Self Esteem: Can You Define and Measure It?

You may have ever heard about self esteem, right? It may be a simple word, but actually there are many definitions following that term. From those many definitions, there is a general idea of self esteem: it is about how an individual sees himself. Someone’s self esteem is influenced by many factors, and those factors are related to the success and failure in someone’s life. It’s the same as the regard that what someone has for himself depending on those success and failure. Emotions and belief of someone also determine their self regard. Then, it can affect someone’s behavior.

There are two different types of needs with regard to self esteem. Those needs require respect. The first is respect from other people, while the second is respect for himself (or we called it self respect). Those respects are said to motivate one’s esteem and affect the way of an individual sees himself.

Definition Number 1

People defined self esteem as a state of an individual’s behavior based on his successes and failures. But, this definition is no longer relevant, since it implies that self esteem is temporary and fully depended on the recent state of a person. In detail, someone has self worth when he is successful. But that self worth will be gone by the time he fails.

Definition Number 2

The next definition of self esteem is self worth which is stable and built through the years. It implies that someone’s self esteem is based on their competency to face any challenges and difficulties in life. It indicates that self esteem is inherent in one person and cannot be taken away easily by mere failures. The person views himself as someone with worth because of his accumulated success and even by his failures.

Measuring Self Esteem

To find out someone’s degree or level of self esteem, we have definitive methods. Recently, there are two tests used for measuring a person’s self worth and self regard. The tests are in the written form, namely Rosenberg and Coopersmith Self Esteem Tests. Someone’s self worth will be examined through the questions in both tests. The numbers of questions in both tests are different. There are around ten questions in Rosenberg test and over fifty questions in Coopersmith test.

The self esteem tests can cause certain suffering for some people, especially people with low and high self esteem. Having low self esteem can direct someone to the low confidence and insecurity. On the contrary, high self esteem can make people having too much self confidence. It will be difficult to change the state of their self esteem, particularly if someone is used to it. It’s completely different from the belief in society that the state of self esteem can be changed easily. If you need more information, please explore links on this self esteem consultant site.