Self-esteem

 The concept of self-esteem as a separate psychological concept is rooted in the work of the philosopher, psychologist, geologist, and anthropologist William James (1892). James identified multiple dimensions of the self with two levels of hierarchy: processes of understanding (called the "I-self") as well as the knowledge that results from these processes about the self (the "Me-self"). James says that the Me-self is constructed through three kinds of knowledge that include self-observation as well as the storage of these observations by the Iself and the knowledge resulting from these observations about the self. They are the self that is material, the social self, and the spiritual self. Social self is most closely to self-esteem, and encompasses the traits that are acknowledged by other people. The material self is comprised of representations of the body, belongings as well as the spiritual self that comprises descriptions and evaluative dispositions about the self. This view of self-esteem as the accumulation of an individual's attitudes toward the self is still in use current.