Every person tends to constantly evaluate himself, his behavior and actions. This is necessary for the harmonious development of personality and building relationships with other people. The ability to give yourself the right assessment has a huge impact on how society perceives a person, and on his life in general.
The concept of self-esteem in psychology
All people from time to time analyze their character, look for pluses and minuses in themselves. The concept of self-esteem in psychology is the ability of a person's consciousness to form an idea of himself and his actions, as well as to judge his skills, abilities, personal qualities, advantages and disadvantages. Self-esteem allows people to be critical of themselves, set various goals and achieve them, measure their capabilities with the requirements in certain areas of life, think about actions and make informed decisions.
The ability to introspection has a great influence on the formation of people's behavior. Such personality traits as uncertainty and determination, activity and restraint,sociability and isolation are directly dependent on self-esteem. A person's opinion of himself determines the attitude of others around him.
Types of self-esteem in psychology
What types are there? Depending on how correctly a person evaluates himself, the following main types of self-esteem in psychology can be distinguished: adequate and inadequate.
If a person's opinion of himself coincides with what he really is, then it is considered adequate. It should apply to all adults. Adequate self-esteem in psychology is the ability of an individual to more or less objectively form an opinion about his person.
People with inadequate self-esteem are at odds with what others think of them. However, such an opinion may be overestimated or underestimated.
Depending on exposure to external factors, stable and floating self-esteem are distinguished. Stable self-esteem in psychology is a person’s unchanging opinion of himself in any situation. In cases where self-image changes depending on mood, success or defeat, approval or condemnation of others, it is floating.
What affects the formation of self-esteem
Every person tends to compare himself to some ideal image, to who he would like to be. The coincidence of the real self-image with the desired one plays a huge role in the formation of self-esteem. The further the true image is from the perfect one, the lower the person's opinion of himself.
Significant impact onthe formation of self-esteem has an attitude towards the individual of others. Of particular importance are the opinions of the closest people: parents, relatives and friends.
The real achievements of a person in a particular field of activity also affect self-esteem. The higher the personal success, the better the person's opinion of himself.
How to instill positive self-esteem in a child?
All parents want their child to be successful and happy. How great results a person can achieve in life directly depends on self-esteem. To instill a positive self-esteem in a child, it is necessary to adhere to the recommendations given by psychology. A person's self-esteem begins to form in early childhood. For the baby, approval and encouragement from adults and their peers is important. If there is none, the child develops low self-esteem.
Children very clearly catch the attention of adults to them. If a child notices that he is being ignored, he gets the impression that he is not interested in others. In turn, this negatively affects his self-esteem. Thus, in order to form a positive opinion of the child about himself, he must constantly feel secure, meaningful and important.
What problems does poor self-esteem lead to?
When people do not know how to properly assess themselves, adequately judge their own strengths and weaknesses, they can have many problems. Both low andhigh self-esteem negatively affects a person's life.
With low self-esteem, people tend to always make a choice for the worse, believing that they are not worthy of another. This applies to finding a partner, work and much more. As a result, people experience constant dissatisfaction, but at the same time they are afraid to take decisive steps to somehow change the situation.
Inflated self-esteem in psychology is when a person considers himself much better than he really is. This is also a big problem for a person. First of all, it affects relationships with others. It is difficult for people to communicate with those who constantly put themselves above others, boast and ex alt their person. As a rule, a person with too high self-esteem has very few friends.
Increased self-esteem: signs and causes
It is important for any person to feel self-confidence. However, thinking too highly of yourself is more likely to do harm than good.
It's easy enough to figure out a person with high self-esteem. These people are very selfish. They always put their own interests above those of others. They like to talk about themselves, often interrupt and translate the topic of conversation if it is not interesting to them. They do not want to know the opinions of other people, they consider their point of view on any issue to be the only true one. A person with high self-esteem takes on difficult, sometimes impossible work with pleasure, and in cases of failure falls into despair and depression.
What leads to the formation of inflated self-esteem inof people? First of all, this is a wrong upbringing. When parents indulge their child in everything, do not limit anything and are ready to fulfill all his desires at the first request, the child forms the opinion that he is the most important person in the world, and everyone should idolize and worship him.
How to learn to adequately evaluate yourself?
If you notice that your child has high self-esteem, you must urgently take measures to ensure that he learns to form an adequate opinion about himself, otherwise it will be very difficult for him to build relationships with others later. First of all, it is worth limiting the praise of the baby, trying to explain in which situations success is his merit, and in which successful circumstances led to him.
Fixing high self-esteem in an adult is much more difficult. Such people most often do not see or do not want to see the problem, and, accordingly, do not want to deal with it. Explaining to a person that he has inadequate self-esteem is almost impossible.
If you realize that your self-image is too high, you need to make considerable efforts to learn how to evaluate yourself adequately. Most importantly, you need to understand that everyone has the right to their opinion, and if it differs from yours, this does not mean at all that it is wrong. Learn to listen to others, make concessions, selflessly help people.
Low self-esteem and its symptoms
Lowerself-esteem in psychology is a state in which a person thinks about himself much worse than he really is. It leads to problems such as self-doubt, isolation, stiffness, jealousy, envy, resentment.
The problem of many individuals is low self-esteem. The psychology of such people is such that they, as a rule, seek to get a job that requires a minimum degree of responsibility. When choosing a partner, they unconsciously attract people who only reinforce their self-doubt. They are prone to excessive self-criticism, focusing on their shortcomings. Such people often complain, consider themselves unlucky and helpless.
How to increase your self-esteem?
Statistically, men are more likely to overestimate their self-image. Women, on the other hand, are more inclined to underestimate their merits, they are more likely to look for flaws in themselves - such is their psychology. Increasing self-esteem is a very difficult problem for them.
As a rule, the cause of low self-esteem in women lies in dissatisfaction with their appearance or figure, as well as hidden complexes caused by failures in personal relationships or career.
How to increase a woman's self-esteem? Psychology advises, first of all, to start concentrating on your merits. Think about what are your positive qualities? Why do you deserve better in life than you have? Every woman can find something good in herself. For example, someone cooks well, someone sings and dances beautifully, someone is endowed with analytical abilities. The list of your positive qualities must be repeated as often as possible so that they are deposited at the subconscious level.
To increase self-esteem, try to communicate with people who respect and support you. Watch your appearance, dress in a way that makes you feel comfortable and confident. Raising your self-esteem can be very difficult, the main thing is not to give up and believe that you will succeed.
