I think the Ohio state link mentioned below (http:\/\/ohioline.osu.edu\/hyg-fact\/5000\/5263.html<\/a>) is a good example of legitimate science serving as “bad science”. The words “Research shows that a positive self-concept is more important to academic success than a high IQ score” are pure bad science. Clearly, a child who respects him or herself and is confident of his or her abiliity is likely to do better in life than one plagued by nervousness and self-loathing. However, encouraging children to become confident is an activity that fits into the moral category of making your children as happy as you can.<\/p>\n

I refuse to belive there is any evidence that it will make them do better at school. Kids who are more confident in school are likely to have experieneced success at acdemic things and to come from a background that encourages academic success and therefore confidence. So academically successful kids are already acdemically confident . Just as people who are good at sports are likely to be more confident on the pitch. Confidence probably wouldn’t improve your goal-scoring average and I suspect that few people who can’t score goals would do better if they had more confidence.<\/p>\n

Whose “research” is this? Isn’t a high IQ score already a piece of bad science which has been written into our educational polices? At least it’s measurable. There is no baseline indicator of confidence. Surely it varies enormously throughout the day, according to the situation one is in.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has ever filled in one of those self-defining questionnaires will know that a respondent’s answers to any question are never true or consistent.<\/p>\n

I also read the New Scientist report but don’t have it to hand. It claimed low self-esteem was not usually a factor in creating bullies, as was widely assumed. The report argued that bullies tended to be pretty full of self-esteem. It was their less fortunate victims whose self-esteem went down the tubes. Sorry, I can’t find the reference either but the title was something along the lines of “Raising self-esteem no panacea for bullies”<\/p>\n