Self-Esteem

Self-esteem refers to the positive (high self-esteem) or negative (low self-esteem) feelings that we
have about ourselves. We experience the positive feelings of high self-esteem when we believe that
we are good and worthy and that others view us positively. We experience the negative feelings of
low self-esteem when we believe that we are inadequate and less worthy than others.

Our self-esteem is determined by many factors, including how well we view our own performance
and appearance, and how satisfied we are with our relationships with other people (Tafarodi &
Swann, 1995). Self-esteem is in part a trait that is stable over time, with some people having
relatively high self-esteem and others having lower self-esteem. But self-esteem is also a state that
varies day to day and even hour to hour. When we have succeeded at an important task, when we
have done something that we think is useful or important, or when we feel that we are accepted and
valued by others, our self-concept will contain many positive thoughts and we will therefore have
high self-esteem. When we have failed, done something harmful, or feel that we have been ignored
or criticized, the negative aspects of the self-concept are more accessible and we experience low
self-esteem.

Self-esteem can be measured using both explicit and implicit measures, and both approaches find
that most people tend to view themselves positively. One common explicit self-report measure of
self-esteem is the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Higher scores on the scale indicate higher
self-esteem.

Numerous studies have used the Rosenberg scale to assess people’s self-esteem in many areas of
the world. An interesting finding in many samples from the Western world, particularly in North
America, is that the average score is often significantly higher than the mid-point. Heine and Lehman
(1999), for example, reported meta-analytic data indicating that less than 7% of participants scored
below the mid-point! One interesting implication of this is that participants in such samples classified
as having low self-esteem on the basis of a median split will typically actually have at least moderate
self-esteem.

If so many people, particularly in individualistic cultures, report having relatively high self-esteem, an
interesting question is why this might be. Perhaps some cultures place more importance on
developing high self-esteem than others, and people correspondingly feel more pressure to report
feeling good about themselves (Held, 2002). A problem with measures such as the Rosenberg scale
is that they can be influenced by the desire to portray the self positively. The observed scores on the
Rosenberg scale may be somewhat inflated because people naturally try to make themselves look
as if they have very high self-esteem—maybe they lie a bit to the experimenters to make themselves
look better than they really are and perhaps to make themselves feel better. If this the case, then we
might expect to find average levels of reported self-esteem to be lower in cultures where having high
self-worth is less of a priority. This is indeed what has generally been found. Heine and Lehman
(1999) reported that Japanese participants living in Japan showed, on average, moderate levels of
self-esteem, normally distributed around the scale mid-point. Many other studies have shown that
people in Eastern, collectivistic cultures report significantly lower self-esteem than those from more
Western, individualistic ones (Campbell et al., 1996). Do, then, such differences reflect these
different cultural priorities and pressures, or could it be that they reflect genuine differences in actual
self-esteem levels? There are no easy answers here, of course, but there are some findings from
studies, using different methods of measuring self-esteem, that may shed some light on this issue.

Indirect measures of self-esteem have been created—measures that may provide a more accurate
picture of the self-concept because they are less influenced by the desire to make a positive
impression. Anthony Greenwald and Shelly Farnham (2000) used the Implicit Association Test to
study the self-concept indirectly. Participants worked at a computer and were presented with a series
of words, each of which they were to categorize in one of two ways. One categorization decision
involved whether the words were related to the self (e.g., me, myself, mine) or to another person
(e.g., other, them, their). A second categorization decision involved determining whether words were
pleasant (e.g., joy, smile, pleasant) or unpleasant (e.g., pain, death, tragedy). On some trials, the self
words were paired with the pleasant items, and the other words with the unpleasant items. On other
trials, the self words were paired with the unpleasant items, and the other words with the pleasant
items. Greenwald and Farnham found that on average, participants were significantly faster at
categorizing positive words that were presented with self words than they were at categorizing
negative words that were presented with self words, suggesting, again, that people did have positive
self-esteem. Furthermore, there were also meaningful differences among people in the speed of
responding, suggesting that the measure captured some individual variation in implicit self-esteem.
A number of studies have since explored cross-cultural differences in implicit self-esteem and have
not found the same differences observed on explicit measures like the Rosenberg scale (Yamaguchi
et al., 2007). Does this mean that we can conclude that the lower scores on self-report measures
observed in members of collectivistic cultures are more apparent than real? Maybe not just yet,
especially given that the correlations between explicit and implicit measures of self-esteem are often
quite small (Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999). Nevertheless, values such as modesty
may be less prioritized in individualistic cultures than in collectivistic ones, which may in turn reflect
differences in reported self-esteem levels. Indeed, Cai and colleagues (2007) found that differences
in explicit self-esteem between Chinese and American participants were explained by cultural
differences in modesty.

Another interesting aspect of diversity and self-esteem is the average difference observed between
men and women. Across many countries, women have been found to report lower self-esteem than
men (Sprecher, Brooks, & Avogo, 2013). However, these differences have generally been found to
be small, particularly in nations where gender equality in law and opportunity is higher (Kling, Hyde,
Showers, & Buswell, 1999). These findings are consistent with Mead’s (1934) suggestion that
self-esteem in part relates to the view that others have of our importance in the wider world. As
women’s opportunities to participate in careers outside of the home have increased in many nations,
so the differences between their self-esteem and that of men have decreased.

There are also some interesting age differences in self-esteem that have been uncovered. In a large
Internet survey, Robins, Trzesniewski, Tracy, Gosling, & Potter (2002) found that self-esteem tends
to decrease from childhood to early adolescence, and then rises steadily from adolescence into
adulthood, usually until people are well into their sixties, after which point it begins to decline. One
interesting implication of this is that we often will have higher self-esteem later in life than in our early
adulthood years, which would appear to run against ageist stereotypes that older adults have lower
self-worth. What factors might help to explain these age-related increases in self-esteem? One
possibility relates back to our discussion of self-discrepancy theory in the previous section on the
cognitive self. Recall that this theory states that when our perceived self-discrepancy between our
current and ideal selves is small, we tend to feel more positive about ourselves than when we see
the gap as being large. Could it be that older adults have a current view of self that is closer to their
ideal than younger adults, and that this is why their self-esteem is often higher? Evidence from Ryff
(1991) suggests that this may well be the case. In this study, elderly adults rated their current and
ideal selves as more similar than either middle-aged or young adults. In part, older adults are able to
more closely align these two selves because they are better able to realistically adjust their ideal
standards as they age (Rothermund & Brandstadter, 2003) and because they engage in more
favorable and age-appropriate social comparisons than do younger adults (Helgeson & Mickelson,
2000).

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale

Please rate yourself on the following items by writing a number in the blank before
each statement, where you

1 = Strongly Disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Agree 4 = Strongly Agree

1.​ _____I feel that I’m a person of worth, at least on any equal base with others.
2.​ _____I feel that I have a number of good qualities.
3.​ _____All in all, I am inclined to think that I am a failure (R).
4.​ _____I am able to do things as well as other people.
5.​ _____I feel I do not have much to be proud of. (R)
6.​ _____I take a positive attitude towards myself.
7.​ _____On the whole, I am satisfied with myself.
8.​ _____I wish I could have more respect for myself. (R)
9.​ _____I certainly feel useless at times. (R)
10.​ _____At times I think I am no good at all. (R)

Narcissism and the Limits of Self-Enhancement

Our discussion to this point suggests that many people will generally try to view themselves in a
positive light. We emphasize our positive characteristics, and we may even in some cases distort
information—all to help us maintain positive self-esteem. There can be negative aspects to having
too much self-esteem, however, particularly if that esteem is unrealistic and undeserved. Narcissism
is a personality trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and
self-centeredness. Narcissists tend to agree with statements such as the following:
 ●​ “I know that I am good because everybody keeps telling me so.”
●​ “I can usually talk my way out of anything.”
●​ “I like to be the center of attention.”
●​ “I have a natural talent for influencing people.”

Narcissists can be perceived as charming at first, but often alienate others in the long run
(Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003). They can also make bad romantic partners as they
often behave selfishly and are always ready to look for someone else who they think will be a better
mate, and they are more likely to be unfaithful than non-narcissists (Campbell & Foster, 2002;
Campbell, Rudich, & Sedikides, 2002). Narcissists are also more likely to bully others, and they may
respond very negatively to criticism (Baumeister et al., 2003). People who have narcissistic
tendencies more often pursue self-serving behaviors, to the detriment of the people and
communities surrounding them (Campbell, Bush, Brunell, & Shelton, 2005). Perhaps surprisingly,
narcissists seem to understand these things about themselves, although they engage in the
behaviors anyway (Carlson, Vazire, & Oltmanns, 2011).

Interestingly, scores on measures of narcissistic personality traits have been creeping steadily
upward in recent decades in some cultures (Twenge, Konrath, Foster, Campbell, & Bushman, 2008).
Given the social costs of these traits, this is troubling news. What reasons might there be for these
trends? Twenge and Campbell (2009) argue that several interlocking factors are at work here,
namely increasingly child-centered parenting styles, the cult of celebrity, the role of social media in
promoting self-enhancement, and the wider availability of easy credit, which, they argue, has lead to
more people being able to acquire status-related goods, in turn further fueling a sense of entitlement.
As narcissism is partly about having an excess of self-esteem, it should by now come as no surprise
that narcissistic traits are higher, on average, in people from individualistic versus collectivistic
cultures (Twenge et al., 2008).

The negative outcomes of narcissism raise the interesting possibility that high self-esteem in general
may not always be advantageous to us or to the people around us. One complication to the issue is
that explicit self-report measures of self-esteem, like the Rosenberg scale, are not able to distinguish
between people whose high self-esteem is realistic and appropriate and those whose self-esteem
may be more inflated, even narcissistic (Baumeister et al., 2003). Implicit measures also do not
provide a clear picture, but indications are that more narcissistic people score higher on implicit
self-esteem in relation to some traits, including those relating to social status, and lower on others
relating to relationships (Campbell, Bosson, Goheen, Lakey, & Kernis, 2007). A key point is that it
can be difficult to disentangle what the effects of realistic versus unrealistic high self-esteem may be.
Nevertheless, it is to this thorny issue that we will now turn.