Self-esteem has been empirically investigated extensively and has become deeply ingrained in the social and popular conscience. Varied definitions of self-esteem across disciplines and perspectives and inconsistent empirical findings with self-esteem have yielded a messy research literature and have produced many lingering questions. In this chapter, we briefly review the mess of self-esteem, first focusing on its inconsistent empirical findings. Then, we propose a differentiated view of high self-esteem as being either fragile or secure, and how this differentiated view can help clear the waters of self-esteem research. Next, we highlight self-esteem’s importance in personal and cultural identity processes, examining in particular potential cultural changes influenced by the concept of high self-esteem. Finally, we discuss where self-esteem comes from and how we can cultivate healthy self-esteem, and we discuss two individual difference measures—authenticity and mindfulness—that relate to secure self-esteem processes.
CITATION STYLE
Heppner, W. L., & Kernis†, M. H. (2011). High Self-Esteem: Multiple Forms and Their Outcomes. In Handbook of Identity Theory and Research (pp. 329–355). Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7988-9_15
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