The 4 types of self-esteem: definition and characteristics

Self-esteem, loving ourselves, valuing ourselves, self-esteem, self-love and some other related terms are used constantly to talk about our personal well-being and our attitude towards life and towards others. the rest.

But loving ourselves is one of the easiest and most difficult tasks at the same time. One way to start is to understand what self-worth and the 4 types of self-esteem are about that we can have to locate ourselves and embark on our path to self-discovery.

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What is self esteem?

Self-esteem is one of the most used and at the same time least understood concepts. When we talk about self-esteem we are talking about the way we value ourselves. It is an attribute that we have innately and that is transformed throughout our lives.

It is about all that set of beliefs, thoughts, perceptions that we have of ourselves and, in definitive, of the respect, love, trust, acceptance, security and satisfaction that each of us has to starting from

the self-image or evaluation we carry out on all aspects of our life: our way of being, our character and the features of our body.

But our self-esteem is not an attribute that remains the same during our life, rather it is an attribute that is evolving and it develops from our relationship with the world and specifically with society.

In any case, self-worth is directly related to our well-being and whether or not we relate positively to our environment, and it feeds precisely on this relationship.

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On self-image and self-confidence

Before continuing with the types of self-esteem, we want to clarify two more concepts that we are going to use, which have to do with self-worth and that can be confused with self-esteem: self-image and self-confidence.

First of all, explain to you that self-image is the mental image we make of who we are, our appearance, our strengths and weaknesses, what we do well and what we do not so much. This mental image is formed from our relationships with other people and of our most relevant experiences and is reflected in the 4 types of self-esteem that exist.

Second, make it clear to you that self-confidence and self-esteem are not the same thing. In reality, self-confidence is related to the security we feel in ourselves to achieve the goals and objectives that we propose. Although it is not the same, it is an aspect that contributes to the global image of ourselves, that is, that self-confidence positively helps build our self-esteem.

The 4 types of self-esteem that exist

Psychology considers that all people can have 4 different types of self-esteem: high, low, stable, or unstable self-esteem. But as we said before, the type of self-esteem we have can vary over time, depending on how it relates and feeds from the outside.

However, you should know that the foundations of self-love and our self-image are built during our childhood. To define the 4 types of self-esteem there are 4 factors that influence our self-assessment:

• Our triumphs and the position we achieve in our environment from them.
• The areas in which we achieve our triumphs, as long as they are relevant to us.
• The acceptance, interest and attention we receive of influential people and that we consider important in our life.
• The way in which we react to negative situations or moments that we go through in our lives, that is, if we internally or externally attribute those negative events.

Taking into account these 4 factors, we are now going to explain the different types of self-esteem.

1. High and stable self-esteem

When we have built this form of self-worth, unlike the other types of self-esteem, circumstances and Situations that happen during life have little influence on our self-image and therefore on our self-esteem.

People with this type of self-esteem accept themselves so we see them act and be who they are freely, because they do not feel the need to take care of or defend their image. In addition, they are people who, faced with different arguments, have no problem establishing their point of view without being destabilized by differences.

2. High and unstable self-esteem

People who have high and unstable self-esteem are people who are satisfied with themselves, accept themselves and have a good self-image; however, failing to maintain constant self-worth in life.

In general, they are people who in difficult and competitive situations can become completely destabilized. It is difficult for them to accept failure and they consider him a threat so they respond to him with a critical attitude. They do not easily accept other points of view and when faced with a debate they defend their point of view with total conviction and even monopolize the conversation.

What happens when we have these types of self-esteem is that we convert our self-worth at the center of our concerns and we protect it at all costs, so we can take aggressive attitudes to promote it or rather passive attitudes to precisely protect it.

3. Low and stable self-esteem

In contrast to the types of high self-esteem, in this case people they are undervalued and do not care to promote their image; As a result, their self-esteem is not affected by the positive or negative life situations they may go through.

They are people who, because they do not have a good self-image, believe that they are not up to the task, so they prefer not to defend their point of view, They are indecisive and are terrified of making mistakes. What happens with these people is that they are pessimistic and are not able to perceive their personal triumphs, so they prefer to think that they are the result of chance or luck.

The low and stable self-esteem type is very characteristic of people with depressive tendencies.

4. Low and unstable self-esteem

This is one of the types of self-esteem most susceptible to fluctuations in life. People with low and unstable self-esteem are those who they are very sensitive and influenced by negative or positive situations with those who come their way.

In this sense, any event, no matter how small, can destabilize your self-esteem because its foundations are not solid. Even with events that affect them positively such as success, they can have a significant self-esteem high, but at the moment when the euphoria ends, self-esteem also ends.

People who need approval from others or who live on their image, they generally have low and unstable self-esteem.

The important thing is to know that on our path of self-discovery, whatever type of self-esteem we have at the moment, it depends on we accept ourselves, see everything that makes us the wonderful women that we are and value ourselves in the same way to recognize and love ourselves enormously.

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