Sounding Off About Self-Esteem

Re “The Lowdown on High Self-Esteem,” Commentary, Jan. 25: Roy F. Baumeister acknowledges that persons with high self-esteem are generally happier, are more resilient, show greater initiative and are more independent thinkers. That sounds pretty good to me. In spite of these accolades, he proclaims that we should “forget about self-esteem” and focus instead on self-control and self-discipline (as if we couldn’t focus on more than one thing and these attributes were exclusive of one another). It seems Baumeister is more concerned with the individual’s productivity and manageability and less with the individual’s level of happiness and satisfaction. Me, I want it all for everyone.

Joseph Dayan

School Psychologist

Bakersfield

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I could not agree more with Baumeister’s assessment of misguided cultural notions regarding self-esteem. Although they are an enticing and popular construct purported by many to be the “magic bullet” for societal ills, a growing amount of empirical literature is unsupportive. Nevertheless, educational institutions have hopped aboard the self-esteem bandwagon, fashioning programs to enhance positive self-regard at the expense of real achievement in academic and interpersonal settings.

Positive self-regard is a natural consequence of accumulating successes over time, learning self-control and learning from failure, and it does not grow in a vacuum. As with popular but now debunked notions from earlier times -- such as animal magnetism, spiritism and the like -- popular notions of self-esteem belong on the junk heap. Instead, empirically derived knowledge, not “feel-good intentions,” should guide educational policy.

Christopher W. Williams

Valencia