Self-Esteem Issues and Answers: A Sourcebook of Current Perspectives

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841694207 ISBN 13: 9781841694207

Publisher: Psychology Press, 2006

Research and theory on self-esteem have flourished in recent years.  This resurgence has produced multiple perpectives on fundamental issues surrounding the nature of self-esteem and its role in psychological functioning and interpersonal processes.

Self-Esteem Issues and Answers brings together these various perspectives in a unique format.  The book is divided into five sections.  Section I focuses on core issues pertaining to the conceptualization and assesment of self-esteem, and when self-esteem is optimal. Section II concentrates on the determinants, development, and modifiability of self-esteem. Section III examines the evolutionary significance of self-esteem and its role in psychological processes and therapeutic settings.  Section IV explores the social, relational, and cultural significance of self-esteem.  Finally, Section V considers future directions for self-esteem researchers, practitioners, parents and teachers.

This volume offers a wealth of perspectives from prominent researchers from different areas of psychology.  Each expert contributor was asked to focus his or her chapter on a central self-esteem issue.  Three or four experts addressed each question.  The result is that Self-Esteem Issues and Answers provides a comprehensive sourcebook of current perspectives on a wide range of central self-esteem issues.

 

About the Author:

Michael H. Kernis is a professor of psychology at the University of Georgia. He received his Ph.D in Social Psychology from the University of Rochester in 1983. He teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in social psychology, including Psychology of the Self, Social Psychology and Personality and Social Behavior. He has served as an associate editor of the journal Self and Identity.

Review:

' This book is a carefully planned survey of the field of self-esteem, organized in terms of key questions posed to the field's most active and influential researchers.  The essays they offer in response to the questions are focused, informative, and exact, providing a reference work that captures both the tradition of self-esteem psychology and its cutting-edge issues such as unconscious self-evaluation and the role of self-esteem in psychopathology.' - Daniel M. Wegner, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University.

' This stimulating, provocative, and compelling volume delivers just what the field of self -esteem needs most.  It summarizes the status of current knowledge on the topic in an engaging and readable format - shedding light on what is known about the functioning of self-esteem, while simulataneously giving the reader a sense of the complexities involved in the concept.  It does so without favouritism, not forcing pat answers, but allowing the readers to make up their own minds.  This volume is a must-read for scholars and students interested in understanding the role of self-esteem in psychological and interpersonal functioning.' - Carolyn C.Morf, Professor of Psychology, University of Bern and Editor of Self & Identity