What Is Self-Esteem? How Do Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy Differ? Support

Question

Examlex · Accepted Answer

The Answer is Self-esteem is a positive evaluation of the self; it is having a sense of worth, competence and personal satisfaction in valued domains. It is also subjective-about what one believes, rather than objective reality.
Normally, we think of self-esteem as an overall, general self-evaluation. This contrasts with self-efficacy which is typically more specific, about a particular goal or set of behaviours. Exceptions to this trend do exist; that is, one can assess general self-efficacy or narrower evaluations of esteem in particular domains. However, this is far less common and less consistent with their theoretical origins.
Whereas self-esteem is largely a feeling of positivity about the self, self-efficacy is more a cognitive judgement about ability.
In addition, self-esteem depends on feeling competent in areas that are personally valued; self-efficacy is simply the judgement that the behaviours can be enacted, regardless of importance.
For example, Sean may have high self-efficacy for doing arithmetic and low self-efficacy for making shots in basketball. These are assessments of what he can do. Sean's general self-esteem will be higher or lower depending on how important success in arithmetic or basketball are to his sense of self. If basketball is unimportant, the low basketball self-efficacy and poor performance are irrelevant to Sean's self-esteem. Of course, there are some things that most people do care about, such as having strong interpersonal relationships; these domains are thus commonly important to self-esteem.

What Is Self-Esteem? How Do Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy Differ? Support

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