Theory of Self-Esteem

Fundamentals

The origins of self-esteem can be traced back over a hundred years to two classic psychologists: William James and Charles Cooley. James (1842–1910) [Page 868]believed that self-esteem was a reflection of how adequate an individual felt he or she was in areas that he or she viewed as important. This deceptively simple explanation actually reflects the complexity of the self-esteem construct, as it suggests that self-esteem is not simply about one’s feelings of competence—it is rather about our feelings of competence only in the areas that matter to us personally. Cooley (1864–1929) first spoke of self-esteem in his description of what he called the “looking glass self,” which stated that it is others’ opinions of us that were of central importance to our development. These viewpoints, when taken together, comprise the underlying core constructs of self-esteem. In short, self-esteem appears to be based on whether people feel competent to face the obstacles in life, and to be healthy, these assessments must be based in reality. In terms of development over the life span, young children tend to have universally high levels of self-esteem, and these levels begin to change differentially as they get older. Both the ideas of James and Cooley combine in the idea of a symbolic inter-actionist perspective, which states that we humans develop our self-esteem over time through our interactions with other people. If we perceive these interactions with others as being positive, we develop higher regard for ourselves.

Self-esteem is a complex construct, representing both self-efficacy (an individual’s belief that he or she is competent to accomplish something) as well as self-respect (belief that he or she is worthy and deserving of respect, love, admiration, etc.). Self-determination theory (SDT) also provides a useful mechanism to understand the underpinnings of self-esteem. This theory states that all individuals are born with an innate desire to experience and master their surroundings and that self-esteem is achieved when the basic needs of life (defined by SDT as relatedness, competency, and autonomy) are all in balance. Self-esteem is rooted in one’s internal feelings about their competence as well as their worthiness. SDT postulates that there may be two different types of self-esteem to consider: (a) contingent self-esteem, which is comparative and based on criteria defined in the external world (how you believe you compare with others on externally defined measures of success); and (b) true self-esteem, which is argued to be the healthiest and most important kind, defined as one’s sense of self as worthy, based not on what one has accomplished but rather as a given, stable belief.

...