scholarly journals Self‐esteem: a behavioural genetic perspective

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 351-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle B. Neiss ◽  
Constantine Sedikides ◽  
Jim Stevenson

Self‐esteem, the affective or evaluative appraisal of one's self, is linked with adaptive personality functioning: high self‐esteem is associated with psychological health benefits (e.g. subjective well‐being, absence of depression and anxiety), effective coping with illness, and satisfactory social relationships. Although several pathways have been hypothesized to effect within‐family transmission of self‐esteem (e.g. parenting style, family relationship patterns), we focus in this article on genetic influences. Genetic studies on both global and domain‐specific self‐esteem and on both level and stability of self‐esteem converge in showing that (i) genetic influences on self‐esteem are substantial, (ii) shared environmental influences are minimal, and (iii) non‐shared environmental influences explain the largest amount of variance in self‐esteem. We advocate that understanding of current issues in self‐esteem research will be enriched by including behavioural genetic approaches. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiko Takahashi ◽  
Junko Tamura ◽  
Makiko Tokoro

On the premise that social relationships among elderly adults differ in terms of the most significant, dominant figure, this study aimed to examine: (1) whether there were qualitative differences in supportive functions between family-dominant and friend-dominant affective relationships, and (2) whether “lone wolves”, who were deficient in human resources, had difficulties in maintaining their well-being. A total of 148 Japanese, over the age of 65, both living in communities and in institutions were individually interviewed about their social relationships using a self-report type method, the Picture Affective Relationships test, and their well-being was assessed using Depression, Self-esteem, Life satisfaction, and Subjective health scales. Results showed that there were no differences in psychological well-being between family-dominant and friend-dominant participants, but those who lacked affective figures had lower scores in subjective well-being than did their family-dominant and friend-dominant counterparts. The generalisation of these findings to other cultures is discussed.


Author(s):  
Alyona Vavilova

The article is devoted to the study of student's coping strategies influence on the level of their subjective well-being in conditions of distance learning. It was found that student's coping strategies have an impact on the level of their psychological comfort. Using regression analysis it was revealed that the variability of student's life well-being is determined by the following coping strategies: positive self-esteem; responsibility; planning; escape and self-control. It was developed the typology of students in the conditions of distance education, which includes such indicators of dominant coping strategies: the level of psychological comfort, dominant coping and measure of stress tolerance. According to the certain typology, three types of students were defined: 1) adaptive type (high indicators of well-being, high indicators of tolerance to stress, dominant strategies “self-esteem”, “responsibility” and “planning” ); 2) maladaptive type (low indicators of well-being, low indicators of tolerance to stress, dominant coping “escape”); 3) average adaptive type (average indicators of well-being, average indicators of tolerance to stress; dominant strategies “responsibility”, “self-control”, low indicators of coping “positive self-esteem”). The results of the study indicate that students who are best adapted to distance learning and have a high level of psychological comfort tend to evaluate themselves positively, treat work responsibly, plan their studies and have an average level of self-control.


Psychology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 05 (06) ◽  
pp. 514-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio S. Hutz ◽  
Aida Midgett ◽  
Juliana Cerentini Pacico ◽  
Micheline R. Bastianello ◽  
Cristian Zanon

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armand Chatard ◽  
Leila Selimbegović ◽  
Paul N'Dri Konan

Using recent data from the International Sexuality Description Project (ISDP), we examined whether national differences in self‐esteem across 55 nations are reflected in suicide rates. Results indicate that suicide is especially common in nations with relatively low levels of self‐esteem. This relation is consistent across sex lines, age of suicide and independent from several other relevant factors such as economic affluence, transition, individualism, subjective well‐being, and neuroticism. These findings provide support for the predictive validity of self‐esteem scores as assessed in the ISDP survey. They also contribute to a growing body of research documenting negative consequences associated with low self‐esteem. Possible implications for suicide prevention strategies are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document