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

A Two-Factor Self-Esteem Enhancement Program 209in Chapters 1 and 3. The group can help accomplish this task by rememberingthat the fundamental structure of self-esteem shows us how competencebalances worthiness and vice versa. Thus, the next set ofactivities focuses on the behavioral dimensions of self-esteem, or how weearn it.1. Self-esteem journal data.2. Week 4—Handout 1: Enhancing Competence: Problem-SolvingMethod.3. Week 4—Handout 2: Enhancing Competence: Problem-SolvingWorksheet.ProcedureStep 1: Review. The session begins with a review of the cognitiverestructuring technique. I start by asking the group to share examplesfrom their journals, but this time I also ask permission to diagram one situationon the board and have the group work through it with me frombeginning to end. I repeat this procedure until I am sure everybody knowshow to use the technique. There are several reasons for beginning thisway. One is that we are trying to help people acquire a new skill thatmust become a habit to work effectively. Such learning takes time andpeople often make mistakes in the early stages, just as any novice might.Also, the old habits are so powerful and so automatic that people arelikely to be trapped by them again and again, despite attempts by othersto intervene. Repeating the process reinforces new ways of dealing withthese old self-esteem traps. Finally, by going over them publicly participantsget to see that someone else in the group actually found relief usingthis method. Often, hearing others talk about how they broke out of atrap, even if momentarily, lends credibility to the technique, gives hopefor the future, and underscores the program’s value.It should be noted that some of the cognitive (co-constitutive) distortionswe commit are trickier to deal with than others. Workingthrough participants’ problems on the board allows us to use our professionalexpertise to help with some of the more subtle self-esteem traps.For instance, I find that one of the most difficult distortions with whichto deal is that of a person who co-constitutes a situation through whatBurns (1980) called “emotional reasoning.” I like to call this particulardistortion “Yeah, but,” which is a phrase a student of mine coined whenshe noticed that those seem to be the words people use most often whenthey are engaged in emotional reasoning. Let me illustrate this phenomenonbecause it can be disruptive to the group process if it is not dealt withsuccessfully.