Contingencies of Self-Worth

Definition

The work of theorists like William James, Charles Cooley, and G. H. Mead suggests that self-esteem, because it is a judgment about the self, must be based on some sort of criteria. These criteria can be called contingencies of self-worth. William James suggested that everyone's self-esteem is a result of how competent they feel. Cooley and Mead suggested that everyone's self-esteem is a result of being viewed positively by other people. Contingencies of self-worth theory also emphasizes looking at the bases of self-esteem, but it proposes that people may base judgments about their worth on outcomes in any number of different [Page 177]areas or domains. Some people may have contingencies of worth in domains like competency or approval, whereas others may base their worth on outcomes, such as being powerful, physically attractive, or virtuous. Good outcomes in contingent domains lead to high self-esteem, and bad outcomes in contingent domains lead to low self-esteem. For example, some people may have self-esteem that is contingent upon getting good grades in school. For such people, getting a bad grade does more than just put them in a bad mood, it also makes them question whether they are worthy human beings. Someone who is not contingent on academic outcomes would certainly be upset by a bad grade, but his or her self-esteem would not be affected by the grade. The theory allows people to hold more than one contingency of worth, and it allows people to hold some contingencies very strongly and others less strongly. The theory also suggests that some contingencies of self-worth are more adaptive than others. In addition, the theory proposes that people's contingencies of worth reveal their areas of vulnerability and guide their actions and motivations.

Background

Until recently, most researchers only looked at one dimension of self-esteem: whether it was high or low. Many people in the Western Hemisphere (especially America) believe that having high self-esteem should lead to all sorts of positive outcomes. Researchers, thus, anticipated that high self-esteem would play a role in a variety of positive outcomes like good grades, prosocial behavior, popularity, and a generally happy life. Similarly, they predicted that low self-esteem would play a role in a variety of problems, including eating disorders, antisocial behavior, drug abuse, and a generally unhappy life. Consistent with intuition, self-esteem does play in role in how happy or sad Americans and people from other Western cultures feel. And initially, simple comparisons between selfesteem and variables like drug abuse or grades in school did sometimes show a relationship—although it was always unclear whether self-esteem caused the outcome or vice versa. But, as researchers did more sophisticated analyses, they began to find that the relationships weren't as strong as originally thought and that self-esteem and some outcomes weren't causally related to each other at all. For example, they found that self-esteem doesn't have nearly as much of a relationship with a child's grades in school as was originally thought. Similarly, factors other than selfesteem seemed to be at the root of problems like drug abuse. Counterintuitive research also suggests that feeling an unwarranted sense of high self-esteem may underlie some antisocial behavior. When challenged, people with this inflated, fragile, and egotistical sort of high self-esteem may become aggressive or violent. In all, the research findings began to suggest that whether self-esteem is high or low doesn't have much of anything to do with material, tangible life outcomes. In sum, researchers were becoming confused about the importance of level of self-esteem.

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