False Self-confidence: The Heavy Mask Of Self-deception

In today’s article I am going to expose the concept of false self-confidence

It is common to talk about the importance of self-esteem. Feeling good about yourself is essential for ourselves and for relating to others. However, psychologists and coaches also refer to self-confidence (self-efficacy ), aware of the relationship that this has with self-esteem.

False self-confidence: the difference between self-esteem and self-confidence

To better understand the difference between self-confidence and self-esteem, first I will talk about self-concept or self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is what a person believes or thinks about themselves.

Most experts interpret self-concept as an integrated set of factors of the self, basically three: cognitive (thoughts), affective (feelings) and conative (behaviors), which if identified individually could be classified as follows: the first factor, selfconcept Properly said; the second factor as self-esteem; and the third as self-efficacy or self-confidence. Before talking about false self-confidence, we will focus on self-efficacy .

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is the appreciation of one’s abilities and focuses on the beliefs of having the ability and the ability to succeed in a given context. While self-esteem is the general feeling of how valuable one is as a whole and refers to the appreciation of oneself.

People with a high level of self-confidence High standards of success are often imposed They may not always achieve their goals or perhaps their self-esteem is not as high, but they never give up, they always continue to trust in themselves and their abilities. This confidence in one’s own ability allows one not to crumble in the face of failure and to move forward in meeting one’s goals and objectives.

Although not all researchers agree, there is a certain consensus that self-confidence is the same as self-efficacy. Albert Bandura, a professor at Stanford University, was the first psychologist to talk about self-efficacy in the 1970s. For Bandura, self-confidence is “the conviction that a person has that he can successfully execute the behavior required to produce a certain result.”

The importance of being realistic

Therefore, self-confidence has to do with the realistic expectation regarding what one can truly do to achieve a certain goal It is an internal state that implies real knowledge of the difficulties to be overcome, of one’s own resources to do so and, from here, of the true possibilities that one has of achieving success in some aspect of one’s life.

The most important factor in self-confidence is not blindly believing that you will achieve all the goals you set for yourself and that you will never make mistakes, but rather that the person has the objectively supported conviction that he or she has sufficient resources to be able to overcome adversity and get up after the mistakes that can inevitably be made. It is important to form true self-confidence and not fall into the error of false self-confidence.

False self-confidence: what is it?

As I have pointed out, self-confidence is an internal state characterized by a realistic conviction that one is effective in facing the demands of life, and are not just simple verbal manifestations that one is going to achieve everything one sets out to achieve. It is not about appearing optimistic all the time, without valuing, in any case, the real possibilities that one has and the accessibility to certain external factors that will be present.

I already commented in the article “Personal Development: 5 reasons for self-reflection” about the importance of an objective analysis of the situation and not getting carried away by “hunches” without any type of control. When one adopts an “outward-looking” attitude that does not reflect the distrust and concern that, in many cases, is experienced, making triumphalist and optimistic statements without foundation, it is what is known as false self-confidence. This behavior, probably gratifying at the time of carrying it out, makes the person feel good thinking like this, but this behavior can, however, lead to reaching confuse reality with fantasy

False self-confidence helps produce self-deception that allows the person to evade the true internal state of self-confidence that in many cases is behind the “mask.” This form of avoidance, false self-confidence, can have serious consequences for self-confidence, since it will become increasingly weaker, and increasingly distanced from reality.