The Social Importance of Self-Esteem

In an attempt to answer these questions, the State of California established the Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility in 1986. This body was charged, in part, with compiling research on the connections that might exist between self-esteem and social problems and with suggesting policy guidelines relating to the welfare of Californians and the expenditure of public resources. The essays in this volume, prepared by faculty members of the University of California, draw on research in the social sciences to explore these issues. They assess the substantive assertions and research findings in the field and make careful evaluations of their implications. In some cases, strong connections between self-esteem and problem behavior are established; in others, the connections are weak. And there are many cases in which a causal relationship is, as yet, unproven or imperfectly understood. Self-esteem emerges as simultaneously one of the most central and one of the most elusive factors in understanding and explaining the behaviors that constitute major social problems.