Warp wrote:

>   In the example in that page the most probable direction of cause and
> consequence is, indeed, that success causes high self-esteem. However,
> popular physchology has completely reversed this and claims that high
> self-esteem causes success. If you think about it logically, it really
> makes more sense in the former than the latter case.

I suspect the truth is less simple.

People with low self-esteem generally don't bother trying in the first 
place, which causes a distinct lack of success. (Welcome to my life, 
BTW.) I think you need to have a sufficient level of self-esteem to 
start with.

In other words, high self-esteem doesn't "cause" success, but rather low 
self-esteem /prevents/ success - which is a different statement. 
Self-esteem is a necessary but insufficient condition.

The idea that success causes high self-esteem is apparently 
self-evident, but also not the entire story. Plenty of people who by any 
reasonably metric have "failed", yet have high self-esteem. Plenty of 
people who are insanely successful yet still hate themselves.

Humans are, in general, complicated.

The thing *I* noticed is this: The article complains about "pop 
psychology", people making up stuff off the top of their heads. It then 
goes on to make up a bunch of reasons why several things are wrong. 
Rather than, you know, present hard evidence...

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