Where does self-esteem come from? The influence of private versus public individuation

Josephs, Markus, and Tafarodi (1992) recently claimed that male self-esteem (SE) can be linked to an individuation process in which personal distinguishing achievements are emphasized. Most of the effects they found with a measure of private individuation, however, were only marginally significant. Not surprisingly regarding this statistical point, the present investigation failed to produce findings consistent with Josephs et al. males’ hypothesis when using the same measure. Instead, this investigation revealed that both males’ and females’ self-esteem can be affected by another form of individuation which emphasizes subjects’ willingness to engage in behaviors that would publicly differentiate them from others.