In the United States throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century, many people have assumed that high self-esteem is generally beneficial and that benefits of high self-esteem permeate almost all aspects of life. This assumption has motivated self-esteem interventions in schools and a general effort to improve self-esteem with the expectation that enhanced self-esteem will improve task performance, social relations, and other aspects of life, and thus overall quality of life. Research testing self-esteem, however, has found that high self-esteem does not correlate with better job performance, popularity, or interpersonal skills. High self-esteem can even be detrimental to social relations, when the subject’s ego is threatened (Baumeister et al. 17). Knowing that high self-esteem does not necessarily live up to its hype, I am exploring the other side of the subject and researching the social benefits of low self-esteem. By understanding the positive and negative effects of low self-esteem, I will gain a better understanding of the role of self-esteem in human psychological functioning. This understanding could help parents, teachers, and mental health professionals better understand people, possibly leading to developments in counseling and parenting strategies. Better understanding the psychological and social roles of self-esteem could also help people better understand themselves. A scholarly journal article by Baumeister et al. entitled “Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles?" gave me background information and proof that high self-esteem is not usually beneficial for success in objectively measured social interactions. The study disproved the hypothesis that “global self-esteem causes desirable, adaptive, and beneficial behaviors” (4). It meshed fairly well with Mark R. Leary’s “Making Sense of Self-Esteem” but also contradicted it in some places. Leary’s scholarly article explained sociometer theory, a theory of the function of self-esteem that is different from the needs theory that has become popular. Sociometer theory proposes that self-esteem is actually a subjective gauge of one’s level of social acceptance or rejection, and that the supposed need for high self-esteem is really a need to be accepted and valued by other people (34). Another article by Leary, “Living in the Minds of Others Without Knowing It,” examines the subject of concern with face, or maintaining a public image. Through synthesis and analysis of multiple past studies, Leary concludes that almost all people try to maintain face, though many deny its existence, claiming to be unconcerned with what other people think of them. This false belief, common among Americans, is perpetuated by American individualist culture and the oft-written idea that: […] Concerns about one’s public image [indicate] psychological maladjustment rather than […] reflecting a normal, if not functional, feature of human behavior. (28) The denial of concern about face does not disprove sociometer theory, but instead illustrates the popularity of the belief that self-esteem should be solely a private, personal evaluation of oneself, not contingent on others’ beliefs. In “Undesirable Side Effects of Enhancing Self-Esteem,” Wesley R. Burr and Clark Christensen examine the popular myth that “we cannot love others until we love ourselves” and conclude that in fact, “we cannot love ourselves until we love others” (462). They write: The emphasis on self-esteem in the social sciences and helping professions often contributes to greater selfishness, excessive individualism, and processes that are undermining the health of family processes. (462) Their findings also support sociometer theory. Robert Fulford’s article “Liking Yourself is Good, Right?” from the National Post, a Canadian newspaper, opposes the idea of raising self-esteem to cure problems as well, and concludes that “the quest for self-esteem stands in the way of fulfilling two essential human needs—to be competent and to form relationships.” “Accentuate the Positive—and the Negative,” a scholarly journal article by Timothy J. Owens, studies the links between self-esteem and statements of self-deprecation and self-confidence. I plan to further investigate self-deprecation and reassurance-seeking behavior, one of the annoying behaviors sometimes present in depressed, low self-esteem people (Baumeister et al. 18). Lisa Sinclair and Tanya Lentz found in their scholarly journal article “Self-Esteem, Social Inclusionary Status, and Inhibition of Rejection” that people with low self-esteem were more likely than people with high self-esteem to recognize words with connotation of rejection, “suggesting that they are vigilant for signs related to how others view them” (Sinclair and Lentz 434). I plan to further research the positive and negative aspects of the use of self-deprecation in social situations, and the causes and effects of reassurance seeking behavior and its relationship to self-esteem. I will also search for articles on humility, and I have a few books containing passages relating to self-esteem that I need to read. Rather than looking for information that makes the investigation of my topic a plausible idea, such as evidence of the negative effects of high self-esteem, I plan to search more specifically for the effects of low self-esteem for information to support my argument in my final paper. I have little evidence of any social benefits of low self-esteem by itself so far, but some evidence of benefits of low self-esteem compared to high self-esteem, in the case of the ego-threat condition. I hope to find articles that examine self-esteem from abnormal, cognitive, personality, and social psychology perspectives. If I cannot find evidence of actual benefits of low self-esteem, I may need to change my research question and focus on the downside of high self-esteem or the role of self-esteem to psychological and social functioning. Bibliography Baumeister, Roy F., et al. "Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles?" Psychological Science in the Public Interest 4.1 (2003): 1-44. JSTOR. Web. 8 Oct 2010. Brockner, Joel, and Kathy Lloyd. “Self-Esteem and Likability: Separating Fact from Fantasy.” Journal of Research in Personality 20.4 (1986): 496-508. Science Direct. Web. 5 Nov 2010. Burr, Wesley R., and Clark Christiansen. “Undesirable Side Effects of Enhancing Self- Esteem.” Family Relations 41.4 (Oct. 1992): 460-464. JSTOR. Web. 8 Oct. 2010. Fulford, Robert. “Liking Yourself is Good—Right?: Importance of Self-Esteem an Idea Whose Time Has Past.” National Post. 15 Oct. 2002: n. pag. ProQuest. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. Leary, Mark R. “Living in the Minds of Others Without Knowing It.” Psychological Inquiry 12.1 (2001): 28-30. JSTOR. Web. 29 Oct. 2010. Leary, Mark R. "Making Sense of Self-Esteem." Current Directions in Psychological Science 8.1 (1999): 32-35. JSTOR. Web. 8 Oct 2010. Leary, Mark R., and Roy F. Baumeister. “Sociometer Theory of Self-Esteem.” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 32 (2000): 1-51. Print. 7 Nov 2010. Lentz, Tanya, and Lisa Sinclair. “Self-Esteem, Social Inclusionary Status, and Inhibition of Rejection.” Self and Identity. 4 Dec. 2009: 434-443. Informaworld. Web. 22 Oct. 2010.