Literature Review - a rough idea

Literature Review

One of my research questions is; How would you define confidence? (what is confidence?) It’s a broad question, of which I will break down to ‘How would you define confidence in dance performance?’ and ‘How would you define confidence in the study of dance? [child learning]’. But for my literature review, I’ve kept the question open to help my understanding of confidence.

“..confidence is about belief in one’s abilities, taking action and being optimistic...The most commonly used terms (for confidence) by psychologists are: self-esteem, self-efficacy and optimism” [from Defining Confidence’, Centre for Confidence and Well-being]

 “The word confidence is derived from latin, it means ‘With Faith.’ [from ‘How to Build Self Confidence by Michelle Phan, 2014]

(This is backed up by Ucadia; http://www.ucadia.com/concepts_emotions/concept_emotions_pos_confidence.htm )

The fact that the word confidence means ‘with faith’, fits very well with the excerpt from ‘Defining Confidence’. The word Belief is a synonym of the word Faith.

The first extract is from a professional source and gives a basis of the word, which therefore, makes me believe that confidence can be an illusion for the individual with the confidence and the person who views it - within the mind and physically. This idea brings me back to my audition days, where I would see other dancers and performers oozing with confidence, and then when it came to their performance, some of them would perform really well, but their technique would be dreadful. The belief and faith that they are good all-rounders gets them the jobs. We dancers often say; ‘The audition process is very unfair,’ which in theory, as a whole, is very true. We train so hard to get our technique up to scratch when really, most Casting Directors out there, want performers who radiate confidence (and look good.)

I do believe that it is the dance training and performing that makes this confidence come to life. But have these over confident dancers only ever been complimented? Perhaps, more so, from when they were young children. If so, I don’t believe that they would cope well in the normal world. There must be a balance of how much dance teachers compliment students and how much they give constructive criticism. My fear is that these over confident dancers, mentioned above, started dancing lessons because of low self-confidence. Perhaps the dance teacher gave too many compliments of which drove them to becoming overly confident. This is what I desperately want to avoid as a teacher. One of my questions is; ‘How should a dance teacher speak to a child with low self-confidence? (the children who don’t socialize, are really quiet, shy or get upset when they get anything wrong.)’   I want to help children with low self-confidence to have the three terms mentioned in ‘Defining Confidence’ above; self-esteem, self-efficacy and optimism, but not just for their dancing, but for their home and social life too. I want to refrain from making children grow up arrogant, which can be associated with these three terms.

Trying to get a deeper view on the three terms used by psychologists, I found a book at the library on psychology; The Science and Mind of Behaviour by Nigel Holt, Andy Bremner, Ed Sutherland, Michael Vliek, Michael Passer and Ronald Smith. I found these three statements:

“Self–esteem refers to an individual’s sense of self-worth, or the extent to which the individual appreciates, values or likes him or herself (Blascovich and Tomaka, 1991.)” [p. 516, chapter 14]

“Self-efficacy…represents people’s belief that they have the capability to perform behaviours that will produce a desired outcome” [p.267, chapter 7]

“Optimism is characterized by a general feeling of being able to cope with any situation…Optimistic people are better and more flexible at coping with stressful life experiences…” [p. 618, chapter 16]

All of these qualities will come up again in further research and I will merge them into the questions for some of my participants. I think it could be difficult for dance lessons alone to encourage all of these attributes, but I don’t think it’s impossible. From the extracts, I understand that Optimism is more for what life can throw at you, especially the bad things.  This is a healthy quality/skill to have, especially as a child. Some children have tough childhoods, thus making them pessimistic and having low self-esteem, depending on their individual home life.

Purely based on opinion at this point in my research, and splitting confidence into the three terms, I believe that dance performance can help children with low self-efficacy mostly, and dance classes can help children with low self-esteem mostly. The children who are pessimistic would benefit more from dance performance as it’s probably one of the scariest things to comprehend, hence causing stress, compared to a dance lesson. I believe the more performances a child can undertake, the better they can cope with other, less stressful experiences.

The next few extracts are related to a couple of my questions; ‘How do we come to experience confidence?’ and ‘What activities are there that can boost a child’s confidence?’ The excerpts below give an essence into how we experience confidence from social interaction and an idea that perhaps the most effective activities, for encouraging self-confidence, should involve interaction: 

“…within ten minutes my (eight year old) daughter was riding her bicicle. Inspired by how quickly she took to it, my twelve year old son asked if he could give it a try and within ten minutes, he was riding his bike….My daughter’s confidence rubbed off on her brother…..Confidence can be incredibly contagious…”[from ‘Is Confidence Contagious? by G. Federico, 2013]

“When you’re talking to a friend who is really anxious, worried or panicky, how do you feel when you’re with them – anxious and worried for them? When you’re around someone excited, happy and raring to go – do you feel that with them? The same applies to your audience – if you’re anxious, your audience will feel it too; if you’re excited and can’t wait to dance for them, they’re going to feel that energy and really want to support you.” [from ‘Dance with Confidence,’ Author unknown.]

“..dance is a community of children with similar goals, led by teachers who are passionate about seeing them succeed. As part of the community, children are inspired to excel in their personal goals and also to encourage those around them. This creates an atmosphere where your child will have increased self-confidence and they in turn, will help others in reaching new levels of self-confidence.” [from ‘How Dance Can Improve Self Confidence in Children’, author known as Sammi at Soul Connexion, 2014]

There is a similar pattern with the three excerpts which involves the notion or idea that confidence is infectious. So even if I were to act confidently, the confidence can be spread or mirrored to the point where the person or child who’s mirroring my confident manner will start to feel confident too. I believe though, that this sense of confidence could be temporary. I think it can be a false sense of confidence. However, the extract from ‘How Dance Can Improve Self Confidence in Children,’ basis the contagious confidence more on children interacting with other children, each having similar goals and helping each other grow in confidence. Copying confidence, hence starting to feel confident from somebody else at that moment in time will probably help a little, but only in that moment of time. There’s a reason for this belief as this related, very slightly, to my research into music in dance for confidence and my participant question; ‘Is music valuable for improving confidence, and if so; what type of music?’

“Use inspiring and motivational music to pump up yourself…before anything that might make your confidence unstable. This works pretty well as a temporary state-booster.”[from Top 24 Tips for Making Your Self Confidence Soar, by Henrik Edberg, 2007]

So this excerpt of advice provides the idea that uplifting/encouraging music boosts confidence temporarily. It’s something that can make you feel good about yourself; something to encourage self-esteem and optimism, but not long-term.  But is this true for all music and true for children?

“Music is a wonderful way to address the many needs of children because music is non-judgemental…Listening to different types of music nurtures self-esteem and encourages creativity, self-confidence and curiousity.” [from The Importance of Music for Children, by Jackie Silberg]

Here, Silberg; an early childhood advocate, keynote speaker and children song writer extraordinaire, is saying that music helps develop children in different ways, not just for their self-esteem and confidence. I believe that creative children have high self-esteem and a sufficient amount of self-efficacy. Silberg says that music encourages curiousity, but I believe we are all born curious, so I believe that the extract is referring to children who’ve lost a sense of their own curiousity. 

So if a variety of music nurtures children’s all-round confidence, perhaps the temporary state of feeling confident from seeing somebody else being confident can actually help develop confidence in children more long-term, though I still believe that it’s not as helpful as interaction with other children who perhaps carry a sense of confidence. This is something I’ll look into further.

“Dance…has strong effects on physiological and psychological well-being, combining the benefits of physical exercise with heightened sensory awareness, cognitive function, creativity, inter-personal contact and emotional expression – a potent cocktail.” [from The Use of Dance in Child Psychiatry (Journal), p. 4, by Rachel Elliott, 1998]

This extract by Rachel Elliott, a freelance dance artist and Education officer, gives the idea that dance is highly effective for self-confidence, which is great for my project. I believe all the human qualities mentioned are big parts of being confident or in self-esteem, self-efficacy or optimism on a psychologists view. I think the more you use these skills within dance, the more they come into effect at home and in social life.

“As children adjust to the movements and postures required in dance, they begin to get a better sense of their bodies. As they become more comfortable in their own skin, their confidence and self-esteem also improve…dance lessons can encourage children to foster a more positive attitude and explore their own self-expression.” [from The Benefits of Dance for Kids, by Rebecca Lake, 2013]

 “…body postures can impact persuasion by affecting the direction of the thoughts that come to mind (i.e. by making positive or negative thoughts more likely to occur;)…people in an erect, vertical posture are seen as (and feel) more confident than people who are slumped over.” [from Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self validation approach (European Journal on Social Psychology) p. 2 & 3, by Pablo Briñol, Richard E Petty and Benjamin Wagner, 2009]

These two excerpts give different approaches on the subject of ‘posture’. Both articles give the sense that posture is valuable for improving confidence, one being more about the effect on confidence from movement and posture over a period of time, whereas the second extract gives the theory that posture can affect confidence straight away. Lake; a writer for Livestrong, states how children grow in confidence by becoming more accustomed to their bodies from the postures and movements. This is about physical enhancement and being better aware of what their bodies can do, therefore gaining a new sense of confidence.  Briñol, Petty and Wagner; psychologists, are talking about the instant effects of a good posture, how it encourages the feeling of being confident. I believe both theories can be merged together and actually, indirectly, gives me an idea for an answer to one of my participant questions; ‘Which dance style is most likely to be recommended for a child who lacks in confidence and why?’ There is one style of dance that is well-known for posture which is Ballet. Of course there is more to building confidence than just a good posture. Ballet does involve emotional expression, strong sensory awareness and inter-personal contact of which were mentioned earlier in the extract by Rachel Elliott. It also brings me back to Music and how Silberg said that a variety of different music encourages self-confidence. Ballet is commonly danced to one genre; classical, but classical/ballet music can be soft, strong, emotional or quick. It’s tricky to determine the outcome of the answers I will get for this question as I believe that it can depend on experience, but if I were to answer my own question from just the literature research I have done so far, I would say Ballet is the best dance style for children who lack in self-confidence.

“Dance and movement activities help children become more aware of their bodies and learn gross motor skills of coordination and control. Increased self-awareness and improved physical skills promote confidence and a raised sense of self-esteem.” Dance and Social Development in Preschool Children by Julie Vickers, 2013]

This statement by Julie Vickers; a writer in health and parenting, backs up the statement by Rebecca Lake about children gaining physical enhancement and being better aware of what their bodies can do in dance, gaining a new sense of confidence. One of my participant questions is; ‘Why do a lot of parents choose to take their children to dance classes to boost their child’s confidence? Why dance?’ If I were to compare dance lessons to other movement activities such as gymnastics or net ball, I would say that dance is more of an all-rounder. It offers the qualities that gymnastics or net ball could improve, but more. So perhaps this is a reason for parent’s choosing dance. Dance includes; physical activity, music, social activities, the building of self-awareness, spatial awareness, chance to be creative, emotional expression and more, and so far in my research, these all help build a child’s self-confidence.

Another answer to ‘why dance?’ Is in the following extract;

“For some children, the first time they have been seen to smile is following their admission in dance….The inherent joy and ‘aliveness’ of dance is highly contagious and uplifting, the restorative power of which should not be underestimated.” [from The Use of Dance in Child Psychiatry, p. 5, by Rachel Elliott, 1998]

  Elliott’s theory of dance having this restorative power, is highly agreeable, and I believe the same goes for music, but more subtle. Parents might have heard from other parents about changes they’ve seen in their children since going to dance classes, hence inspiring them to give it a try with their own child. 

“It is important that you encourage your young child to engage in a variety of social activities so that they can develop good, confident social skills as they are growing up.” [from Overcoming your child’s shyness and social anxiety (book,) p. 172-3, by Lucy Willetts and Cathy Creswell, 2007]

“If your child is shy, enrolling her in dance an encourage her to reach out to other children her age and help to reduce her anxiety about new people or places. Dance can also help to alleviate fears related to performing in front of an audience.” [from The Benefits of Dance for Kids, by Rebecca Lake, 2013]

The excerpts above relate to confidence because shy children seem to have very low self efficacy and are quite pessimistic, referring to the psychologists terms for confidence.  From other articles and theories talked about above, social skills are developed through dance classes whether it’s being creative in groups, helping each other and seeing other children showing confidence in their dancing. Although, if a child is really shy and anxious, I don’t believe that forceful encouragement would be the best thing to do. I think some children may need to get past a few fears at home and/or at nursery school. One of my inquiry questions is; ‘Are confidence issues a main concern for younger children aged around four and five?’ Well now I think it could be even younger. I haven’t been able to find anything that relates to this, but I think this is a question for opinion from dance teachers and on a science level by psychologists.

“Practicing and Performing in front of others will bring a new-found comfortability to be in the spotlight.” [from How Dance can Improve Self Confidence in Children, author known as Sammi at Soul Connexion, 2014]

Here Sammi suggests that performing AND practicing in front of others builds confidence. This is something I had forgotten about in my own experience in the dance class. Again, I strongly agree with this as I was very uncomfortable being the centre of attention when I was about three – five years old, and I do remember how my annual dance shows got easier and easier, and I actually felt comfortable. Today, being on the stage is one of the most comfortable places to be. I have a lot of none-dancer friends who never went to dance classes or clubs, and now, today they can’t even bring themselves up to dancing on a dance floor until they’ve had a drink or two, or karaoke, and even simple things like going to take a photo with a famous landmark with a lot of people watching. It’s actually amazing to think about and now I am so grateful to my own mother for taking me to dance classes and completely changing me for the better.

Building confidence is something that takes time and effort for those who don’t have it.

“Confidence is like a mental muscle, like muscle, everyone is born with it, not everyone flexes it…and if you want your muscles to grown stronger, you’ve got to exercise.” [from How to Build Self Confidence, by Michelle Phan, 2014]

Is everybody born with confidence?

“All children are born confident; they even think that they are the center of the world and that everybody is there to serve them.” [from How to Gain Self Confidence, by Farouk Radwan]

Radwan; a psychologist, says that it is true that we are born confident. So children who are not confident, have lost it somehow. That would make my research go into a completely different direction, so I will refrain myself from going into ‘How children lose their confidence?’ 

My research is the opposite.