1 the Pursuit of Self-Esteem
1 The Pursuit of Self-Esteem: Implications for Good and Evil Jennifer Crocker, Shawna J. Lee, and Lora E. Park University of Michigan Reference: Crocker, J., Lee, S. J., & Park, L. E. (2004). The pursuit of self-esteem: Implications for good and evil. In A. G. Miller (Ed.), The social psychology of good and evil, 271- 302. New York: Guilford Press. 2 The Pursuit of Self-Esteem: Implications for Good and Evil North Americans generally view self-esteem as an unmitigated good, integral to a meaningful, satisfying, and fulfilling life. From a young age, parents, teachers, and popular culture teach us that feeling good about ourselves is a high priority (Miller, 2001, April). Thousands of self-help books, childrearing guides, and television shows hail the benefits of increasing self-esteem. The Self-Esteem Movement, based on the assumption that high self- esteem leads to positive outcomes (Benson, Galbraith, & Espeland, 1998; Glennon, 1999; Miller, 2001, April), aimed to raise children’s self-esteem to combat social problems, such as academic underachievement, high dropout rates, crime, teenage pregnancy, eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, and interpersonal aggression (Branden, 1994; Dawes, 1994; McElherner & Lisovskis, 1998; Mecca, Smelser, & Vasconcellos, 1989; Seligman, 1998). Underlying this cultural concern with self-esteem is the belief that feelings of worthlessness and low self-esteem lead people to do things that are harmful and destructive to themselves and to others; in other words, low self-esteem is one source of evil. The costs of low self-esteem and the benefits of high self-esteem seem so pervasive that many psychologists have assumed that self-esteem is a universal and fundamental human need (Allport, 1955; Epstein, 1985; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986; James, 1890; Maslow, 1968; Rogers, 1961; Rosenberg, 1979; Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991; Steele, 1988; Taylor & Brown, 1988; Tesser, 1988), even arguing that humans evolved as a species to pursue self-esteem (Leary & Baumeister, 2000; Leary & Downs, 1995).
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