I believe that in order to understand how self-esteem relates to academic environments, it is necessary to understand what self-esteem is, the proposed function of self-esteem, and variations of self-esteem. This page is dedicated to examining these topics, so that the concept of self-esteem makes more sense when discussing its relation to identity factors and learning.
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What IS SElf-ESTEEM?
Since at least the end of the 19th century, psychologists have been interested in the concept of self-esteem. In the first textbook of psychology in 1890, William James posited that people have an instinctual need to feel good about themselves and that self-esteem is the inclinations that people have in relation to that need (Thomson 2012, 160). Since then it has been suggested that self-esteem is the differences between a person’s real and ideal selves, one’s subjective judgment of his or her value, or how one feels about themselves (Thomson, 2012, 160 Leary and Baumeister, 2000, 2-3). For the purpose of this website, we will be using the definition that self-esteem is one's subjective judgment about their own self-worth.
SOciOMETER THEORY
James's suggestion that positive feelings about oneself are a fundamental need continues to influence ideas on self-esteem. The sociometer theory argues that humans have a basic need to belong, which leads to an inherent motivation to create some meaningful social attachments. The reason that humans have a self-esteem system is to monitor the degree to which others value their relationships with an individual. This system helps an individual to monitor possible harm to their relationships, in the same way that pain monitors potential danger to the body (Leary and Baumeister, 2000, 3). Since sociometer theory describes self-esteem as a monitoring system for inclusion, it argues that factors that influence self-esteem include social attributes, status, stable relationships, and received messages about eligibility for inclusion (Leary and Baumeister, 2000, 17-21). According to sociometer theory, low self-esteem results in more anxiety, relationship problems, and alienation (Crocker and Park, 2004, 395).
CONTINGENCIES OF SELF-ESTEEM
Some have suggested that instead of simply focusing on levels of self-esteem based on traditional factors, it is more important to understand what domain, or contingency, a person bases their self-worth in. Contingencies that people could base their self-esteem on include family support, competition, God’s love, virtue, and approval from others. Especially relevant for educators is that a possible contingency for self-esteem includes school competency (Crocker and Wolfe, 2001, 594-599). In one study, people who had high self-esteem did not only believe that they possessed positive attributes but they also believed that these attributes were important in gaining inclusion and acceptance (MacDonald, 2003, 33). Likewise, people experience a decrease in self-esteem when they perceive a failure in an important contingency (Niiya et al., 2004, 84). Contingency theory suggests that in order to fix problems associated with low self-esteem, solutions must consider what domain self-esteem is based in as opposed to just emphasizing increasing overall self-esteem. (Crocker and Wolfe, 2001, 606).
STability of SElf-esteem
In additions to levels and foundations of self-esteem literature has also discussed the stability of self-esteem. This school of thought argues that there are two types of high self-esteem, secure high self-esteem and fragile high self-esteem. People with secure high self-esteem have a solid foundation for their positive evaluation of their self-worth and have little reaction when an event may challenge that evaluation. On the other hand, people with fragile high self-esteem have vulnerable ideas about their self-worth and are subject to self-esteem instability, which leads to fluctuations in feelings and behaving as if their self-worth is perpetually at stake (Zeigler-Hill et al., 2007, 349).