What is self-esteem?
Self-esteem
is a very important aspect of our personality. It helps us to achieve
our identity and to adapt to society. In other words, the degree in
which individuals have positive or negative feelings about themselves
and the degree in which individuals value themselves.
Here are
a series of definitions that define self-esteem:
The
capacity that a person has to value themselves, love themselves,
appreciate themselves and accept themselves.
A person’s attitude towards themselves.
The way a person evaluates themselves: “I know only one definition
of happiness: be a good friend to yourself” (p.solignac).
The love that every individual has for themselves
Self-esteem
is related to many types of behaviour. People with high self-esteem
usually have fewer aggressive and negative emotions – they suffer
less from depression as compared to those with low self-esteem.
People
with high self-esteem can handle stress better and when they undergo
stress they experience fewer negative health effects.
The most
important period in the development of self-esteem is during childhood.
A child compares himself to how he would like to be and he judges
himself until he reaches his idol.
The opinions
children have about themselves have a great impact on the development
of their personality, especially in their frame of mind.
It is important
to study self-esteem and see how a person achieves high self-esteem.
Self-esteem
is the concept that we have of our worth and it is based on our thoughts,
feelings, sensations and experiences that we have been collecting
throughout live; we believe that we are clever or silly, people like
us or not. The thousands of impressions, evaluations and experiences
are all reunited into a positive feeling towards ourselves or on the
contrary, in an uncomfortable feeling of not being what we expected
to be.