Efficacious Action and Social Approval as Interacting Dimensions of Self-Esteem: A Tentative Formulation Through Construct Validation

Abstract

The importance of self-esteem to theoretical, evaluative and policy oriented research is stressed, which puts a premium on an adequate conceptualization and operationalization of self-esteem. A literature review is presented suggesting that various writers express dissatisfaction with a model of self-esteem which gives pre-emptory emphasis to the approval of others as its only source. It is concluded from these writings that feedback from one's own actions on an impersonal environment must be viewed as an analytically distinct dimension of self-esteem. It is argued that both outer and inner dimensions can be seen as belonging inside a sociological frame of reference. Findings from a construct validity study of the dual approach to self-esteem are presented using the potency and evaluative dimensions of the semantic differential as indicators of instrumental and socio-emotional problems, the systemic analogues of inner and outer self-esteem. Criterion variables and propositions are derived from a thesis largely supplied by Smith (1968). Seven out of 10 of the hypotheses comprising the validation study are statistically confirmed, leading the authors to conclude that the model is worthy of further development.