Self-Esteem

Self-esteem (SE) is the subjective overall value that one places on oneself as a person. Few topics have received more attention in psychology than SE, and indeed, a search of the PsycINFO database in early 2015 identified more than 42,000 articles with self-esteem as a keyword. There are several reasons for the enduring interest in SE. First and foremost, most people are inherently curious about SE because it encompasses important information about the self, such as how worthy, competent, and well liked one is. In that sense, possessing self-knowledge necessitates understanding one’s SE, and few can be indifferent to this kind of information. Second, researchers and practitioners alike have assumed that high SE has many positive outcomes, and in fact, much of the research on ...