Abstract:

Self-esteem has been intensively studied by researchers from various fields of psychology since this concept was raised. Yet despite all the efforts of numerous researches and theories, there has been no widely-accepted conclusion about the essential of the concept. Much confusion and misunderstanding about the concept of self-esteem still exist. Based on the developmental history of self-esteem, the present paper reviews several most influential theories involving researches on self-esteem and compares various related concepts. Furthermore, the paper introduces the true self-esteem which is the focus topic in recent years, suggesting that contingency and conditionality are essential differences between true self-esteem and non-true concepts. This research could provide the theoretical basis for further experimental studies.

Key words: self-esteem, true self-esteem, contingency, conditionality