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

A Meaning-Based, Two-Factor Theory of Self-Esteem 171also plenty of individual variation in what could otherwise seem like a regimentedprocess. By the end of this stage of self-esteem development, theindividual comes to have what the literature refers to as a basic or globallevel of self-esteem. Over all, then, the relationship between competenceand worthiness is that of equal partners in the self-esteem: It is the “additive”result that Harter (1999) and the two-factor school in general talkabout in regard to self-esteem and in measuring it.By now, the developing child is well on the way to acquiring his orher own self-esteem type and level. The material we considered on thedevelopment of self-esteem indicates that an individual can run into threekinds of problems in this stage of self-esteem formation. First, a childmay already have encountered major obstacles or problems in the earlydevelopment of worthiness or competence. For example, such factors asearly childhood behavioral problems, learning disabilities, unsupportiveor abusive parenting, and social-economic deprivation may affect thedevelopment of self-esteem in ways that impede its movement toward apositive direction (Harter, Whitehall & Junkin, 1998). Second, the child’snatural competencies may not be relevant to the skills required for successin a given environment or the opportunities for developing suchskills may be limited, either of which could create a situation in which thechild’s chances for failure outweigh the possibilities of success. Third, thedeveloping individual may encounter a conflict of values. Those experiencesthat involve intrinsic or internalized values are helpful to the developmentof self-esteem but contingent or external values are not. Whenthe individual faces a conflict between such values or value choices, muchmore is at stake than may meet the eye (Deci & Ryan, 1995; Ryan &Deci, 2003).Various factors that help or hurt the developmental process includegenetic predispositions (Neiss, Stevenson & Sedikides, 2003), the natureof the gene/environment fit between a child and the world into which heor she is born, how observant the parent is, how caring or rejecting ateacher happens to be at a critical time, how supportive or rejecting otherchildren are, whether the child’s culture emphasizes individualistic or collectivevalues, and so on. Those who find circumstances favorable becauseof one positive factor or another move forward in their growth moreeasily, whereas those who do not, acquire the beginnings of a problematicself-esteem theme. In either case, this phase of the development of selfesteemappears to solidify during adolescence which, in turn, adds thefinal ingredients of identity and self-awareness. Although self-esteem doesseem to be somewhat open to fluctuations at the beginning of this process,the level and type of self-esteem acquired by the end of this period seem tobe the basic sense of competence and worthiness with which the individualmust begin to face the challenges of living on their own.