Analyzing Self-Esteem: Its Role in Successful Presentation of Gender

This essay explores the correlation between self-esteem and the presentation of gender roles, referencing a study that examines how individuals with varying levels of self-esteem navigate traditional gender expectations in nonverbal communication. It highlights that individuals, regardless of self-esteem levels, associate themselves with valued traits, but those with low self-esteem focus on avoiding negative impressions, while those with high self-esteem aim to create positive ones. The study indicates that high self-esteem women exhibit more communal traits, and high self-esteem men are more loyal, compared to their counterparts with lower self-esteem. Verbal and non-verbal self-presentation significantly impact gender roles, with men and women using non-verbal cues differently, reflecting their skills in interpreting meaning, and women often using nonverbal communication to express feelings and establish emotional connections.

1
SEX AND GENDER
Name of Student
Name of University
Name of Tutor
Date

2
Sex and Gender
A research indicates that self-esteem shows differences in the way people behave. From the
observation, it is evident that people do not tend to follow traditional expectations for nonverbal
communication for their gender when presenting themselves to others. This is happening because
of the following reasons; everyone in the society regardless of ones level of self-esteem, one will
be able to associate himself with the traits that are good and are valued. But it proves to be tough
to behave in accordance to their description and this happens to both low and high self-esteemed
individuals.
People with low self-esteem are generally keen on how to avoid creating a bad picture during
self-presentation while high self-esteem concentrates primarily on making a good impression
during self-presentation (Bharathi, 2016). This tries to explain that self-esteem has an impact on
social behavior thus self-steam of an individual can help predict individual’s nonverbal self-
representation traits that are mostly believed to form part of their gender role (Andrews &
Russell, 2012). Moreover, the high self-esteem women appear more communal compared to low
self-esteem women while high self-esteem men appear more loyal compared to those with a
problem with their self-esteem. This is because self-description my show the impression that is
to be seen by others.
During the study, it was also found that the low self-esteem persons were unsuccessful in their
gender responsibilities compared to the high self-esteem ones. This is probably because they are
struggling to make a good impression of themselves and this affects their first impression of the
situation. In addition, from the result, it confirmed the global perception that low self-esteem
women are not that loyal than high self-esteem.

3
Moreover, the study suggests that low self-esteem men at times may not achieve equal amount of
respect as their counterparts and thus they may have problems in social situations. At the same
time, low self-esteem women may have little respect than high self-esteem men may have and
this leads to their dismal performance in social situations affecting interpersonal quality
(Brooksbank, 2013). The verbal self-presentation and non-verbal self-presentations impact the
gender roles and thus people strive to attain belonging by showing themselves in a possession of
socially valued traits they would like to be.
Males and females use non-verbal communication differently. This is because of their skills in
interpreting the meaning. Generally, you will find that most men communicate to help in solving
a problem while women express feeling and emotions. Therefore, they mostly tend to use
nonverbal communications. For example, nodding is used by both gender to mean agreement or
the person is listening and dialogue to proceed. Nevertheless, non-verbal communication is more
immediate but more complicated because impression can be interpreted differently.
Consequently, women tend to use nonverbal communications and it is asserted that men tend to
rely obvious nonverbal communication on the other hand women would use eye contact cause
impression and establish an emotional connection (Dobni, Dobni, & Luffman, 2016). Men tend
to prefer face-to-face communication while women usually comfortable side by side during self-
presentation.

4
References
Andrews & Russell. (2012). Sex and Gender education: evaluation and Impact. Higher
Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 2(1), pp.33-44.
Bharathi, A. (2016). Social Ethics. Higher Learning Research on Gender, 6(4).
Brooksbank, R. (2013). International Gender-based studies. Social Intelligence & Planning,
12(4), 10-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02634509410060695
Dobni, B., Dobni, D., & Luffman, G. (2016). Behavioral approaches to gender and
Development. Learning Intelligence & Planning, 19(6), 400-408.