Extending Self-Esteem Theory and Research: Sociological and Psychological Currents

Self-esteem is an academic and popular phenomenon, vigorously researched and debated, sometimes imbued with magical qualities, other times vilified as the bane of the West’s preoccupation with self. Though thousands of articles have been devoted to the topic, and bookstores work to feed the public’s appetite for advice on revealing, enhancing, and maintaining self-esteem, conflicting claims and findings have placed the field in disarray. In a very real sense, self-esteem is a victim of its own popularity. This book seeks to add clarity to a concept earlier examined by such notable self theorists as Morris Rosenberg but eminently worthy of reexamination and extension. We do this by asking some leading thinkers on self-esteem theory, measurement, and application to assess what we know about self-esteem, link it to important aspects of society and the human experience, and position it for the twenty-first century.