Academic Self Esteem

The Effects of Power Posing on the Academic Self-Esteem of Undergraduate Students Nearly every individual experiences altering effects on their behavior based on the emotions they feel or the mood they are in, but it is less certain if an individual’s behavior and physical expression can alter their mood and emotions. The theory of embodied cognition is the notion that the state in which one holds themselves can alter the emotions of the individual (Nair, Sagar, Sollers, Consedine, & Broadbent, 2015). Body positions that fold or slouch to take up less space relate to feelings like stress and low self-esteem, while body positions that extend limbs or spread out to take up more space relate to feelings power and control (Carney, Cuddy, & Yap,

The results found that when participants held a straight-spine sitting posture while completing a speech task they were found to have greater self-esteem and lower stress than participants that held a slumped over sitting position. These findings suggest that self-esteem and stress can be positively influenced by small changes in body posture. Upright body positions were thought to buffer the stress response (Nair et al, 2015), which is consistent with findings that more dramatic high-power body positions result in a decrease in the stress hormone cortisol (Carney et al, 2010). These positive effects on self-esteem and stress have also been applied to situations like job-interviews. One study found individuals who posed in high-power positions for approximately 5 minutes while preparing for a job interview resulted in significantly greater ratings in interview performance and perceived hire-ability when compared to individuals who posed in low-power positions (Cuddy, Wilmuth, Yap, & Carney, 2015). These findings suggest that power-posing has applications to real world situations. The ideas of embodied cognition and power posing are gaining more attention, however there is a gap in the literature pertaining to the possible effects on students’ stress and self-esteem, specifically in relation to their academic

This may have produced discrepancies in the results due to the control group participants being made aware of what the power-pose group participants had done, and therefore what comparisons were being made. Such a mistake could have largely confounded the results and produced the null findings. Future studies to assess academic self-esteem would be of interest to compare to this study to identify if this study produced valid results.
Additionally, future research would be useful in comparing groups of low-power posers, high-power posers, and a group that is free to relax. Such research could identify how much greater self-esteem is and how much lower stress levels are between low-power and high power, and high-power and free to relax. This would be useful data in assessing how great of an impact power posing has on self-esteem and stress.
Conclusion
This study found there was no difference in academic self-esteem of undergraduate students when power-pose and no-pose control groups were compared. These findings are inconsistent with other embodied cognition research findings. Several confounds in methodology may have led to these inconsistencies, future research with greater rigor is