Modern psychology does not provide a unified formulation of such a phenomenon as human self-relation. Various psychological categories are used to describe the phenomenon of self-attitude. They include such a concept as generalized self-esteem, self-acceptance, self-esteem, self-esteem, emotional-value attitude to oneself, self-confidence, self-worth, etc. The content of these concepts is revealed with the help of psychological categories, which include “attitude”, “attitude”, “personal meaning”, and also “feeling”.
The methodology for studying self-relations most often operates with such concepts as “self-esteem”, “general self-esteem”, actually “self-attitude”, as well as “emotional-value attitude to oneself”.
Currently, the dominant in Russian psychology is such a category as "emotional-value self-attitude."
The technique of researching self-esteem of a person involves considering the structure of self-relationship, consisting of two components. The first is the attitude towards oneself as a socially active subject, and the second is an emotional-value attitude towards oneself.
The methodology for studying personality self-esteem according to S.A. Budassi is one of the most popular in psychology, and makes it possible to conduct a quantitative study of self-esteem. The basis of this method is the ranking principle, and the level and adequacy are determined by the ratio of the ideal and the real self.
A person’s self-image always seems convincing to him, regardless of whether they are based on objective facts or on subjective opinions. Therefore, the qualities ascribed to oneself by man are far from always true.
The Budassi research methodology involves self-esteem of a person, which can occur in two ways. The first is a comparison of their claims with real, objective indicators of their activities. The second way is to compare yourself with other people.
But in any case, a person’s self-esteem will be exclusively subjective, regardless of what lies at its core: own judgments about oneself, interpretation of other people's judgments about themselves, personal ideals or given cultural ideals.
Self-esteem of a person is always associated with his need for self-affirmation, with the desire to find his own niche, to establish himself as a member of society in the eyes of others, says the methodology of the study of Budassi. Under the influence of external evaluations, any individual develops his own attitude to himself, as well as the self-esteem of the individual as a whole and in separate forms of his activity: activity, communication, feelings, behavior.
Self-esteem of a person may be suboptimal and optimal. In the first case, the research methodology considers the assessment to be too high, or too low.
In the event that a person treats himself critically, sees his real shortcomings and advantages, correctly tries to correlate opportunities and abilities, sets realistically achievable goals, his self-esteem approaches the optimal one. In this case, evaluating what has been achieved, the subject approaches this not only taking into account his own standards, but also trying to anticipate how others will react to this: close people, colleagues, etc.
In other words, trying to adequately evaluate himself, a person is in constant search of a real measure, that is, without an overvaluation of his abilities, but also without overly criticizing them. And it is precisely such self-esteem that is the most correct and best in specific situations and conditions. Self-assessments of “high level”, as well as “above-average level” are optimal self-assessments when a person respects himself, deservedly appreciates and, basically, is satisfied with himself.