Subject: [evol-psych] The Trouble With Self-Esteem Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2002 10:31:29 -0000 From: "Ian Pitchford" Organization: http://human-nature.com/ To: [email protected] CC: [email protected] New York Times February 3, 2002 The Trouble With Self-Esteem By LAUREN SLATER Take this test: 1. On the whole I am satisfied with myself. 2. At times I think that I am no good at all. 3. I feel that I have a number of good qualities. 4. I am able to do things as well as most other people. 5. I feel I do not have much to be proud of. 6. I certainly feel useless at times. 7. I feel that I am a person of worth, at least the equal of others. 8. I wish I could have more respect for myself. 9. All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure. 10. I take a positive attitude toward myself. Devised by the sociologist Morris Rosenberg, this questionnaire is one of the most widely used self-esteem assessment scales in the United States. If your answers demonstrate solid self-regard, the wisdom of the social sciences predicts that you are well adjusted, clean and sober, basically lucid, without criminal record and with some kind of college cum laude under your high-end belt. If your answers, on the other hand, reveal some inner shame, then it is obvious: you were, or are, a teenage mother; you are prone to social deviance; and if you don't drink, it is because the illicit drugs are bountiful and robust. Full text http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/03/magazine/03ESTEEM.html