An attempt to improve self-esteem by modifying specific irrational beliefs

In a double-blind study, subjects with low to moderate self-esteem received either of two cognitive restructuring interventions. The experimental treatment addressed specific irrational beliefs previously found to be correlated with low self-esteem; the control treatment focused on irrational beliefs not empirically related to self-esteem. Each intervention produced appropriate changes on targeted irrationality measures. The pattern of changes on targeted and nontargeted irrationality scales, however, suggests that improvements in specific rationality readily generalize, a phenomenon which may have obscured posttest differences between the two interventions on a battery of self-esteem measures. Nevertheless, the self-esteem improvements of subjects within each treatment were consistently related to changes on the previously linked beliefs, and conversely, only sporadically related to changes on the nonlinked beliefs.