What Is Self Esteem?

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What is self-esteem? Self-esteem is a term used in psychology to describe someone’s level of confidence and respect for themselves. Pride, shame and dignity are some of the emotions self-esteem encompasses. In 1943, Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist created the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; it was composed of physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self-actualization, physiological being the most basic needs. He believed that psychological health is not possible unless people accepted, loved and respected you and if you didn’t accept yourself. Self-esteem is influenced massively by a person’s experiences. Positive experiences brings up one’s self-esteem while negative experiences do the opposite. Babies aren’t capable of self-esteem since all they care about at that age is whether or not they are comfortable and they are not advanced enough to have opinions about themselves. As time progresses, soon the baby will be in childhood which is where self-esteem starts to come in. In childhood, parents, the school they go to and the environment they live in have the most impact since children are very impressionable and are starting to learn new skills and values. Abuse would have harmful effects as the child grows into a teenager. Showing love to your child helps them to develop care and respect for themselves and the people around them. During later school years, results and peers start to affect the student’s self-image and esteem strongly. As students get older and become teenagers and young adults, their social circle seems to get more and more important than it did when they were younger because they start to really develop their personality and interests and trying to see where they fit in. Social acceptance also... ... middle of paper ... ...society and its pressures to look photoshopped and be smart. These reasons are the causes of many teenagers to develop physical and mental health issues such as depression, self-harm, bulimia and anorexia. Self-image is also a factor in people’s self-esteem. Self-images consist of three types. 1. Image resulting from how the person sees them self. 2. Image resulting from how people view them 3.Image resulting from how the individual sees how other people view them. Self-esteems may decline or increase because they might be closer to their Ideal Self than their Dreaded self. Works Cited J. Gill, "Indispensable Self-Esteem," in Human Development, vol. 1, 1980. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-esteem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-schema http://www.self-confidence.co.uk/articles/top-ten-facts-about-low-self-esteem/

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