Abstract

The self-esteem first presented by William James is one of the oldest research topics in psychology. Research on self-esteem provides a starting point for restoring human nature in modern society where humanity has been lost. The reason why self-esteem is illuminated as a research theme is recognized as a major mechanism for leading to human behavior. According to researches self-esteem has emotional, cognitive, and evaluative functions, and is divided into two factors: domain and specific. Especially, the specific factors of self-esteem are related to the moral trait. Thus, a good understanding of the factors of self-esteem associated with moral traits is an attempt to promote the development of moral education. According to 2015 Moral Education Curriculum (MEC), self-esteem and positive attitude related to self-esteem were suggested as elements of moral education contents. In order to utilize self-esteem as an effective moral education content, it is necessary to analyze the characteristics and factors of self-esteem. Also, this try is to find the grounds that can be applied to moral education. For this purpose, this study analyzed the characteristics of early self-esteem and recently presented concepts to find applicability to moral education. In addition to this, some examples of how to link the factors of self-esteem and the contents presented in 2015 MEC is presented.