Self-Esteem


Author: Ushna Nawaz
Self-Esteem

A person’s assessment of his value is termed self-esteem. It includes opinions related to one-self (as an example, “I am capable,” “I am prestigious”) also the emotive condition like achievement, hopelessness, superiority, and dignity. It was described by Smith and Mackie (2007) as, the self-concept is something individual reflect about oneself, any optimistic or negative assessment of oneself, like in what way individual feel (Lilian et al., 2016). 

Self-esteem is a fascinating psychological concept as it assumes definite consequences, as an example educational success (Marsh, 1990) pleasure, (Baumeister et al., 2003), gratification in wedding and affiliations, and lawless acts (Bleidorn et al., 2016).

Self-esteem could be implied to a particular trait (as an illustration, “I trust I am capable of writing and I am joyful about it”) or universally (as an example, “I trust I have bad characteristics, and I feel poor about it generally”). In a psychologist’s viewpoint, self-esteem describes as a persistent personality attributes that is trait self-esteem, though usual, variations for a short time, i.e., state self-esteem, also present.  Self-worth, self-regard, self-respect, and self-integrity are the other near meanings of self-esteem (James, 1892).

Aspects of Self-Esteem

Global Self-Esteem.  Usually, self-esteem provides aid to point out the enduring characteristics involving mean individuals commonly sense for them. Such type of self-esteem is named global self-esteem or trait self-esteem because somewhat this makes stable with time and conditions. Through stress on primitive libidinal instincts, efforts have been made to define self-esteem (Kernberg, 1975) to the insight that an individual is a vital fellow of a significant world (Solomon, Greenberg & Pyszczynski, 1991). Self-esteem can be stated as the sense of love (Brown, 1993; Brown & Dutton, 1995).

Self-Evaluation.  How people appraise their different skills and characteristics is also named self-esteem. An example can be taken as an individual who is not sure about his abilities during the academy, rarely achieve squat academic self-esteem on another side an individual who thinks of himself as he is famous and other people like them likely to retain more social self-esteem. The same thing is also seen as people incline to possess high work self-esteem compared to sports for which they have low self-esteem. Self-assurance and self-efficacy are helpful, and most people associate self-assurance with self-esteem. The self-assessment and self-appraisal mention the mean through which people assess and judge capabilities and character traits (Harter, 1986; Marsh 1990 & Swann, 1989).

Feeling of Self-Worth.   Those brief emotions that arise from positive and negative outcomes are also referred to as self-esteem. People boost up self-esteem, or self-esteem gets threatened due to their experiences. For example, for achieving vast advancement, an individual may describe as self-esteem is over-the-top, or it is also possible that an individual says that after getting a divorce, his self-esteem is very low. According to William James (1890), emotions refer to be subjective feelings of self-worth. Sense of honor or else satisfies by oneself represents the confident side while disgraced than embracing the sense of oneself represents the deleterious side; these can be considered worthy.

Some investigators (Hokanson & Flynn, Butler 1994; Leary, Tambor, Terdal & Downs, 1995), with the help of terminology, define self-esteem to mention word emotion called the feeling of self-worth and attribute self-esteem to denote mean individuals usually sense for them. The term state self-esteem is used as because people involve feelings about oneself. The fundamental variation between global self-esteem and feeling of self-worth is that global self-esteem is determined while the feeling of self-worth is short-term.

Affective Model of Self-Esteem

Two Components of Self-Esteem.   The affective model of self-esteem assumes that self-esteem growth occurs in initial age and is often described in two types of feelings. The feeling of belongingness is the first feeling rooted in the social practices, and the second type of feeling is feelings of mystery which is private in a sense.

Belonging has been defined as the sentiment. It means one is being treasured on behalf of who he is, not because of any specific talent or any other reason. With the sense of belongingness, one people feel secure, and it also provides a confident base in life. It gives them the confidence they are precious to others, and others will respect them no matter what happens. A few years ago, Carl Rogers (American psychologist) pointed out this view about self-esteem when he talked about individual’s requirement for unrestricted encouraging affection (Rogers, 1951; Rogers & Dymond, 1954).

Sense about mastery is considered as the second vital aspect of self-esteem. The insight one influences the world is not essential on a large surface but in one’s routine life is part of mastery. Perceived competence and mastery are not the same things. It is unnecessary to develop the thinking that he is an excellent pianist or a student with grade A to have a sense of mastery. In actual mastery are feeling people get in the result when they are submerged in a task or are struggling to cope with some issues (Brissett, 1972; Csikszentmihalyi, 1975; Decharms, 1968; Deci & Ryan, 1995; Erikson, 1963; Franks & Marolla, 1976; Gecas & Schwalbe, 1993; White, 1959).

The Development of Self-Esteem.    The assumption made by the affective model of self-esteem is that feeling of belongingness and mastery generally develops in the early period of life. The psychosocial model of Erikson gives us a beneficial foundation that how these feelings evoke. In Erikson's view, the first task performed by the infant during the first development stage is developing the feeling of trust with his caregiver. The feelings of trust developing in the first year of an infant’s existence lead to the sentiments of belonging, which is supposed to be important to develop a high self-esteem schema.

Autonomy versus shame next doubt is the stage described by Erikson. The establishment of a feeling of mastery takes place in this stage. By exploring, modifying, and creating their world, they are cheered, which helps them develop mastery. The child may fail to establish the feeling of mastery when there is the possibility of being underestimating and when the child is being criticized for their struggles (Recchia, McClintic, & Stipek, 1992).

Attachment Bonds and Self-Esteem.   In Erikson’s theory, the relationship between child and caretaker is significant. Bowlby assumed that attachment style plays an enigmatic role. The child feels protective to leave his mother and to adventure in the environment if they become securely attached. In this way, Bowlby supposed that secure attachment (feeling of belonging) aids wish fullness to discover the environment (sense of mastery). Suppose an individual has the feeling of security; he is more likely to move away from their attachment figures to discover surroundings and to be more adventurous. An individual will wish to be close if he is worried, uneasy, or unwell. So, the traditional way of bonding among parents and children is called exploration from a secure base. Responsive and providing parents are called as the accessible; the healthy developed child feels protective enough to explore (Bowlby, 1979).

The idea of the internal working model had risen by Bowlby (1973) to demonstrate the lasting influence of early attachment bonds. A mental image or operational prototype of attachment affiliation develops as the child matured. Children who create a secure attachment believe they are significantly worthy and deserve love, while those individuals who retain doubtful affection relationships have faith that they are not good; they also do not deserve love. Such principles become the base for improving self-esteem by generalizing to other people and situations (Bowlby, 1973).    

Cognitive Models of Self-Esteem

On the nature and basis of self-esteem, a different view is presented by cognitive models. The cognitive model stresses how people assess themselves in various areas of life predict their general value of self-esteem.   

Three Cognitive Model of Self-Esteem Formation.   Modest of such model undertakes that self-esteem is collection of pattern individuals assesses their particular skills, also characteristics.

James (1890) suggests that self-esteem relies on individuals thinking about them in peak subjective worth areas. He claim that “Self-esteem = Success/ Pretensions.” James defined pretensions in two different ways. In some cases, it denotes what an individual gives importance or what an individual thinks is essential.

According to James, consequences in areas of high personal worth have a more significant influence on self-esteem than consequences in fields of low personal importance. The term pretensions also used to denote a person’s level of ambition. In this way, according to James, people feel pleasant about themselves when their outcomes level up our personal standards, while they feel unpleasant about themselves when their outcome low down of their personal standards. 

Self-Esteem and Certainty of Self-Knowledge.      People with good self-esteem value themselves and seem to be more confident about who they are compared to people with poor self-esteem. Campbell and her fellows (Campbell, 1990; Lavallee & Campbell, 1993) appealed that people with a peak level of self-esteem are much suitable for having a clear explanation and temporary consistent self-views compared to individuals possessing poor self-esteem. This claim discovers its support through the fact that people having poor self-esteem are

(a) They display many inconsistencies in their self-evaluation; their view changes from day to day,

(b) They are not confident about making the decision about their traits,

(c) They are not sure about their position in various traits and

(d) They show more irregularity in self-evaluation

As individuals’ views of them usually help as behavior controllers, confusion about self-esteem shown by people who retain poor self-esteem could retain significant value (Campbell, 1990; Baumgardner, 1990; Stterlund & Niedenthal, 1993).

Sociological Models of Self-Esteem.   Sociological models give an alternative viewpoint on the base and background of self-esteem. Sociological models believe that social factors influence self-esteem; the concept is centered on Cooley’s (1902) prototype of the “looking-glass self” and in Mead’s (1934) point of view, “making perception and generalize others.” The individual will have high self-esteem if he thinks that he is greatly considered and respected by society. In this way, demographic variables like “professional status, salary, schooling, and societal prestige impact self-esteem.

Gender Differences in Self-Esteem.   Another social feature that affects self-esteem is gender. However, influences are feeble. Dissimilar to reporting present in standard press, it is not shown through research; thus, it indicates women possess low global self-esteem compared to males (Feingold, 1994; Jacklin & Maccoby, 1974; Caiken, Pliner & Flett, 1990; Wylie, 1979). However, gender variations are present but through the concern of how men and women appraise their various traits and skills (Marsh, 1990; Beyer, 1990). Mostly such differences are ‘mirror cultural stereotypes.’

The trend for women to appraise their relational qualities suits the proof that females give specific importance to such qualities. To create a ‘collectivist or interdependent self-concept,’ women are more suitable than men, highlighting their link and bonding with others. In comparison, males are much suitable for creating a subjective self-concept, a trait that highlights their accomplishments and disconnectedness (Kashima, 1995; Markus & Oyserman, 1989).

It was advised by Markus, Josephs, and Tafarodi (1992) that this movement could be related to considerate gender variations in self-esteem. They assumed that women develop self-esteem based on social skills, and men develop self-esteem based on capability and personal accomplishment. At present time proof about this statement stay ambiguous (Girgus & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1994). However, the idea that self-esteem is constructed according to how people assess themselves according to their important cultural areas represents how cognitive and sociological methods to understand self-esteem can be included or united.                 

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