How does procrastination vary between students approach to early submission of assignment?
Self-esteem refers to an individual's or in some cases a group's evaluative judgment about himself, herself, or itself. The term and concept were relatively unnoticed prior to the 1960s, at which time various thinkers and researchers began to suspect that it could be an important factor in behavior. By the late 1970s self-esteem had become a major focus of a great deal of research, and people began to seek to raise self-esteem in connection with a broad assortment of interventions, including clinical practice and education.
During the 1980s self-esteem became a national buzzword and was being ...view middle of the document...
The governing board sought to compose the panel of persons with widely different initial views about self-esteem (i.e., both proponents and critics) and selected a leader (Baumeister) who had held different opinions at different times, reflecting a presumptive willingness to revise his opinions in light of new evidence. Its report filled an entire issue of the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003). That report, and a condensed version for lay readers published by the same authors in Scientific American in January 2005, offers a relatively thorough overview for interested readers.
DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT
Self-esteem literally means a person's valuing of himself or herself. It is thus the evaluative dimension of the self-concept. This may include both thoughts and feelings. Related terms include self-love, self-worth, self-respect, self-regard, and narcissism.
Self-esteem is typically measured with a questionnaire inviting respondents to rate how they think and feel about themselves. For better or worse, the brief scale developed by Rosenberg (1965) has become the standard way of measuring self-esteem. Items on self-esteem scales typically include assessment of liking for oneself overall, appraisal of one's confidence at being able to perform well at work and in school, and ability to get along with others and be liked. Moral self-appraisals are included in some scales.
Self-esteem is thus opinion, not objective appraisal. High self-esteem may refer to accurate, healthy appreciation of one's genuine capabilities and worth as a person, or it may refer to unrealistic, conceited overestimates of the self. Efforts to distinguish inflated egotism or narcissistic conceitedness from so-called true self-esteem have not had much success thus far. One general implication, therefore, is that several different kinds of people score high in self-esteem.
Nearly all research samples find that self-esteem, at least among modern Americans, is relatively high on average. That is, the distribution of scores runs from close to the maximum possible score on the scale down to a bit below the scale midpoint, with then relatively few scores in the bottom register. When researchers compare high and low scores on self-esteem, they divide the sample in its middle, but some critics have suggested that this in effect compares truly high self-esteem against medium self-esteem. Nonetheless, the distribution refutes widespread claims that the American population suffers from an epidemic of low self-esteem. In fact, American self-esteem scores have long been relatively high and have been increasing steadily in recent decades (Twenge & Campbell, 2001).
One important question is whether self-esteem should be measured as a general attitude toward the self overall or, instead, in specific domains. It seems eminently possible for a person to believe himself or herself to be good at math...
