By: Jeff Landine and John Stewart<\/p>\n
In keeping with our focus on understanding the self-system and its dimensions, in this edition we focus on the dimension of self-esteem and its relationship to self-concept. Self-esteem is defined as the appraisal of the content of the self-system, either in whole or in part.\u00a0 We think that the psychological dynamics involved in self-esteem include the use of criteria, such as \u201cI am not good at public speaking\u201d or \u201cI am very good at solving mathematical problems\u201d or \u201cI must be very good at writing\u201d individuals use to assess the content of their self-system.\u00a0 These criteria develop from feedback coming directly or indirectly from experiences.\u00a0 The criteria can be forgotten in memory or they can be known and used by individuals to make decisions.\u00a0 In either situation, the criteria influence vocational decision-making.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Individuals may experience low levels of self-esteem if they receive inaccurate feedback from significant others or attribute accurate feedback to factors other than their self-qualities, such as thinking the assessor disliked them. In both conditions, depending on how they process the information, these individuals may be left with inaccurate criteria to engage in appropriate self-appraisal. In formulating self-esteem, the conscious or unconscious use of appraisal criteria influences the perceptions individuals have about their self-knowledge, which in turn influence the occupational decision-making process. Individuals who experience low self-esteem may aspire to occupations requiring more amounts of their personal qualities than they have (known as overachieving); or, conversely, aspire to occupations that under use their personal qualities (known as underachieving).\u00a0 The third possibility is that individuals may avoid the decision-making process unduly.<\/p>\n
We see self-esteem from two perspectives \u2013 a global perspective and\/or a specific perspective.\u00a0 A global perspective refers to how individuals perceive the totality of the self-system.\u00a0 We think that global issues of negative self-esteem typically originate from early developmental experiences in which significant caregivers provide feedback to the developing person that communicates negative self-appraisal.\u00a0 When children and adolescents are told repeatedly they \u201ccannot do anything right,\u201d or \u201chave no abilities,\u201d they develop negative thoughts and feelings about themselves.\u00a0 Such individuals tend to view themselves as those who will not be successful at getting a job, or unable to do a number of the tasks required to maintain the job. \u00a0Conversely, the specific perspective focuses on discrete parts of the self-system and is related to instances where inappropriate feedback was received from particular experiences.\u00a0\u00a0 The inappropriate feedback may come from significant others or from their personal feedback processes.\u00a0 For example, if individuals who participated in a public speaking contest attended to their physiological reactions, they might process a rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms and feeling faint as indicators of poor performance.\u00a0 From such experiences, they might conclude that they were not good at public speaking or at any occupation that might require such abilities.<\/p>\n
Career counsellors who focus on helping clients understand the criteria used to voice their self-esteem help them gain insight into the perceptions of their self-knowledge and their resultant decision-making difficulties. From this perspective, self-esteem is an indicator of a deeper psychological dynamic, that of the criteria used by individuals to frame their self-perception.\u00a0 Career counsellors who help individuals understand their issues of self-esteem as the application of unreasonable or inaccurate appraisal criteria enable them to gain an accurate appraisal of their self-knowledge.<\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
Johnson, D. W. (2009). Reaching out: Interpersonal effectiveness and self-actualization<\/em> (10th <\/sup>ed.) (pp. 340-363). Toronto, ON: Pearson Education Ltd.<\/p>\n Savickas, M. L. (2002). Career construction: A developmental theory of vocational behavior. In D. Brown and Associated (Eds.), Career choice and development<\/em> (4th<\/sup> ed.) (pp. 149-205). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.<\/p>\n Super, D. (1982). Self-concepts in career development: Theory and findings after thirty years.<\/em> Paper presented as the 20th International Congress of Applied Psychology, Edinburgh, Scotland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Jeff Landine and John Stewart In keeping with our focus on understanding the self-system and its dimensions, in this edition we focus on the dimension of self-esteem and its relationship to self-concept. Self-esteem is defined as the appraisal of the content of the self-system, either in whole or in part.\u00a0 We think that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-careercounselling"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n