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Self-Esteem: Even the Experts Don't Agree

Have you ever wondered what someone means when they refer to 'healthy self-esteem?' Does that mean that someone is fearless or confident? To begin our discussion on self-esteem, we must first agree on a definition.

Before we get much farther in our discussion, then, let's agree on a basic definition. Self-esteem is the belief each person has about whether or not they are valuable. If they don't think they have much value, that's referred to as 'low self-esteem'. If, on the other hand, they see themselves as being valuable, they are thought to have 'healthy self-esteem'.

With that definition in mind, let's continue our discussion by looking at the way in which self-esteem influences our lives. An interesting shift in this area has occurred in the past few years among those who study the effects of self-esteem. For the past twenty five years, many in psychology and education have believed that a child's level of self-esteem strongly predicts his future success.

You may already know that, beginning in California in the early 1980s, educators had formed curriculae around the concept that children who develop good self-esteem tend to resist peer pressure more successfully. That, in turn, has been thought to be an effective way of reducing drug use, high school dropout rates and teen pregnancy.

Millions of dollars have been invested in self-esteem-based education in the U.S. alone. The hoped-for end result is that the children receiving this instruction will be more responsible and less likely to fail in life.

But two surprising notions have come to light: recent research seems to indicate that healthy self-esteem is not a reliable indicator of success in life, in fact, the reverse appears to be true.

But a seismic shift has occurred in the evidence on which that belief was based. Recent studies, most notably by Brown University, seem to indicate that there's very little difference in drug use, teen pregnancy or failure in school between those with poor or healthy self-esteem. A further blow to that movement is that the new study shows a person must succeed before they are able to exhibit healthy self-esteem.

The second surprise, from that study, and others since, is that the most important factor in self-esteem seems to be the set of social values in which the person believes. To untangle that statement, let's define social values as the agreed-upon valuable concepts in a society.

Put another way, their social values, or what their society deems valuable, form the framework for whether they feel they, themselves, have value. For example, if the society in which they live values knowledge, and they are able to study and learn easily, their self-esteem grows as they achieve that social value.

And so, we circle back around to our original question: 'what is self-esteem?' I hope you'll agree to a slight refinement in our original definition. And here it is, "self-esteem is the way a person looks at himself against the backdrop of what his society defines as valuable." Keep that in mind if you decide to look further into what influences a person's self-esteem.

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