Happiness and Self-Esteem 1 Running head: HAPPINESS AND SELF-ESTEEM What Are the Differences Between Happiness and Self-Esteem?

The present study investigated theoretically and empirically derived similarities and differences between the constructs of enduring happiness and self-esteem. Participants (N = 621), retired employees ages 51 to 95, completed standardized measures of affect, personality, psychosocial characteristics, physical health, and demographics. The relations between each of the two target variables (happiness and self-esteem) and the full set of remaining variables were assessed through a series of successive statistical analyses: 1) simple Pearson’s correlations, 2) partial correlations, and 3) hierarchical regression analyses. The results revealed that happiness and self-esteem, while highly correlated (r = .58), presented unique patterns of relations with the other measured variables. The best predictors of happiness were the following: mood and temperamental traits (i.e., extraversion and neuroticism), social relationships (lack of loneliness and satisfaction with friendships), purpose in life, and global life satisfaction. By contrast, self-esteem was best predicted by dispositions related to agency and motivation (i.e., optimism and lack of hopelessness). Implications for the understanding of happiness and self-esteem are discussed. Happiness and Self-Esteem 3 What Are the Differences Between Happiness and Self-Esteem? Happiness and self-esteem appear, on the surface, to be inextricably linked. In their everyday experience, happy individuals tend to feel good about themselves, and people who lack self-worth and self-respect are generally unhappy. Empirical evidence supports this intuition, revealing moderate to high correlations between measures of happiness and self-esteem (ranging from 0.36 to 0.58) (Andrews, 1991; A. Campbell, 1981; A. Campbell et al., 1976; Diener and Diener, 1995; Fordyce, 1988; Kozma and Stones, 1978; Lyubomirsky and Lepper, 1999; Schimmack et al., 2004). These associations are neither perfect nor consistent, however, leaving much of the variance unexplained and prompting the need to further examine the similarities and differences between these two constructs. Although few researchers would openly argue that happiness and self-esteem are synonymous, self-esteem is often used as an index of global happiness or psychological well-being (e.g., Baruch and Barnett, 1986; Ryff, 1989; Whitley, 1983). More common is the view that happiness and self-esteem are so intimately related that it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate them conceptually. Indeed, happiness may not be possible or realizable without a healthy dose of self-confidence and self-acceptance. William James (1910), for example, “spoke of well-being and self-esteem in the same breath” (Epstein, 1973, p. 405), positing that all three aspects of the self – the material, the social, and the spiritual – are capable of evoking feelings of happiness. Nearly a century later, in a review of the ensuing perspectives on happiness, Ryff (1989) concluded that the most recurrent criterion for positive well-being has been the individual’s sense of self-acceptance or self-esteem (see also Diener, 1996; Myers, 1992; Taylor and Brown, 1988). Many who are socialized in individualistic cultures may not even make a distinction between how happy they are with their lives and how satisfied they are with themselves (Lucas et al., 1996). An alternate view holds that happiness and self-esteem are distinct and discriminable constructs. Although self-esteem may seem crucial and adaptive for happiness, it does not provide an adequate description of happiness and may be unrelated to many of our most happy or unhappy experiences (Parducci, 1995). Just as a good income, a good job, or a good marriage does not Happiness and Self-Esteem 4 guarantee happiness (see Diener, 1984; Diener et al., 1999), high self-esteem is not a sufficient condition for happiness. This perspective may help explain why the relationship between selfesteem and life satisfaction (a key component of happiness) varies in individualist versus collectivist cultures (Diener and Diener, 1995). Where the group and the community are valued more highly than the self, self-esteem may simply not be as critical a source of happiness. In the only study to date to analyze systematically the relationship between self-esteem and well-being, Lucas and his colleagues (1996) used multitrait-multimethod matrix analyses to show that life satisfaction is empirically distinguishable from self-esteem (see also Diener and Diener, 1995). A number of important questions have yet to be explored, however: Are global happiness and self-esteem indeed unique constructs and, if so, what is the nature of the differences between them? Which characteristics discriminate between happy and unhappy individuals and which ones discriminate between high self-esteem (HSE) and low self-esteem (LSE) individuals? These questions are the focus of the current study. Defining Happiness and Self-Esteem