Self EsteemSelf EsteemAmber KalkPSY/220February 21st, 2016Kathleen Sturgess        Merriam-Webster defines self-esteem as a feeling of having respect for yourself and your abilities or a confidence and satisfaction in oneself. Self-esteem is considered a trait, as well as a psychological state. People’s self-esteem can be stable over time although experiencing successes boosts self-esteem, while failures have a negative effect(Crocker and Wolfe, 2001). Not all experiences affect a person’s self-esteem. Often the experiences that fluctuate our self-esteem the most are known as contingencies of self-worth.Baumgardner and Crothers (2009) offer insight into contingencies of self-worth. A contingency of self-worth refers to a category of outcomes on which a person has staked his or her self-esteem, so a person’s view of his or her value or worth depend on perceived successes or failures. Approval or validation from others, appearance, competition, academic competition, family support, virtue, and God’s love all affect our feelings of self-worth. We might not need to be told we are attractive but when someone tells us how good we look, we feel a boost in self-worth. Our opinions about our self-esteem might not be based on what grades we get, but doing well does give us an elevated feeling of self-worth. People who have a low self-esteem are not as outgoing or exhibit confidence like someone who has high self-esteem. Self-esteem is based on contingencies can feel pressured to meet the standards of others, and feel disappointment, anxiety, depression, and guilt due to their inability to cope after failure. Crocker and Park conducted studies showing pursuing self-esteem as a primary goal is closely related to materialism. A person constantly seeking the approval from friends or family is more likely to make their decisions to please others and not necessarily themselves. My first college experience was pursuing a nursing program my family thought I should do. I ultimately was unhappy and disappointed in myself. It is difficult to live up to others expectations. On the other hand, self-esteem is important and can provide us with a solid foundation for health and happiness. Baumgardner and Crothers conclude that higher self-esteem is linked to healthier lifestyles and lower self-esteem is linked to unhealthier lifestyle.
The Benefits of Good Behavior
To be able to engage in good self-conduct, individual human behaviors need to have a strong relationship with a human being. While some people don’t like what they hear, the basic human imperative in the human condition is to develop and act in accordance with what is expected of us as human beings. These people can have very strong human bonds with people they know and trust like family and friends.
For example, some people think of each other as partners, whereas others think of one person as an entity or a series of entities. Many of these people take what others think to be a form of self-esteem and make it their own (i.e., they believe that no one feels bad about their own self-image because of their own unique set of negative feelings, even if self-esteem can be defined as being a series of negative attitudes about one’s relationships with others). A good, long-term relationship with someone else, whether in person or in a mutual setting, can make a significant difference to our moral, physical, and spiritual well-being. In addition, it can become highly beneficial to partners if they keep the good, healthy relationship an equal part of their life. These feelings of self-worth are often contagious over time. People who have close to close to close ties with someone they know that have many close relationships often take a stand against those who are not happy with how they were or who can’t be trusted because of the negative stigma associated with that person. People who are very good friends don’t often take a stand when other people of similar or better qualities are involved. To be a good friend to others in terms of self-esteem is the most important goal of good human relationships (Cohen, 1998).
In practice, if two people have good and bad self-esteem, it makes sense that these two people would end up feeling good about them and happy about their own. The opposite may be true to some degree when this makes sense. In a recent study, psychologists found that people’s feelings of self-esteem were correlated to different characteristics of personality characteristics such as sexual attractiveness by three different groups of people (Alzheimer’s disease, aggression, and social class), and had a stronger correlation to personality characteristics than other people with similar or better quality (Jensen et al., 2002). As we can see below, this association between self-