What Self-Esteem Really Is — and What It Isn’t

What Is Self-Esteem? A Contemporary Psychological Definition In contemporary psychology, self-esteem is conceptualized as a global evaluation of the self, shaped by how desirable and controllable the trait adjectives a person applies to themselves are. In other words, it is not a judgment about one specific skill or moment, but a broad assessment a person makes about their own worth as a person. Self-esteem is a relevant construct across all areas of life, and it tends to be easiest to identify when someone feels very good about themselves or very bad in some domain. So, at its core, self-esteem is a global self-evaluation —…