Is Self-Esteem in Boys and Girls Influenced by Academic Success?

2698 Words6 Pages

Introduction

Self-esteem is the result of many experiences throughout life. Those

with high self-esteem tend to function better and have more positive

interactions than those with poor self-esteem.

According to Coopersmith (1967), self-esteem is a product of

individual’s early relationships, particularly with parents. Growe

(1980) found that maternal acceptance and positive interactions relate

to subsequent self esteem in children. Those individuals with low

self-esteem appear to be in need of positive self-relevant feedback

and feel threatened when negative feedback is presented (Brown,

Collins & Schmitt, 1988). In line with these findings, Smith and Smoll

(1990) demonstrated that children with low self-esteem respond to

highly supportive coaches in a positive manner, but when responses are

low in support, the response from the individual is primarily

negative.

Self-esteem is an extremely popular construct within psychology.

Individually it refers to an individual’s sense of his or her value or

worth, or the extent to which a person values, approves of,

appreciates, prizes or likes him or herself (Blascovich & Tomaka,

1991). The most broad and frequent cited definition of self-esteem

within psychology is Rosenberg’s (1965) who described it as a

favourable or unfavourable attitude towards the self. Within

psychology, self-esteem has been related to virtually every other

psychological concept or domain, including personality (e.g. shyness),

behavioural (e.g. task performance), cognitive (e.g. attribution bias)

and clinical concepts (e.g. anxiety or depression). While some

researchers have been particularly concerned with understanding the

nuances of the self-esteem construct, others have focused on the

adaptive and self-protective functions of self-esteem – Blascovich and

Tomaka (1991) concentrated on conceptual and methodological issues.

Among the most popular and well-utilized measures of self-esteem are

the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (1965) and the Coopersmith self-esteem

inventory (1967/1981). The Coopersmith self-esteem inventory was

developed through research to access attitude toward oneself in

general, and in specific contexts: peers, parents, school and personal

interests. It was originally designed for use with children, drawing

on items from scales

That were previously by Carl Rogers.

Open Document