we just believe
what we want to (Felson, 1985).”

LANGUAGE FOCUS

New Vocabulary: bias; to distort; scale; average; rather; above vs below; looking
glass, mirror; confident; hence; to challenge; yet (in various contexts); salient,
salience; to support; ambiguous.
 Practice

Uses of MAKE versus DO.

MAKE DO
An attempt Lessons
Mistakes Homework
Noise Housework
A complaint An exercise
A fuss One’s best
Coffee/tea With(out) something
Breakfast (meal) A favour
Furniture (an object) Justice
One’s bed The washing up
A decision The shopping
An excuse One’s correspondence
Up one’s mind One’s hair
An offer Good/harm
A mess The cooking
A phone call One’s duty
A fortune Business with someone
Money The carpets
Trouble One’s room
Plans The dishes
A living Fine/well
arrangements The grand/polite
damage “Do as you would be done.”
progress “How do you do”
Someone rich/poor
wonders
sense
A speech
An impression
A will
A wish
A remark
Room for…
A trip/journey/voyage
A gesture/a discovery
Somebody angry/happy
A fresh/new start
It one’s business
A guess at
Oneself at home
Sure of
“To make a mountain out of a molehill.”
“To make both ends meet.”
“To make haste slowly.”
“Make hay while the sun shines.”

Practice

Fill in the blanks using either MAKE or DO at the right tense.

1. She has already…………..dinner.
2. It’s hard to ……….a decision at such short notice.
3. Patience ……….wonders (miracles).
4. You shouldn’t………….the polite if you don’t feel that
way.
5. I hate……………the washing up.
6. …….as you would be done.
7. I haven’t …………up my mind as to what I
should……next.
8. She……..her hair at the hairdresser’s last Wednesday.
9. Why haven’t you………your homework.
10. ………the housework is equivalent to chores (A.E.) /
chares (B.E.).
11. She ……always……….a mountain out of a molehill.
12. ………hay while the sun shines.
13. ………haste slowly.
14. ………yourselves at home.
15. Don’t……such a fuss!

PRONUNCIATION : hierarchy.

Follow-up activities: Sociology, page 142, (Questions to Consider).

1. List three or four of your major
roles and imagine yourself a
failure in each of them in turn.
What steps could you take to
protect your self-esteem? Are
there any roles where failure
could not be rationalised, where
failure would damage your self-
esteem?
2. Where do you stand on the self-
esteem scale?

GRAMMAR FOCUS

1.The verb turn + preposition:

ü Turn against = start disliking someone/something;
 ü Turn down = 1.reduce the volume of…; 2.refuse a request;
ü Turn off = make something stop working;
ü Turn on = make something work;
ü Turn up = increase the volume of…

Practice

Fill in the correct particles:

The way Jim turned.…….1the offer, eventually made the boss
turn………….2him. He didn’t either listen or at least turn……….3the volume of
the CD player while the boss was talking to him. On the contrary, after a few
minutes he even turned………4the volume.
The boss got angry and turned the player……..5 Yet, Jim immediately did the
opposite, turned it…….6and declined the offer.
2.The structures “Whether…or not/Whether…or whether”(see the text). Briefly
comment on “What a distressing contrast between the radiant intelligence of the
child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.” (S. Freud) using these structures
(“Whether…or not/Whether…or whether”).

3.Long Adjectives
Degrees of Comparison
Positive Comparative Superlative
careful More careful than The most careful of/in
expensive Expensive expensive
demanding demanding demanding

Cross out the unnecessary words:

a) He is as very absent minded as his sister.
b) His insight on the issue was more deeper than expected.
c) The environment was the many most comfortable one available at the time.
d) The side effects were the less important for the chemical reaction.
e) The sooner the upcoming session the more faster the problem is worked out.

4.The Present Perfect Progressive vs the Present Perfect

Use: to express:
ü an action which has started before another present action/moment, and has
continued up to the moment of speaking, and may continue even afterwards;
ü a finished action before another present action/moment, to emphasise the idea
of duration;
ü actions which have visible results in the present;
ü irritation, anger, annoyance, explanation or criticism.
Choose the right item:
1. Aunt Ellie is out of breath because she……………………in the orchard for a
couple of hours.
a. worked; b. has worked; c. has been working.
2. She……………….many dozens of fruit so far.
 a. picked; has picked; has been picking.
3. She still…………………….to lean the ladder against a tree, though she is tired.
a. want; b. wants; c. wanted.
4. Dropping out is not her style. So, she……….still………………her best to finish
the job.
a. has done; b. has been doing; c. is doing.
Time Expressions:
for, since, how long.
Form:
Affirmative: Subject + have/has + been + verb-ing…
Interrogative: Have/Has + Subject + been + verb-ing…?
Negative: Subject + have/has + not + been + verb-ing….

Practice

Write a letter to a friend telling him/her about the things that have changed in your
life over the last year.

How we feel about ourselves