Self-esteem
Summary
Self-esteem is a person's overall evaluation of their own worth, the evaluative part of the self-concept. The most testable point is the contrast with self-efficacy, which is belief in one's ability to succeed at a specific task, not a global sense of worth.
Detail
Meaning: Self-esteem is how positively or negatively a person judges their own worth overall. It is the evaluative part of the self-concept, the broader set of beliefs about who one is. Feedback from others (the looking-glass self), social comparison, and successes or failures all shape it. In Rogers's humanistic view, a large gap between the real self and the ideal self tends to lower self-esteem.
On the MCAT: A passage may describe a study in which participants receive praise, criticism, or social exclusion and then complete a self-rating scale. You predict the direction of change or identify the variable measured. Questions may link self-esteem to the self-serving bias, which people often use to protect it, or to Maslow's hierarchy, where esteem needs sit above belonging and love.
Common confusion: Self-esteem is mixed up with self-efficacy and self-concept. Self-efficacy (Bandura) is belief in one's ability to succeed at a specific task, so a student can have low self-efficacy for calculus and still have high self-esteem. Self-concept is the description ("I am a runner, a sister"). Self-esteem is the judgment of how good that self is.
Sources
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Introduction to Psychology
Written for the MCAT and checked before it was published. For study reference only. Spotted an error? Let us know.