But it is a familiar fact that most people enjoy gossip, are rewarded by the esteem of others for conveying socially useful gossip, and fear the
disesteem that follows from being the subject of negative gossip, or from spreading false rumors.
In reaction, these meta-usages of the term observer, etc., came to elicit much
disesteem. In some quarters, that
disesteem took form in sustained efforts to make observing into something done not by a human, but by something nonliving--an instrument or some other kind of machine, or even merely photographic film.
Other-directed action involving "
disesteem" makes the other into a "victim" or "patient" of his or her action.
(269) This has a clear effect on the allocation of esteem, but a much less clear effect on the allocation of
disesteem. Regarding esteem, those "of higher social status" receive more esteem than those of lower status for the same levels of performance.
In fact I have held him in high
disesteem for some considerable time now.
accepting that moral rules are followed, not because they are moral, but because not following them brings
disesteem." (24)
"If any person thinks the examination of the rest of the animal kingdom an unworthy task," Aristotle wrote, "he must hold in
disesteem the study of man."
1984 "The Allocation of Esteem and
Disesteem: A Test of Goode's Theory." American Sociological Review, 49: 648-658.
It is used to describe a member of a group who treats the group with
disesteem and seeks acceptance into some other group of higher standing.
One is the opprobrium for violating the norms of fair argumentation; the other--the stronger--the
disesteem and reduced status that accompanies any violation of the socially sanctioned values of acceptable patient care (see La Valle 1994).
Eventually, his annoyed fellow directors presented him with a small token of
disesteem: a large pink plastic replica of a telephone.
Beneath the chaos of this dyslexic note, one can see if not the seeds of my later prose style then at least a characteristic attitude toward the act of writing--specifically, a snide
disesteem for my very first audience, my woebegone sister.
Further, Oakley argues, a person may deserve esteem or
disesteem for emotions felt without an accompanying feeling of personal responsibility for them.
Wright, a native of Rome, New York, was an extraordinarily successful writer despite the
disesteem of literary critics.