Self Esteem Analysis

In the focus of the concept of self-esteem, which is one of the oldest concepts in the field of psychology due to being first used by William James in 1890. Self-esteem is defined as how worthy one feels, also known as self-worth, with the etymology of the term esteem from the French language estimer and Latin aestimare meaning ‘to estimate’ or ‘appraise’. James described the idea with a focus on the connection between the self-worth and the success of the individual in achieving their expected outcome which emphasized the importance between positivity and negativity in terms of feelings about oneself (Osborne, 2014). Even today in modern society, the term is viewed upon with great importance with a focus on how to increase an individual’s

The two terms, self-confidence and self-esteem, are occasionally confused and cannot be differentiated between despite one focusing on the faith the individual has in themselves and the other the amount of worth the individual views themselves with. Self-confidence literally translates to having faith in oneself (con and fidere meaning with and to trust in Latin respectively). Self-confidence is often strongly connected to the amount of motivation and therefore also individual willpower. Other important self-constructs are self-efficacy and self-concept. Self-efficacy is the belief of one’s capacity to succeed, stemming from the Latin efficere meaning ‘work out’ or ‘accomplish.’ Albert Bandura states that this self construct has a great effect on the way an individual approaches a goal, especially in terms of coping, making it an important idea (Yancey, 2014). Finally, self-concept, also known as self-identity, are the ideas and beliefs one has about oneself and which one uses when assessing what behaviors to exhibit rated on the consistency with the abstract (Osborne, 2014). All of these concepts are important to the well-being of an individual, showing to have a strong correlation with psychological health and making a focus on the concepts

A group of studies conducted by Allen R. McConnel and Christina M. Brown (2011) found that, in addition to being more physically fit and less fearful, pet owners had a greater amount of self-esteem and also tended to be less preoccupied than those who did not own pets. An analysis between pet-owner relationships in the same study revealed that pets were viewed as family members to the owners with an equal amount of support as parents or siblings. Also revealed was that a dog can be considered a source of fulfillment of social needs and that a greater amount of benefits was gained when pets filled the social needs more effectively. The positive effects of pets were even further validated by the discovery that thinking about one’s pet has the equal chance as that of a best friend lessening the hurt felt by social rejection (McConnel & Brown, 2011). This study shows the benefits that owning a pet can bring to an individual, especially in terms of their emotional and overall psychological well-being. Likewise, psychology researchers from Israel and the United States discovered a correlation between a feeling of safety and security and the owning of a pet showing that the concept of attachment in human-pet relationships is important just as much as human-human relationships (Zilcha-Mano, Mikulincer, & Shaver, 2012). However,