The mulitple faces of self-esteem

                 

There are few concepts in the study of human behavior that have more confusion around it than self-esteem. There are at least two areas where this confusion exists. First, almost every student I teach will confuse esteem with the notion of efficacy. Self-esteem is the belief in one's own value or importance while self-efficacy is the belief one can be successful at achieving a specific task. Esteem is about self-worth and efficacy is about confidence. Self-efficacy is related to downstream levels of performance and esteem is not.
             
The most significant confusion on self-esteem is the notion of the source of one's own esteem. While there is considerable research establishing the down stream attitudes and behavior that result from esteem (such as response to feedback and procedural justice), there is really no research supporting the source of esteem. The prevailing assumption is self-esteem comes from "what we do" and is determined by messages from one's external environment. There is considerable sentiment that parents, bosses, etc. can develop a person's esteem by the messages that they communicate to them. This is generally called 'performance based esteem'.

Even the "great scholar" Dennis Quaid suggests that there is another source of one's self-esteem. In a magazine interview he states that one's esteem may be a result of "who we are not what we do." This is actually in concert with the position on esteem that comes from Christianity. The source of esteem for any Child of the King should be based on who they are. Worth or value of anything is essentially established by the price one is willing to pay. In the case of a Christian the price paid for his/her life is the Cross. Paul says "my life is not my own it hs been bought with a price."

When we realize that our value has been determined by Jesus work on the cross, we no longer seek our value from our environment or our performance. Divorcing our value from our jobs and what others' opinion of us is another place where we get the freedom that comes from the truth embodied in the person of Jesus.