Autonomy of Self-Esteem

Abstract

THIS STUDY explores the autonomy of self-esteem with respect to influence from an authoritative source in the form of information about the person's self-image which contradicts his own self-view. The research represents a continuation of our interest in the concept of self-esteem in late adolescence and our attempt to study this concept in a variety of ways which we feel to be consistent with an approach which stresses construct validity. In an earlier work,¹we concentrated on the clinical assessment and measurement validation of self-esteem. In the current study, methods for measuring self-esteem are utilized in an experimental approach to studying the autonomy of self-esteem. The work can be related to two general areas of experimental research of relevance to ego psychology. The first is the work initiated by Asch in his studies of independence and conformity.²Asch used a perceptual task (the