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Self Esteem And Aggression Essay

1051 Words5 Pages

INTRODUCTION In social psychology, the relationship between self-esteem and aggression has often been cause of debate. So, it is not clear what is the official view about this relation. Initially, the theory that low self-esteem was an important cause of aggression, was the most accepted. Violent episodes as the fights between youth gangs (E. Anderson, 1994), or wife beaters (Gondolf, 1985), were labelled as being caused by a lack of self-esteem. However, recently, several studies and researches are trying to argue the opposite, namely, that high self-esteem is instead cause of violent behaviour. According to this theory, a narcissistic individual, can become violent at the moment in which his point of view is countered or not accepted. The essay will address both theories, analysing studies and research that support them. SELF-ESTEEM AND AGGRESSION How can we define something seemingly abstract as self-esteem? The simplest definition, but which is also the one that gives an immediate idea of it is as follows: Self-esteem is a term used to describe a person's overall sense of self-worth or personal value. It can have a negative or positive dimension. In the former case the individual will …show more content…

According with this new approach, the “traditional” point of view “suffer from ambiguities, inconsistencies, and contradictory empirical evidence” (R. E. Baumeister, 1996). To support this thesis, the article “Relation of Threatened Egotism to Violence and Aggression: The Dark Side of High Self-Esteem” (R. E. Baumeister, J. M. Boden, L. Smart, 1996) will be examined. Contrarily to the previous research, the chosen article does not report an experiment, but it investigates and criticises the fallacious arguments from the theory of the low self-esteem, and gives a theoretical background about the direct correlation between high egotism and

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