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IMPACT OF SELF CONCEPT, BODY DISSATISFACTION AND GENDER ON STUDENT'S FEAR OF NEGATIVE EVALUATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Watson and Friend (1969) defined fear of negative evaluation as apprehension about others’ evaluation, distress over their negative evaluation, and the expectation that others would evaluate oneself negatively. Carleton et al, (2006) defined fear of negative evaluation as the
apprehension and distress arising from concern about being judged despairingly or hostilely by others. Basically people with a high degree of fear of negative evaluation (which can be measured with Fear of Negative Evaluation scale developed by Watson and friend) are overly concerned with
how they are judged or perceived by other people. They tend to imagine that they are being perceived in negative ways and they are often inhibited in their behaviour as a result. This people are also more responsive to situational factors, conformity, pre-social behavior e.t.c. It may also be seen in every social evaluating situation including testing, being on a date, talking to one’s superior, being interviewed for a job, or giving a speech (Watson and friend, 1969).Fear of negative evaluation is related to specific personality dimensions, such as anxiousness, submissiveness, and social avoidance. Several cognitive models, as well as previous research, support the notion that social anxiety is derived in part, from fear of perceived negative evaluation(Clark & Wells 1995; Rapee and Heimbeig, 1997). People with social anxiety demonstrate a variety of behaviours to avoid negative evaluation (Well et al, 1995) and have attentional biases for detecting social-evaluative threats (Asmundson & Stein, 1994; Heinrichs & Hofmann, 2001; Vassilopoloulos, 2005); however this sensitivity to social threats is believed to be based on implicit and automatic response determined by stimulus relevance (Philippot and Pouilliez, 2005).Socially anxious people have lower level of confidence in their perceived social skills (it has also been associated with increased shyness (Miller, 1995), the development of eating disorders (Gilbert and mayer, 2005), and lower self-esteem (kocovski and Endler, 2002).

Tozzi,F.,Aggen,S.,Neal,B.,Anderson,C.,Mazzeo,S.,Neal,M,.(2004) made a connection between fear of negative evaluation and perfectionism, suggesting that a fear of making mistake is one of the core features of perfectionism. Concern over mistake can be viewed as a form of negative evaluation. Succinctly put, mistakes are synonymous with failure and disapproval. Social anxiety is, in part response to perceived negative evaluation by others whereas Fear of Negative Evaluation is related to dread of being evaluated despairingly when participating in a social situation. Social anxiety is purely an emotional reaction to this type of social phobia. When patients with social phobia evaluate their relationship, they are extremely fearful of negative evaluation and express high degree of FNE. FNE has been suggested to have some genetic components as are other personality characteristics (trait anxiousness, submissiveness and social avoidance) Segrin, (2001). As a latent construct, fear of negative evaluation is believed to promote the development and expression of more general fears, anxiety and psychopathologies (Reiss and McNally, 1985).

This latent fear is partially heritable; ((Stein, Jang, & Livesley, 2002). Given the necessity for positive, successful social interaction, particularly for persons in fear of therapy (Alden & Taylor, 2004; Segrin, 2001). Increased understanding of effect of fear of negative evaluation and its correlates is crucial. Self-concept is another important variable that we must talk about as it contributes a lot in determining whether a person would develop the fear of being negatively evaluated by people.

The self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about or perceives himself.The self-concept can be defined as an organised knowledge structure or cognitive schema that contains all known information about the self, including past experiences, current knowledge, feelings, beliefs and self-evaluations (Markus, 1977). While the self-concept was once conceptualised as a stable, generalised view of the self, it is now viewed as a dynamic and multifaceted structure, which influences areas as diverse as self-regulation, goal setting, information processing, affect regulation, motivation, social perception, situation and partner choice, interaction strategies, and reactions to feedback (Markus &Wurf, 1987). This dynamic conceptualisation allowed for the observation that an individual’s self-concept could alter based on their currently accessible thoughts, attitudes and beliefs, which may be influenced by factors such as their current motivational state or social surroundings (Markus &Wurf, 1987).

Selfconcept can be conceptualized in terms of both content and structure, that is how the person views themselves and how this self-relevant information is organized. Social cognitive researchers have found out that people vary in the stability of their self-concept (Campbell et al, 1996), and propose that an unstable self-concept results in sensitivity and susceptibility to selfrelevant feedback (Campbell,1990). Psychologist, Carl Rogers (1951), was the first to establish the notion of self-concept. According to Rogers, everyone strives to reach an ‘’ideal self’’ (the closer one is to their ideal self, the happier one will be) Those who are unable to attain this goal may exhibit the fear of being negatively evaluated by others and most times they tend to avoid socially evaluative situations. Rogers claims that one factor in a person’s happiness is the “Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) from others.

UPR often occur in close of familial relationship, and involves a consistent level of attention regardless of the recipient emotion. According to Rogers, psychologically healthy people actively move away from roles created by others expectations and instead look within themselves for validation. On the other hand neurotic people have self-concept that do not match their own experiences. They are afraid to accept their own experiences as valid, so they distort them, either to protect themselves or to win approval from others. One important theory related to self-concept is self-categorization theory (SCT), which states that self-concept consist of at least two levels, a personal identity and a social identity. In other words ones self-evaluation rely on both self-perception and how others perceive them. If one perceives oneself as being incompetent, this negative self-evaluation would affect the person’s behaviour or disposition probably negatively in the same hand, positive self-evaluation breeds confidence in social situations.

The temporary self-appraisal theory supports the above notion; it posits that people have a tendency to maintain a positive self-evaluation by distancing themselves from their negative self and paying more attention to their positive one. Body image is the perception that a person has of their physical self and the thoughts and feelings that result from that perception. These feelings can be positive, negative or both and are influenced by individuals and environmental factors According to National Eating Disorders Collaboration (2014), there are four aspects of body image; it includes: (1) The perceptual body image which has to do with how one sees oneself. This is not always a correct representation of how one actually looks. For example, a person may perceive his/her self as overweight when they are actually underweight. (2) The affective body image which has to do with the way one feels about one’s body. It relates to the amount of satisfaction or dissatisfaction one feels about one’s shape, weight and individual body parts.
(3) The cognitive body image entails how one thinks about his or her body. This can lead to preoccupation with body shape and weight. For example, some people believe they will feel better about themselves if they are thinner or more muscular. (4) Behavioural body image which entails the several behaviours one engages in as a result of one’s body image. When people are dissatisfied with the way they look, they may isolate themselves because they feel bad about their appearance or employ destructive behaviours (e.g excessive exercising, disordered eating) as a means to change their appearance.

Positive body image is important because it is one of the protection factors which can make a person more resilient to eating disorders, body dimorphic disorder, excessive exercise and other unfavourable behaviours. Positive body image occurs when a person is able to accept, appreciate and respect his or her body. Personal appearance is very important to everyone. It may influence how one feels about oneself, how one interacts with others, how one pays attention to one’s appearance on a daily basis, and what behaviours one practices in order to maintain one’s image (Sloan, 1995). Body dissatisfaction on the other hand, is a negative feeling about oneself, beauty, figure, colour, weight, height etc,(Obi, 2006).Body dissatisfaction is an internal process but can be influenced by several external factors. For example, family, friends, acquaintances, teachers and the media all have an impact on how a person sees and feels about themselves and their appearance. Individuals in appearance oriented environments or those who receive negative feedback about their appearance are at an increased risk of body dissatisfaction.