Self esteem and housing bubbles

If you were a child or a parent in the 1970s-1980s, you were caught up in the self-esteem bubble. Even Christians like James Dobson did well on this misguided movement with books, TV shows, government grants, workshops for teachers, special session for child psychologists, NIH grants, etc. I know I certainly bought into it. Even Seseme Street got into the act. The idea was that instead of deriving healthy self-esteem from accomplishments, children could become accomplished by artificially ratcheting up their self-esteem. Although that’s been disproven (very evil and narcissistic sociopaths as well as deprived, abused and homely people can have very high self esteem) the memory and movement lingers on in “fairness” and “everyone is a winner” education movements. Everyone gets a prize, everyone is a success--and even 5 years ago during the booming Bush economy supervisors were looking for ways to reward workers (besides a paycheck) by inflating titles and having gimmicky staff awards for those employees who‘d had their self-esteem artificially inflated by these 30 year old, disproven concepts.

And along came the housing bubble of the Bush years. Although the idea that housing changes people instead of the other way around didn’t originate in the GWB presidency (it was birthed during the Carter years), it certainly flourished . Brilliant, educated academicians looked around and saw that very often successful, educated, well off people owned their own homes. So the idea developed, and then caught on with the unions, construction trades, real estate, and city planning professions, that if the poor and lower class and less educated or immigrant peoples could live in nicer homes and have mortgages like those people living in the suburbs who also paid higher taxes to support better schools, streets, parks, police, etc., then gradually people with a completely different set of values, would want to mimic middle class values. The pride of home ownership would somehow transform them! They would want to sit down with teachers and plan IEPs for the kids, they would decide to get married, they would not leave cars sitting on rims in front of trash filled lawns, they would choose chocolate Labs instead of white Pit Bulls, crime rates would go down, and it would all be kum ba ya.

Banks, lobbyists, think tanks, politicians, and all construction trades and their unions, did very well. The poor didn’t change. With no skin in the game, and still with that pesky low self-esteem they just moved with their values and standards, just like an earlier generation had done with public housing (now torn down because yuppies want to live downtown).

But, just as with the self-esteem movement, the memory lingers on, and the government is still shelling out billions to rescue the poor through housing--even though we all know that it’s the industries surrounding housing that are being propped up and controlled by the government. People still need shelter; they don’t need big brother or even big church to manage their lives.

The Reckless bad boys of Columbus

The project was intended to construct a model program to divert young boys from crime by developing their inner controls with a positive self-image. Walter C. Reckless was a well-known, frequently published criminologist who published in the 1950s and 1960s on self-concept as an insulator against deviant behavior. In 1972 he published, with Simon Dinitz, "The prevention of juvenile delinquency; an experiment (Ohio State University Press), on the role of self concept in preventing juvenile delinquency.

The authors theorized that if a youngster had a good self-concept, he would be less likely to slip into delinquency, so they studied over 1700 pre-adolescent boys in a blue-collar, deprived, working class neighborhood and school system of Columbus, Ohio for four years. They already knew that most of the children in this neighborhood, despite sharing similar lives, would NOT grow up to be criminals, but what made the difference? They divided the boys into three groups, all selected by their teachers and principals--The Experimental Group (bad boys), The Control Group (bad boys) and The Comparison Group (good boys). The first two groups, the teachers decided, were prime candidates based on their early years in school to become delinquents. The third group was considered to be well-adjusted, ordinary kids, rarely in trouble.

The Experimental Group received the same academic curriculum, but were put in special classes where they received additional attention and the teachers had had special training. They had a special "role model" interpersonal component which included relationships at work, school, government, family and getting along with others. They also had a different outcome for discipline, with strong emphasis on the rights of others, and their peers helping to bring them back into the group when they misbehaved. The other group of bad boys received nothing extra.

All the boys were evaluated at the end of their 10th grade (4 years later), and much to the disappointment of the researchers (I'm guessing) there was no difference in police contacts, seriousness of behavior problems, the drop out rate, attendance, grades or achievement level between the enriched role model group and the control group. The good boys had continued on their way, causing no problems and doing well.

If I'd spent 15 years of my life invested in this self-worth concept to reduce crime, I think I would have been distraught. But as far as I know, the researchers just decided their model program wasn't tweaked right, and I think Dr. Reckless is still being cited in the literature for his self constraint theories of criminal behavior.

What I found most interesting was that when the researchers interviewed both the students and the teachers after 4 years, they thought the program was a success! The teachers rated the bad boys in the experimental group as much improved in behavior, even though there was no evidence, and the boys themselves were enthusiastic and recommended it for their friends! But it didn't translate into better grades or less contact with the police and courts.

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Women of the Me Generation--focus on self instead of others

I suppose it's the logical result of the constant drumbeat of the importance of self-esteem we've been hearing for 35 years.

The not-for-profit National Women's Health Resource Center's (NWHRC) new third annual Women Talk survey has uncovered a newfound sense of self-empowerment in regard to women's health and their priorities. An overwhelming ninety-four percent of women state that "Making time for myself is one of the best ways I can help to take care of me and my family" and seventy-five percent of women went a step further to say that "Taking care of myself is my top priority."

Read about it at It's a Survey

Even though most of the women taking the survey rated their physical and mental health to be good to excellent and rated their physical health very high and older women actually rated their mental health higher at a 9.1 verses 7.9 for women aged 18-39, the article still includes mind-shattering breakthroughs like having a cup of aromatic tea instead of a latte.

What would we do without surveys?

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How to say thank you to your employees by age group

Today's WSJ had an article on the "kudo kids" now entering the labor force. From the time they were infants, they've been told how great they are, receiving a lot of affirmation for not doing very much. A "thank you" guru reports on how to say thank you or "good job" to your employees based on their ages.

Over 60--It's called a paycheck

40-60--A few self-indulgent treats or freebies

Under 40--Require a lot of stroking and constant feedback. They need praise for showing up.

This all started sometime ago. I remember going to a middle school athletic "honors" banquet with my daughter, maybe around 1981-82. Every child got a little trophy. I think hers was for working at the refreshment stand during sporting events. I was a bit deflated (although I knew she wasn't an athlete, I sensed a lot of praise inflation even 25 years ago).