What is self-esteem?

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 (his or her
pretensions are quite high) and scores an A, then his or her self-esteem should be
high. If, however, the person expected to do well and then scores a D, his or her
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), that person is 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 her self. 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 he is a failure, he may put himself into
situations in which he is destined to fail. If he does not think he can succeed,
he may not put forth the amount of effort that success would require. Similarly,
if a person believes that he is a success, he will not let one little failure
cause him to change his entire opinion of his self. Self-esteem, once it is
created, is very difficult to change. If a person dislikes who he is, yet someone
else tries to tell him that he is wonderful, he probably will not believe that
person. More likely, he will wonder what this person could possibly want from him
that the person is willing to lie and be so nice to get it. On the other hand, if
the person feels positive about himself, 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 he or she was correct about his or her 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,” he or she is likely to misinterpret that to
mean, “You usually look terrible; what did you do different today?”

Ralph Turner has said that the self is not fixed and that the person with low self-esteem must be convinced that he or she is not at the mercy of a self: He or she can be, and is, the creator of a self. It helps to put the person into a situation in which he or she can succeed with no possibility for the wrong attributions 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 a person with low self-esteem would find it difficult to argue that the success was situational. In this way, the person begins to see that he or she can take control and that failures need not be catastrophic for the other self-conceptions he or she 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 his or her 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 self-image comes into
serious question, confusion about his or her 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, he or she will have more realistic expectations as to what he or she 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 him- or herself, 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, Carl Jung, James, 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. A very 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. 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 he or she
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 will probably be even greater as psychological inquiry
moves ahead. 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 will play in the future 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.

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