Converging toward an integrated theory of self-esteem: Reply to Crocker and Nuer (2004), Ryan and Deci (2004), and Leary (2004)

In this response to the commentaries regarding their terror management analysis of self-esteem (T. Pyszczynski, J. Greenberg, S. Solomon, J. Arndt, & J. Schimel, 2004), the authors focus on the convergence on certain points regarding self-esteem as a way of progressing toward an integrative perspective. In doing so, they briefly discuss how the need for self-esteem relates to anxiety, interpersonal relations, growth, evolution, and death. They also discuss sources of self-esteem, whether the pursuit of self-esteem is good or bad, and whether such a pursuit could fruitfully be abandoned. They conclude that self-esteem buffers anxiety, is greatly influenced by social relations, and can either facilitate or undermine growth and that the value of the pursuit of self-esteem depends on the sources on which it is based but that its pursuit is too inextricably woven into the way people manage their anxieties and regulate their behavior to ever be abandoned.