Personality Theory: The Need For Self-Esteem

840 Words2 Pages

older people imagine clear to a greater degree by their social roles. (Kuhn, 1960). The need for self-esteem plays an important role in psychologist Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which depicts self-esteem as one of the basic human motivations. Maslow suggested that people need both esteem from other people as well as inner self-respect. Both of these needs must be fulfilled in order for an individual to grow as a person and achieve self-actualization. Affective models of self-esteem assume that self-esteem develops at an early age and is characterized by two types of feelings. One of these feelings which is call feelings of belonging is rooted in social experiences and the other which is feelings of mastery is somewhat more personal …show more content…

Cultural view A macro-level variant is this view is that the view on life is embodied in the national character. In this line cross-national differences in happiness reflect cognitive cultural norms, rather than individual grief and joy (Inglehart, 1990). Earlier view is the Folklore theory of happiness (Veenhoven 1995: 35). Homeostatic maintenance While the above set-point theories aim at explaining differences in happiness, there are also theories of this kind that focus at the general level of happiness. These are motivational theories that assume that we tend to maintain a comfortable level of happiness, even in adverse conditions. We unconsciously keep happiness between 7 and 8 on a 10-step scale, just as we maintain a 9 body temperature of 32 degrees Celsius (Cummins, 2002). Self-esteem has a strong relation to happiness. Low self-esteem is more likely than high to lead to depression under some circumstances. Some studies support the buffer hypothesis, which is that high self-esteem mitigates the effects of stress, but other studies come to the opposite conclusion, indicating that the negative effects of low self-esteem are mainly felt in good times. Still others find that high self-esteem leads to happier outcomes regardless of stress or other circumstances (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs,

Open Document