ABSTRACT
What is self-esteem? Self-esteem can be described as the way we feel and think about ourselves - our feeling of self-worth. From birth onwards a variety of inputs, such as the way we are treated by other people, what they say to us, what we see around us and how we actually feel ourselves help to develop our self-perception. Even as children we start to compare our self-image, or how we see ourselves in reality, with our ideal image, or how we would like other people to see us. If the difference between what we consider to be reality and our ideal image is not too great then we are likely to have a high level of self-esteem. If, however, we perceive the reality as differing widely from the ideal then our level of self-esteem may be considerably lower.
