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

A Meaning-Based, Two-Factor Theory of Self-Esteem 1572000). Perhaps the prototypical method used there may be helpful here.According to this approach, one way of classifying human behavior diagnosticallyis to develop qualitatively distinct categories that are clearlydistinguishable from one another. Such a categorical system is helpful indealing with phenomena that are substantially distinct in ways that areeasy to determine, such as an infection versus a broken bone. But humanbehavior is also dimensional, which means that it is necessary to considera range of symptoms or behaviors. For example, anxiety is often usefulwhen one is preparing for an important exam, looking out for danger ina combat situation, and so forth, but it may also become a clinical problem.The same is true with many other emotions. Depression, for example,ranges from mild to severe. Also, many personality characteristicsvary in this way. For instance, conscientiousness ranges from a positivepersonal quality to the compulsive personality disorder.The DSM uses a combination of categorical and dimensional features,called a “prototypical” system (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), todistinguish between types and levels of clinical conditions. For example,anticipating an exam, feeling sad, acting conscientiously, and being cautiousare at one end of various dimensions of behavior, while agoraphobia, severedepression, compulsiveness, and paranoia are at the other end, respectively.Although the ends of such continua are connected in terms of forming arange, they also differ qualitatively. No one knows exactly where the differencebetween non-clinical and clinical significance lies. However, it is possibleto differentiate between such conditions on the basis of a prototype,which is the point at which one becomes “clinically significant.” This distinctionis reached when one exhibits a preponderance of clear symptoms orother indications that have been found to be problematic enough to warrantprofessional attention when they come together in a particular fashion.Thus, each major diagnostic group is first characterized by a central theme,such as anxiety, dissociation, mood, and so forth. Then, it is possible tobreak disorders into subtypes that reflect the central features of a particularcondition but with enough variation to be recognizably different.Perhaps the study of self-esteem can be approached in the same way.For example, each quadrant may be seen as a group of related self-esteemcharacteristics that are qualitatively distinct enough to be distinguishedfrom one another, much like the major diagnostic groups. Yet, for eachbasic self-esteem group, it is possible to see different levels or degrees ofcompetence or worthiness. This aspect of self-esteem is represented by animaginary diagonal line that runs through the middle of each quadrant.High self-esteem, then, ranges from the coordinate 0 to the coordinates of+10, +10, while low self-esteem drops along the range that runs from 0 to−10, −10. Worthiness-based self-esteem varies from 0 to +10, −10 and itscompetence-based counterpart travels from 0 to −10, +10 on the diagram.