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

20 SELF-ESTEEM RESEARCH, THEORY, AND PRACTICEself-esteem: Such a feeling must also be rational, which is to say based onappropriately corresponding behavior. In other words, worth results fromengaging in healthy actions and avoiding destructive ones, a condition thatmakes it difficult to connect self-esteem to such things as narcissism orother “dark” phenomena.Perhaps because Branden offered more philosophical than empiricalsupport for his definition, it did not receive the kind of attention in thefield as did the others. However, other work that is based on a similarunderstanding of self-esteem has been going on since the 1970s. Moreempirical studies of self-esteem that define it in terms of competence andworth or worthiness have achieved a level of credibility that is at leastequal to the other traditions. This third force in self-esteem is describedas a “dual model” of self-esteem (Franks & Marolla, 1976), a “twofactor”theory (Tafarodi & Swann Jr., 1995), or as a “multidimensionalapproach” (Harter, 1999; O’Brien & Epstein, 1983, 1988). Empiricalwork in this tradition seems to have begun in 1971 with Victor Gecaswhen he was researching factors that affect self-esteem in adolescence.After exhausting other possibilities, he found that only a two-factorapproach accounted for the variables that were showing up in the study.Later, he noted that his work was not alone.Increasingly, however, various aspects of self-esteem have beendifferentiated—e.g. sense of power and sense of worth (Gecas, 1971);“inner” and “outer” self-esteem (Franks & Marolla, 1976); evaluationand affection (Wells & Marwell, 1976); sense of competence and selfworth(Smith, 1978); self-evaluation and self-worth (Brissett, 1972);and competence and morality (Rokeach, 1973; Vallacher, 1980; Hales,1980). Common to these subdivisions is the distinction between (a) selfesteembased on a sense of competence, power, or efficacy, and (b) selfesteembased on a sense of virtue or moral worth. (Gecas, 1982, p. 5)Gecas went on to talk about how it is that each factor involves differentpsychological and social processes. For example, the competencedimension of self-esteem is connected to performance, whereas virtue orthe worthiness factor is grounded in values, particularly those that governinterpersonal conduct. Like Branden, he also pointed out that competenceand worthiness are greatly intertwined in self-esteem: It is their reciprocitythat creates self-esteem and makes it a unique phenomenon.Today, modern researchers whose work is as empirically rigorous asany in the field are using this dual, two-factor, or multidimensionalapproach. However, it is disappointing to see that such work is often conspicuouslyabsent in the reference sections of work that is done from theother two perspectives or in work that criticizes self-esteem research forits “weak” findings. Yet, it is clear that Romin Tafarodi and several