The Relationship between Self-Esteem and Aggression - Dissertation Example

?The Relationship between Self-Esteem and Aggression The characteristics of self esteem have traditionally between associated with externalizing factors like aggression in different terms. The controversy centring the issue concerning low or high self-esteem influencing aggression have been addressed through several studies undertaken on samples from different sets of population. The following review of literatures will identify the findings of twelve research articles along with their originality in terms of research on the area chosen. A study by Baumeister, Bushman and Campbell (2000) bring in the importance of threatened egotism to explain the relation between aggression and self regard. The contemporary works of the authors did not confirm the association between low self-esteem and aggression which was established theoretically by traditional views. In fact the new concepts of narcissism and unstable self-esteem can foresee aggression more efficiently. The article explores the research domain with the help of different literatures, some of which explain why people with low self-esteem were less liable to cause aggression. Normally such people will try to avoid risk and hence would not take the risk of being aggressive towards others. In fact people with fluctuating self-esteem or manic depression are more likely to be aggressive and display violence during the manic phase when the person has high views about himself compared to the phase of depression when self-esteem is at its low. This also explains the aggressive orientation caused by alcoholic people during the phase of intoxication when the self-esteem momentarily heightens. The second part of the discussion presented in the research now moves on to explore the newer constructs in order to defend the low self-esteem hypothesis regarding aggression. Studies showed that narcissism or unstable self-esteem was more responsible for violence and aggression than low self-esteem. After studying different literatures the authors have inferred that hidden low self-esteem demonstrating self doubts might bring on aggression rather than obvious low self-esteem. In fact high self-esteem is a characteristic of both aggressive and no aggressive people. Again narcissistic people are aggressive towards specific individuals who insult or criticize them rather than being aggressive socially. The original angle in the research lies in the fact that this study explored the new constructs like threatened egotism or hidden low self-esteem rather than trying to establish he simple and direct link between self-esteem and aggression explored till then. Anderson and Bushman (2002) studied the different theories on aggression showed by human beings and the original angle of the research lies in the use of general aggression model (GAM) to incorporate different variables which reflect cognition effect, apart from situational and personological parameters. The use of this model also helps this study to identify the required research which can fill in the gaps in theoretical frameworks and this can help in testing the interventions in bringing down aggression. The study begins with definitions of aggression and related terms and then discusses the particular theories of aggressive behaviour before embarking on the General Aggression Model. The model considers three categories of inputs – person factors (values, goals, beliefs) and circumstances (drugs, pain, frustration etc) related inputs, cognitive (hostile thoughts, scripts etc), affective (mood and emotion etc) and arousal paths along which the inputs have their final impact and lastly, the results of the implied process of appraisal and decision making. Certain means of interventions are also suggested with the help of this model and these include multisystemic therapy like family oriented methods etc, prison treatments etc and the model also predicts that with age and experience aggression might decrease. The literatures studied in the research also show the relation between high self-esteem and aggression. The study also accounts for shared motivation under which self-esteem plays a key role. Threats to the need of viewing oneself positively and the need of others to view oneself positively often bring about aggressive behaviour. Donnellan et al (2005) studies the relation between self-esteem and externalizing issues like aggression, rebellious behaviour and felony. An association has been derived between low self-esteem and the problems mentioned and the findings are drawn from assessments of self-esteem and problems of aggression on the basis of self report, ratings of teachers and parents and these findings hold for different age groups comprising adolescents and college goers and also participants from various nationalities like United States and New Zealand. The three studies evaluated in this research show that the finding also holds both on cross sectional pattern as well as longitudinally once the factors like supportive parenting, parent-child and peer bonding, marks obtained in achievement-tests, socioeconomic status and Intellect are controlled. The impact of self-esteem on aggression was found to vary irrespective of narcissism or self obsessive behaviour. Here lies the originality of the study, i.e. the interplay of narcissism and the relation between self-esteem and aggression. The study begins with a theoretical framework underlining that low self-esteem motivates the externalizing characteristics like aggression. This hypothesis is tested in the concerned research. A multi-method approach is used to test the relation. Since the past studies depended mostly on self-report, therefore it is possible that the relation was influenced by shared method variance. The impact of controlled variables on the association between self-esteem and aggression was studied theoretically. The first study was based on primary survey with a sample of 292 young students and self-esteem was measured with the 10-item Rosenberg and Self-esteem Scale and 6-item scale of Harter Self-Perception Profile for Children. Longitudinal data was used in the second study to establish relation between self-esteem and future problems of aggression. Third literature used for the analysis focussed on the impact of narcissism and to determine if it was independently related with self-esteem. The results from the studies showed that self-esteem could predict the future instances of aggression and 11 year old people with low esteem were likely to reveal their aggression by 13 years. Some findings suggested that high self-esteem is a stronger predictor of aggression than low esteem since the later is supposedly at the opposing end of narcissism. There are inconsistencies between real life instances and lab results in the context of types of aggression. The research infers finally that the low self-esteem hypothesis may not be totally ignored and there is a replicable association between low self-esteem and the externalizing problems like aggression despite some inconsistencies in the literatures studied in the research. Perez et al (2005) brings about a novelty in their research by investigating the relation between aggression and both the opposing factors of low self-esteem and high self-esteem. They infer with a positive note on the validity of both these relations. A target group was selected and the findings were based on assessment of the targets’ self-esteem and self-reported physical aggression. An evaluation of self-esteem was obtained from the room-mates of the candidates. The graphical relation obtained between self-esteem and aggression was curvilinear in nature and thus results supported the theories that both extreme conditions of self-esteem were related to physical aggression rather than moderate or mediocre self-esteem. The components of self views and interpersonal reality were also analysed in this context. For instance, for participants whose self views matched with those of their room-mates, the aggression level was null. The literature studied demonstrates ample evidence regarding low/high self-esteem causing aggression and also certain associated factors which bring about this relation are noted. The significance of interpersonal approach has been studied too before embarking on the primary research. For instance people who self views are higher than the others’ esteem of the individual, would face the problem of threatened egotism and this might lead to aggression. Thus the relation established between self-esteem levels and aggression is not that straight forward especially where low self-esteem is concerned, that is, in case of people with lower self-views than others’ esteem about him. For instance a person might view himself or herself negatively while others might view the individual positively. Now such a person has ‘threatened low self-esteem’ and a person while maintaining low-esteem despite positive views from others might have established negative self regard and to maintain consistency he or she might involve in aggression. Questionnaires on personality, emotions and self concepts were answered by 140 undergraduate students comprising 53 male and 87 female candidates and their same sex roommates and this made up a total of 280 participants. There was four variables analysed – aggression, self-esteem, roommate esteem, gender and for all four, descriptive statistics and inter-correlations were derived. Significant positive association was derived between target self-esteem and roommate esteem and both their esteem correlates with self reported aggression of the targets. Hence low self-esteem and negative esteem of the roommates would relate with more aggressive orientation of the target. More physical aggression was shown in men than women. This is derived by linear relations and curvilinear relations emphasize the hypothesis than both low and high levels of self- esteem causes aggression. The study by Ang and Yusof (2005) tests the relation between narcissism and aggression using boys in the age group ranging between 10-17 years of age with a mean of 12.23 years. Consistent with the theory, students with narcissism demonstrated aggressive behaviour. Self-esteem however has negligible impact on aggression. The Asian sample based analysis showed that narcissistic individuals (whether adults or children) are aggressive when they are narcissistic. Intervention efforts comprising self appraisal means would be more appropriate compared to those which would promote a high self image. The novelty lies in the fact that children and adolescents were chosen for the analysis of the association between narcissism and aggression. After close discussion of different related literatures, it may be noted that aggression essentially was related with a difference that might exist between two opinions – a high self-appraisal and an external appraisal which might be less favourable. The sample comprised 370 students with 176 boys and 194 girls from three schools based on Singapore. They belonged mostly to Grade 5 and 6 (224) and rest (146) were from Grade 7 and 9. Descriptive statistics and T-tests compared the aggressive and non aggressive students based on the parameters of narcissism and self-esteem. After comparing the two categorically grouped students (aggressive and non aggressive), it was observed that the narcissism scores mattered and not the self-esteem scores as far as influence on aggression was concerned. A similar previous research was conducted on adult Caucasian sample and that was extended here to include Asian children. It is important to distinguish the concepts of narcissism and high self esteem because the former refers to unrealistically high esteem. The results have explained Conduct Disorder in children. These tendencies might be explained by the problem in social reasoning processes which prevent proper development of learning abilities in children. The main limitation of the study is that it is based on correlation measures of relations rather than causal or directional. Another research by Diamantopoulou, Rydell and Henricsson (2007) also tested the hypothesis that both high and low self-esteem affect aggression with the sample of 652 old school children (from 30 classrooms in 23 elementary schools in Swedish University town) who are 12 years old. Children projected peer-nominations with respect to social acceptance and aggression at physical level, ratings for the self-evaluation and social satisfaction. The originality of the research lies in the fact that teachers also participated in the rating process of aggression and internalizing problems. Inflated but instable self-esteem could represent differences between peer evaluation of social acceptance and self-evaluation of social satisfaction along with peer rejection. The findings denote that fluctuating or problematic self-esteem and low self-worth were associated with aggression. It may be deduced from the results that aggressive children might reflect both low and high self-esteem. Display of exaggerated self esteem was an incidence with boys rather than girls. The study has also helped in loosening the conflicting ties in the relation between self-esteem and acts of aggression displayed by children as evaluated by the ratings of teachers and peer nominations. Harter’s self conception profile for adolescents was used on a 4- point rating scale for self-evaluations. The study has used different concepts of self-esteem which were present earlier in literatures but not applied in analyses. Internalizing problems were controlled in order to bring out the relation between aggression and self-esteem. Bryant and Smith’s article “Refining the Architecture of Aggression: A Measurement Model for the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire” evaluates different measurement derivations from the mostly used 29-item self-report Aggression Questionnaire (AQ). Four factors have been identified from structural analyses – physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger and hostility. They show very little variance and hence cannot be considered as an adequate measurement model. A sample of 1154 college students were used as respondents across three nations to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis and four alternative models of measuring Aggressive Questionnaire were compared. This is a novel study with respect to the analyses of the appropriate tool used for analysing the factors leading to aggression including self-esteem. However analyses conclude that none of the four models fitted the data properly. However whether one could use the four factor model or any of its derivatives would depend on the individual research objectives. The study also discusses the limitations and different measurement aspects of the AQ. The research ends with an account of the new 34 item questionnaire designed by the Western Psychological Services derived from the original Buss-Perry 29-item questionnaire. Here 6 items on indirect aggression were introduced. This was not included in the original AQ designed by Buss and Perry. The studies reviewed so far pertain to students. A research study conducted by Dettinger and Hart (2007) focussed on instances of indirect aggression in a big computer and insurance firm in Northeast United States by applying Work Harassment Scale to measure indirect aggression. Using Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale and Collective Self-esteem scale the association between personal self-esteem and indirect aggression was derived. The findings reported a significant association between them. The study begins with a background research on the nature and level of aggression determined by gender. A sample of 200 workers was selected from two companies - a computer and insurance company with equal distribution of male and female participants and belonging to the age group above 18 years. Finally 90 transcripts were selected from each gender group for the analysis. Previous research studied as a background to this already established that in one’s childhood there is presence of indirect aggression. Here the correlates of personal and collective self-esteem and their association with indirect aggression were accounted on basis of reports from adult people belonging to both gender groups. It was reflected that gender group had a strong effect on indirect aggression. The highest significance was observed in case of the association between personal self-esteem and indirect aggression. The higher the level of reported self-esteem, the lower was the experience of indirect aggression. This could lead to further implications of training and workshops in business situation. In fact people with higher personal self-esteem are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and display lower levels of aggression. Though low self-esteem is not found to influence direct aggression but it might be explained with threatened egotism and a need for more workshops and training would be implied in a workplace. Dissatisfaction with work ambience might hamper their expression and communications which might be explained as indirect aggression (e.g. talking ill about colleagues behind their back, silent treatment etc). Webster et al (2007) undertook a complex research where the associations between levels of self-esteem, instable self-esteem, gender and self-evaluated aggression. The findings of their study showed that attitudinal aggression was negatively correlated with self-esteem and this relation varied in terms of self-esteem unsteadiness and gender. This association was found to e more significant among men possessing unstable self-esteem and with women possessing stale self-esteem. Unsteadiness in self-esteem and narcissism were found to have a positive relation with behavioural aggression, yet the association between narcissism and attitudinal aggression differed along self-esteem unsteadiness. With people possessing stable self-esteem a positive relation was found between narcissism and attitudinal aggression. Gender did not have any effect on the relation. Three studies based on primary survey have been undertaken for the analysis. The trait measures of aggression and levels of self-esteem as well as self-esteem measured on daily basis were answered by participants through the Internet. A strong three directional interaction was denoted between self-esteem levels, unsteadiness of self esteem and gender of the participants. The data collected from all the studies were tabulated and analyzed in order to reach the above mentioned findings. The final findings differ from the individual findings of the studies. For instance in contrast to the first study, the final evaluation did not establish any direct interaction between levels of self esteem and unsteadiness of the same. More unsteadiness in self esteem was demonstrated y women rather than men. Overall, amongst men, low and unsteady self esteem were sufficient to ring about aggression while in women both these characteristics were necessary for aggression The study by Thomaes, Stegge, Olthof and Bushman (2008) focuses on shame-induced aggression amongst adolescents after losing a task. A sample of 163 young adolescents (aged between 10-13 years, from two public middle schools in middle class and upper middle class locality of Michigan) was taken for the analysis and they completed the scores for narcissism and self-esteem. After losing a task to a presumed opponent they were told that their opponent was wrong after they found their names at the bottom of a list and they could blast the opponent with noise as a counter measure. Under the control condition, they did not know anything regarding their opponent and neither did they see any ranking list. The narcissistic children demonstrated more aggression while blasting their opponent only when they faced shame. So it could be inferred that narcissistic children reflected more aggression in combination with high self-esteem. Some weeks before the experiment a self reported questionnaire was filled using the authentic 10-item Childhood Narcissism Scale. The items included ‘without me, our class would be much less fun’, ‘kids like me deserve something extra’ etc. Randomly selected participants were assigned to shame or no-shame status. The participants played against a fictitious FastKid! Website though they were told that they would be playing against a less competitive player. This is the first study, as claimed by the authors which associate self-views of youth and their action of aggression. The study would be useful to the practitioners in targeting clinical age periods. A study was conducted by Undheim and Sund (2010) on some Norwegian adolescents belonging to the age group 12-15 years to investigate the association of bullying, aggressive approaches and self- reported mental health problems. A sample of 2464 adolescents comprising 50.8 percent girls (12-15 years) was evaluated. The victimization of bullying was assessed by three parameters- teasing, exclusion and physical assault and self-esteem was evaluated by the Harter’s self perception profile for adolescents. The problems pertaining to emotions and behaviour were assessed by the Moods and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) and youth self-report (YSR). Aggression was measured using the four items from YSR and the results showed that the students being bullied and students who were aggressive towards others mostly reflected high scores on YSR subscales and MFQ questions and lower scores on self-worth subscale compared to those who were not bullied or not aggressive. However social problems were also identified in the groups and hence one can say that the interventions need to be framed in order to enhance social competence and ability to interact in the anti-bullying programs. The study also addressed the help seeking approach of affected students. The impact of gender was also addressed. The MFQ questionnaire comprised 34 items targeted towards children and adolescents belonging to the age group 8-18 years and the four items from YSR were taken for building the composite scale to study aggression. The study also observed the rate of incidence of bullying and aggression amongst adolescents. In fact above 10 percent of adolescents were bullied at least once weekly and 5 percent students showed aggression during the previous six months study. The bullied and aggressive adolescents showed lower self worth and higher signs of depression. Gender did not have any significant impact. The unique aspect of the study lies in the large representative sample, elevated rate of response and the application of standardized tools of self report with respect to mental health troubles. A study conducted by Golmaryami and Barry (2010) focuses on Relational Aggression and compared the association between self-reported and peer-nominated Relational Aggression (RA) with self-esteem considering a sample of 43 people between 16 to 18 years old. A positive intercorrelation was found between self-reported and peer-nominated RA and in each case positive correlation was found with narcissism. The findings revealed that narcissism was associated with peer nominated RA especially for the participants with high self-esteem. Thus narcissism was a good predictor of peer-nominated RA. The concept of RA in this research and its association with self-esteem and narcissism is the original angle of this research. RA refers to the actions which are directed to spoiling another person’s reputation or manipulating peer status and forming group against an individual/peer. Measuring RA or indirect aggression is less known and obvious compared to open aggression. The 43 participants chosen for the study were enrolled in the Mississippi Youth Challenge Program. The questionnaire for self-report inventory was based on the Peer Conflict Scale with 20 items of RA and a 4 options likert scale for each item. The 10-item Rosenberg scale was used for self-esteem measure. Descriptive statistics and correlations were tabulated and studied. Multiple regression analysis showed the impact of narcissism and self-esteem on peer nominations. Results imply that peers would consider their group marked with narcissism to be most likely or actually engaging in RA. This is mostly explained with maladaptive narcissism. The sample and the survey was a unique was of identifying RA amongst a group which shared the same place and activities for some months. The above literature review gives an idea on the relation between self-esteem and aggression and includes different concepts and components in order to explore the relation. Primary survey has been a strong focus of the above research studies in order to get first hand information. The choice of the sample (with respect to population category in terms of age groups) has been a determining factor of the research question or hypothesis addressed. The gap identified in the above review lies in the fact that there has not been any study to identify all or any form(s) of aggression and their relation with both high and low self-esteem (self and peer evaluation) of adolescents/adults. The study group for the hypothesis that both high and low esteem influence aggression was conducted on children in the above studies. Therefore the present study can try to show whether both high and low esteem influence aggression (in any/all form, ie. relational/ attitudinal/ indirect/ direct) amongst a group of young adults. References Anderson, C.A. (2002). Human aggression. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 27-41. Ang, R.P. & N. Yusof (2005), The Relationship between Aggression, Narcissism, and Self-Esteem in Asian Children and Adolescents, Current Psychology 24 (2) 113-122 Baumeister, R. F., Bushman, B. J., & Campbell, W.K. (2000). Self-Esteem, Narcissism and aggression: Does violence result from low self-esteem or from threatened egotism? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 26-31. Bryant, F.B. and B.D. Smith (2001), Re?ning the Architecture of Aggression: A Measurement Model for the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire, Journal of Research in Personality 35, 138-167 Dettinger, S. & G. Hart (2007), The Relationship Between Self-Esteem And Indirect Aggression In The Workplace, Journal of Psychiatry & Psychology 1(1) retrieved on April 11, 2013 from: http://www.scientificjournals.org/journals2007/articles/1070.htm Donnellan, M.B., Trzesniewski, K.H., Robins, R.W., Moffitt, T.E., & Caspi, A. (2005). Low self-esteem is related to aggression, antisocial behavior and delinquency. Psychological Science, 16, 328-337. Diamantopoulou, S. Rydell, A-M and L. Henricsson (2008), Diamantopoulou, S., Rydell, A-M., & Henricsson, L. (2008) Social Can both high and low self-esteem be related to aggression in children? Social Development,17, 682-698. Golmaryami, F.N. & C.T. Barry (2010), The Associations of Self-Reported and Peer-Reported Relational Aggression with Narcissism and Self-Esteem Among Adolescents in a Residential Setting, Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 39 (1), 128-133 Perez, M., Vohs, K.D. & Joiner, T.E. (2005). Discrepancies between self-and other-esteem as correlates of aggression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24, 607-620. Thomaes, S. Stegge, H. Olthof, T and B.J. Bushman (2008), Trumping Shame by Blasts of Noise: Narcissism, Self-Esteem, Shame, and Aggression in Young Adolescents, Child Development 79 (6), 1792-1801 Undheim, A.M. and A.M. Sund (2010), Prevalence of Bullying and Aggressive Behavior and their relationship to mental health problems among 12 to 15 year old Norwegian adolescents, Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 19: 803-811 Webster et al (2007), Different slopes for different folks: Self-esteem instability and gender as moderators of the relationship between self-esteem and attitudinal aggression, Self & Identity 6(1), 74-94 Read More