Should People with Low Self-Esteem Strive for High Self-Esteem?

People who have high self-esteem (HSEs) are happier and psychologically healthier than people who have low self-esteem (LSEs; Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003), and are more likely to have satisfying and stable relationships (e.g., Leary & MacDonald, 2003). Does this mean that LSEs should strive to have high self-esteem? We suspect that they should not, at least not directly. We propose that certain methods for elevating state self-esteem—those that readily engage self-evaluative processes—can be ineffective or even backfire for LSEs.