Self-esteem in psychology: formation, types and levels

What is self-esteem

Self-esteem is how a person sees himself, how he imagines himself and his place among other people. Day after day we make conclusions about our character, habits, abilities, compare ourselves with others, draw conclusions, try to change, become better, more perfect. Some consider themselves superior to others, more successful or more talented. Others, on the contrary, suffer from imperfection and dissimilarity to the chosen ideal.

From early childhood, self-esteem determines a person’s behavior, mood, and internal balance of feelings. The child begins to evaluate himself without learning to speak properly. The baby may cry because he is not able to fasten his sandals.

“That means I’m worse than my mother,” the three-year-old toddler thinks, and his self-esteem is rapidly falling.

And if mom reminds you that neighbor Slavik has been dressing and putting on his shoes himself for a long time, well, consider that the beginning of a low self-esteem complex has been laid.

The way a person evaluates himself leaves an imprint on his entire life. High or low self-esteem is equally dangerous. A biased assessment of one’s own strengths and weaknesses leads to the fact that a person is perceived inadequately by others. It is difficult to evaluate oneself objectively, and yet, in the words of the English philosopher Francis Bradley, “every person is what he thinks of himself.”

Classification

Self-esteem is present in every person. For some, it is presented in its infancy, at the level of “better or worse,” “he can, but I can’t,” “they scold me, but I’m good.” This level of self-esteem is typical for children, but can persist in adults. More often than not, with age, a person forms a stable opinion about himself, which is difficult to correct.

There cannot be too much self-esteem - it is either enough or not enough. Depending on how sensibly a person approaches the assessment of his strengths, qualities, and actions, one can distinguish between an adequate and inadequate assessment. Self-esteem may depend on a specific situation or a person's mood. There are a great many criteria by which a person evaluates himself, but we can identify the most characteristic and inherent to most people.

Types of self-esteem

Adequate and inadequate

The difficulty in separating these two types is that a person always considers himself right in assessing his own merits and demerits. The level of adequacy is determined by the level of common sense, the ability to evaluate one’s actions and personal qualities.

Stable and floating

In the process of growing up, an attitude towards oneself is formed, an assessment of one’s abilities and capabilities. By a certain age, every person knows exactly whether he is capable of becoming an astronaut or a ballet dancer. At the same time, self-esteem is influenced by mood and achieved success: praise from a boss or loss in a competition can significantly increase or decrease the level of self-esteem.

General, private and situational

This division indicates the area or area of ​​self-esteem. You can have high overall self-esteem, but admit failure in economic affairs. Or vice versa, suffer from an inferiority complex, but be proud of successful children or voluminous hair.

When designating the type of self-esteem, concepts such as “good” or “bad” are not used. Self-esteem can be of different levels - high, low or average

Psychologists also use other ways to classify self-esteem. In particular, current self-esteem, or assessment based on achieved results, is highlighted; partial, depending on achievements in one area; potential, due to innate abilities and inclinations.

Depending on how a person treats his strengths and weaknesses, whether he underestimates or overestimates their significance in his own eyes, we can talk about different levels of self-esteem.

Kinds

Abraham Maslow also made a great contribution to the study of this definition. He assessed self-esteem as a hierarchy of human needs. Based on this, he created a kind of pyramid, where physiological needs are located at the very bottom. Above he placed the need for safety and protection, love, self-respect.

At the very top of the pyramid is the need for self-improvement. According to Maslow's theory, it is impossible to change the upper level of self-esteem unless work has been done on the lower one. That is, in order to achieve self-improvement, you must first gain self-esteem.

If we look in more detail, Maslow divided self-esteem as follows:

Also in modern psychology, several main types of self-esteem are defined:

• Adequate. In this case, who a person perceives himself to be and what qualities he endows with completely coincides with what others think about him. Adequate self-esteem means sober thinking and recognition of one's strengths and weaknesses. The personality is capable of self-criticism and is ready to work on mistakes. Thanks to this, the strengths of a person's character continue to be cultivated, and the weaknesses become less noticeable.
• Inadequate. Distorted perception of one's own “I”. A person does not evaluate himself objectively and tries to pass off what he wants as reality. At the same time, an inadequate assessment is not necessarily overestimated. A person may have a worse opinion of himself than those around him. In this case, the person tries to develop qualities in himself that are not necessary, which causes internal dissonance and problems in communicating with the outside world. Inadequate self-esteem does not allow a person to self-realize and develop.
• Mixed. Depending on the situation, a person may first show some qualities, and then completely opposite ones. Such a person may seem very confident in himself, and the next minute show weakness and inability to make thoughtful decisions.

Levels of self-esteem

If we abstract from the types of self-esteem, we can distinguish high, low and adequate levels of self-esteem. The same thing can be expressed in slightly different words: high, low and average self-esteem. There is no fundamental difference here, the difference is only in the accepted formulations.

The idea of ​​average, or adequate self-esteem, has no clear boundaries. Just as it is difficult to characterize the “average”, inconspicuous person, it is not easy to describe average self-esteem in isolation from its extreme manifestations.

Adequate

It is a realistic perception of yourself, not too different from how others perceive you. A person with adequate self-esteem carries conscious confidence, his feelings are stable, and his mental state is in harmony with the external manifestations of feelings and emotions. People who perceive themselves realistically easily build relationships with others, react calmly to criticism and are always ready to joke about themselves.

Adequate self-esteem implies a correspondence between a person’s aspirations and the ability to realize these aspirations. The famous toast is “May your desires always coincide with your capabilities!” — well reflects the essence of adequate self-esteem.

Understated

If the assessment of one’s own capabilities is underestimated in relation to their real value, one can speak of low self-esteem. Such a person is not confident in his abilities and shows a strong dependence on the assessment of others. Moreover, he draws conclusions about his capabilities not from the real statements of other people, but from his own conjectures - they probably think about me in such and such a way.

A person with low self-esteem is characterized by increased anxiety, suspiciousness, and inability to make decisions and take responsibility. Such people are often negatively disposed towards others; they see a trick everywhere, an attempt to infringe on their rights.

The other side of low self-esteem is uncertainty, shyness, timidity. An intelligent, talented, worthy person in all respects, to whom parents or other people - teachers, managers, spouses - have instilled the idea of ​​his supposed inferiority, can also suffer from low self-esteem.

Overpriced

Inflated self-esteem is not a purely negative quality until a high opinion of oneself begins to interfere with the adequate perception of such a person by others. If a person with high self-esteem has real superiority, for example, solves problems better than anyone or runs the fastest, those around him will forgive his arrogance for the time being.

More often it happens differently: a person with high self-esteem looks down on others, without having any reason for this. He considers all his actions and thoughts to be the only correct ones, and in case of failure, he blames circumstances or other people.

Hand in hand with high self-esteem go arrogance, arrogance, swagger, disrespect for other people's opinions, and sometimes aggressiveness and cruelty. Such people cannot stand criticism; it is impossible to convince them, to force them to look at what is happening from the other side. All these qualities repel people and create a social vacuum around an inadequate personality.

You should understand the difference between high and inflated self-esteem. High is based on real merits and achievements, inflated indicates a false self-perception

Methods and tests for personality self-esteem

Many techniques are used to diagnose self-assessment. Let's highlight the main ones:

• Dembo-Rubinstein technique. Three settings are significant in it: realism, height, stability. During diagnosis, the subject determines his condition using selectable scales, taking into account some nuances. The research is simple to perform: a table is drawn on a regular sheet, each of its columns is one of the properties, and its position is the content of the property at the moment. At the bottom are the values ​​that the subject is trying to get rid of, at the top are those that he wants to possess. This test must be performed in combination with a subsequent interview.
• Budassi personality self-assessment technique. It analyzes the parameter quantitatively and reveals its adequacy. Based on self-assessment. It is carried out by 2 possible methods - it requires comparing ideas with actual indicators or with other people.
• Cattell test. This questionnaire is the most common diagnostic method that analyzes individual psychological traits. The purpose of the study is to discover 16 personality factors.
• Leary test. Based on the diagnosis of value judgments in relation to oneself and loved ones, the description of the ideal “I”. Consists of 128 statements revealing 8 types of relationships.
• Test for the study of G. Eysenck's states. Relevant when identifying traits of aggressiveness, frustration, and rigidity in behavior. Information is presented briefly. The list indicates conditions that may be typical or, on the contrary, not characteristic of the subject.

Self-esteem structure

The concept of self-esteem can be conditionally divided into two components: cognitive or cognitive, and emotional, built on a person’s experience of ideas about himself. In other words, self-esteem consists of a set of qualities that a person possesses and his attitude towards these qualities.

To these components we can add a third component - the behavioral component, which is the link between the internal assessment of oneself and how society evaluates the individual. Thus, self-esteem consists of three interrelated parts:

a person’s idea of ​​his abilities, appearance, character, place in society, his own attitude towards these ideas, building relationships with others based on these ideas

In total, these three components give the concept of “self”, or “I-concept” - a term common in foreign psychology. The core of the “I-concept” is the emotional component, which is responsible for the degree of self-esteem, the balance between the level of a person’s aspirations and his real achievements.

Ways to correct self-esteem

It is imperative to increase self-esteem. It's never too late to learn to love yourself and accept yourself with all your shortcomings. This is a characteristic that can be easily corrected with diligent, targeted practice.

1. It is advisable to engage in self-development, gain new knowledge, skills and impressions

   . The more the intellect is pumped up and the horizons are broader, the more self-confident a person is. In addition, he becomes an interesting conversationalist and people notice this, are drawn to him, and begin to compliment him.

2. By the way, about compliments

   . Learn to receive them with the air of an English queen. There is no need to justify yourself with the phrase “You look so good!”, It’s better to answer: “It is what it is!”

3. You should never overuse excuses

   . A person with good self-esteem is confident in himself, so he is responsible for all his actions and has no need to apologize.

4. Learn to create a good mood for yourself, smile and praise yourself for any reason.

   . Got up from the couch to wash the floor? “What a great fellow I am!” But if you don’t get up, then you don’t need to scold yourself. Say: “Let my gorgeous legs rest a little.”

5. Forgive yourself for mistakes, everyone makes them

   . You need to get rid of the feeling of guilt; it is aggression directed against yourself.

As you work to improve your self-image, remove yourself from toxic people who criticize and devalue and let them pour their venom elsewhere. When you love yourself, their opinion will become indifferent to you, or you will be able to respond adequately.

Functions

The ability for self-esteem and the need to evaluate one’s qualities is inherent in human nature. The absence of this ability makes it difficult to exist in society and makes it impossible to adequately perceive the world and oneself in this world.

The following main functions of self-esteem can be identified:

regulatory protective reflective developmental emotional

The regulatory function helps to make a decision, to make a choice. With the help of this function, a person decides how to behave in a given situation - to do or not to do, to agree or refuse.

The protective function is characteristic of adequate and inflated self-esteem. In case of failure or unforeseen circumstances, it allows you to survive the situation without serious losses, does not allow you to give up and lose faith in yourself. This function does not work for people with low self-esteem.

The reflective function reflects a person’s attitude towards himself. It realistically shows how an individual relates to his actions and promotes an adequate assessment of his own actions.

The developmental function does not allow you to stop there. It stimulates constant self-development, personal growth, and encourages the idea of ​​the need to acquire new knowledge and skills.

Emotional function occupies a special place. It is she who is responsible for the degree of satisfaction with her own qualities, allows her to feel adequate and comfortable.

In addition to those listed, some other functions of self-esteem can be identified - adaptive, helping to adapt to external circumstances; corrective, performing control functions in the process of life; terminal, forcing you to stop actions if they develop undesirably, and some others.

Self-esteem and self-confidence

Evaluation of actions, qualities, and actions occurs from a very early age. It can be divided into two components: assessment of one’s own actions and qualities by others and comparison of achieved personal goals with the results of others. In the process of realizing one’s own actions, activities, goals, behavioral reactions, potential (intellectual and physical), analyzing the attitude of others towards one’s person and personal attitude towards them, the individual learns to evaluate his own positive qualities and negative traits, in other words, learns adequate self-esteem. This “learning process” can drag on for many years. But you can increase your self-esteem and feel confident in your own potential and strengths in a fairly short time, if you set such a goal for yourself or if there is a need to free yourself from uncertainty.

Confidence in personal potential and adequate self-esteem are precisely the two main components of success. It is possible to identify the characteristic features of subjects who feel confident in their own capabilities.

Such individuals:

- always express their own desires and requests in the first person;

- they are easy to understand;

- they positively assess their own personal potential, set difficult-to-achieve goals for themselves and achieve their implementation;

- recognize their own achievements;

- take the expression of their own thoughts and desires seriously as well as other people’s words and desires, they look for joint ways to satisfy common needs;

— consider achieved goals as success. In cases where it is not possible to achieve what they want, they set more realistic goals for themselves and learn a lesson from the work done. It is this attitude towards success and failure that opens up new opportunities and gives strength for subsequent actions in order to set new goals;

— all actions are implemented as needed, rather than postponed.

Adequate self-esteem makes an individual a confident person. The coincidence of ideas regarding one's own potential and one's real capabilities is called adequate self-esteem. Forming an adequate degree of self-esteem will not be impossible without taking actions and subsequent analysis of the fruits of such actions. A subject who has an adequate degree of self-esteem feels like a good person, as a result of which he begins to believe in his own success. He sets many goals for himself and chooses adequate means to achieve them.

Belief in success helps you not to focus on temporary failures and mistakes

The process of forming self-esteem

The formation of self-esteem occurs throughout the entire period of personality development. This process begins from the moment of birth and reaches its culmination in the preschool and school years.

There is reason to believe that self-esteem begins to form already during the period of intrauterine development. The following facts have an impact: whether the child is desired or not, the parents have high hopes for the heir or perceive the birth of the child as a current event in their life.

Self-esteem is formed on the basis of the child’s interaction with the world around him. The first people a baby encounters are his parents, brothers and sisters, and other relatives. Then it’s the turn of kindergarten teachers and teachers. The nature of how others evaluate a child’s behavior and abilities in the first five years of life leaves an imprint on his entire future life.

Respectful attitude on the part of parents, high assessment of abilities, well-deserved praise, support for initiative form adequate or increased self-esteem in the child.

If a child from an early age is taught to think that he can’t do anything, that he does everything worse than his peers, if he is not given the opportunity to show independence, imagination, and initiative, the result is that he grows up to be an insecure, complex loser with low self-esteem. Experienced teachers or talented coaches and mentors will be very lucky in this case.

At school age, there is an opportunity to correct and raise self-esteem by identifying and stimulating abilities for creativity, science, and sports. If the moment for the formation of general high self-esteem is missed, there is a chance to raise private self-esteem, to teach you to evaluate yourself higher in one area.

Formation of adequate self-esteem

Self-esteem is one of the most essential conditions determining the transformation of a small individual into a personality. It develops in subjects the need to comply not only with the surrounding individuals and environment, but also with the level of their own personal assessments. Correctly developed adequate self-esteem is not just knowledge of one’s own personality and not the sum of some traits, but a certain attitude towards one’s own personality. It determines the comprehension of personality as a separate stable object.

M. Fennel presented self-esteem as the central link of voluntary self-regulation. In her opinion, it determines the direction and level of activity of the individual, his position in relation to the environment, society, and his own person, and is a mechanism of the most complex psychological nature. It is involved in a mass of interconnections and relationships with the formations of the individual’s psyche and represents an important determinant of all forms of its activity and communication interaction. The initial abilities to evaluate one’s own personality are laid in early childhood, and their formation and improvement occurs throughout the entire life course of the individual.

R. Nemov believed that self-esteem allows an individual to maintain stability regardless of the variability of situations, while providing the individual with the opportunity to remain himself.

The formation of adequate self-esteem of a person is extremely important for interpersonal interactions, establishing relationships with society, for successful communication, and success in a certain type of activity.

And special attention should be paid to the formation of a child’s self-esteem, since all the formations of his personality are just beginning to form, then self-esteem is much easier to influence and change. After all, a baby does not come into the world with a pre-determined attitude towards his own personality and potential.

Just like all other personality traits, his self-esteem develops in the course of upbringing, mastery of activities and interpersonal interaction.

As children grow older, they learn to understand themselves and their own “I”, and evaluate their own qualities. It is this evaluative component of the “I” that is called self-esteem. It represents the core of self-awareness, and the degree of the individual’s claims interconnected with it. The degree of aspiration is understood as the level of difficulty of the goals set by the child for himself.

Self-esteem and the level of a child’s aspirations have a huge impact on emotional well-being, his development, and success in various areas of activity. Nowadays, the impact of a child’s self-esteem on his actions, behavior, actions and interpersonal contacts is becoming increasingly undeniable.

The formation of positive self-esteem in children is primarily influenced by family upbringing and the pedagogical influence of teachers.

It is probably very difficult to overestimate the impact of family upbringing on children's self-esteem. The level of self-esteem depends on the parents - whether it will be adequate or not. For adequate children's self-esteem, constant support from significant adults, the manifestation of sincere care for children and frequent positive assessment of their actions, behavior and deeds are very important. Children should never be humiliated. If a child makes a mistake or does something wrong, you need to explain to him what is wrong and show him how to do it. Try to evaluate his behavior, not his personality characteristics. Don't be afraid to praise your child. You just need to praise correctly - not for the qualities given to him by nature, but for his achievements, victories, no matter how small.

Teachers play an equally important role in developing children’s self-esteem. After all, school-age children spend a significant part of their time within the walls of schools. And educational activity is the main one at this stage of development. Therefore, it is believed that the most important factor determining the adequate formation of a child’s self-esteem is the assessment of teachers. Giving an assessment of the children’s knowledge and skills, the teacher simultaneously assesses their personalities, their potential, abilities and place among others. This is how children perceive teachers’ assessments.

Factors influencing the formation of self-esteem

At an early age, the formation of self-esteem is influenced by the people with whom the child encounters most often - parents, older brothers and sisters, grandparents. Self-esteem is not born on its own, “out of nowhere.” The habit of evaluating oneself develops gradually, under the influence of the assessments that people around us give us.

With age, the proportion of various factors changes. If for a small child the first place is the assessment of his actions by his parents, then for a schoolchild the priorities shift towards the assessment of teachers and peers. An approximate list of factors influencing the self-esteem of a primary school student is as follows:

assessment by a teacher, mentor, coach opinion of parents, relatives opinion of fellow students, hobbies personal experience, sense of competence influence of reflection

After a child enters school, the formation of self-esteem rapidly gains momentum. An internal reassessment of values ​​occurs: a spoiled child receives critical comments from the teacher, is subjected to ridicule by peers, and faces his first failures in the learning process. This can lead to low self-esteem, nervous breakdowns, and reluctance to go to school. And vice versa - those qualities that were previously scolded by parents turn out to be in demand and are recognized by classmates, which helps to increase self-esteem.

Diagnostics

One of the qualities that characterizes an adult, self-sufficient person is the ability to correctly assess one’s capabilities and abilities, and to separate one’s own assessment from the opinions of others. How objective a person is in this assessment can be determined using various methods and methods for diagnosing self-esteem.

Diagnosis of a person’s assessment of his skills, qualities, and character traits lies in the sphere of competence of specialists - psychologists, psychotherapists, teachers. Analyzing various types of self-esteem, psychologists came to the conclusion that it can be optimal and suboptimal, or, in other words, adequate and inadequate.

In order to correctly diagnose self-esteem, specialist consultation, the use of scientific methods and various testing methods are necessary.

Optimal self-esteem is expressed in the fact that a person treats himself with a healthy amount of criticism, assessing himself realistically. With such self-esteem, an individual is able to notice the pros and cons in himself, sees his successes and notes failures, sets realistic goals for himself and is able to correct his behavior. A person adequately evaluates himself and tries to imagine what his actions look like from the outside. The internal state of such a person is characterized by harmony and stability.

Suboptimal self-esteem means excessively high or, conversely, low self-esteem. People with inadequate self-esteem either idealize themselves or unreasonably belittle themselves. Such people do not perceive any comments from the outside, or interpret them to suit their own opinion. A fair reproach or request to reconsider one’s attitude is perceived as an attempt to humiliate or insult one’s dignity. Such a person, even if he cannot deny an obvious mistake, writes it off due to the nagging or envy of others.

Self-Esteem Functions

Any self-analysis performs many functions, which are described in detail below.

1. Regulatory. This function helps the individual in making right decisions and defining tasks.
2. Protective. Provides the individual with independence and stability.
3. Developmental function. Helps a person to improve and develop.
4. Signal, or as it is also called reflective. Enables the individual to understand the correct attitude towards oneself, personal qualities and actions.
5. Emotional. Gives the individual a feeling of satisfaction from his actions and personal qualities.
6. Adaptive. Regulates the individual’s ability to adapt to the social and surrounding realities.
7. Prognostic. Helps a person regulate his activity level at the beginning of an activity.
8. Corrective. Allows you to properly control the process of performing an action.
9. Retrospective. Helps you realistically evaluate your behavior during the period of completion of your action.
10. Motivating. Pushes a person to take some action to gain approval from others and gain pride, develop self-esteem and satisfaction.
11. Terminal. If a person feels that his actions cause a high level of introspection and self-criticism, then this function forces him to stop the action, or change its course.

How to increase self-esteem

It’s good if the child’s parents, who have discovered signs of low self-esteem in him, are concerned about this issue. To do this, you don’t need to be a professional psychologist, just watch how the baby reacts to adults’ comments. Confusion and tears in the eyes indicate low self-esteem. If a child tries to defend his opinion, to do it his own way, this is a good sign. The child’s attempts to provide a logical basis for his actions, for example, to say that this is more convenient or easier for him, indicate good, adequate self-esteem.

When a child begins to attend kindergarten or school, his self-esteem can take a serious hit. Accustomed to parental praise for every trifling achievement, he finds it difficult to tolerate criticism from elders or ridicule from peers. The task of parents at this stage is to support the child, analyze the situation, and give wise advice. If a student is not good at exact sciences, he needs to find subjects that arouse the greatest interest. It is quite possible that failing in math will not prevent a child from becoming a talented biologist or writer.

Expressed self-esteem is fully formed in a child by the age of 5. Raising the level of self-esteem to a sufficient level is an important task for parents and teachers of child care institutions

Low self-esteem can also be raised in an adult. This is more difficult to do than in childhood, because you will have to completely reshape the formed attitude towards yourself. In childhood, this attitude is formed based on the assessments of other people. This means that now we need to find people who will help us go through the entire path of developing self-esteem again.

Such a person can be a professional psychologist or a specialist who practices methods of increasing self-esteem. Good results will come from attending webinars, working in a group of like-minded people, and independently studying relevant literature.

There are several simple but effective ways to increase self-esteem:

Use self-hypnosis formulas, periodically mentally or out loud say the phrases: “I can do this. I will definitely succeed,” or: “It’s not the gods who burn the pots. I will succeed too!” Determine your areas of expertise. It’s impossible to be perfect in everything - if you suffer from comparing yourself to a beautiful and slender friend, talk more often about what delicious pancakes and pies you can cook.