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What is "self-esteem"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
self-esteem
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
high
▪ Horses with the highest self-esteem are likely to be found at the top of their pecking order.
▪ Some researchers suggest that boys seem to have higher self-esteem because they hide their insecurities behind bragging.
▪ The horse that is high in self-esteem is also likely to be high in aggression.
▪ Four women in five feel they have a more positive self-image and higher self-esteem, too.
▪ If depression is related to heart disease, then high levels of self-esteem might well have the converse effect.
▪ This combination of higher self-esteem and greater safety created a powerful impetus toward greater intimacy.
▪ The vulnerability factors are argued to contribute to low self-esteem, or, as protective factors, to high self-esteem.
▪ A system which is openly and avowedly inferior does not encourage those who participate in it to have a high self-esteem.
low
▪ It doesn't take away the low self-esteem.
▪ Abusers are often suspicious and jealous, suffer from low self-esteem and need to assert themselves.
▪ Don't overdo it though - the flipside of stress is boredom, stagnation and low self-esteem.
▪ Battered women are often depressed, anxiety-ridden, suffering from low self-esteem or displaying a countenance of helplessness.
▪ The vulnerability factors are argued to contribute to low self-esteem, or, as protective factors, to high self-esteem.
▪ The result invariably was to raise prices and lower national self-esteem.
▪ The importance of loss and low self-esteem to depression has been accepted by many.
▪ We are feeling out of control, and then saying the cause is low self-esteem.
poor
▪ They tend to aggravate rather than improve the poor self-esteem, poor individual coping skills and poor emotional maturity in the primary sufferer.
▪ Work-inhibited students have poor academic self-esteem.
▪ Parents and educators invariably note poor self-esteem as a central characteristic of work-inhibited students.
▪ Frequently the behaviors associated with dependency are also associated with poor self-esteem.
▪ Work-inhibited students express their poor self-esteem in many ways.
▪ Guilt, shame, and poor self-esteem are part of the emotional baggage of work-inhibited boys.
▪ In addition, work-inhibited students had comparatively poor self-esteem as it relates to family.
▪ These products are powerful reinforcers that improve the poor self-esteem of work-inhibited students.
■ VERB
build
▪ They gave examples of how some of their attempts at building up self-esteem seemed to have worked.
▪ But they also point to the benefits of meaningful work in building self-esteem.
▪ To build your self-esteem set yourself targets, and if you achieve them you can reward yourself with a treat.
▪ Competition, winning, and losing are all skills that build self-esteem.
▪ We use the techniques to build up our self-esteem and self-image.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Getting a job did a lot for her self-esteem.
▪ Losing the job was a real blow to his self-esteem.
▪ Sports should build a child's self-esteem, not damage it.
▪ The program is designed to help children from broken families build their self-esteem.
▪ When I started seeing my therapist, I was suffering from very low self-esteem.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But they also point to the benefits of meaningful work in building self-esteem.
▪ Don't overdo it though - the flipside of stress is boredom, stagnation and low self-esteem.
▪ He had a robust self-esteem, even though this was a blow, and he needed financially to continue working.
▪ Other facets of self-esteem may be poor, but are not necessarily so.
▪ People who live on the streets lose self-esteem.
▪ The key, once again, is that when we choose to act with self-esteem, we begin to feel self-esteem.
▪ The undermining of self-esteem may lead to assumptions about the reactions of others that are unjustified.
▪ What happened that season turned out to be a story about the struggle for self-esteem, equity and respect.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Self-esteem

Self-esteem \Self`-es*teem"\, n. The holding a good opinion of one's self; self-complacency.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
self-esteem

1650s, from self- + esteem (n.). Popularized by phrenology, which assigned it a "bump" (Spurzheim, 1815).

Wiktionary
self-esteem

n. Confidence in one's own worth; self-respect.

WordNet
self-esteem

  1. n. a feeling of pride in yourself [syn: self-pride]

  2. the quality of being worthy of esteem or respect; "it was beneath his dignity to cheat"; "showed his true dignity when under pressure" [syn: dignity, self-respect, self-regard]

Wikipedia
Self-esteem

In sociology and psychology, self-esteem reflects a person's overall subjective emotional evaluation of his or her own worth. It is a judgment of oneself as well as an attitude toward the self. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself, (for example, "I am competent", "I am worthy"), as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Mackie (2007) defined it by saying "The self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, is the positive or negative evaluations of the self, as in how we feel about it." Self-esteem is attractive as a social psychological construct because researchers have conceptualized it as an influential predictor of certain outcomes, such as academic achievement, happiness, satisfaction in marriage and relationships, and criminal behaviour. Self-esteem can apply specifically to a particular dimension (for example, "I believe I am a good writer and feel happy about that") or a global extent (for example, "I believe I am a bad person, and feel bad about myself in general"). Psychologists usually regard self-esteem as an enduring personality characteristic ("trait" self-esteem), though normal, short-term variations ("state" self-esteem) also exist. Synonyms or near-synonyms of self-esteem include: self-worth, self-regard, self-respect, and self-integrity.

Usage examples of "self-esteem".

She laughed heartily at my story, and I laughed too, in spite of a feeling of anger due to my wounded self-esteem.

But at the same time the motive of self-esteem was also present, and I determined not to do anything which would deprive me of her confidence.

Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us - then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.

Perhaps then, when that dream was achieved, he would no longer have to kick helpless, imploring droids to bolster his own pathetic self-esteem.

My self-esteem was so wounded by this, and by his impoliteness in not answering my letter, with which he could certainly find no fault, whatever his criticism of my translation might be, that I became the sworn enemy of the great Voltaire.

Tempering the wind to their sensitive self-esteem, he offered to permit the Mayor and the Secretary of the Interior to withdraw their resignations bare of comment, statement or apology.

Our self-esteem suffers even more when we realize that we are so wretchedly weak that we still love the drug of television despite the utterly disrespectful way it treats us.

Whether from natural impulses or self-esteem, I rose from the table so delighted with my son that I embraced him with the utmost tenderness, and was applauded by the company.

She felt a pleasant little thrill, unfcfrtunately doused by the arrival of a powerful-looking man with a fierce moustache who wrung Oliver's hand and, on being introduced as the Burgermeester of Utrecht, clasped hers and addressed her as 'little lady'--which, while not in the least appropriate, did much for her self-esteem.

British blockade and, under Killick's captaincy, the Thuella had become a thorn in the Royal Navy's self-esteem.

Examples: getting state aid for having a child, escaping a dysfunctional family of origin by getting pregnant, trying to find someone to love by having a baby, knowing a happily married teenager but knowing little about the difficult experiences of an unwanted pregnancy, believing birth control is racial genocide, assuming that all a woman can do is raise babies, assuming your buddies can tell you everything you need to know about sex and contraception, having intercourse for months before going to a birth control clinic, being unable to talk with our partner about sex and birth control, having little interaction with our parents about sex, assuming wrongly that you aren't going to have sex so there is no need to prepare, having low self-esteem and low self-control, overlooking the pleasures and gratitude of your partner when you use contraceptives, etc.

The mere thought of taking advantage of her innocence made me shudder, and my self-esteem was a guarantee to her parents, who abandoned her to me on the strength of the good opinion they entertained of me, that Lucie's honour was safe in my hands.

Putting my self-esteem on one side, I fancied I would suit her much better than the old Hungarian, a very pleasant man for his age, but who, after all, carried his sixty years on his face, while my twenty-three were blooming on my countenance.

He thought he was amusing them, and on watching his expression I saw that his self-esteem prevented him seeing that he was making a fool of himself.

I felt that the best thing I could do would be to forget the illusion which had amused me for four or five days, and as my self-esteem was not wounded it ought not to be a difficult task.