Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., & Schimel, J. Psychological bulletin, 130(3):435--468, May, 2004. ![Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review [link]](https://bibbase.org/img/filetypes/link.svg "link")
Paper doi abstract bibtex Terror management theory (TMT; J. Greenberg, T. Pyszczynski, & S. Solomon, 1986) posits that people are motivated to pursue positive self-evaluations because self-esteem provides a buffer against the omnipresent potential for anxiety engendered by the uniquely human awareness of mortality. Empirical evidence relevant to the theory is reviewed showing that high levels of self-esteem reduce anxiety and anxiety-related defensive behavior, reminders of one's mortality increase self-esteem striving and defense of self-esteem against threats in a variety of domains, high levels of self-esteem eliminate the effect of reminders of mortality on both self-esteem striving and the accessibility of death-related thoughts, and convincing people of the existence of an afterlife eliminates the effect of mortality salience on self-esteem striving. TMT is compared with other explanations for why people need self-esteem, and a critique of the most prominent of these, sociometer theory, is provided.
@article{pyszczynski_why_2004,
title = {Why do people need self-esteem? {A} theoretical and empirical review},
volume = {130},
issn = {0033-2909},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.435},
doi = {10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.435},
abstract = {Terror management theory (TMT; J. Greenberg, T. Pyszczynski, \& S. Solomon, 1986) posits that people are motivated to pursue positive self-evaluations because self-esteem provides a buffer against the omnipresent potential for anxiety engendered by the uniquely human awareness of mortality. Empirical evidence relevant to the theory is reviewed showing that high levels of self-esteem reduce anxiety and anxiety-related defensive behavior, reminders of one's mortality increase self-esteem striving and defense of self-esteem against threats in a variety of domains, high levels of self-esteem eliminate the effect of reminders of mortality on both self-esteem striving and the accessibility of death-related thoughts, and convincing people of the existence of an afterlife eliminates the effect of mortality salience on self-esteem striving. TMT is compared with other explanations for why people need self-esteem, and a critique of the most prominent of these, sociometer theory, is provided.},
language = {en},
number = {3},
journal = {Psychological bulletin},
author = {Pyszczynski, Tom and Greenberg, Jeff and Solomon, Sheldon and Arndt, Jamie and Schimel, Jeff},
month = may,
year = {2004},
pmid = {15122930},
keywords = {Blame, Mental Health/Victim Exclusion: Vilification \&},
pages = {435--468}
}
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