Is the Self-Esteem Movement Running out of Steam?

Writing in the February 1, 2007, edition of Phi Delta Kappan, Peter Campbell recounted a thought-provoking encounter with one of his daughter's interactive toys. The toy encouraged children to solve puzzles, such as "touch the scarecrow with three red triangles." Each successfully accomplished task, he wrote, was "followed by raucous celebration on the part of the toy, usually in the form of a cartoon character saying something like, 'Good job!' or 'Way to go!'"

The reaction of the three-year-old daughter to this consistent barrage of praise? She became bored. "The more I played, the more I realized that the toy was celebrating the accomplishment of extremely easy, mindless tasks that all had exactly one correct way of being done," Campbell said. "Ironically, this 'toy' was utterly joyless."

The self-esteem movement largely grew out of the "me decade" 1970s and gained momentum in the 1980s as organziations like the National Council for Self Esteem (now called the National Association for Self Esteem) came to the fore. The National Association for Self Esteem posts this mission statement: "The purpose of our organization is to fully integrate self-esteem into the fabric of American society so that every individual, no matter what their age or background, experiences personal worth and happiness."

Sounds reasonable. But what about the concern that, especially in K-12 schools, children are having their egos reinforced at the expense of learning how to cope with frustration and even failure? "In Texas, teachers were advised to avoid using red ink, the colour of reprimand," noted Anjana Ahuja in a London Times piece. "In California, a task force was set up to inject the concept of self-worth into the education system."

The National Association for Self Esteem takes educational concerns into account. Dr. Nathaniel Branden, a psychotherapist, writes:

If a teacher treats students with respect, avoids ridicule and other belittling remarks, deals with everyone fairly and justly, and projects a strong, benevolent conviction about every student's potential, then that teacher is supporting both self-esteem and the process of learning and mastering challenges. For such a teacher, self-esteem is tied to reality, not to faking reality.  In contrast however, if a teacher tries to nurture self-esteem by empty praise that bears no relationship to the students' actual accomplishments … dropping all objective standards … allowing young people to believe that the only passport to self-esteem they need is the recognition that they are "unique" … then self-esteem is undermined and so it academic achievement.

So how much esteem is too much? Certainly no child should lack in qualities such as confidence, happiness and self-assurance, but some have wondered if such gestures as giving every child on a sports team a trophy just for participating has created a generation of young adults who have not learned to handle disappointment. Or, as Stephanie Vozza posed the question regarding motherhood it in The Tennessean: " When did a mother's job change from raising decent human beings who solve their own problems to creating little geniuses nurtured for athletic and musical prowess – all while having a hefty sense of entitlement?"

Dr. Branden urges critics to reexamine their definition of self-esteem. " Can people have too much esteem? No!," declares the National Association's site. Branden notes: "It is no more possible to have too much self-esteem than it is to have too much physical or mental health. But sometimes when people lack adequate self-esteem they fall into arrogance, boasting, and grandiosity as a defenses mechanism – a compensatory strategy. Their problem is not that they have too big an ego but they have too small a one.  Further, let me say that high self-esteem is not egotism, as some people mistakenly imagine."

New voices are calling for a change of attitude. Roy Baumeister, Francis Epps Professor of Social Psychology at Florida State University followed the movement over three decades. "After nearly two decades of teachers, parents and therapists focusing their efforts on boosting children's self-esteem, Baumeister and a team of psychologists he's led have found no evidence that boosting self-esteem through school programs or therapeutic interventions leads to any positive outcomes," notes the Florida State University Web site. "It's become obvious that there is little in the new findings that the potentates of the self-esteem movement can use to bolster their claims."

"After all these years," Baumeister was quoted on the FSU site, "my recommendation is this: Forget about self-esteem and concentrate more on self-control and self-discipline. Recent work suggests this would be good for the individual and good for society – and might even be able to fill some of those promises that self-esteem once made but could not keep."