From self-conceptions to self-worth: On the sources and structure of global self-esteem.

Abstract

Three factors were identified that uniquely contribute to people's global self-esteem: (a) people's tendencies to experience positive and negative affective states, (b) people's specific self-views (i.e., their conceptions oftheir strengths and weaknesses), and (c) the way people frame their self-views. Framing factors included the relative certainty and importance ofpeople's positive versus negative self-views and the discrepancy between people's actual and ideal self-views. The contribution of importance topeople's self-esteem, however, was qualified in 2 ways. First, importance contributed only to the self-esteem ofthose who perceived that hey had relatively few talents. Second, individuals who saw their positive self-views as important were especially likely to be high in self-esteem when they were also highly certain of these positive self-views. The theoretical nd therapeutic implications of these findings are discussed. Max made his living robbing convenience stores. He never completed high school and spent a considerable portion of his adult life in a state penitentiary. Yet his pride and self-confi-dence revealed that he considered himself a capable, worthy person, easily on par with those employed in more respectable