Self-Esteem

Definition

Self-esteem is such a commonly used term you probably already know what it is: thinking highly of yourself. You have probably heard self-esteem mentioned on talk shows, in magazine articles, and even in popular songs (the song “The Greatest Love of All” is about loving yourself, and there's a song by the band The Offspring called “Self-Esteem.”) But social psychology research has discovered a lot of things about self-esteem that have not yet made it to popular culture, and this research might surprise you.

Academic psychologists recognize two types of self-esteem. The first is general self-esteem, often measured using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (which includes items such as “I take a positive attitude toward myself”). The second type of self-esteem is specific, often measuring self-esteem in a particular domain such as school, work, athletics, or appearance. These subdomains are then combined to form a complete self-esteem score (for example, in scales such as the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale or the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory). Although nonpsychologists sometimes use the term self-esteem to refer to body and appearance concerns, a psychologist is more specific and instead calls these body image or appearance self-esteem.

People high in self-esteem seem to know more about themselves and their preferences. They can furnish longer lists of their likes and dislikes, and they are more confident about their self-ratings. They are also more self-serving; they are more likely to take credit for their successes and blame outside sources for their failure. Self-esteem is also correlated with emotional stability: People with low self-esteem experience negative moods more often and report more fluctuation in their moods.

Differences and Predictors

Which groups of people are high in self-esteem, and which are low? You might have heard that teenage girls have very low self-esteem, but this is not true. Men and boys do score higher on self-esteem than women and girls, but the difference is small; gender explains only about 1% of the differences in self-esteem (this number tells you how much of the variation in self-esteem is caused by a specific variable—here, gender—rather than by other factors). The gap does widen a bit during adolescence, with gender explaining about 2.6% of the differences and boys scoring higher. But this doesn't happen because girls' self-esteem drops at adolescence; girls' self-esteem rises between middle school and high school, but just not as much as boys' does. Between high school and college, women's selfesteem increases sharply, and the gender difference shrinks back to 1% of the variance.

Are rich and well-educated people higher in selfesteem? Yes, but not by much—socioeconomic status explains less than 1% of the variance in self-esteem. The correlation between socioeconomic status and self-esteem peaks during middle age, but even then, it accounts for only 1.5% of the differences. So social status and money are only very weak predictors of self-esteem.

What about racial and ethnic differences—are racial minorities, many of whom experience prejudice, more likely to be low in self-esteem? The answers here are complex: Overall, racial differences in self-esteem seem to be caused more by cultural differences than by racial discrimination. Black Americans, who probably experience the most prejudice and discrimination in the United States, actually score higher in self-esteem than are White Americans (though this is yet another of those 1% of the variance small findings). This might occur because they protect their self-esteem by attributing criticism to prejudice (a theory called stigma as selfprotection). However, Hispanic Americans score lower than Whites do in self-esteem (though this is a very small difference accounting for only about .2% of the variance), and they experience prejudice as well. So prejudice alone cannot explain why Blacks score higher on self-esteem measures. Cultural differences provide a more consistent explanation. Black American culture champions self-respect, whereas Asian cultures emphasize humility and selfcriticism. Sure enough, Asian Americans score lower on self-esteem than do Whites, a somewhat larger difference that explains 2.2% of the variance. Asians living in Asia score even lower compared with White Americans, a difference that explains about 4.5% of the variance. These differences are all consistent with the idea that cultural ideas about the self influence levels of self-esteem.

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