ABSTRACT

The authors of preceding chapters in this book have made a convincing case that self-esteem is an important construct that underlies and often helps to explain human thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Moreover, the authors have displayed a general consensus that high self-esteem is good, because it is associated with higher levels of psychological health and functioning, and that low self-esteem is undesirable, because it is associated with lower levels of psychological health and functioning. Having established the importance of self-esteem to the understanding of human behavior, it is fitting that we now turn to the question of measurement. How do we measure self-esteem? How might we determine whether a person’s self-esteem is high or low?