Bad About Yourself! Self-Esteem May Not Be

¶ … bad about yourself! Self-Esteem may not be all it has been reputed to be! Baumeister, Roy & Jennifer D. Campbell, Jochim I. Kurger and Kathleen D. Vohs. (20 December 2004) "Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth." Scientific American.

Article retrievable in full text on the World Wide Web at http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=000CB565-F330-11BE-AD0683414B7F0000 According to the popular science periodical Scientific American, a number of long-standing scientific studies on the correlation between high or low self-esteem and positive or negative forms of social behaviors shows that there is little indication that low self-esteem is at the root of individual and societal problems and dysfunctions.

This flies in the face of a 1989 study whose results appeared in a volume entitled The Social Importance of Self-Esteem.

This previous, influential study stated that "many, if not most, of the major problems plaguing society have roots in the low self-esteem of many of the people who make up society." Thus, the more recent findings regarding the lack of importance of self-esteem are significant not just in terms of evaluating an individual's psychology, but also in terms of funding a variety of educational efforts based upon the suggestion that raising self-esteem in young people would reduce crime, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, school underachievement and pollution.

(Baumeister et.al, 2004, p.1) The authors of the study stressed that they were mindful to avoid the assumption that a correlation between self-esteem and some desired behavior establishes causality, in contrast to studies of the past. For example, high self-esteem may seem to bring about certain positive outcomes, such as vocational success. But correlations between self-esteem and success may mean simply that a positive self-image is a result of success or good behavior.

(Baumeister et.al, 2004, p.2) In fact, in a literature review by the authors, self-esteem and high self-perception could not show that a link between good self-image leads to occupational success in terms of causality, and even hinted artificially boosting self-esteem may lower subsequent performance. In terms of relationships, the only positive correlation was that individuals with high self-esteem were more likely to leave relationships they found unfulfilling or did not reinforce their perceptions of themselves as competent.

(Baumeister et.al, 2004, p.3) Even correlations between low esteem and drug use are inconclusive.

Of course, on all of these measures "people with a healthy sense of self-respect" may be "lumped with those feigning higher self-esteem." Thus it is not surprising the results of studies of self-esteem investigations may always produce "weak or contradictory findings." (Baumeister et.al, 2004, p.4) The only statistically significant correlation found by the researchers was that "and high self-esteem emerged as the strongest factor in overall life satisfaction," but again it is "even possible that happiness, in the sense of a temperament or disposition.