I enjoyed your writeup of the Twenge article and appreciated your position and defense of the California Task Force. I was anticipating a press release of her findings which were reported earlier in Kernis's book Self-Esteem: Issues and Answers. In her book she points out that other factors such as permissive parenting, increased materialism, the fascination with celebrities and reality TV shows, and the culture in general all seem to contribute to this trend. So there is no evidence that self-esteem programs are the primary cause of this trend. She hypothesizes that only some of the blame for the increase in narcissistic scores may be due to self-esteem programs that emphasize the self-worth aspects of self-esteem. However, I believe the study is valid and significant, but it is only a small part of the problem.
Unfortunately, here is another example of researchers and college professors taking different approaches to the topic of self-esteem. It is evident that she takes the same position as Baumeister and Crocker and equates self-esteem with self-worth with her use of the Rosenberg Scale. This is in contrast to those sociologists who study self-esteem from a behavioral perspective (James, Harter, Pope), and those who believe that authentic self-esteem is a balance between worth and competence (Branden, Mruk). As you might suspect, I subscribe to this later position on self-esteem for those that base their work on self worth disregard actions and demonstrated behavior which I feel are important. I believe there are dangers in over-emphasizing self-worth and Mruk in his book Self-Esteem Theory, Research and Practice does a great job of explaining how self-worth and competence balance each other and keep each of these elements from being developed to an extreme as in the case of narcissism.
It is too bad when we have to keep educating others about these problems of definition, especially when it seems that the majority of college professors continue to use Rosenberg's scale only for their research. Thanks for your efforts.
Robert Reasoner
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On what does a child - or an adult - base his esteem? Good looks? Intelligence? "Fitting in"?
Certainly it feels great to anyone to hear praise, to win, to receive a blue ribbon. In reality, though, growth often occurs when we face setbacks, defeats, or even "failure."
It is in learning to bounce back, to face disappointment and to start anew that we discover that failing does not mean we ARE failures.
No matter how brilliant, beautiful, or athletic anyone is, if that self image (or self esteem) is based on "winning," on being best, she will ultimately experience a rude awakening.
That's where self acceptance comes in. How much better to accept oneself "warts and all" than to glory in the false belief in one's perfection. A strong self acceptance is actually more Empowering For Change that is admiring oneself for a few positive traits.
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