Positive self-esteem training using nonverbal communication cues : facial behaviors

The purposes of the study were: (1) to determine the degree to which an eclectic counseling psychology model could be employed in building self-esteem through nonverbal communication cues such as facial behaviors, and (2) to find out whether sex, race, or the group assignment had any statistical significance on subjects' ability to judge facial affect pictures. Twenty-eight graduate and undergraduate students who volunteered to participate in the study were randomly selected into four groups with seven subjects in each group. Six different hypotheses were tested in the study to determine the degree to which high self-esteem could be built through the usage of nonverbal communication cues. Four dependent variables (Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS); Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist (MAACL); Rosenberg four-Point Self-Esteem Scale (RSS); and Facial Affect Pictures (FAP) were used to gather subjects' responses concerning their self-esteem. Various statistical methods (t-test, Fisher's exact test, simple anova, and two-way anova) were used to analyze the data collected at .05 level of confidence.

Experimental subjects were exposed to seven one-hour sessions of training during which an eclectic counseling psychology model was used. In addition to the pre- and post-test instruments that were administered to the experimental subjects during the individual sessions, they were also shown slides of different facial affects (happy, sad, fear, disgust, surprise, anger, and neutral). Subjects in the control groups iv

were not exposed to the training session experiences. The results of the study showed that: (1) the results of a one-way anova test indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control subjects with regard to their posttest mean scores on the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TScs); (2) regardless of the training, one-way anova results indicated that the training helped low self-esteem experimental subjects perceive themselves as highly as the high self-esteem experimental subjects; (3) experimental subjects' race, sex, and group affiliation had no direct bearing on their ability to judge facial affect pictures as measured on the Tscs, MAACL, and RSS; (4) there was a significant difference between the experimental and control subjects with regard to their posttest mean scores on the Rosenberg Four-Point Self-Esteem Scale (RSs).

In light of these results, it was concluded that (1) a series of training sessions based upon an eclectic counseling psychology model was effective in raising the self-esteem of low self-esteem experimental subjects to the degree that there was virtually no significant differerence between them and the high self-esteem experimental subjects; (2) the training helped both high and low experimental subjects to understand the possible causes of feelings of anxiety, depression, and hostility, and that the ability to judge or rate FAP is independent of sybjects group affiliation. The following suggestions were advanced in light of future replication studies. First, since the present population was narrow and not adequately representative of people who may have actual low self-esteem, future studies may select subjects from academic and nonacademic settings. Second, future studies may exclude neurosis,

vi psychosis and maladjustment items from the Tscs because volunteer subjects may not emit any of these behaviors; and third, future studies should control for the verbal and nonverbal interactions between the experimenter and the subjects because these interactions may affect the overall results of such studies.