The concept of self-esteem in the works of domestic and foreign psychologists. A person’s self-esteem as the most important component of his “I-concept”

A person’s awareness of himself, his mental abilities, actions, motives, physical capabilities, attitude towards other people and himself is the self-esteem of the individual. It is an integral part of self-awareness and includes the ability to evaluate one’s strengths, capabilities, and be critical of oneself.

Levels of personality self-esteem

During his existence in society, a person constantly compares himself with other people. He also compares his own successes with the achievements of colleagues and acquaintances. This analysis of one’s capabilities and achievements is carried out in relation to all qualities: appearance, abilities, success in school or work. Thus, even from childhood, a person’s self-esteem is formed. Influencing the behavior, activity and development of the individual, his relationships with other people, it performs a regulatory and protective function.

There are three levels of personality self-esteem:

Having a low opinion of oneself. Low self-esteem is often formed in childhood under the influence and evaluation of parents. Subsequently, it is finally consolidated under the influence of the surrounding society. Such people often have problems with self-esteem;
Normal level of understanding of one's own potential. Usually characteristic of a self-confident person who successfully sets goals and easily achieves them in his career, business, creativity and personal life. At the same time, he knows his own worth, is aware of his positive and negative sides, advantages and disadvantages. Also, adequate self-esteem of the individual allows for the development of initiative, enterprise, and ability to adapt in various social conditions;
High level of self-esteem. It is observed in most people who have achieved significant success in any field - politics, business, art. However, cases of inflated self-esteem are also common, when a person has an unreasonably high opinion of himself, his talents, abilities and capabilities. Although, in fact, his real successes are much more modest.

In addition, psychologists distinguish general, private (personal) or specific situational self-esteem of an individual. The fact is that a person can evaluate himself completely differently, depending on the situation, for example, at work or in the family. Therefore, the results in this case are completely opposite. As for general self-esteem, it is more complex and is formed later than others.

There are also definitions of stable or floating self-esteem. It depends both on the emotional state and on other additional conditions.

Formation of personal self-esteem

A person’s opinion of himself is a rather complex psychological construct. The process of forming a person’s self-esteem occurs during the formation of the inner world and goes through various stages. Thus, we can say that throughout life a person’s self-esteem constantly changes and becomes more perfect. The source of evaluative ideas is the sociocultural environment, society’s reactions to some manifestations of character, actions, as well as the results of introspection.

An important role in developing an understanding of one’s capabilities is played by comparing the real image of the “I” with the ideal one, that is, with the idea of what a person would like to be. Moreover, the smaller the gap between what actually is and the ideal image, the more significant the recognition of one’s own achievements. Also, real achievements in a wide variety of activities have a significant impact on the development of a person’s self-esteem.

Psychologists distinguish two types of behavior (motivation) - the desire for success and the avoidance of failure. In the first case, the person has a more positive attitude and is not very concerned about the opinions of other people. In the second case, he is more inclined to be cautious, tries not to take risks and is constantly looking for confirmation in life of his fears. This type of behavior does not allow you to increase your self-esteem.

It should be emphasized that self-esteem of an individual is always subjective. Moreover, this happens regardless of whether it is formed under the influence of the individual’s own judgments about himself or the opinions of other people.

Basically, a person develops an adequate opinion about himself, or an inadequate one, that is, erroneous. In this case, they talk about the presence of a problem of personal self-esteem. Such a person is constantly haunted by some kind of problem, the harmony of development is disturbed, and he often comes into conflict with others. In addition, awareness of real possibilities quite strongly influences the formation of certain qualities. For example, adequate self-esteem of a person contributes to the formation of self-criticism, self-confidence, perseverance, and exactingness. And inadequate – excessive self-confidence or, conversely, uncertainty.

If a person wants to achieve something in life, he needs to work on his self-esteem, objectively realizing his strengths and capabilities, while reacting appropriately to difficulties, mistakes and criticism.

(method by S.A. Budassi)

Let's consider four blocks of qualities, each of which reflects one of the levels of personality activity:

1. self-esteem in the field of communication.

2. self-assessment of behavior.

3. self-esteem in the field of activity.

4. self-assessment of one’s own emotional manifestations.

Here are four sets of positive qualities in people. You need to select from the list and circle the personality traits that you think are most significant to you personally.

List of qualities:


politeness	activity	thoughtfulness	cheerfulness
thoughtfulness	pride	efficiency	fearlessness
sincerity	good nature	skill	gaiety
collectivism	decency	intelligence	sincerity
responsiveness	courage	speed	mercy
	hardness	composure	tenderness
sympathy	confidence	accuracy	love of freedom
tact	honesty	hard work	cordiality
tolerance	good faith	passion	passion
sensitivity	initiative	perseverance	modesty
goodwill	intelligence	accuracy	excitement
friendliness	perseverance	attentiveness	enthusiasm
charm	determination	foresight	pity
sociability	integrity	discipline	cheerfulness
obligation	self-criticism	diligence	loving-kindness
responsibility	independence	curiosity	optimism
frankness	equilibrium	resourcefulness	restraint
justice	determination	subsequence	satisfaction
compatibility	energy	performance	composure
exactingness	enthusiasm	scrupulousness	Sensitivity

Are you done? Now find in the qualities you have chosen those that you actually possess, put a tick next to them, and also find their percentage.

RESULTS.

Count the number of ideal qualities.
Count the number of real qualities that are included in the list of ideal qualities.
Calculate their percentage:

Self-esteem=Nreal*100%

Nreal – the number of real qualities;

Nid – the number of ideal qualities.

Table of standard values

	Adequate self-esteem
Below the average		Above average	Inappropriately high

Personal self-esteem can be adequate, overestimated or underestimated.

Adequate self-esteem corresponds to two positions: “average”, “above average”. A person with adequate self-esteem correctly correlates his capabilities and abilities, is quite critical of himself, sets realistic goals for himself, and knows how to predict the adequate attitude of others to the results of his activities. The behavior of such a person is basically non-conflict; in conflict, he behaves constructively.

With self-esteem “high level”, “above average”: a person deservedly values and respects himself, is satisfied with himself, and has a developed sense of self-esteem. With self-esteem “average level”: a person respects himself, but knows his weaknesses and strives for self-improvement and self-development.

Heightened self-esteem corresponds to the level of “inadequately high” in the psychodiagnostic scale. With high self-esteem, a person develops an idealized image of his personality. He overestimates his capabilities, is focused only on success, and ignores failures.

His perception of reality is often emotional; he regards failure or failure as a consequence of someone else’s mistakes or unfavorable circumstances. He perceives fair criticism addressed to him as nit-picking. Such a person is conflicted, prone to exaggerating the image of a conflict situation, and behaves actively in a conflict, betting on victory.

Low self-esteem corresponds to the positions: “low” and “below average”. With low self-esteem, a person has an inferiority complex. He is unsure of himself, timid and passive. Such people are characterized by excessive demands on themselves and even greater demands on others. They are boring, whiners, and see only shortcomings in themselves and others.

Such people are conflictual. The causes of conflicts often arise from their intolerance towards other people. Self-esteem can be positive (high) and negative (low), as well as optimal and suboptimal.

With optimal self-esteem a person correctly correlates it with his capabilities and abilities, is quite critical of himself, strives to realistically look at his successes and failures, and sets achievable goals. He approaches the assessment of what has been achieved not only with his own personal standards, but tries to anticipate how other people will react to it.

But self-esteem can also be suboptimal - too high or too low.

Based on inflated self-esteem, a person develops a misconception about himself. In such cases, a person ignores failures for the sake of maintaining the usual and high appreciation of his loved one. There is an acute emotional “repulsion” of everything that violates the ideal idea of oneself.

A person with inflated and inadequate self-esteem does not want to admit that all his failures are a consequence of his own mistakes, laziness, lack of knowledge, abilities or incorrect behavior. A clear overestimation of one's capabilities is very often accompanied by internal self-doubt. All this leads to increased impressionability and chronic helplessness.

If high self-esteem is plastic, changes in accordance with the real state of affairs - increases with success and decreases with failures, then this can contribute to the development of personality, set goals, and develop one’s abilities and will.

Self-esteem may be low. This usually leads to self-doubt, timidity and lack of initiative, and the inability to realize one’s inclinations and abilities. Such people limit themselves to solving ordinary problems and are too critical of themselves. Low self-esteem destroys a person’s hopes for a good attitude towards him, and he perceives his real achievements and the positive assessment of others as accidental and temporary.

As a result of their high vulnerability, the mood of such people is subject to frequent fluctuations. They react extremely sharply to criticism and reproach, biasedly interpret the laughter of others, turn out to be suspicious and, as a result, more dependent on the assessments and opinions of other people, or retire, but then suffer from loneliness.

Underestimating one's usefulness reduces social activity, reduces initiative and willingness to compete.

The article is devoted to self-esteem as a complex concept of personality psychology. The types of human self-esteem and their features are characterized, and general approaches to the formation of an adequate perception of oneself are given.

Self-esteem is part of a person's self-awareness. It represents the individual’s opinion regarding himself, his own significance, the value of certain aspects of his personality, as well as behavior, individual actions and activities in general.

Self-esteem is a holistic formation, a component of the concept of one’s “I” (I-concept) and a person’s self-awareness.

Through self-esteem an individual has the opportunity to:

implement the function of its own protection;
regulate relationships with others, personal behavior in society;
gain a sense of self-respect;
feel your own autonomy and relative independence.

Self-esteem is often equated to any personal judgment about oneself, one’s characteristics, characteristics, age, plans and experiences. Then it is the opposite of expert (objective) judgments and assessments.

The help of self-esteem is invaluable in making predictions about individual success, which manifests itself as a person’s aspirations having a certain level (high or low).

Self-awareness and self-esteem arise, form and develop in childhood, during the formation of personality (this actively manifests itself after approximately 3 years).

The child slowly begins to understand his abilities (mental and other), motives and behavioral manifestations, goals, physical and spiritual capabilities, relationships with others.

The formation of self-esteem occurs in the process of knowing oneself. The attitude towards one’s own “I” is not created immediately, but gradually: step by step, each individual acquires a familiar view of himself, approving or disapproving of certain manifestations, actions, thoughts, relationships, results, etc. The value and significance of one’s own personality develops into a strong belief.

The sources of self-esteem through which it is directly formed are:

Self image. It is created by comparing the components of the individual’s “I” - real and ideal (a comparison between what a person is now in his perception and what he would like to become in order to change for the better).
Mathematically, this is determined through the quantity differences in a person’s claims to his real results and achievements. The larger this gap, the lower the person’s level of self-esteem, and vice versa.
Transition of external assessments of the individual(from the social environment) into an internal assessment of oneself - internalization. Each individual tends to base his assessment of himself on how, in his perception, he is assessed by other people.
Assessing the success of your own results. Here, self-esteem manifests itself in a person’s consciousness through the level of achievements and their evaluation: the individual is satisfied/dissatisfied with what has been achieved, the quality of the results - this is the measure of the value of the given score on the positive-negative rating scale.
Comparison with significant others. The assessment guidelines are set by authoritative and important people for the individual. Such assessments of others may be subjective, but they serve as the basis for creating ideals and standards to which a person strives.

Types of self-esteem

In psychology, a classification of types of self-esteem has been developed depending on various bases:

closeness to reality– adequate (realistic, optimal) and inadequate (suboptimal, tendency to overestimate or underestimate);
quantities(level) – high self-esteem (maximum and close to it level), average (intermediate level), low (minimum level);
sustainability– stable (also called “personal”) and floating (current);
breadth of coverage– general, specific or specific situational.

Adequate/inadequate

This type of self-esteem is the result of a tendency towards an objective or subjective view of oneself and one’s own manifestations.

Adequate– characterized as the optimal relationship between the level of aspirations and achievements of the individual. Possessing it, an individual is able to best correlate his own strengths with the ability to solve problems of varying complexity and with the needs of others.

Indicators of the adequacy of self-esteem are:

setting goals that are sure to be achieved;
realism in assessing a certain situation and one’s potential in it.

Inadequate self-esteem– regardless of whether it is overestimated or underestimated, it deforms the internal properties of the individual’s psyche, creates obstacles to personal development, and makes it impossible to harmonize the motivational and emotional-volitional sphere of a person.

Indicators of inadequately inflated self-esteem are:

reassessment of one's own strengths;
excessive idealization of the personal image of “I”;
ignoring unsuccessful actions and results;
unfounded claims and arrogance;
unconditional rightness and sinlessness.

Evidence of inadequately low self-esteem is:

lack of self-confidence;
timidity in everything;
indecisiveness in demonstrating one’s own abilities and capabilities.

High/medium/low

The level of self-esteem is reflected by the magnitude of its manifestation in the individual’s self-awareness:

High. Successful people who achieve well-being in life are accompanied by high self-esteem. It serves as a motivating and mobilizing factor for the individual.
Average. Individuals with an average level of self-esteem do not take on more than they can handle in a given activity, but they will not lower the bar of achievement either.
Low level self-esteem is the result of a person’s lack of confidence, evidence of an unconditional focus on previous failures or inadequate comparisons with other, more successful people.

Stable/floating

This type of self-esteem indicates the level of personality formation:

Stable self-esteem is inherent in persons with a stable position regarding their personality and its capabilities; it displays the general level of satisfaction with themselves and their qualities. Such an assessment is not subject to rapid momentary changes and corrections.
floating self-esteem reflects an assessment of the current situation - actions, behavioral manifestations, reactions, actions, etc. It serves as a hint for correcting your own behavior as a result of self-control.

General/specific/specific-situational

General(global) self-esteem covers the whole personality and its meaning, and concerns the emotional and value level.
Private. Individual aspects of the individual are called upon to give private self-esteem.
Operational self-esteem (specific-situational) manifests itself when a person evaluates circumstances that change depending on the specific situation.

How to cultivate an adequate self-perception in a person

An individual’s self-esteem, which is formed from childhood, must have a certain direction in order to create conditions for its optimal development. It all starts with family relationships: from parents’ adequate perception of their child to successful scenarios of family interaction.

Basic conditions:

mutual respect(both parents to children and among themselves, and vice versa);
trusting relationship– they need to be consciously and consistently formed;
exactingness within reasonable and optimal limits;
Love as an unconditional and non-evaluative feeling.

Self-esteem is one of the central categories of personality psychology of an individual. Although it is essentially a subjective phenomenon, it has a direct impact on the human psyche and the patterns of its functioning: relationships with others, success in activities, guidelines in life, etc.

Video: Self-Esteem

Good day, dear blog readers!
“In order to be valued, you need to value yourself.” If you don't treat yourself with respect, you shouldn't expect the same from others. People subconsciously read what kind of relationship we expect. And they don't disappoint us.

Therefore, if you don't value yourself, others will do the same. Therefore, today we will understand what self-esteem is and what it gives to a person.

Self-esteem: what is it?
Do you need to evaluate yourself?
What is self-esteem?

Self-esteem: what is it?

Roughly speaking, self-esteem is how a person evaluates his capabilities and personal qualities.

Three criteria are most often used to determine self-esteem:

What does a person think about himself?
How does the person feel about himself? (proud or more often feels humiliated, worthless);
How does the person behave? (you can act timid, intimidated, confident, arrogant, etc.).

By answering all three questions, you can give yourself a grade. The result obtained will reflect the person’s attitude towards himself.

But you shouldn’t think that such a procedure happens once in a lifetime, and then the result lasts. We evaluate ourselves every second. This is especially evident in women.

Admit it, who hasn’t looked at themselves in every shop window, each time making sure that today they look their best. And vice versa, if the stars haven’t aligned and the woman overslept, didn’t have time to put on her makeup, or is simply in a bad mood (underline as appropriate), then it’s unlikely that she will catch your reflection.

So self-esteem is a process; it lasts throughout our adult life.

However, it happens that the “assessment” depends not only on our feeling, but also on what others tell us. This especially affects children.

If you praise your child (for the cause, of course), then he will treat himself better in adulthood.

And if a child is constantly shown that he is not worthy of being treated well, then as an adult he will spend most of his life trying to prove to others that he is no worse. And another question is whether this process will bring him pleasure.

Do you need to evaluate yourself?

It is necessary to evaluate yourself. However, as you already understand, self-esteem is a complex thing. If something works out today, then you are on top. And tomorrow everything may not be so rosy.

The need for self-assessment:

Gives you an idea of what is currently happening in your life. Are you moving in the right direction or is something you are doing making you feel unhappy?
Helps you find your character strengths;
Provides an opportunity to detect and eliminate negative aspects of character;

Attention! During the assessment, you should not compare yourself with others. Believe me, there will always be someone who is taller, smarter, stronger and generally good at life. Such evaluation and comparison will sooner or later lead to a decrease in self-confidence, disappointment in one’s life, or even depression.

Therefore, if you really need to compare yourself with someone, then remember yourself a couple of years younger and conduct a comparative analysis. Notice in which aspects you have become stronger and smarter. And in what direction is it worth working a little more?

How does self-esteem develop?

We learn to evaluate ourselves from childhood. And since the child does not have critical thinking and all information received is perceived as pure one hundred percent truth, an adult continues to evaluate himself in the same way as he was told in childhood.

Therefore, if you have children, then you should not overpraise them or force them to strive for the ideal. Praise or punishment should always be appropriate. By the way, if you punish children, be sure to explain why.

Note! If you do not help the child in time (and the mechanisms for the formation of self-esteem are instilled from childhood to adolescence inclusive), then in adulthood a person will have difficulties finding his place in the world and establishing social contacts.

What is self-esteem?

There are a huge number of classifications in the psychological literature.

The most commonly used types:

Low

In this case, the person is too critical of himself. Constantly strives for ideal. As a child, a person often heard from his parents that he was incompetent and good for nothing.

With such upbringing, self-doubt develops. In adulthood, low self-esteem makes it difficult to make decisions, take initiative, or take responsibility.

By treating yourself derogatorily, you may not realize yourself in life (both personal and professional) and end up with an inferiority complex;

Normal (adequate)

Characterized by a person’s ability to realistically assess their potential and capabilities. At the same time, there is an optimal level of self-criticism, which helps to develop and achieve new goals.

An adequate assessment of one’s strengths is complemented by such qualities as readiness for change, the ability to maintain internal balance, initiative;

Overpriced

Such people are arrogant and can often be compared to Narcissus from the well-known myth. The opinion of such a person often differs from the opinions of others, but he always remains confident that he is right.

How to determine your level of self-esteem

Determining your level of self-esteem is quite simple. To do this, it is enough to pass a psychological test.

Attention! Do not use popular tests; they are unlikely to follow all the rules, which means no one can vouch for the reliability of the results.

As one of the professional tests, I propose M. Rosenberg’s method. You don’t need to spend a lot of time filling it out, since it consists of 10 questions.

Note! Without exception, all psychological tests have one feature: the result obtained may no longer be relevant after some time.

For example, today you fill out the M. Rosenberg test and it turns out that your level of self-esteem (self-esteem) is low. But the day after tomorrow you find out that your boss liked your work so much that he gave you a huge bonus.

Do you think if you take the test immediately after this news, will your self-esteem remain at the same level? I think it will definitely increase!

Also, don't forget that we all have bad days when we feel like we're worthless. This, of course, is unpleasant, but most often this is how our brain signals us about fatigue (physical or psychological). Therefore, in this case, after a few days of rest you will feel normal again.

And one more thing: if you have low self-esteem and can’t raise it in any way, then I recommend contacting a specialist. Remember that if you stay in this state for a long time, you can ruin your whole life. Do you need it?

So, that's all for today. I sincerely hope that everything is fine with your level of self-esteem. If not, then remember that everything can be fixed.

The main thing is to work on yourself. In the following articles we will discuss the features of working with self-esteem, so subscribe to blog updates. And don’t forget to share interesting materials with your friends on social networks.

See you!

I was with you, practicing psychologist Maria Dubynina.)