Self-esteem - PsyBlog

The Role Of Self-Esteem In Personal And Professional Success

Learn the meaning of self-esteem, its impact on mental health, and ways to enhance your self-worth for a more fulfilling life.

This article explores the concept of self-esteem and how it influences mental health, relationships, and success.

Understanding self-esteem

Self-esteem refers to the way people perceive and value themselves.

It reflects confidence in one’s abilities, self-respect, and a sense of worth.

Healthy self-esteem is essential for mental and emotional well-being.

People with high self-esteem are more resilient, handle stress effectively, and pursue personal goals with confidence.

Conversely, low self-esteem is associated with negative self-talk, anxiety, and depression.

Self-esteem can also affect how people approach challenges.

Those with positive self-esteem often view setbacks as opportunities for growth, while those with low self-esteem may fear failure and avoid risks altogether.

Self-esteem vs self-compassion

It is important to distinguish between self-esteem and self-compassion.

Self-esteem is about evaluating oneself positively, often in comparison to others.

Self-compassion, on the other hand, involves treating oneself with kindness and understanding regardless of success or failure.

Focusing on self-compassion rather than constantly seeking self-esteem can lead to more sustainable emotional health.

While self-esteem depends on achievements and validation, self-compassion provides unconditional support and fosters resilience.

Factors influencing self-esteem

Several internal and external factors shape a person’s self-esteem.

These include:

Past experiences: Childhood experiences, including parental support or criticism, significantly influence self-esteem.
Social comparisons: Measuring oneself against others can affect how positively or negatively one feels.
Cultural norms: Societal standards regarding appearance, success, and behaviour can shape perceptions of self-worth.
Personal achievements: Successes and failures contribute to self-esteem by reinforcing feelings of competence or inadequacy.
Relationships: Supportive or toxic relationships profoundly impact how people perceive their worth.
Media influence: Constant exposure to media portrayals of idealised lifestyles and beauty can distort self-image.

The impact of social media on self-esteem

Social media plays a complex role in influencing self-esteem.

Platforms like Instagram and TikTok encourage comparisons with idealised representations of others.

Constant exposure to curated lives can create unrealistic standards, leading to dissatisfaction and diminished self-worth.

However, social media can also offer positive reinforcement through supportive communities and encouragement.

Balancing screen time and engaging mindfully with content can help mitigate its negative effects on self-esteem.

Developing digital literacy skills and critically assessing online content are crucial steps to maintaining a healthy self-image.

Cultural perspectives on self-esteem

Self-esteem is perceived differently across cultures.

Western societies often emphasise individual achievement and personal success as measures of self-worth.

In contrast, many Eastern cultures value collective harmony and interdependence.

These cultural differences influence how people experience and cultivate self-esteem.

Understanding these variations can enhance cross-cultural empathy and communication.

In collectivist cultures, self-esteem may stem from fulfilling social roles and group contributions rather than personal accolades.

consequences of low self-esteem

Low self-esteem affects various aspects of life, including:

Mental health: It is linked to anxiety, depression, and feelings of inadequacy.
Relationships: People with low self-esteem may struggle with trust, assertiveness, and establishing boundaries.
Career success: Lack of confidence can limit professional growth and willingness to take risks.

Addressing self-esteem issues is vital for improving overall well-being and personal fulfilment.

Chronic low self-esteem can lead to self-sabotage, indecision, and missed opportunities.

In severe cases, it may contribute to suicidal ideation and other serious mental health concerns.

The neuroscience behind self-esteem

Scientific research provides insights into how the brain processes self-esteem.

The prefrontal cortex, involved in decision-making and self-reflection, plays a critical role.

Neurotransmitters like dopamine influence feelings of reward and confidence.

Understanding these mechanisms helps explain why self-esteem can fluctuate and provides avenues for interventions to enhance it.

Studies show that positive reinforcement activates neural circuits associated with motivation and well-being.

Conversely, chronic self-criticism can weaken these pathways, reinforcing negative thought patterns.

Enhancing self-esteem

Boosting self-esteem involves deliberate effort and practice.

Effective strategies include:

Positive affirmations: Repeating encouraging statements about oneself can reframe negative thoughts.
Setting realistic goals: Achieving small, manageable objectives builds a sense of competence.
Mindfulness practices: Techniques like meditation help foster self-awareness and reduce critical inner dialogue.
Seeking professional help: Therapy, particularly cognitive-behavioural approaches, can challenge distorted thinking patterns.
Engaging in self-compassion: Treating oneself kindly during setbacks fosters resilience.

Implementing these practices consistently can lead to significant improvements in self-esteem over time.

Practising gratitude and focusing on strengths rather than perceived weaknesses further cultivates a positive mindset.

Self-esteem across the lifespan

Self-esteem evolves throughout life.

In childhood, self-esteem develops from interactions with parents, teachers, and peers.

Adolescents often experience fluctuations due to social pressures and identity exploration.

In adulthood, self-esteem stabilises but can be influenced by career, relationships, and personal achievements.

Maintaining a balanced perspective and embracing lifelong learning supports healthy self-esteem at any age.

Older adults may face challenges related to self-esteem as they experience physical changes or retirement.

Fostering social connections and staying engaged in meaningful activities can enhance self-worth later in life.

The role of self-esteem in professional success

Confidence and self-belief are critical to career advancement.

Employees with healthy self-esteem are more likely to take initiative, communicate effectively, and adapt to challenges.

Conversely, low self-esteem can lead to procrastination, fear of failure, and avoidance of responsibility.

Building workplace confidence involves:

Seeking feedback to identify strengths and areas for growth.
Celebrating accomplishments, no matter how small.
Practising self-advocacy to pursue opportunities.

Fostering a growth mindset helps overcome setbacks and promotes long-term professional development.

Mentorship and continuous learning also play key roles in nurturing self-esteem in a professional setting.

Conclusion

Self-esteem is a fundamental aspect of psychological health and personal fulfilment.

Understanding its influences, consequences, and strategies for enhancement allows individuals to cultivate a stronger sense of self-worth.

By applying insights from neuroscience, cultural perspectives, and practical exercises, anyone can develop a healthier, more resilient self-esteem.

Taking small, consistent steps toward self-acceptance and growth leads to lasting positive change.

How 10 Minutes Of Writing Can Transform Self-Esteem (M)

This writing activity helps people retain their self-confidence when facing challenges to their self-esteem.

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Why Positive Mantras Make Some People Feel Worse (M)

Positive mantras like “I am a lovable person” have long been a staple of self-help books. But do they work?

Positive mantras like "I am a lovable person" have long been a staple of self-help books. But do they work?

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How To Maintain Self-Esteem In The Face Of Failure (M)

“It’s not how many times you have had to give up. It is how you felt about the failures.” -Dr Patrick Carroll

"It's not how many times you have had to give up. It is how you felt about the failures." -Dr Patrick Carroll

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The Age When Your Self-Esteem Is Highest

Most people’s self-esteem follows a similar pattern over the years.

People’s self-esteem peaks when they hit 60-years-old, research finds.

Indeed, most people find their self-esteem is slowly strengthening over the years, right through from adolescence and into middle adulthood.

In adolescence, people’s self-esteem remains relatively flat, but in childhood, as in adulthood, it generally climbs upwards.

The 20s is usually when people feel the biggests gains to their self-esteem as they become more independent.

After this, the ascent towards peak self-esteem is slow but steady.

This is likely because midlife tends to be a relatively stable period in life.

The results come from almost 200 different studies including 165,000 people from ages four to ninety-four.

The study’s authors explain the results:

“This meta-analysis shows that people’s self-esteem changes in systematic ways over the life course.

On average, self-esteem increases in early and middle childhood, remains constant (but does not decline) in adolescence, increases strongly in young adulthood, continues to increase in middle adulthood, peaks between age 60 and 70 years, and then declines in old age, with a
sharper drop in very old age.

The pattern of findings holds across gender, country, ethnicity, and birth cohort.

Self-esteem was long thought to be unchangeable, just like personality.

But that view has changed, the authors write:

“Self-esteem is by no means an immutable characteristic of individuals.

People experience changes in their self-esteem, both in terms of temporary boosts or drops in their feelings of self-worth and in terms of long-term increases or declines in their general level of self-esteem.

For example, successes at school, work conflicts, or harmonious family events may cause transient fluctuations in self-esteem.

Also, stressful life events, such as a criminal victimization, and life transitions, such as beginning a satisfying romantic relationship, may lead to sustained changes in self-esteem.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin (Oorth et al., 2018).

An Upbeat Sign That You Have High Self-Esteem

People with high self-esteem are more likely to do this.

People with high self-esteem try harder to get rid of negative emotions, research finds.

Whether it is with comedy, music or exercise, people with higher self-esteem prefer to do battle with their bad moods.

In contrast, people with low self-esteem do not have the motivation to overcome a bad mood and tend to accept their sadness.

Dr Jonathon Brown, one of the study’s authors, explained:

“Many people with low self-esteem believe sadness is part of life and that you shouldn’t try to get rid of it, while people with high self-esteem believe in doing something to feel better if they have a negative experience or get in a bad mood.”

The research involved almost 900 people across five different studies.

The results of the key experiment showed that people with low self-esteem were less likely to try and cheer themselves up when they were in a bad mood.

Only 47 percent of those with low self-esteem chose to watch a comedy video when they were in a bad mood.

This was in comparison to 75 percent of people with high self-esteem.

Dr Brown said:

“People with low-self esteem feel resignation because they question whether anything will help and say ‘I’m not good at breaking or changing a mood.

They also believe sadness is not something you get rid of and that you learn and grow from sadness.

They feel it is not appropriate to try to change a mood.

These are not people who would necessarily go to the movies or shopping to feel better.”

People with low self-esteem, though, can make a change, said Dr Brown:

“If you have low self-esteem, you should actively try to rise above the sadness and learn that you will feel better if you do not passively accept sadness.

You can get better if you remind yourself to do something.

You may have to kick yourself in the butt to go to a movie because it will require a conscious effort rather than something that comes automatically,”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Heimpel et al., 2002).

An Easy Way To Boost Your Self-Esteem

These provide people with a sense of support, connection, meaning and control over their lives.

Belonging to many groups, whatever they are, is linked to higher self-esteem, research finds.

People who are members of things like sports clubs, religious groups, musical organisations or any other type of group, have higher self-worth.

The results were the same for children, the elderly and even homeless people whether they were in China, Australia or the UK.

Groups provide people with a sense of support, connection, meaning and control over their lives.

Other studies have shown that people who belong to more groups are also happier, healthier and live longer.

Professor Jolanda Jetten, the study’s first author, said:

“This is in our view promising and suggests that boosting group memberships is quite a powerful way to make people feel better about themselves.”

The study compared the number of friends people had with the number of groups they were members of.

The number of friends they had did not predict their self-esteem, but the number of groups did.

Professor Jetten said:

“Groups often have rich value and belief systems, and when we identify with groups, these can provide a lens through which we see the world.”

Self-esteem does not just come from within, said Professor Alexander Haslam, study co-author:

“Rather than fetishizing self-esteem, a much better and probably healthier and more effective strategy is to encourage people to have rich social lives and multiple sources of social engagement.

If you do that, one important by-product will be improved self-esteem, but there will be lots of other benefits too.”

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE (Jetten et al., 2015).

The Real Reason Narcissists Behave The Way They Do

Classic narcissistic behaviours include exploiting others without guilt, needing constant praise and displaying a sense of entitlement.

Narcissists behave the way they do because of insecurity and not because they are full of themselves, a study finds.

In fact, people with these tendencies use classic narcissistic behaviours to cover up their low self-worth.

These include exploiting others without guilt, needing constant praise and displaying a sense of entitlement and grandiose self-importance.

Unfortunately for narcissists these behaviours all make others hate them in the long-run and so aggravates their own low self-worth.

Dr Pascal Wallisch, study co-author, said:

“For a long time, it was unclear why narcissists engage in unpleasant behaviors, such as self-congratulation, as it actually makes others think less of them.

This has become quite prevalent in the age of social media — a behavior that’s been coined ‘flexing’

Our work reveals that these narcissists are not grandiose, but rather insecure, and this is how they seem to cope with their insecurities.”

The researchers surveyed almost 300 people, testing them for typical narcissistic behaviours.

People were asked if they agreed with statements like these:

“I am likely to show off if I get the chance.”
“It matters that I am seen at important events.”
“I have exquisite taste.”
“I like knowing more than other people.”

These questions access how much people need to manage the impression they give others, the social validation they need, how much they like to raise themselves above others and their social dominance.

The results suggest that genuine narcissists behave the way they do because they are insecure.

Ms Mary Kowalchyk, the study’s first author, said:

“More specifically, the results suggest that narcissism is better understood as a compensatory adaptation to overcome and cover up low self-worth.

Narcissists are insecure, and they cope with these insecurities by flexing.

This makes others like them less in the long run, thus further aggravating their insecurities, which then leads to a vicious cycle of flexing behaviors.”

The researchers looked at two different types of narcissism:

Grandiose narcissism: having an overinflated sense of one’s importance.
Vulnerable narcissism: this is linked to more anxiety and depression.

Their results suggested that vulnerable narcissists are genuine narcissists.

Meanwhile grandiose narcissists are better seen as a variety of psychopath.

→ Read on: Here are six signs of narcissism and one simple question that identifies a narcissist.

The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Kowalchyk et al., 2021).

The Best Type Of High Self-Esteem (M)

This type of high self-esteem is linked to the best psychological health.

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How To Boost Self-Esteem With Your Relationships (M)

The link between self-esteem and positive relationships is a kind of virtuous circle.

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