What affects self-esteem is a question that many adults struggle with. While it’s an important question, not everyone has the same answers. In fact, a lot of people have no idea what it is that affects self-esteem. It’s important for parents and teachers to be able to address this type of issue, so that kids can know what they’re worth as soon as they reach adulthood. After all, self-esteem is a precious asset that should be developed at young ages to promote a healthy, positive attitude towards life in general.
One of the questions that adults wonder about when it comes to self-esteem is what affects it according to the situations that we’re put in. For instance, if you’ve been the victim of discrimination or negative ways of treating someone else, you might feel bad about yourself for feeling this way. The truth is, you are likely to feel bad about yourself even if you aren’t aware of it. What affects self-esteem in this situation is the way that you perceive yourself, not the circumstances that surrounded your experience.
Another area that is gaining attention in the field of psychology is the “maturity principle.” People who have been subjected to social roles and the expectations that go along with them as they get older often report having less self-esteem than those who haven’t. That’s according to new research done in Finland. In fact, the more that people perceive themselves as having limited social roles and the less control over their own life that they feel as a result, the lower their self-esteem.
According to new research, the reason why people have low self-esteem is often due to childhood experiences. Those who were exposed to low self-esteem from early childhood reported that early social interactions with other people led to feelings of shame and guilt. These feelings then led to a negative interpretation of self-talk and a lack of self-belief. By the time we are adults, we know that these earlier experiences can lead to a distorted view of ourselves.
Poor relationships in childhood also impacts self-esteem. The more that parents struggled with their own sense of self-worth, the higher the risk that they will feel like they don’t measure up to others. This then causes negative ways of thinking about ourselves. We may think that we don’t have worth because we’ve been burned by others in the past or we may believe that we need to be victimized in order to feel good about ourselves. In either case, those who suffer from low self-esteem tend to choose negative ways of thinking when they face difficulties or are confronted with events and situations that bring them down.
In addition to the two components above, another area that new research has shown to be related to lower self-esteem is the effect that physical appearance has on our level of general self-esteem. This means that if we perceive ourselves to be unattractive, we may choose to surround ourselves with people who are more physically attractive. This also has an effect on the way that we deal with other people. People with higher levels of self-esteem, for example, don’t worry so much about having to first look another way before they can talk to them.
What affects self-esteem specifically can be difficult to pinpoint. Most likely it depends on a number of different factors including your genes, early life experiences, your socioeconomic status, your physical appearance, and your attitude. For example, individuals who were raised in poverty are going to experience greater emotional trauma as they go through early life. It also helps if you feel good about yourself at all times. If you feel bad about yourself, however, regardless of whether you do anything to change that fact, your low self-esteem will continue to be a problem because you will always be distracted by how bad you feel about yourself.
What affects self-esteem in this case is how you feel about yourself in relation to these circumstances. If you are constantly comparing yourself to others in negative ways, whether it’s as to how fat or ugly you are, or how much money you make, or what kind of car you drive or where you work, you are not going to have a good feeling about yourself no matter what you do. Instead, you will constantly be distracted by the fact that you don’t feel good enough. However, if you are able to find the good in everything, even when it doesn’t feel right, and start to believe in yourself and your ability to do the things that you want and are good at, your self-esteem will slowly rise over time.