The 4 components of self-esteem (explained)

Self-esteem is a fairly complex psychological element in which different mental processes are involved, which are also very complex.

However, despite how muddled the concept of self-esteem can be, it is possible to discern within it a series of elements and dimensions which facilitate us to understand that this psychological construct is more than the sum of its parts.

Next let's discover what are the main components of self-esteem, in addition to the dimensions that make it up.

• Related article: "Do you really know what self-esteem is?"

What is self esteem?

Self-esteem is a complex construct, in which several elements and dimensions are interconnected. To understand what such components are, we must first understand exactly what self-esteem is.

We can define self-esteem as the way in which people value ourselves, taking as a reference what our ideal “I” should be. If we consider that we are very close to such "I", that our self-esteem will be high, while if is very far from that ideal assumption, it is most likely that our self-esteem is on the ground,

Self-esteem and self-concept are closely related. This second refers to the set of ideas and beliefs that make up our concept of "I", the same ideas that influence our self-esteem adding an emotional and moral charge. Depending on how we see ourselves and if we consider that vision positive or not, we will be more or less satisfied with what we think we are.

Self-esteem can be seen as the consequence of different psychological processes, which can pose a threat or an opportunity for our psychological well-being. This same self-esteem can also be the cause of other psychological phenomena, with which we can say that the Self-esteem is both a cause and an effect of our emotional well-being, self-concept and adaptability to our environment.

We can understand this by thinking of a patient with major depression. Those who suffer from this disorder usually have a very low self-esteem, made up of negative beliefs and feelings about how the patient sees himself. A person who does not have a good opinion of himself will not dare to try new things, he will be afraid of take risks and will not want to interact with other people by seeing themselves as less valid than the rest of the society. All of this can contribute to your isolation and worsening of the disorder.

It can also be said that not all problems related to self-esteem are due to having it too low. Having too high self-esteem can also be a problem, something that occurs in some disorders such as bipolar disorder when you are in a manic phase or in certain personality disorders, such as the disorder narcissistic.

One of the objectives of psychotherapy is to ensure that people know how to maintain a balanced self-esteem, well adjusted to reality. We all have our limitations, but we also have strengths that house our true potential. Nobody is perfect, but neither is he a complete failure. Whatever the patient's vision of himself, psychotherapy helps people to value themselves, see that they are capable of many things and understand that everyone has weaknesses.

Taking all this into account, it is essential that all psychologists in their clinical practice know what the components of self-esteem are, in addition to several of its dimensions. We are going to see these in depth below.

• You may be interested in: "Complex by the physical: what are they, causes, and how to manage them"

The 4 main components of self-esteem

These are the four psychological components that are considered to give rise to self-esteem.

1. Perceptual processes

All mental processes are connected to the flow of information that comes to us through our senses.. Our internal world is the result of the stimuli we receive from our environment and, as part of that psychological world, we also have self-esteem.

It could be said that the raw material of this psychological phenomenon is the perceptual processes, everything that our cells and sensory organs pick up on the environment and send the information to the brain in signals nervous

• Related article: "17 curiosities about human perception"

2. Selfconcept

Self-concept is the description of ourselves made up of ideas, thoughts and beliefs that we have stored in our mind. It is a definition of our person, our concept of "I" with all its facets.

This component of self-esteem is formed from the combination of sensory information that comes to us from the environment and the interpretation that we make of it from other thoughts, ideas and beliefs also present in the selfconcept.

That is, it feeds itself, but taking as raw material new information that induces some changes in the way we see ourselves as time goes by.

• You may be interested in: "Self-concept: what is it and how is it formed?"

3. Emotional charge

The emotional charge is the set of emotions associated with everything that goes through our heads. In this case, we are talking about all those emotions related to our idea of ​​"I".

It is these emotions that lead us to feel good or bad about what we think we are and, at the same time, they can serve as motivation, making us adopt a certain position when faced with a challenge.

Likewise, it should be said that it is difficult to discern between emotional charge and self-concept when talking about self-esteem. This is because our emotions and our ideas about ourselves are phenomena that occur at the same time and interact with each other.

• Related article: "Emotional psychology: main theories of emotion"

4. Referents

As the last component of self-esteem we have the referents. The self-esteem of each one will always be built taking into account certain aspects of our sociocultural environment, especially the closest social circles to which we are exposed.

Family, friends, classmates, and even TV celebrities influence our self-esteem, serving as models of what we want to be, in addition to evaluating ourselves more positively or negatively depending on what is in our environment.

For example, if we are the guy in gym class with the least muscle, this probably makes us feel bad. On the other hand, if we are the smartest girl in our chess club, we probably value ourselves very well in this regard.

All the people we interact with and the way we think they are better or worse than us influences ourselves and how we feel about the goals we achieve.

Added to this, from the interaction with other people we create the ideal image of our "I", which may or may not coincide with what a person we know is like. It is depending on how close or how far we consider ourselves to be from that ideal "I" that will make our self-esteem higher or lower.

• You may be interested in: "How to learn to accept oneself? 8 tips "

Dimensions of self-esteem

Although we have just seen the main components of self-esteem, there are those who prefer to talk about dimensions when talking about this psychological construct. Actually, these dimensions can be considered as homologous to the components that we have just talked about, although they have some nuances that we will see below.

1. Cognitive dimension

The cognitive dimension has to do with everything that has to do with the person's thoughts about herself and the mental processes that give rise to them, also including self-image. It has to do with how the person sees himself, ignoring the emotions he has of himself. It would correspond to the self-concept.

Here we would find ideas such as believing that you are not capable of achieving something, that you are not too intelligent or that you are above other people, to give just a few examples.

• Related article: "Cognitive psychology: definition, theories and main authors"

2. Affective dimension

The affective dimension would be related to the emotional charge that we have seen in the previous classification. As its name suggests, it is the dimension of purely emotional self-esteem and would encompass the emotional reactions to the ideas that he has about herself: sadness, frustration, anger, joy, pride and satisfaction... any of the emotions that the person may feel regarding their it was worth.

3. Behavioral dimension

Finally, we have the behavioral dimension of self-esteem, which is the easiest of the three to identify both in a person with high and low self-esteem. This dimension is the result of the other two dimensions combined and manifested in the form of behavior.

When you have low self-esteem, we have been able to see that this is the result of having negative thoughts about yourself that provoke negative emotions. As a result, the person will behave withdrawn, skittish, or angry.

For example, we can see this with a person who wants to join the gym to see if he gets fit and improves his physique. Although he knows that this way he will achieve more psychological well-being because he will look better, he is afraid of that other users of the facilities judge you or look at you with a bad face when using the machines and doing so wrong. As a result of this, and despite the fact that he dares to sign up, he prefers to limit himself to using the elliptical and little else, fearing that if he uses some complicated machine he will make a fool of himself.