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

182 SELF-ESTEEM RESEARCH, THEORY, AND PRACTICEwho tend to emphasize the role of the subject in behavior too much to befaithful to reality. Nor can it be said that any situation announces endlesspossibilities: We are limited by the structure of our bodies, brains, and soforth. Consequently, it is also not possible to say that interpretation iseverything as many post-modernists tend to do. Rather, both sides of theinterface between person and world interact to organize, form, create, orcooperatively constitute (hence, co-constitute) human realities. Thisdynamic exchange between the self and the world (including the socialworld) is more like a dialectic or conversation than a feedback loop inthat both sides allow certain possibilities to occur and both forces shapethem over time until they have either played themselves out or flowedinto new scenarios.On one hand, then, the self-esteem meaning matrix formed by ourinevitable developmental concerns with competence and worthiness orientsus toward the world so that we are ready to perceive, react, andrespond to it in these ways. On the other hand, the world and thosewithin it address us on a number of levels, some of which mobilize thesestructures of meaning and experience in minor and major ways. Whenthat happens in a way that “captures” us in terms of our self-esteem, weare mobilized and must respond in terms of worthiness and competence.The motivation to preserve a stable sense of meaning (consistency theory)and to maximize our potentials (enhancement theory) is what connectsself-esteem to behavior in terms of needs and calls, which is to say motivationin general. Because the dynamics of the situation are co-constitutedby individuals and the situation in which they find themselves, causeand effect inevitably flow in both directions. It is difficult to measure such“directionality” statistically because, in addition to being based on meaning,it is also fluid. Yet, as Harter (1999) pointed out, there can be littledoubt that self-esteem is at least phenomenologically important to theexperiencing person who is trying to manage the realities of life at thelived level. It is possible to illustrate the relationship between facing challengesof living authentically and self-esteem, or the link between selfesteemand behavior, as seen in Figure 5.5.Although this interaction may at first look like a feedback systemthat perpetuates itself in the form of a self-fulfilling prophecy, informationshould never be confused with meaning. The diagram moves fromleft to right and is organized in terms of time (past, present, and future);let us examine the relationship between self-esteem and behavior as it islived chronologically. Along with many other things, part of an individual’spast includes his or her history of competence and of worthiness asrelated, but separate, developmental themes. Slowly, these two developmentalprocesses become increasingly tied to one another so that theybecome intertwined dynamically in a relationship characterized by the set