What Self-esteem Truly Does to You

Introduction

We have many different thoughts processing in our head that can be about many different things every single day. This is good as we can be creative and really think about something that could be groundbreaking. But within all of us, something really makes us look at ourselves in a certain way that can be negative but also positive too. This is Self-esteem and what will be explored will be a variety of topics that go with the positive side and negative side of self-esteem and why this seems to occur within ourselves. But what truly is self-esteem? When looking into self-esteem a study identified three levels, first, the macro level which is the level of trait self-esteem, the meso level which is state self-esteem, and the last level is the micro level which is discrete self-experiences. (De Ruiter, 2017). This is under the model of Self-organizing Self-esteem. As because of this model it is able to predict the underlying dynamics of trait and state self-esteem. (De Ruiter, 2017). As this theory helps introduce self-esteem being much more complex than you think self-esteem isn’t just one dimensional but has many layers to it. But now when it comes to a study actually looking to see if self-esteem is associated with something, there is a way to actually measure it. One of these scales that measures self-esteem is called G-SISE or also known as the German Single-Item Self-Esteem Scale. But you may think that self-esteem may differ across where you live which is why a study was conducted to see if it could be used on a global scale. Within the study, the G-SISE was looked into its association with the “Big Five” traits, subjective happiness, and social support. As though the study found it was a reliable tool to use for measuring global self-esteem. (Brailovskia, 2020). Through diving deeper into the topic of Self-esteem there are many positive and negative things that are associated with self-esteem. A long with seeing what things actually influence self-esteem as well will be covered.

Brain Regions of Self-Esteem

As when looking at self-esteem we probably do think it has to do with us probably never thought about exactly where it’s located in what actually can influence our self-esteem. As this can explain directly why people act the way they do with certain areas of the brain influencing how self-esteem can affect us. As one of the studies looked at the neural activity in the brain and looked at the rewarded-related brain regions for self-esteem. As often when testing the validity of implicit self-esteem often end up inconclusive as they are measured in the backdrop of imperfect behavioral measures. Why to combat that neural validity was tested as the most widely used implicit self-esteem measure. (Izuma, 2018). This is good for a study to look at one that is widely used as the fact it's being widely used means it’s a reliable measure to properly measure self-esteem which is very important when doing this. But also to take a look into the neural activity is good to see how our brain processes our self-esteem instead of looking at behaviors that are seen to be inconsistent for proper results. This goes to show to properly conducting these studies to look at ways to prevent these tests from being inconclusive and to find a way to make it not is very good. As when they were looking at the results of the study, they were able to find that when looking at an image the reward-related brain regions. As the fMRI scan was able to find the reward-related region were robustly associated with implicit self-esteem as this points to unique evidence for neural validity of self-esteem. (Izuma, 2018). This is important as implicit self-esteem is how someone evaluates themselves spontaneously and unconsciously. So, when looking at the scans shows that association with the reward center is crucial. As we can see how people when striving for success from the way they see others being successful which when it comes those who make it big get cars like a Ferri which is why when someone may get a nicer car even when they might not be economically stable enough to do so but because of their self-esteem with that related to the reward-related brain region and to appease that otherwise they would look down on themselves. There was also another study that looked at self-appraisal which leads to the formation of self-esteem (Knyazev, 2021). The study went into different areas of the brain, Medial Prefrontal Cortex (MPFC), right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), anterior insula(AIns), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. As from the study they were able to find that self-appraisal was driven mostly by the endorsement of positive descriptions, there was then increased activation in areas rTPJ, MPFC, and PCC while the negative descriptions saw more activation of rAIns and inhibition of PCC and MPFC. (Knyazev, 2021). This provided further into exactly what areas of the brain react to more positive things we hear compared to what areas of the brain are activated by the negative and it seems when it comes to this we can see what areas of the brain need to be targeted in order to help improve self-esteem to be the best in terms to help those who may think lowly of themselves and getting at these areas of the brain is the best step towards that.

Negatives of Self-esteem

As we want to have good self-esteem but just like usual having too little of something can be bad for us couldn’t having also then too high of something be bad as well? Well, you would think high self-esteem would be all good for you but that is shut down. As while you might be confident with yourself it may end up fostering then narcissism which is very bad to have. As a study went into to see if high self-esteem did foster narcissism and through it was able to conclude that self-esteem correlated positively with narcissistic admiration but not narcissistic rivalry. (Cichocka, 2019). On the other side of the coin, low self-esteem can cause some negative things to happen. A case that took a look into peer victimization and to see its association with low self-esteem. The study did end up finding some publication bias in the results obtained but found that it suggested that peer victimization could have long-lasting negative effects on self-esteem, also that children can become victims because of having low self-esteem. (Van Geel, 2018). It this important to see how having low self-esteem is in relation to peer victimization and that this causes harm to self-esteem we see that bullying campaigns to prevent it have been increased over time as this is for the good as this study points out that peer victimization hurting self-esteem in which if it is prevented could then, in theory, improve self-esteem among children who would then avoid this completely.

Positives of Self-esteem

But now looking more so in the positive side of self-esteem and what it can do to do. As we all want to feel good about ourselves but what things actually end up getting to that healthy level of self-esteem to allow this? Well, it can happen in different ways one way that it was looked at was when it looked at exercising to see if it had a positive affect on self-esteem. As the study was done and looked at a variety of ages from 18–69 years old and look at 264 participants and the study ended up finding that there were direct significant effects. As exercise frequency was able to be positively significantly associated with positive affect which was found to be positively associated with life satisfaction, self-esteem, and subjective vitality. (Rodrigues 2021). I find it interesting these finding how self-esteem is so positively correlated with exercise. This is why I am wondering over time in the U.S. why over time exercise has seemed to almost become less important. As I remember ads to encourage youth to get more exercise can be good for their self-esteem but it seems to be becoming less important which I think has taken a toll on both our health mentally and physically too. As going into the medical field you have to have empathy for those who you want to care for as you want to do good for them. A study looked into seeing if empathy had a positive association with self-esteem and they looked at medical students. This study looked at Chinese medical students to see if there was any correlation between these two variables. The conclusion from the results was able to find a positive correlation between empathy and self-esteem, self-esteem was found to be one of many different factors that contributed to empathy. (Huang, 2019). This is important to see how it can also shape how empathetic we are too to others based on how we are feeling about ourselves. Because while its good to look out for others before yourself. If you aren’t taking care of yourself and your self-esteem is then lower then you will end up caring less because of that meaning you could then be less likely to end up helping as you would be less empathic. But it’s good to see that positive correlation between empathy and self-esteem.

Things that Influence Self-esteem

What are some other things we are able to do to further help improve our self-esteem? Well as mentioned before talking how exercise can help us out positively so can other ways to influence our self-esteem. One of the studies looked at if doing a short daily training on your phone can help your self-esteem. From the data that was collected, it was found consistent that applications targeting maladaptive beliefs saw an increase in one’s wellness and reduced distress. From this self-esteem and mood were increased. (Giraldo-O’Meara, 2021). This is a good way to see how we are able to do these little things within our lives to help improve our self-esteem but also our well-being too and it seems that a lot of time helping our well being whether it mentally or doing something physically can be helpful for us to improve for our health. But how about our self-esteem affect others that are around us in our lives? As we like to surround ourselves with similar people to us. A study looked into this with junior high students to see if this was the case at all, what was found is that it depended on their original level of self-esteem as well as how important self-esteem is to them too. (Shimizu, 2021). This study is interesting as you would expect the opposite and that high self-esteem would correlate with bringing up others around them but it’s not so clear and cut. As mentioned before self-esteem has many layers and is a lot more complex than we think it is. This is why self-esteem for one person is going to be different in the ways it’s affected compared to someone else.

Conclusion

This is why self-esteem is a lot more complex than you first thought and why it is so important. As it plays into many different things within your life as it can make you feel more empathy towards those who are around you and how there ways to improve self-esteem that are truly within your control. But as mention before self-esteem in the way its help is going to be different for everyone else as someone who is more into sports will see greater improvement with their self-esteem doing things that are more active. While someone who may be more introverted will see more benefit in doing those daily training activities on their phone as it’s more comfortable for them to do. As self-esteem really needs that emphasis on “self” as we want to improve what we think of ourselves but we all want to be able to do it in our own way that actually will help us the most. So when thinking about this and seeing someone who may be down you can help them on to the correct path by knowing the kind of person they are as that will help greatest for their self-esteem.

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