There are many theories about self esteem. These include Maslow’s Theory of needs, Carl Rogers Theory of personal development and Bednar and Perterson’s Theory of self esteem among others. However, this study will use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to investigate the effects of self esteem on academic performance.
According to Maslow people are motivated to seek personal goals that make their lives rewarding and meaningful. The law contends that human beings have wants and rarely reach a state of complete satisfaction.He attested that all human beings have needs that are innate and are systematically arranged in ascending hierarchy of priority. Satisfaction of one need creates another need that commands the person’s attention and efforts.
The basic assumption in Maslow’s theory is that the lower order pre-potent needs must be relatively satisfied before the person can become aware of or motivated by higher order needs. Physiological needs should be satisfied first followed by safety and security needs, love and belonging needs. Self-esteem needs are 4th in the hierarchy. Maslow divided it into self respect and respect for others.To Maslow, satisfaction of self-esteem needs generate feelings and attitudes of self confidence, self worth, capacity and the feeling of being useful and necessary in the world.
Frustration of these needs lead to feelings and attitudes of inferiority, ineptness, weakness, passivity and dependency. These negative self perceptions give rise to basic discouragements, a sense of futility and hopelessness in dealing with life’s demands and low evaluation of self on others. This condition is most likely able to lead to poor performance due to lack of drive as learners tend to fear their abilities.
