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

that these techniques are not magical, just rational, and that they at leasthelp us find the best ways to deal with problems or challenges of living.Finally, we must consider the fact that the principle of practice ismore important at this point in the program than ever before. By thistime, people tend to groan about the journal writing (and sometimes thatdoes fall off). However, by now they also see the importance of doing theactual work, so I often try to reinforce the value of practicing by using thefollowing analogy. The idea is to compare learning how to restructure one’sthinking and response patterns with other forms of learning that participantscan relate to more easily, like weight lifting or joining an exerciseclass: One starts out slowly and the first few attempts are crude anduncomfortable, but gains come if one sticks to the activity for a reasonablelength of time. In other words, increasing self-esteem is just like anyother complex learning activity: It takes time and work. I conclude byasking once again, “Why should you expect anything else when so manyyears have gone into learning to develop a self-esteem problem?”Week 5: Management Phase (Maintaining Self-Esteem)GoalThe fifth week deals with two related issues. First, the group meetings arecoming to an end. Any experienced clinician knows about the importanceof dealing with issues such as termination, separation anxiety, andthe sadness of losing something. Second, and more important, ending thegroup means that its members no longer are able to count on the disciplineor structure offered by weekly meetings to help them focus theirawareness or to reinforce the gains that have been made during the program.The group members might need to be reminded that complexlearning takes time and that they have invested only a few weeks. Thus,the finding we uncovered—that good programs must deal with the problemof maintaining self-esteem—turns out to be an important one indeed,and this concern becomes the focus of the last regular meeting. Note thatI use the term managing instead of maintaining self-esteem because managementis much more active, dynamic, and future oriented than is maintenance,which implies holding ground more than making advances.MaterialsA Two-Factor Self-Esteem Enhancement Program 213The fundamental structure of self-esteem was found to consist of competence,worthiness, and the relationship between them. Consequently, thefollowing materials are designed to bring together the work that we havedone on both components in a balanced fashion so that they worktogether to create more self-esteem.