ABSTRACT
The pursuit of self-esteem – the desire to protect, maintain, and enhance feelings of self-worth – is pervasive in Western societies in which the self and self-esteem are strongly emphasized and valued (Crocker & Park, 2003, 2004). Beginning in the late 1980s, programs were implemented across the United States to boost self-esteem in the hopes of reducing a variety of societal problems, such as academic underachievement, teenage pregnancy, crime, drug use, and alcohol abuse (Dawes, 1994; Mecca, Smelser, & Vasconcellos, 1989; Twenge, 2006). A comprehensive review of the literature, however, revealed limited benefits of high self-esteem, which called into question the utility of the self-esteem movement and the validity of self-esteem as a construct more generally (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003). In light of these findings, Baumeister and colleagues suggested that:
In our view, a crucial issue for both research and policy is the heterogeneity of high self-esteem. Only a few of the many studies we reviewed distinguished carefully between different categories of favorable self-regard, yet these few often found the distinction to be quite powerful … We recommend that researchers interested in self-esteem begin paying closer attention to narcissism, self-deception, stability of self-esteem, and other distinctions within the broad category of self-esteem.
(Baumeister et al., 2003, p. 38)