Dear Shirley:
Does the current practice of building an individual's self esteem have any social viability?
Willfully Wondering
Dear Will:
As far back as 1973, Roy Baumeister and his team of researchers were committed to the effort to boost self-esteem with the intent to encourage positive development of the self and maybe do some good for society. Self-esteem is a person's overall evaluation or appraisal of self worth manifest in a favorable opinion of oneself.
Self-esteem encompasses the personalized belief that “I am competent/ incompetent” and emotions such as triumph/despair, or pride/ shame. An expression of self-esteem is “I believe I am a good person and feel proud of myself.” Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged (1957) viewed genuine self-esteem as an enduring personality characteristic that is 1.) an evaluation that one is able to deal with basic life challenges, and 2.) an evaluation that one is worthy of happiness.
To further distinguish self esteem factors, Jennifer Crocker professor of psychology at University of Michigan explained self esteem may be derived from external sources, such as physical attractiveness and appearance, being admired, approval by others, social status, academic competence and outdoing others in competition. Unconditional self-esteem is not contingent on constructive behavior and encourages the Individual to think of oneself as special regardless of what they do. It encourages the facilitator (parent, teacher, therapist) to praise the individual and shield them from criticism.
A person whose self esteem fluctuates substantially on a daily basis is vulnerable to emotional reactivity, more likely to become depressed when confronted with daily hassles and prone to anger when personalized self esteem is threatened. High and/or unstable self-esteem may be associated with potentially destructive behavior. Nicholas Elmer, psychologist from the University of Surrey asserts that individuals with high self-esteem are more likely to engage in risky pursuits, such as driving fast and driving drunk. He showed very minimal correlation between self-esteem and educational attainment in his research.
Baumeister (1996) lead scientist on self-esteem came to the realization that if you teach unwarranted self-esteem to children, problems will ensue. A percentage of those children will be mean or have evil tendencies. Then when confronted with the real world to find out they are not as great as they have been led to believe some lash out with violence. Through his years of research Baumeister has found genocidal killers, racists, hit men, gang leaders and other violent criminals consistently exude high self-esteem.
After two decades of teaching parents, educators and therapists to focus on boosting children's self esteem Baumeister and his colleagues admit they found no evidence that boosting self esteem through school programs or therapeutic interventions led to positive outcomes. Criticizing his own work Baumeister (2009) states, “Instead of placing value on how young people feel about themselves we need to value how well they are doing in the world. He humbly recognizes the need to “forget about pumping up self-esteem and put the focus on self-control and self-discipline; to reward ethical behavior and worthy achievement as good for the Individual and good for society.
“Ask Shirley” questions can be focused on any topics involving life, health, fitness, mental training, competition, clinical issues or addictions. Please, email your questions to Askshirl@gmail.com . All questions will remain anonymous.
Shirley K. Durtschi is an Applied Sport Psychology Certified Consultant (AASP-CC), a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) Chemical Dependency Counselor Supervisor (CDCS) for the State of Alaska.
