Author(s)

Xuru Zhou ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Loomis Chaffee, Windsor, Connecticut, 06095, USA

Corresponding Author

ABSTRACT

The act of "feel[ing]" in Roosevelt’s statement encompasses both emotions and judgments, revealing the first flaw in her assertion: its conceptual imprecision regarding "feel[ing]" in the context of inferiority. By definition, inferiority refers to "a condition or state of being or having a sense of being inferior or inadequate especially with respect to one's apparent equals or to the world at large" (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). Crucially, emotions and judgments represent distinct psychological processes—the former being automatic and the latter requiring higher-order cognition—each eliciting divergent mental mechanisms that either wholly undermine or partially support her claim. This terminological vagueness renders the statement misleading.

KEYWORDS

CITE THIS PAPER

Xuru Zhou, Self-Agency in the Face of Inferiority: Examining the Boundaries. Applied & Educational Psychology (2025) Vol. 6: 114-119. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/appep.2025.060316.

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