Self-Esteem

The roots of the self-esteem movement go back to the later nineteenth century,
where they intertwined with larger notions of children's vulnerability and the
need for adult protection and support. Most of the psychologists associated with
the CHILD STUDY movement specifically discussed the concept of self-esteem
as a key component in successful child rearing. Progressive-era educators used
the idea as well in seeking a supportive school environment. But it was only in
the 1960s that this long-established belief of experts won popular and
institutional backing as a way to reconcile academic commitment with parental
concerns for childhood frailty and for the special value of their own children.

The 1880s through 1930s

JOHN DEWEY and William James were among the early psychologist
proponents of the importance of the self. Dewey discussed "intuition of self" in
his seminal 1886 work, Psychology, using knowledge of self as the talisman for
knowledge gains in general. Selfhood was, in this view, essential to freedom. But
it was James who, in 1892, first used the term self-esteem with an explicit
scientific definition. A key task in socializing children, in James's view, involved
helping them gain the capacity to develop "self" and, with it, the capacity to
adapt to different social settings with appropriate projections of self. Self-
esteem, more specifically, involved the kind of perceptions that, properly honed,
were crucial to achievement and success.

The popularization of psychology and the growing notion that children often
needed expert help brought concerns about self-esteem to greater attention
during the 1920s and 1930s. If children needed a sense of self to operate
successfully, but if children were also vulnerable, it was certainly possible that
special measures might be necessary to assure that the mechanism (the self) was
in working order.

The 1950s to the Present

During the 1950s and 1960s the connection between self-esteem and supportive
school programs was fully forged. A clear symptom, as well as a cause of further
awareness, was a growing spate of expert studies on the subject. Stanley
Coopersmith, in 1967, identified the link between self-esteem and frailty, noting
the "indications that in children domination, rejection, and severe punishment
result in lowered self-esteem. Under such conditions they have fewer
experiences of love and success and tend to become generally more submissive
and withdrawn (though occasionally veering to the opposite extreme of
aggression and domination)"(p. 45).

While experts debated the precise correlatives of self-esteem–in their eyes, the
subject was extremely complicated–three points shone through. First and most
obviously, self-esteem was vitally important to a well-adjusted, high-functioning
child or adult. This conclusion was amply prepared for by previous generations
of scientific writing. Second, self-esteem was crucially affected by what parents
did to children. Levels of DISCIPLINE, family affection, and marital stability all
registered in a child's emerging concept of self-worth. And finally, self-esteem
played a crucial role in school success. As Coopersmith put it, "Ability and
academic performance are significantly associated with feelings of personal
worth."

The self-esteem movement served as an adjustment between school

commitments and worries about overburdening children. It also arose at a time
of significant rethinking about the preconditions of adult success, with the rise
of service-sector jobs that depended on people skills, that is, the skills needed in
salesmanship or in maneuvering in management bureaucracies. In addition, the
movement also reflected a reduction in confidence in the middle-class home
environment, which was linked to the rising divorce rate, and also very practical
problems in dealing with the surge in population due to the baby boom, as
children suffered from crowded classrooms.

As early as 1950, enhanced discussions of self-confidence and the need for

explicit parental support were becoming standard segments in the childrearing
manuals. Thus in 1952, Sidonie Gruenberg wrote, "To value his own good
opinion, a child has to feel that he is a worthwhile person. He has to have
confidence in himself as an individual. This confidence is hard for children to
develop and there are many experiences that may shake it" (p. 192). The
approach was in interesting contrast to Gruenberg's voluminous writings in the
1930s, where the subject received little explicit comment. Now, however, she
gave extensive attention to the need for parents to display pride in their
children, with a particular plea that children be encouraged through the
mistakes they made. "We must not let the mistakes and failures shatter our faith
in the child… . He needs real and lasting self-respect if he is to develop" both
integrity and a durable capacity to achieve (p. 193). Self-esteem, clearly, began
in the home, and a more flexible approach to discipline was urged on parents.

The application of self-esteem concepts in the schools from the 1960s onward
involved a number of specific programs and a more general reorientation.
Programs typically focused on the importance of providing children a wide
range of activities so that they could gain a sense of achievement or mastery,
whatever their strictly academic talents. Thus many schools enhanced standard
lessons with new opportunities for self-expression. History or literature courses
added often-elaborate role-playing exercises to reading and discussion. By
playing a historical character, children might demonstrate skills that would not
come to light if they were merely called upon to recite facts about the same
character. It was also crucial that most of these additional exercises were not
graded, again in the interests of encouraging a sense of competence at all levels.
Another set of self-esteem exercises involved a growing emphasis on "service
learning." Here, students could directly contribute to the community while also
building an opportunity to display an individual capacity to perform. Thus the
Challenge Program in California involved high school students in tutoring
grade-schoolers, in working in a historical society, or in participating in
environmental efforts. The rationale was central to the self-esteem approach:
through these nonacademic activities, students would "have a reason to enjoy
and a recipe for personal success."

The approach was fascinating in its effort to provide alternatives to academic

competence and competitiveness, and even more fascinating in its assumptions
that school must be leavened by nonacademic exercises. Proponents argued that
when involved students were compared with control groups participation in the
self-esteem programs reduced discipline problems in the schools and improved
academic performance. It was less clear why overall American academic
achievement levels continued to falter (for example, compared to other nations
that did not stress self-esteem) despite the growing utilization of self-esteem
activities.

Self-esteem arguments also entered into recommendations for teacher behavior.

Thus teachers were urged to add positive comments on all student work, in
addition to (and perhaps instead of) critical observations. Some education
authorities argued essentially that rewarding good behavior was far more useful,
given self-esteem needs, than castigating bad. The portfolio movement also
included some self-esteem justifications as well, although it had a number of
other justifications. Instead of grading students through conventional tests
alone, portfolio programs allowed them to offer a collection of different kinds of
expression in the subject area, from art to computer graphics, so that various
learning styles could be accommodated with equal access to self-esteem. And
self-esteem concerns had a further impact on the concept of grading, probably
contributing substantially to grade inflation.

Self-esteem notions and activities were often criticized, and movements to

develop more rigorous testing procedures in the 1990s represented something
of a counterattack. Through most of the final third of the twentieth century,
however, self-esteem ideas strongly influenced many teachers, and even some
athletic coaches, while helping to reconcile parents to the demands of schooling
by providing some buffer between strict academics and the psychological
development of their children.

See also: Child Psychology; Child-Rearing Advice Literature;

Emotional Life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Coopersmith, Stanley. 1967. The Antecedents of Self-Esteem. San Francisco: W.

H. Freeman.

Gruenberg, Sidonie. 1958. The Parents' Guide to Everyday Problems of Boys

and Girls. New York: Hill and Wang.

Rosenberg, Morris. 1965. Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Stearns, Peter N. 2003. Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Child-rearing in
America. New York: New York University Press.

Wang, Jianjun, Betty Greathose, and V. M. Falcinella. 1996. "An Empirical

Assessment of Self-Esteem Enhancement." Education 119: 99–105.

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Test

The Rosenberg self-esteem test is probably the most commonly used

and best known measuring tool for self-esteem. It was designed in
1965 by Morris Rosenberg and is still being used today.

Additional tests and quizzes in my new ebook

Morris Rosenberg was a Professor of Sociology at the University of

Maryland from 1975 until his death in 1992. He received his PhD
from Columbia University in 1953 and also had positions at Cornell
University and the National Institute of Mental Health before
accepting the position at the University of Maryland. He is known all
over the world for his work on self-esteem and self-concept. He has
written and edited many books and articles. His books include
Society and the Adolescent’s Self- Image (1965), Conceiving the Self
(1979), Social Psychology of the Self-Concept (1982), and The Unread
Mind: Unraveling the Mystery of Madness (1992)

By far his most well-known work is the Rosenberg self-esteem test,

which is a simple test of 10 questions, each with four possible
answers from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. Please, click
here for the test.

Rosenberg was one of the earliest major contributors to the history

of self-esteem. Earlier contributors include William James, who was
one of the first pioneers to see a connection between self-esteem and
success.

Rosenberg’s research led him to believe that self-esteem was an

attitude we have about ourselves, either positive or negative. His
work examined how social structure influences self-esteem. He
concluded that your opinion of yourself is influenced by family,
society, culture and your relationships.

Much of Rosenberg’s work was done with adolescents. One of the

works he is most famous for is the book Society and the Adolescent’s
Self-Image. His research techniques included large-scale surveys to
explore the factors which influence self-esteem. He was able to
identify some of the factors that affect adolescent self-esteem, such
as social class, religion, ethnic background and family structure. He
concluded that parenting methods and tactics used by teachers were
two of the most important factors influencing children and
adolescents and their level of self-esteem.

The Rosenberg self-esteem test was followed shortly thereafter by

the work of Stanley Coopersmith. Coopersmith is the author of the
book The Antecedents to Self-Esteem. Coopersmith concluded that
children with high self-esteem often had parents who were loving
and attentive, but set limits. Coopersmith concluded that this type of
parenting often led to children who grew into successful and
productive adults.

Rosenberg and Coopersmith are considered probably the most

influential researchers in the field of self-esteem. Rosenberg’s work
got the attention of policy makers in the field of educational reform
who wanted to solve social problems and improve academic
performance. Coopersmith followed up with his conclusions of a
strong link between parenting style and self-esteem.

The Rosenberg self-esteem test has been translated into more than
50 languages. Its validity has been proven among many different
sample groups of people. Other efforts to measure self-esteem are
usually compared to Rosenberg’s scale. It has been used for both
men and women and both adolescents and adults. It is a tool for self-
analysis that has truly withstood the test of time.