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

244 SELF-ESTEEM RESEARCH, THEORY, AND PRACTICEThus, the lack of competence, autonomy, and worth are conditions thatdecrease one’s ability to function authentically and increase the likelihoodof living life inauthentically.In contrast, having a good sense of oneself as being fairly competent,autonomous, and connected results in what SDT called “true selfesteem”(Deci & Ryan, 1995). In this case, defensiveness is minimal,which allows the individual to get in touch with intrinsic values moreeasily. This awareness helps the person to know what to actualize and totake appropriate risks in that direction. In other words, self-esteem isimportant because depending on whether it is positive or negative, ithelps create a virtuous cycle of authenticity or a vicious cycle of inauthenticity.In addition to offering important insights into the nature of selfesteem,one of the most important things about SDT is that it is an existentiallyoriented approach to understanding human behavior that issupported by just the type of empirical studies and methods that appealto positivistic positive psychology. For example, some experimental andlongitudinal work has been done showing that people work longer,harder, and with more enjoyment when pursuing intrinsic goals ratherthan extrinsic ones (Sheldon & Kasser, 2001). Indeed, most major principlesof SDT are supported by such research, which has now reachedthe point where its accumulated volume is substantial enough to berecognized by mainstream psychology. For example, the Handbook ofExperimental Existential Psychology (Greenberg, Koole & Pyszczynski,2004) contains many examples of traditionally based research on humanisticallyoriented topics such as terror of death, the importance of meaning,making choices, motivation, authenticity, and so forth, several ofwhich are important to the new positive psychology as well.Notice that I am not saying that SDT work on self-esteem necessarilysupports the view of it being presented in this book. For instance, Iargue that self-esteem is a basic human need when it is defined in termsof competence and worthiness. SDT does not, even though self-esteemshows up among the top three basic human needs in a study performedby Sheldon, Elliot, Kim & Kasser (2001) that both positions use to bolstertheir points. Similarly, competence, which SDT does make prominentuse of, was actually fourth on that list of needs and is included in the definitionof self-esteem being used here. Nevertheless, the real point is thatwork on authenticity is directly tied to self-esteem and vice versa and yet,we do not see the new positive psychology exploring this dimension ofauthenticity with much vigor at this time.Michael Kernis may be making even more headway into the interfacebetween self-esteem and authenticity while using more traditionallyempirical methods. He began by identifying four basic components of