Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology theory is actually a theory of self-esteem psychology. For Adler the most important motivating force for behavior is a striving for superiority. A self-esteem theory of deviance was developed with the underlying proposition being that low self-esteem is the basic psychodynamic mechanism underlying deviance. For too many years self-esteem has been plagued by vagueness and fragmentation. Nominal definitions abound while real and operational definitions are still to be sought. The Steffenhagen-Burns model of self-esteem is an attempt to operationalize the concept of self-esteem. Self-esteem is defined on the basis of an operational model consisting of three egos comprised of nine elements and nine constructs. For each ego a self-esteem test of 27 items was constructed; each test dimensionalizes the ego into three constructs and three elements. It is postulated that self-esteem is a complex multi-faceted construct, and that individuals can be high and low in self-esteem simultaneously. (Author/ABL)