Self-Esteem Research, Theory, and Practice Toward a Positive ...

78 SELF-ESTEEM RESEARCH, THEORY, AND PRACTICEevents more effectively. Conversely, too many failures tend to engender asense of inadequacy, incompetence, helplessness, or perhaps even hopelessness,depending on how frequent and how severe the failures happento be, all of which bode ill for self-esteem.Achievements versus Failures“Achievement” is the term chosen to represent the particular kind of successCoopersmith (1967) had in mind when he used the word “competence”because the latter word is too easily confused with one of the basiccomponents of self-esteem revealed by its general structure. Epstein’s(1979) term “success” is not used because it is too general. For example,we can say that it is good for a person’s self-esteem to be “successful” inregard to any of the other three sources of self-esteem. The use of the term“achievement” is also more accurate in describing this particular sourcebecause it is not just any kind of success that counts. We all know, forexample, people who are successful in this or that area of life but who alsohave obvious problems with self-esteem. Moreover, achievement carrieswith it a much stronger personal connotation than does mere success.Indeed, starting with William James, a whole string of self-esteemtheorists and research point out that success must be in a domain or areathat matters to the individual in terms of their identity before it has anyvalue for self-esteem. For example, brushing one’s teeth is not a particularlysignificant act for most of us, but it may be a great personal achievementfor an intellectually or physically challenged individual. There alsoappears to be a set of extraordinary personal achievements that affectself-esteem in an extremely powerful way. The research by Epstein(1979), Jackson (1984), and Mruk (1983) indicates that when we reacha goal that requires dealing effectively with problems or obstacles thatalso have personal or biographical significance, we demonstrate a higherlevel of competence at dealing with the challenges of living. Such successis also an achievement in a developmental sense, which makes “achievement”the appropriate term in yet another way.Competence and Worthiness as the Sources of Self-EsteemThere is one more important point to explore concerning the sources ofself-esteem. It concerns what is called “variability” in the literature or howindividuals can use these four sources to obtain it. Coopersmith (1967)maintained that individuals may develop healthy levels of self-esteem bybeing successful in just one or two areas, particularly if these domainsof life are approved of by their primary reference group: “We shouldnote that it may be possible for an individual to attain high self-esteem