Self-esteem refers to one's feelings of high or low self-worth. It is the global
evaluative dimension of the self. For example, adolescents feel good about themselves.
Self-concept is all out thoughts and feelings about ourselves. It is the specific evaluations
of the self, such as academic, social, physical appearance, behavioral conduct, and so on.
In many years, the psychologists measured the self-esteem and self-concept
primarily for the children and adult instead of adolescents. Moreover, they are very
difficult to measure since there are many domains and conditions to be considered,
especially in approaching adolescents. As a result, Susan Harter developed a separate
measure for adolescents-the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. It includes eight
domains, such as scholastic competence, athletic competence, social acceptance, physical
appearance, behavioral conduct, close friendship, romantic appeal, job competence and
global self-worth. Since then, the psychologists began to concern about the self-esteem
According to Carl Roger, "When the ideal and the actual self are nearly alike, the
self-concept is positive." If our self-concept is positive, we tend to act and perceive the
world positive. We feel satisfied and happy about the world and ourselves. On the other
hand, if our self-concept is negative, the ideal and actual self are very different, we will
feel unhappy, unsatisfied and hopeless. Furthermore, if we have high self-esteem, we
have fewer sleepless nights, cope better with the pressure and stress, are less shy and
lonely, feel happier. On contrast, if we have low self-esteem, we are vulnerable to feel
unhappy and despair because we usually think that we are falling short of what we ought
to be. Moreover, we would also commit suicide, anorexia nervosa, delinquency, and
Since adjustment problems often coexist with negative self-concept ...