Difference Between Self Esteem and Self Confidence

Self Esteem vs Self Confidence

Self confidence and self esteem are two words that are often confused with one another. Most of time, psychologists and counselors use these words while treating people coming to them with complaints of difficulty in adjusting with others in society. There is another concept of self efficacy that is linked with the concepts of self confidence and self esteem. This article attempts to highlight the features of both to enable readers to distinguish between self-esteem and self-confidence.

Self Esteem

What is the perception you have about yourself as an individual? The overall evaluation of oneself, whether positive or negative is what is termed as self esteem in psychological parlance. If you are a writer and believe that you are a good writer, you obviously have a high self esteem. On the other hand, a student in a class who repeatedly gets poor marks in tests develops poor or low self esteem about his capabilities in studies that get reinforced with passage of time when he is reprimanded and chided by his teachers and fellow students. One’s self-esteem has often worked wonders helping individuals to perform miraculous acts.

Self Confidence

If you are a high jumper and know that you can jump over a particular height under all conditions, you develop confidence in your ability as a jumper that also is reflected in your performance. High self-confidence in one’s abilities makes them shoulder high responsibilities. However, self confidence is the sum total of confidence in one’s abilities and not necessarily in a particular task. High self-confidence sometimes comes to aide of individuals, as they are able to perform tasks despite having limited abilities.

From the above definitions or descriptions, it seems that self-confidence and self-esteem are near synonyms. However, it is not so though the two are closely related and linked.

What is the difference between Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence?

• Self esteem is your analysis of yourself, your own worth according to you. It is internal in nature, and no one comes to know about it. On the other hand, self confidence is what the world sees in your swagger and mannerisms. It even changes your style and personality.

• When a child arrives in this world, the child has limited or no abilities. It is when a child develops into an adult that he has a sense of one’s own appraisal or evaluation, which is known as self-esteem. Self-confidence, on the other hand, is the belief in one’s abilities.

• There are cases of celebrities who appear to be very self confident but having low self esteem resulting in cases of suicides and depression.

• High self esteem helps in improving one’s self confidence.