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Developing, Encouraging and Promoting Self-Competence

Edgar Degas, On the Stage (1880)

Self-competence (do I act so as to express self-worth?)

  • If you hear a voice within you saying, “You are not a painter,” then by all means paint, boy, and that voice will be silenced . . . [Vincent van Gogh]
  • Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment. [attributed to Thomas Carlyle]

Self-competence is “a sense of personal efficacy”; the “sense of capability in mastering future challenges . . .” It “is the feeling of being capable and in control, and the belief that one will be successful in the future.” “The key attributes of the self competency include the knowledge, skills, and abilities of individuals to be effective” in doing many important things. It is in the domain of action as an aspect of self-worth.

“Individuals who have self-perceptions of high competence and personal control perceive themselves as effective, controlling agents.” “Self-Competence is uniquely associated with cognitive ability and both academic and creative achievement. It is concluded that, along with self-liking, self-competence is a useful form of self-evaluation that should be measured and taken into account in research that has traditionally focused on self-esteem.” “When threatened, self-affirmations can restore self-competence by allowing individuals to reflect on sources of self-worth, such as core values.” “Self-competence increases the willingness to pay for social influence”. 

“Building a positive sense of self-competence is an important developmental step during early and middle adolescence . . . and children’s views of their competencies can affect their motivation levels and how they respond to challenging situations.” Good parenting can boost self-competence; maternal authoritarianism can adversely affect it, as can intimate partner violence. “. . . mothers and fathers may impact offspring perceived self-competence via different mechanisms and unmeasured genetic and environmental selection factors must be considered when studying the intergenerational transmission of cognitive vulnerabilities for depression.” 

In children, at least, obesity has a negative impact on self-competence. Pathologies such as Tourette Syndrome, anorexia nervosa, and bulemia can also affect it adversely. In elderly people with knee osteoarthritis, “a higher sense of self-competence was associated with better quality of life in the psychological . . . social . . . and environmental . . . domains . . .” Self-competence appears to be adversely affected in men who use pornography.

Perfectionism can exert adverse effects. In a study of obese youth at summer camp, “intensive weight loss intervention yielded significant psychological benefit, especially in self-competence and among individuals achieving most weight loss.”

Real

True Narratives

Technical and Analytical Readings

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Novels about having to do it yourself:

Here is a list of books about children learning to fight their own battles.

Other children’s books and novels:

Poetry

A chaplain in the army,
A chaplain in the prisons,
An exhorter in Spoon River,
Drunk with divinity, Spoon River
Yet bringing poor Eliza Johnson to shame,
And myself to scorn and wretchedness.
But why will you never see that love of women,
And even love of wine,
Are the stimulants by which the soul, hungering for divinity,
Reaches the ecstatic vision
And sees the celestial outposts?
Only after many trials for strength,
Only when all stimulants fail,
Does the aspiring soul
By its own sheer power
Find the divine
By resting upon itself.

[Edgar Lee Masters, “Ezra Bartlett”]

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier” (1818) (approx. 40-50’): a gift of a grand piano inspired Beethoven to compose this sonata. “In its emotional range, its technical difficulty, its sheer length, it exceeded any predecessor.” Top recorded performances, with comments drawn from Jed Distler’s Gramophone Collection article in 2020, are by Schnabel in 1935 (ferocious, sometimes outruns his fingers), Kempff in 1936 (honest), Gulda in 1951 (brash) **, Solomon in 1952 (powerful and suave) **, Arrau in 1963 (deep, powerful, probing and finessed) ***, Pollini in 1977 (penetrating and firmly delineated), Annie Fischer in 1977-78 (unstudied flexibility), Brendel in 1983 (animated and flowing tempi), Uchida in 2007 (polyphonic acumen) **, Ugorskaja in 2012 (forceful accents, broad brushstrokes, marked dynamic contrasts), Perahia in 2016 (unalloyed greatness), and Rana in 2024 (tender and passionate).

Stéphane Grappelli was Django Reinhardt’s violinist, then had a long career on his own after the gypsy guitarist died. Grappelli played with a distinctive style, characterized by lilting swing rhythms and a carefree feel that belied the technical intricacies of his playing. His playing conveys a sense of consummate self-assurance, born of the confidence that comes from mastering a skill so fully that it seems he could do it in his sleep. Here are links to his “Young Django” album (1980) (38’), a live performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1984, another live in San Francisco, still another live in New Orleans in 1989, conversation and performance with guitarist Martin Taylor, a collection entitled “From Paris with Love”, and his extensive playlists. 

Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell also captured the essence of self-assurance in his music, in a completely different way from Grappelli. His playing displays a relaxed self-assurance, in contrast to Grappelli’s more energetic riffs. He left behind extensive playlists.

Compositions:

Albums:

Music: songs and other short pieces

Visual Arts

Film and Stage