Recently the BBC aired a series of television programmes about the development of a group of babies and children, introduced by Professor Robert Winston. The programmes explored levels of confidence amongst these small children, and in one of the programmes the children took part in a simple test to measure their levels of self-esteem. This involved completing a puzzle with an error built in so that the puzzle was in fact impossible to complete. We saw how the children dealt with this and most revealingly, how highly or otherwise the children rated themselves (in terms of two, four or six stars) after completing the test. How they approached the test varied; some gave up quite quickly, some sought almost constant approval for their handling of the task, and others doggedly stuck to the test even when it was obvious that it could not be completed.
All of the children were eventually rescued by the facilitator who gave them the right piece to complete the puzzle. How these children rated their efforts was not necessarily as one might have expected. The child seeking constant approval scored herself low on her efforts. Only one child, the hitherto shyest of the group, when offered a choice of three strips of paper, one containing two stars, one four stars and the last six stars, to signify his view of his efforts picked up all of them. Winston observed that the children with high self-esteem had parents with a high locus of control – they felt that they were in charge of their lives and destiny.
