Editing Self-esteem (section)

===In public policy===
The importance of self-esteem gained endorsement from some government and non-government groups starting around the 1970s, such that one can speak of a self-esteem movement.<ref name="BaumeisterCampbell2003" /><ref>{{cite book | last =  Nolan | first =  James L. | title = The Therapeutic State: Justifying Government at Century's End | url =  https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-dRzYK1GugC | access-date = 2013-05-06 | year = 1998 | publisher = NYU Press | ISBN = 978-0814757918 | pages = 152–161}}</ref> This movement provides evidence that psychological research can shape public policy.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} This has expanded to recent years, such as in 2023, when psychologists are planning to re-invent the approach to research, treatments, and therapy. The new approach emphasizes population health <ref>{{cite web |title=Population Health Summit |url=https://www.health.ny.gov/events/population_health_summit/docs/what_is_population_health.pdf |website=New York State Department of Health }}</ref> where psychological researchers have prioritized one-one therapy in regards to analyzing social emotional conflict like low self-esteem.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Weir |first1=Kristen |title=Psychologists are rebranding the field, expanding the one-to-one therapy approach |url=https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/01/trends-rebranding-psychology |website=American Psychological Association }}</ref>  The underlying idea of the movement was that low self-esteem was the root of problems for individuals, making it the root of societal problems and dysfunctions. A leading figure of the movement, psychologist [[Nathaniel Branden]], stated: "[I] cannot think of a single psychological problem (from anxiety and depression to fear of intimacy or of success, to spouse battery or child molestation) that is not traced back to the problem of low self-esteem".<ref name="BaumeisterCampbell2003" />{{rp|3}}

It was once thought that self-esteem was primarily a feature of [[Western societies|Western individualistic societies]], as it was not observed in [[collectivist]] cultures such as Japan.<ref name=":7">
{{cite journal
 | author1= Heine S. J. |author2= Lehman D. R.
 | author3= Markus H. R. |author4= Kitayama S.
 | year = 1999
 | title = Is there a universal need for positive self-regard?
 | journal = Psychological Review | volume = 106
 | issue = 4 | pages = 766–794
 | doi = 10.1037/0033-295X.106.4.766 | pmid= 10560328
|citeseerx= 10.1.1.321.2156
 }}
</ref>
Concern about low self-esteem and its many presumed negative consequences led California assemblyman, [[John Vasconcellos]] to work to set up and fund the Task Force on Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility, in California, in 1986. Vasconcellos argued that this task force could combat many of the state's problems – from crime and teen pregnancy to school underachievement and pollution.<ref name="BaumeisterCampbell2003" /> He compared increasing self-esteem to giving out a vaccine for a disease: it could help protect people from being overwhelmed by life's challenges.

The task force set up committees in many California counties and formed a committee of scholars to review the available literature on self-esteem. This committee found very small associations between low self-esteem and its assumed consequences, ultimately showing that low self-esteem was not the root of all societal problems and not as important as the committee had originally thought. However, the authors of the paper that summarized the review of the literature still believed that self-esteem is an independent variable that affects major social problems. The task force disbanded in 1995, and the National Council for Self-Esteem and later the [[National Association for Self-Esteem]] (NASE) was established, taking on the task force's mission. Vasconcellos and [[Jack Canfield]] were members of its advisory board in 2003, and members of its masters' coalition included [[Anthony Robbins]], [[Bernie Siegel]], and [[Gloria Steinem]].<ref name="BaumeisterCampbell2003" />