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Benefits of Boosting Self-Esteem Questioned

Self-esteem has become a household word. Teachers, parents, therapists, and others have focused efforts on boosting self-esteem on the assumption that high self-esteem will cause many positive outcomes and benefits. A new report challenges the traditional self-esteem model and suggests that efforts to boost an individual's self-esteem might in some cases have the opposite effect.

The report, "Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles?" in the May 2003 issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest takes an objective scientific look at the effects of self-esteem on academic performance, success in the workplace, and other areas where it has been generally assumed that increased self-esteem leads to achievement.

"We have not found evidence that boosting self-esteem causes benefits," the authors wrote. "Our findings do not support continued widespread efforts to boost self-esteem in the hope that it will by itself foster improved outcomes."

The authors, Roy F. Baumeister, Florida State University; Jennifer D. Campbell, University of British Columbia; Joachim I. Krueger, Brown University; and Kathleen D. Vohs, University of Utah, discovered that "efforts to boost the self-esteem of pupils have not been shown to improve academic performance and may sometimes be counterproductive."

"Subjective experience creates the impression that self-esteem rises when one wins a contest, garners an award, solves a problem, or gains acceptance to a social group, and that it falls with corresponding failures," said the authors. "This pervasive correlation may well strengthen the impression that one's level of self-esteem is not just the outcome, but indeed the cause, of life's major successes and failures."

But in fact, a review of the body of research on self-esteem indicates that in general no such causal influence exists, and that self-esteem is more likely to be an outcome.

In fact, they said, "indiscriminate praise might just as easily promote narcissism, with its less desirable consequences. Instead, we recommend using praise to boost self-esteem as a reward for socially desirable behavior and self-improvement."

For more information, contact Baumeister at baumeister@darwin.psy.fsu.edu or visit the APS Media Center at www.psychologicalscience.org/media.

This report is part of a continuing series of reviews by preeminent researchers who examine psychological science findings on topics of general public interest. Psychological Science in the Public Interest is a journal of the American Psychological Society. APS's mission focuses on the advancement of research and science-based psychology in the public interest.