Well, this makes me feel better about lack of self-esteem.
Posted on 12/21/2004 3:08:58 PM PST by shrinkermd
SUMMARY: Boosting people's sense of self-worth has become a national preoccupation. Yet surprisingly, researchshows that such efforts are of little value in fostering academic progress or preventing undesirable behavior.
People intuitively recognize the importance of self-esteem to their psychological health, so it isn't particularly remarkable that most of us try to protect and enhance it in ourselves whenever possible. What is remarkable is that attention to self-esteem has become a communal concern, at least for Americans, who see a favorable opinion of oneself as the central psychological source from which all manner of positive outcomes spring.
The corollary, that low self-esteem lies at the root of individual and thus societal problems and dysfunctions, has sustained an ambitious social agenda for decades. Indeed, campaigns to raise people's sense of self-worth abound.
Consider what transpired in California in the late 1980s. Prodded by State Assemblyman John Vasconcellos, Governor George Deukmejian set up a task force on self-esteem and personal and social responsibility. Vasconcellos argued that raising self-esteem in young people would reduce crime, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, school underachievement and pollution. At one point, he even expressed the hope that these efforts would one day help balance the state budget, a prospect predicated on the observation that people with high self-regard earn more than others and thus pay more in taxes.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciam.com ...
The prisons are filled with men with "high self esteem."
Well, this makes me feel better about lack of self-esteem.
People who are busy accomplishing something don't have time to worry about their self-esteem.
Paging Dr. James Dobson....
You said it right, my friend.
They should have focused more on teaching childern personal responsibility instead of try to boost self esteem at any cost...
A little personal responsibility goes a long way.
Duh.
Big Difference IMHO....
From the article: "For decades, psychologists believed that low self-esteem was an important cause of aggression. One of us (Baumeister) challenged that notion in 1996, when he reviewed assorted studies and concluded that perpetrators of aggression generally hold favorable and perhaps even inflated views of themselves."
A corrections officer once told me the same thing about "model prisoners."
Of course, the people with the lowest self-esteem tend to be junkies, dusters, and meth heads.
I think the main point is that self-esteem is something EARNED through hard work and good work, not "given" to us by limp-wristed teachers and counselors.
Self esteem always fails because no one can do well all the time.
Self acceptance is a more correct approach. The question changes from 'how am I doing?' to 'what am I doing and how can I perform better?'
This is exactly the kind of thinking that gives rise to monarchies, tyrants, and liberalism.
My version of self-esteem: I hate myself a little less than I hate everyone else.
It works for me....
Ten years ago, I edited a book by psychologist (and former Ayn Rand lover) Nathaniel Branden, who is considered the "father of the self-esteem movement." And he said exactly what you said, self-esteem comes from accomplishments. Too bad the idiots who promulgated self-esteem in classrooms forgot to include that part and made it smarmy, feel-good idiocy instead.
The worst example I ever came upon was in an interview after the Los Angeles riots with a punk caught bashing innocent bystanders over the head with bricks. "Don't matter what I do, I'm a good person." Obviously that criminal was a product of feel-good self-esteem training in CA public schools. Today, there are millions of them out there, bricks in hand, waiting to demonstrate their high regard for themselves at the slightest provocation.
Mine involves declaring myself the only true conservative while labelling everyone else as a communist, a RINO or a right-wing nutbar.
bump for later reading
Teachers generally should supply encouragement. They need not worry about self-esteem. Self-esteem, by definition, is self generated. Furthermore, the whole doctrine of happiness as static dimension is a bunch of horsepuckey.
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