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

Major Self-Esteem Research Findings 79by notable attainment in any of the four areas. This might occur evenwhere attainment in the other areas was mediocre or poor” (p. 38).Writing in an organizational context, Bradshaw (1981) offered an economicanalogy that shows this dynamic aspect of the relationshipbetween self-esteem and success. He grouped all the potential experiencesthat enhance self-esteem in life as a reserve of potential self-esteem“income.” The individual, through achieving, having power and influence,being valued, and acting on beliefs, may access this pool of wealth.When activated in this fashion, a “self-esteem income flow” is created,thereby raising self-esteem (p. 7). The strength or frequency of the flowdetermines the degree or level of our self-esteem. The model also indicatesthat the four routes to self-esteem can operate alone or in concertwith one another. Failures can be seen as detracting from self-esteem, butblocking any one route is not necessarily a problem because others can beused to compensate for it.However, Crocker and Park’s (2003, 2004) poignant research onself-esteem and success powerfully contradicts this position. As theypointed out, the pursuit of self-esteem can lead to unhealthy outcomeswhen it is driven by a desperate need for success in a particular domain.In fact, this work maintains that most of self-esteem is completely contingenton success and that because the possibility of failure is alwayspresent, it may not even be possible to develop a healthy level of selfesteemin the long run. Such a position presents us with a problem. Onone hand, it appears as though self-esteem can come from any of the foursources of self-esteem. On the other hand, we just saw that basing selfesteemon only one source is a theoretical and behavioral dead end. Howare we to make sense of two such contradictory findings, both of whichare accompanied by supportive work?One way is to understand the various aspects of the problem in thelight of the fundamental structure of self-esteem. Success and achievementare clearly tied to competence, but they are not sufficient to createself-esteem: Competence alone, we have seen, only creates a state of contingencythat certainly is not helpful for living and does not fit the fundamentalstructure of self-esteem. Turning to worthiness as a sufficientsource of self-esteem is no solution, either. For one thing, acceptance doesnot give us the skills that are necessary to master the ordinary tasks oflife. Also, the fundamental structure of self-esteem shows us that worth isonly part of the picture: Otherwise, we would have to include narcissismas genuine or authentic self-esteem. The most efficient way to resolve thissituation is to stay with the fundamental structure, which indicates thateach basic source of self-esteem is necessary, but not sufficient, to formself-esteem. This position even allows us to understand something of thenature of the relationship between the two components: They seem to