Self-esteem

Self-esteem research examines how individuals come to feel about and perceive themselves. Psychologists seek to understand how self-esteem develops and what can be done to change negative views of the self once they have been established.

TYPE OF PSYCHOLOGY: Social psychology

Introduction

Self-esteem is a term with which almost everyone is familiar, yet it is not necessarily easily understood. Psychologist William James gave the first clear definition in 1892 when he said that self-esteem equals success divided by pretensions. In other words, feelings of self-worth come from the successes an individual achieves, tempered by what the person had expected to achieve. If the person expected to do extremely well on an exam (their pretensions are quite high) and scores an A, then their self-esteem should be high. If, however, the person expected to do well and then scores a D, their self-esteem should be low.

This important but simplistic view of self-esteem started a movement toward a better understanding of the complex series of factors that come together to create the positive or negative feelings individuals have about who they are. Once a person has developed a self-concept (a global idea of all the things that define who and what a person is), they are likely to exhibit behaviors that are consistent with that self-concept. If a young woman believes that she is a good tennis player, then she is likely to put herself in situations in which that factor is important. Once she behaves (in this case, plays her game of tennis), she is likely to receive feedback from others as to how she did. This feedback determines how she will feel about her tennis-playing ability. Over time, these specific instances of positive or negative feedback about tennis-playing ability will come together to create the more global feelings of positivity or negativity a person has about the self in general.

Even though an individual may believe that she is good at tennis, her ability may not live up to those expectations, and she may receive feedback telling her so (for example, losing in the early rounds of a tournament). In this case, the individual may come to feel somewhat negative about her tennis ability. If this continues to happen, she will adjust her view of her ability and come to believe that she is not a good tennis player after all. To the extent that the person truly wanted to be good, this realization can cause her to feel quite negative about all aspects of herself. When this happens, the person is said to have developed low self-esteem.

Role of Attributions

The reality of how self-esteem develops, however, is more complicated than this example demonstrates. People do not always accept the feedback that others offer, and they may believe that their failure means nothing more than having an off day. To understand the impact that success and failure will have on self-esteem, it is important to understand the kinds of attributions people make for their successes and failures. When a person succeeds or fails, there are three levels of attributions that can be made for explaining the occurrence. First, the individual must decide if the event occurred because of something internal (something inside caused it to happen) or something external (something in the environment caused it to happen). Second, it must be decided whether the event occurred because of a stable factor (since it happened this time, it will happen again) or a temporary circumstance (it probably will not happen again). Finally, it must be decided whether the event occurred because of something specific (this failure resulted because of poor tennis ability) or something global (failure resulted at this undertaking because of lack of ability to do anything).

It is easy to see that the kinds of attributions individuals make for their successes and failures will have a profound impact on how a particular event influences their self-esteem. If a decision is made that a failure at tennis occurred because of something internal (lack of ability), stable (the ability will never be present), and global (lack of any ability), then a failure is going to damage self-esteem severely. Self-esteem is created through the blending of expectations for success, actual levels of success, and the kinds of attributions made for why success or failure occurred.

Cyclic Perpetuation

Once positive or negative self-esteem has developed, it will perpetuate itself in a cycle. If a person believes that they are a failure, they may put themselves into situations in which they are destined to fail. If they do not think they can succeed, they may not put forth the amount of effort that success would require. Similarly, if a person believes that they are a success, they will not let one little failure cause them to change their entire opinion of their self. Self-esteem, once it is created, is very difficult to change. If a person dislikes who they are, yet someone else tries to tell them that they are wonderful, they probably will not believe that person. More likely, they will wonder what this person could possibly want from them that the person is willing to lie and be so nice to get it. On the other hand, if the person feels positive about themselves, a single instance of failure will be written off as bad luck, poor effort, or a simple fluke. A negative self-esteem cycle, once it gets started, is very difficult to change, and learning how to break this cycle is the single greatest challenge to self-esteem therapists.

Understanding Negative Self-Esteem

Understanding self-esteem has considerable practical importance in daily life. If it is believed that all successes come from external sources (luck or someone else's effort), then good things coming from others can be seen as an attempt to degrade the individual or offer a bribe. People feeling this way relate to others in a judgmental way and cause them to turn away. When others turn away, the person takes it as a signal that they were correct about their unworthiness, and the negative self-esteem level is perpetuated.

If this negative self-esteem cycle is to be broken, it is important to convince the person of the critical point made by George Herbert Mead. According to Mead, self-esteem is a product of people’s interpretation of the feedback that they receive from others. A person with low self-esteem often misinterprets that feedback. If someone with low self-esteem is told, “You look really nice today,” they are likely to misinterpret that to mean, “You usually look terrible; what did you do differently today?”

Ralph Turner has said that the self is not fixed and that the person with low self-esteem must be convinced that they are not at the mercy of a self: They can be, and are, the creator of a self. It helps to put the person into a situation in which they can succeed with no possibility for the wrong to be made. If a person cannot read, this failure will generalize to other situations and is likely to be considered a stable and global deficiency. If this person is taught to read, however, even someone with low self-esteem would find it difficult to argue that the success was situational. In this way, they begin to see that they can take control and that failures need not be catastrophic for the other self-conceptions they might hold.

A person with negative self-esteem can be difficult to help. It takes more than the providing of positive feedback to assist such a person. Imagine a series of circles, one inside the other, each one getting smaller. Take that smallest, innermost circle and assign it a negative value. This represents an overall negative self-esteem. Then assign negative values to all the outer circles as well. These represent how the person feels about their specific attributes.

If positive messages are directed toward a person with negative values assigned to all these layers of self-esteem, they will not easily penetrate the negative layers; they will be much more likely to bounce off. Negative messages, on the other hand, will easily enter the circles and will strengthen the negativity. Penetration of all the negative layers can, however, sometimes be achieved by a long-term direction of positive and loving messages toward the person with low self-esteem. In effect, the innermost circle, that of global self-esteem, will eventually be exposed. Self-esteem can then be improved if enough positive, loving messages can be directed at the level of the person’s global self-esteem. This can be a long-term process, partly because as soon as the person’s negative comes into serious question, confusion about their identity results; living in self-hate, although often painful, is still more secure than suddenly living in doubt.

Once the negative signs have been replaced with positive ones, the new self-esteem level will be as impervious to change as the negative one was. Now, when the person enters a situation, they will have more realistic expectations as to what they can and cannot do. The person has been taught to make realistic attributions about success and failure. Most important, the individual has been taught that one need not succeed at everything to be a worthy person. James suggested in 1892 that striving does as much to alleviate self-esteem problems as actual success. Once the individual is convinced that setting a goal and striving rather than not trying at all is all it takes to feel good about themselves, the person is truly on the way to having high self-esteem.

Importance of Childhood and Adolescence

An interest in self-esteem developed along with interest in psychological questions in general. Early psychologists such as Sigmund Freud, James, Carl Jung, and others realized that an important part of what makes individuals think and act the way they do is determined by the early experiences that create their sense of self and self-esteem. An important aspect of psychological inquiry has been asking how and why people perceive and interpret the same event so differently. Self-esteem and self-concept play a big role in these interpretations. Knowing an individual’s self-esteem level helps one to predict how others will be perceived, what kind of other individuals will be chosen for interaction, and the kinds of attitudes and beliefs the person may hold.

An understanding of childhood development and adolescence would be impossible without an understanding of the forces that combine to create a person’s sense of self-esteem. Researchers have found that specific environments and behaviors from adults help to shape a child's self-esteem. In particular, a study from Utrecht University in the Netherlands found that children with low self-esteem were praised for their personal qualities over their efforts. Adolescence has often been described as a time of storm and stress because the teenager is trying to negotiate an identity (create a sense of self and self-esteem that they would like to have). Teenagers’ own wishes and desires, however, are not the only things they must consider. They are receiving pressure from parents, peers, and society as a whole to be a certain kind of person and do certain kinds of things. Only when self-esteem development is fully understood will it be known how to alleviate some of the trials and tribulations of adolescence and ensure that teenagers develop a healthy and productive view of their worth.

Role in Contemporary Society

The role of self-esteem has only grown with further psychological inquiry. Contemporary society continues to tell people that if they want to succeed, they have to achieve more. Yet economic downturns and increasing competition make it even more difficult for young people to live up to those expectations and feel good about who they are. The role that psychologists with experience in self-esteem enhancement training play cannot be overemphasized. For adults to lead healthy, productive, and satisfied lives, they must feel good about who they are and where they are going. This requires an intimate understanding of the factors that combine to create people’s expectations for success and the likelihood that they will be able to achieve that level of success. Self-esteem development must be kept in mind in helping young people create for themselves a realistic set of expectations for success and an ability to make realistic attributions for why their successes and failures occur. Studies have found that self-esteem generally increases with age and is usually lowest among young adults and peaks around age sixty. Women tend to have lower self-esteem throughout their lives than men. Disparities in self-esteem can also be seen across racial and economic social groups.

The importance of self-esteem also remained a factor in studies of the psychological impacts of regular engagement with social media, which had become increasingly accessible and popular by the beginning of the 2020s. As higher numbers of people, including young adults, were spending more and more time on the plethora of social media platforms available, instantly connecting with a wide range of users as well as images, researchers remained concerned about the impact, whether negative or positive, that such interactions were having on users' self-esteem. This research remained complicated due to factors such as the amount of time spent on social media, the number of sites used, and the potential for cyberbullying.

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