Locus of Control and Self-esteem - Research Paper Example

 Locus of Control and Self-Esteem Each individual possesses certain personality traits. These traits are characteristics that help define an individual. Among these traits are the locus of control and self-esteem. The phenomenon of locus of control is the degree to which an individual believes that he/she has no control over the individual’s surroundings (external locus of control) and the degree to which one can control his/her surroundings (internal locus of control) (Rotter, 1966). The most commonly discussed personality trait is self-esteem. It characterizes the overall judgment about the self. A drive to accomplish and maintain high self-esteem is one of the strongest motives of personality. People with high self-esteem possess a positive image about themselves while people with low self-esteem possess a negative about themselves (Baumeister, 1998). In recent times, psychologist and other social scientists have shifted emphasis on studying the personality traits of students. A number of researchers have studied the relationship between self-esteem and locus of control (Martin, 1978; Liu, Haiyan & Li, 2009). The findings of the researches suggested that locus of control and self-esteem has a negative or inverse relationship. This means that individuals having a high locus of control, that is, external locus on control will have a low self-esteem. Similarly, individuals having a low locus of control, that is, internal locus of control will have a high self-esteem (Martin, 1978; Liu, Haiyan & Li, 2009). These results are not only consistent in the academic field rather researchers investigated the relationship of the two variables among different ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic status, gender roles and discovered the same results (Goodman, Cooley, Sewell & Leavitt, 1994; Harrison, Guy & Lupfer, 1981). The main purpose of the research is to study the relationship between locus of control and self-esteem among students studying at Marshall Graduate College, Charleston. The study aims to investigate whether students having a higher locus of control have a low self-esteem and vice versa. Hypothesis The hypotheses of the present research are as follows, where, H0 is the null hypothesis and H1 is the alternative hypothesis. H0 = There is no significant relationship between locus of control and self-esteem among students at Marshall Graduate College, Charleston. H1: There is a significant relationship between locus of control and self-esteem among students at Marshall Graduate College, Charleston. Conceptual Definitions In order to understand the two variables; locus of control and self-esteem better, the conceptual definitions are presented. The locus of control is an important concept of psychology which explains how a human perceives the events that he has gone through in his or her life. It is considered as an important part of an individual’s personality as it mainly refers to the way one perceives his/her actions and the events that his/his life passes through, basically the cause and effect relationship; whether the causes were internal or external. Those who develop an internal locus account for the internal reasons, that is, they believe that they themselves are responsible for their future. While those who develop an external locus of control pay more attention to external forces for the events that take place in their life. Similarly, sometimes a person places a value on himself based on the power that he/she believes he/she possesses. It is basically the opinion of one’s own self. Self esteem can be both high and low. A person with a high self esteem views himself/herself as important and believes he/she has achieved good things in life. While people with a low self esteem do not think high of themselves and are usually the ones with a lower morale. Method Operational Definitions Locus of Control “Locus of Control refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them. Individuals with a high internal locus of control believe that events result primarily from their own behavior and actions. Those with a high external locus of control believe that powerful others, fate, or chance primarily determine events (Rotter, 1966).” Self-Esteem “Self-esteem is the favorable or unfavorable attitude toward the self (Rosenberg, 1965).” Subjects In the present study, investigating the relationship between locus of control and self-esteem, 86 subjects, with the age ranging from 19 years to 37 years, studying at Marshall Graduate College, Charleston, West Virginia campus, was asked to participate. The sample consisted of 27 males with the mean age 22.89 and 59 females with the mean age 21.53. The students were selected through stratified random sampling. Measurements and Instruments The measurement instruments that were used during the research were: 1. Measuring Self-Esteem: the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1965) was used to measure self-esteem of the students studying at studying at Marshall Graduate College, Charleston. This 10-item scale was designed by Rosenberg (1965) which tried to calculate self-esteem (Rosernberg, 1965). The reliability of the scale is 0.93, validity is 0.73 and the test-retest reliability is 0.85 (Silber & Tipett, 1965). There are five positively worded items and five negatively worded items. It is a Likert scale with items answered on a four point scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 4 (totally agree) (Rosernberg, 1965). 2. Measuring Locus of Control: the Rotter’s Locus on Control Scale (1966) was used to measure locus of control of the students studying at studying at Marshall Graduate College, Charleston. This 13-item scale was deigned by Rotter in 1966 to determine the internal and external locus of control in individuals. The scale has a test-retest reliability of 0.61 (Lange & Tiggerman, 1981). Design Correlational research design is used in the present research. A correlational research design investigates the relationship between two or more variables. In the present research, the two issues related to internal validity are that firstly, the researcher does not know that direction of the cause and secondly, there researcher is unaware of the influence of a third variable. Procedure In order to find the relationship between locus of control and self-esteem, a sample of 86 students were drawn from Marshall Graduate College, Charleston. The students ranged between the ages 19 years to 37 years. The sample consisted of 27 males with the mean age 22.89 and 59 females with the mean age 21.53. The students were selected through stratified random sampling. A written permission was granted from the higher authorities at the college to conduct the research. All the students in the class were asked to fill the personality tests on their computers. The personality measures included Anomy (McClosky & Schaar, 1965), Locus of Control Scale (Rotter, 1966), Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1966), Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1964) and Self- Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1987). The students were asked to record their name, age, gender and first year’s GPA along with their scores calculated from the scales. The instruments selected and utilized in the present research included Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale (1966) and Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale (1965). The students were then asked to collect the scores from their classmates and proceed with the research. The collected data was analyzed using Statistical Software Package (SPSS) version 16.0. Furthermore, to find the relationship between locus of control and self-esteem Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient was used. Results The study was intended to investigate the relationship between locus of control and self-esteem among students studying at Marshall Graduate College, Charleston. The descriptive statistics showed that among the sample of 86 students, 31.4% were male and 68.6% of the students were female. The mean age of the males in the sample was 22.89 (M = 22.89) and the mean age of the females was 21.53 (M = 21.53). Furthermore, the mean and standard deviation of the locus of control was 43.49 and 23.20 respectively (M = 43.49, SD = 23.20). Similarly, the mean and standard deviation of self-esteem was 81.63 and 18.21 respectively (M = 81.63, SD = 23.20). In order to find the relationship between locus of control and self-esteem among the students, Pearson Correlation Coefficient was used. The results revealed that there was a negative relationship between locus of control and self-esteem (r = -0.119) but it was not statistically significant (p = 0.273) with the level of significance or the α-value being 0.05 at 95% confidence interval. Thus, the results suggest that even though, there is a negative or inverse relationship between locus of control and self-esteem, that is, higher the locus of control among students will result in a lower self-esteem but this relationship is not significant. Discussion The results of the study investigating the relationship between locus f control and self-esteem showed that even though there was a negative relationship between the two variables, but the relationship was not significant. Thus, the null hypothesis is accepted and the alternative hypothesis is rejected. Even though, the relationship between locus of control and self-esteem is not significant, but the almost negligible negative relationship between the two variables is supported by the previous literature (Martin, 1978). This means that the two variables are inversely proportional; the lower the locus of control, the higher the self-esteem. A lower score in the Rotter’s Locus of Control Scales suggests an internal locus of control (Rotter, 1966). Thus, it means that internal locus of control has a positive relationship with self-esteem (Martin, 1978). An individual with an external locus of control will have a lower self-esteem and an individual with an internal locus of control will have a high self-esteem (Liu, Haiyan & Li, 2009). Thus, individuals with external locus of control believe that they have no control on the happening of their life which reduces their self-esteem. On the other hand, individuals with internal locus of control believe that they the control of their life events lie within her/him which increases their self-esteem. The results show that the students having an internal locus of control will have a high self-esteem and vice versa. As the relationship is not significant, there the negative relationship that exists between the two variables is negligible. The reason behind an insignificant relationship between the two variables in the present research is that the self-esteem of students studying at Marshall Graduate College might be related to other variables such as anomy or academic achievement. Similarly, the locus of control of students might be related to the academic achievement or even the gender of the student participating in the present research. Furthermore, another reason for the insignificant result might be the small size that was selected for the research. The implications of the present research are that the instructors should help students with an external locus of control to increase their self-esteem. This means that the teachers needs to take appropriate steps and measures so that students with external locus of control have higher subjective evaluations. The research is also helpful for the students because it would help them acquire knowledge about their internality, externality and self-esteem. To enhance the scope of the present research, locus of control and self-esteem could be studied in relation to the academic achievement of the students. This would help in better understanding of how the three variables relate to each other and the strength of their relationship. Conclusion Based on the findings of the research, it is concluded that there is an inverse insignificant relationship between locus of control and self-esteem among students studying at Marshall Graduate College, Charleston. This means that even though, there is a negligible relationship but the little relationship that is present is negative which suggests that students having a high locus of control or have an external locus of control will have a low self-esteem and students having a low locus of control or have an internal locus of control will have a high self-esteem. One important thing to note is that the student lives are the years when the personality changes are inevitable. The degree to which students assign importance to the locus of control and eventually develop an either external or internal locus of control will determine their levels of confidence and eventually self esteem. Therefore, a balance is required so that the individual can exercise better control. References Baumeister, R.F. (1998): The self; in D.T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske & G. Lindzey (eds.): The handbook of social psychology. Boston: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Crowne, D. P. & Marlowe, D. (1960). A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 24, 349-354. Goodman, S. H., Cooley, E. L., Sewell, D. R., & Leavitt, N. (1994). Locus of control and self-esteem in depressed, low-income African-American women. Behavioral Science: Community Mental Health Journal, 30(3), 259-269. Harrison, B. G., Guy, R. F., & Lupfer, S. L. (1981). Locus of control and self-esteem as correlates of role orientation in traditional and nontraditional women. Sex Roles, 7(12), 1175-1187. Lange, R. V. & Tiggerman, M. (1981). Dimensionality and reliability of the Rotter I-E Locus of Control Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 45, 398-405. Liu ,F., Haiyan, Y., & Li, Z. (2009). Relationship among self-esteem, locus of control and coping style of junior middle school Students. China Journal of Health Psychology. Martin, J. C. (1978). Locus of control and self-esteem in Indian and white students. Journal of American Indian Education, 18(1). McClosky, H., & Schaar, J. H. (1965). Psychological dimensions of anomy. American Sociological Review, 30(1), 14‐40. Rosenberg, M. (1986). Conceiving the Self. Krieger: Malabar, FL. Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Rotter, JB (1966), Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement, Psychological Monographs. Silber, E. & Tippett, J. (1965). Self-esteem: clinical assessment and measurement validation." Psychological Reports, 16, 1017-1071. Snyder, M. (1987). Public appearances/private realities: The psychology of self-monitoring. New York: Freeman. Appendices Appendix 1 Table 1 Frequency and Percentage of Males and Female in the Sample (N = 86) Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid male 27 31.4 31.4 31.4 female 59 68.6 68.6 100.0 Total 86 100.0 100.0 Table 2 Mean and Standard Deviation of Age of the Male and Female Sample (N = 86) Gender Mean N Std. Deviation male 22.8889 27 3.00427 female 21.5254 59 3.70161 Total 21.9535 86 3.53772 Table 3 Mean and Standard Deviation of Locus of Control and Self-Esteem (N = 86) Mean Std. Deviation N Locus of Control 43.4884 23.20078 86 Self-Esteem 81.6279 18.20539 86 Table 4 Pearson Correlation Coefficient of Locus of Control and Self-Esteem (N = 86) Locus of Control Self-Esteem Locus of Control Pearson Correlation 1 -.119 Sig. (2-tailed) .273 N 86 86 Self-Esteem Pearson Correlation -.119 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .273 N 86 86 Read More