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

28 SELF-ESTEEM RESEARCH, THEORY, AND PRACTICEwhat is called the “general structure” of the phenomenon (Giorgi, 1971,1975) to complete this process. A general or fundamental structure is asuccinct description of all the elements that are necessary to give rise to agiven human phenomenon or experience. It also describes how the individualcomponents work together to create the phenomenon in the livedworld. When properly done, such a complete description also makes anexcellent definition of a phenomenon because it is more substantial thana mere concept.Because fundamental structures are only found in the life world,their descriptions can only emerge from data generated at this level. Theinvestigation that I conducted into more poignant self-esteem momentspresented earlier also led to the development of a fundamental structure,and it has been refined over time (Mruk, 1981, 1995, 1999). As it is usedhere, then, self-esteem is the lived status of one’s competence at dealingwith the challenges of living in a worthy way over time. One of the valuablethings about succinct descriptions of fundamental structures is thatthey show what is both necessary and sufficient for a particular phenomenonto occur, which means that they can also be unfolded in a way thatreveals the inner workings of the phenomenon, as well as its basic components.The lived structure of self-esteem consists of five key elementswhich can be unpacked in the following fashion.The first one, “status,” concerns a particular state of being. Theword was chosen to represent this aspect of self-esteem because statusimplies something that is reasonably stable while still being open tochange under certain conditions. One’s economic or marital status areexamples of this condition. In this sense, each of us tends to live a relativelystable degree, level, or type of self-esteem that we characteristicallybring to the world. The word “lived” is added to status to express thatself-esteem cannot be avoided: It is grounded in the past, becomes alive inthe present, and follows us into the future in one form or another. Yet,like other dynamic conditions, sometimes self-esteem is lived in a waythat is more important for particular situations than others, such as theones that have been identified as self-esteem moments.Competence, of course, is a familiar term. It is often used in this fieldto refer to an individual’s particular set of physical, cognitive, and socialskills or abilities, as well as weaknesses in these areas. However, it is alsoimportant to realize, as developmental psychology does, that competenceis also a process: It takes time and practice to learn how to master the tasksof life. Competence is connected to self-esteem because individuals dealwith the various challenges of living on the basis of what specific skills areavailable to them but also through one’s particular level of maturity as anindividual. Sometimes the challenges of living are small, or at least normal,such as learning to walk, growing up, and acquiring the survival skills that