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Self-esteem, viewed for decades as psychology's Holy Grail, has proved to be an elusive and surprisingly porous vessel. Despite popular beliefs that self-esteem plays a causal role in numerous social behaviors, research shows that it actually predicts very little beyond mood and some types of initiative. This is likely attributable to myriad conceptual and methodological problems that have plagued the literature. Consequently, this review proposes a new theoretical model that accounts for the construct's heterogeneous and multidimensional nature. Self-esteem is defined as the appraisal of one's own personal value, including both emotional components (self-worth) and cognitive components (selfefficacy). The multiple forms of self-esteem are a function of its accuracy, directionality, and level of stability. The permutations of these sorting variables deductively yield eight forms of self-esteem: optimal high, fragile high, accurate low, fragile low, non-compensatory narcissism, compensatory narcissism, pessimal, and disorganized. Specific recommendations for clinicians and researchers are provided.
For nearly half a century, self-esteem1 has been viewed as the psychologist's "...Holy Grail: a psychological trait that would soothe most of individuals' and societies' woes. We thought that high selfesteem would impart not only success, health, happiness, and prosperity to the people who possessed it, but also stronger marriages, higher employment, and greater educational attainment in the communities that supported it" (Baumeister, 2005, p. 34).
One of the oldest concepts in psychology, "self-esteem" appears to rank among the top three covariates occurring in personality and social psychology research (Rhodewalt & Tragakis, 2003). As of 2003, it was the subject of more than 18,000 published studies and, by 2017 that number had increased to more than 24,000 publications (based on the current researchers' database searches). Yet, despite the profusion of studies, self-esteem has proved to be an elusive and surprisingly porous vessel, rife with a plethora of conceptual and methodological fissures. As a consequence, this review seeks to critically analyze the literature on self-esteem, to propose a new model for conceptualizing the construct, and to provide a series of specific recommendations for both clinical and research settings.
THE RISE:
HISTORY AND CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF SELF-ESTEEM
The term "self-esteem" can be traced to 1890 and the work of William James, who is generally regarded as the father of modern psychology. Not only was it the first recorded definition,...