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Experiences in a person's life are a major source of self-esteem development. The positive or negative life experiences one has, creates attitudes toward the self which can be favourable and develop positive feelings of self-worth, or can be unfavourable and develop negative feelings of self-worth. In the early years of a child's life, parents are the most significant influence on self-esteem and the main source of positive and/or negative experiences a child will have. The emphasis of unconditional love, in parenting how-to books, represents the importance of a child developing a stable sense of being cared for and respected. These feelings translate into later effects of self-esteem as the child grows older.[5] During the school years, academic achievement is a significant contributor to self-esteem development. A student consistently achieving success or consistently failing, strongly affects their individual self-esteem.[17] Social experiences are another important contributor. As children go through school they begin to understand and recognize differences between themselves and their classmates. Using social comparisons, children assess whether they did better or worse than classmates in different activities. These comparisons play an important role in shaping the child's self-esteem and influence the positive or negative feelings they have about themselves.[18][19] As children go through adolescence peer influence becomes much more important, as adolescents make appraisals of themselves based on their relationships with close friends.[20] Successful relationships among friends is very important to the development of high self-esteem for children. Social acceptance brings about confidence and produces high self-esteem, whereas rejection from peers and loneliness brings about self-doubts and produces low self-esteem.[21] Parenting style can also play a crucial role in self-esteem development. Students in elementary school who have high self-esteem tend to have parents who are caring, supportive adults who set clear standards for their child and allow them to voice their opinion in decision making. Although studies thus far have reported only a correlation of warm, supportive parenting styles and children having high self-esteem it could easily be thought of as having some causal effect in self-esteem development.[22][23][24] Childhood experiences that contribute to healthy self-esteem include being listened to, being spoken to respectfully, receiving appropriate attention and affection and having accomplishments recognized and mistakes or failures acknowledged and accepted. Experiences that contribute to low self-esteem include being harshly criticized, being physically, sexually or emotionally abused, being ignored, ridiculed or teased or being expected to be "perfect" all the time.[25] Longitudinal study A study done by Ruth Yasemin Erol and Ulrich Orth from the University of Basel examined the development of self-esteem in adolescence and young adulthood. The aim of the study was to determine the trajectory of self-esteem development; as in when does self-esteem development occur in life and in what direction. Another aspect of the study was to discover potential modifiers to individual differences in self-esteem development after recording trajectories. It was expected that self-esteem development would continuously increase during adolescence and young adulthood as per previous studies' results.[26] Erol and Orth found that self-esteem increases moderately through adolescence and continues to increase in young adulthood at a slower rate. A high sense of mastery, low risk taking and better overall health predicted higher self- esteem in participants at each age level. Emotionally stable, extroverted and conscientious participants experienced higher self-esteem as well. An individual's sense of mastery proved to be an important moderator of self-esteem trajectory for all participants. In the case of ethnicity playing a role in self-esteem differences, Hispanics had a lower rating of self-esteem in adolescence than Blacks and Whites but then increased to having a stronger, higher self-esteem than Whites by the age of 30. This study showed no results depicting a significant difference between self-esteem trajectories of men and women. The findings of this research, in regards to self-esteem trajectory, is consistent with what is known about the life span development of self-esteem. Erol and Orth's study documents the importance of adolescence as a possible critical period for self-esteem development. This studies results can lend itself to the implementation of self-esteem improvement interventions in young children. Self-evaluation Self-esteem requires "a self-evaluation process in which individuals compare their description of themselves as they are (Real Self) with their description of themselves as they would like to become (Ideal Self) and as they fear becoming (Dreaded Self)."[27] Self-esteem depends on living up to one's ideals. Self-evaluation is important because the subject is able to assess what they know, what they do not know and what they would like to know. They begin to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, and will be able to set goals that they know they can attain with the new knowledge they have about themselves.[28] Development There are four levels of self-evaluation development in relation to the Real Self, Ideal Self, and the Dreaded Self. The Real, Ideal, and Dreaded Selves develop in a sequential pattern on cognitive levels (moral judgment stages, ego development stages, and self-understanding).[27] Individuals describe their Real, Ideal, and Dreaded Selves with stereotypical labels, such as "nice" or "bad". Individuals describe their Ideal and Real Selves in terms of disposition for action or as behavioural habits. The Dreaded Self is often described as being unsuccessful or as having bad habits Individuals describe their Ideal and Real Selves in terms of traits that are based in attitudes as well as actions. The Dreaded Self are often described as have failed to meet social expectations or as self-centered. Individuals describe their Ideal and Real Selves as having a unified identity or character. Descriptions of the Dreaded Self focus on a failure to live up to one's ideals or role expectations often because of real world problems Development brings with it increasingly complicated and encompassing moral demands. As individuals develop their depiction of their Dreaded Selves become increasingly more realistic and more plausible. |
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