Self –esteem is a term in psychology to reflect a person’s overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth. Self-esteem ecompasses beliefs and emotions such as triumph, despair, pride and shame. The self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, the positive or negative evaluation of the self, is how we feel about it.
Healthy self-esteem comes when a good balance is maintained.
Patterns of self-esteem start very early in life. Once people reach adulthood, it’s harder to make changes to how they see and define themselves. Self-estem is typically measured as a continous scale.
People with a healthy level of self-estem:
- Firmly believe in certain values and principles, and are ready to defend even when finding opposition, feeling secure enough to modify them in light of experience.
- Are able to act according to what they think to be the best choice, trusting their own judgment and not feeling guilty when others don’t like their choice.
- They learn from the past and plan for the future, but live in the present intensely.
- Fully trust in their capacity to solve problems.
- Consider they equal in dignity to other.
Low self-esteem can result from various factors, including a physical appearance or weight, socioeconomic status. Low self-esteem occasionally leads to suicidal ideation and behavior.
A person with low self-esteem may show some of the following characteristic:
- Heavy self-criticism and dissatisfaction
- Hypersensitivity to criticism
- Chronic indecision
- Excessive will to please
- Perfectionism
How to raise your self-estem
Low self-esteem is a negative evaluation of oneself. This type of evaluation usually occurs when some circumstances we encounter in our life touches on our sensitivities. We personalize the incident and experience physical, emotional, and cognitive arousal.
In the mean time here is what you can do:
- Practice self-care: make new lifestyle choices by joining self-help groups practicing positive health care.
- Stop and take notice: pay attention to the familiarity of the impulse. Our tendency is to overreact in the same way to the same incident.
- Acknowledge reaction: verbalize, “Here I go again (describe action, feeling, thought)
- Choose response: hold self-defeating impulses. Act in a self-caring and effective way. By choosing to act in a more functional way, we take a step forward facing our fears.
- Develop skill: we can provide for our own safety, engender hope, tolerate confusion, and raise self-esteem by learning and using these essential life skills:
- Experience feelings. “Feel” feelings in your body and identify your needs.
- Optional thinking. We open ourselves to new possibilities about how to thing about our dilemmas.
- Detachment. End all abuse; say no to misrepresentations and assumptions.
- Assertion. Voice what you see, fell, and want by making I statements. By expressing our thoughts, feelings, and desire in a direct and hones manner
- Receptivity. End self absorption, listen to others words and meaning to restate them.
Citar este texto en formato APA: _______. (2014). WEBSCOLAR. Self-esteem in adult and how to raise it. https://www.webscolar.com/self-esteem-in-adult-and-how-to-raise-it. Fecha de consulta: 27 de April de 2024.