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

A Meaning-Based, Two-Factor Theory of Self-Esteem 181organisms work, but to claim that human beings function in the sameway is quite a leap. In this case, the fundamental structure of self-esteemshows us that the cognitive version of the self-fulfilling prophecy does notdescribe how competence and worthiness are actually lived. For instance,the self-esteem matrix does not merely “process” information; it makesinformation meaningful and meaning is beyond computation. There areother, more esoteric problems with the cognitive approach to consider aswell. For example, it involves what has been referred to as the “ideologyof control” or a fascination with manipulating things (Dreyfus &Dreyfus, 1986), whereas a human science approach tends to appreciatethat life is always richer than our ability to understand it.Co-Constitution: A Phenomenological AlternativeAmong the major ways of understanding the link between self-esteemand behavior in the traditional literature, then, we are left with Harter’s(1999) description of self-esteem and directionality. There is an interestingphenomenological counterpart to this type of understanding thathelps us to understand how self-esteem is linked to behavior a bit morecompletely. It is found in the phenomenological notion of the processof constitution (Husserl, 1970b), which is better discussed with the morecontemporary term of co-constitution. The process of co-constitutionconsists of three elements: the person, the situation in which he or shecurrently finds himself or herself, and the relationship between the two.The term “self-world relationship” is used to refer to these three fundamentalaspects of behavior.On the “self” side of the existential picture, each person faces theworld and its situations, which includes others, as well as objects, on thebasis of the meanings that the individual brings to them. These meaningmakingfactors include a tendency to perceive events in ways that arecompatible with one’s cultural heritage, social background, personalidentity, individual preferences (including one’s genetic predispositions),current degree of self-awareness, sense of agency (purpose, motivation,and free will) and, in situations that involve competence and worthiness,one’s self-esteem. The “world” side concerns what a particular situationbrings to a person in terms of objects, people, possibilities, and limitations.Of course, free will is always limited by reality, which is why someof us prefer the term “situated free will” to a more open-ended understanding.Behavior is represented by the hyphen in the self-world relationshipbecause it expresses the interaction between the twoco-constitutive dynamics and the outcome of such an exchange.Phenomenologists fully appreciate that neither side is more importantor more real than the other. This is why we cannot be phenomenalists