12 - The lifespan development of self-esteem

In this chapter, I will outline the recent long-term research on self-esteem development. Now there is sufficient evidence that self-esteem will systematically change throughout life. On average, self-esteem increases during adolescence and adolescence, peaks at about 50-60 years of age in adulthood and declines during senile period. Despite these normative developments, long-term research shows that individual differences in self-esteem are relatively stable even within several decades, suggesting that self-esteem is a personality trait ing. Finally, more and more research shows that self-esteem affects people's happiness and succeeds in important life areas such as relationships, work and health. From a realistic point of view, the latter discovery is particularly important. If self-esteem affects the outcome of life, interventions designed to improve self-esteem should prove to be beneficial to the individual.

Self-esteem is the lowest in adolescence and often increases gradually throughout life, but self-love peaks at puberty and gradually decreases throughout the life cycle. Therefore, the development of narcissism and high self-esteem presents each other's mirror image through human developmental process. Self-esteem and development of self-love are also affected by various methods of parenting. Narcissism is often accompanied by overvaluation of parents. Parents raising children and showing a high degree of self-loveism excessively declare children's knowledge, overestimate the child's IQ, even exaggerate the child's performance and even give it to the child. A unique name stand out from the crowd. After all, the children internalize these self-views, and they unconsciously encourage the children to interact with others.

After decades of debate, people have reached an agreement on how self-esteem develops throughout the life cycle. On average, self-esteem is relatively high in childhood, falling to adolescence (especially girls), gradually rising during adulthood, then suddenly declining in older age. Despite these general age differences, individuals tend to maintain order to each other. Individuals with relatively high self-esteem at some point tend to have relatively high self-esteem after a few years. This type of stability (ie, rank stability) is slightly lower than childhood and senior adulthood, but the overall stability level is comparable to other personality traits.