Self Esteem and Locus of Control Among Middle Adolescence

Abstract

Self-esteem refers to the extent to which a person values, approves or appreciates himself or herself. Self-esteem was defined as “an individual’s positive or negative evaluation of himself or herself” (Smith, Mackie, & Claypool, 2014). Locus of Control (LOC) refers to an individual’s personal belief that the events which occur in his or her life are either as a result of personal control and effort, or outside forces such as fate and luck. Adolescent is a stage in individual growth and development which has been notorious throughout the centuries as one of great emotional upset with wide fluctuations in behavior. The study was conducted using self-esteem and locus of control among adolescents. The tools used for the study was Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale developed by Morris Rosenberg (1956) A 10-item scale that measures global self-worth by measuring both positive and negative feelings about the self and Julian Rotter (1966) Internal and External Locus of Control Scale which has 45 items, The maximum score an individual can get is 34 and the minimum is zero. (Out of 45 items, 11 are fillers). The average score obtained by a person is 9. The sample size used for the study was school going students between the age group of 14 to 17 from different parts of Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Jaipur through Google forms. The results from the study indicated that there was no significant relationship between self-esteem and locus of control. Participant was analysed by Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation. From the data, it is evident that there is no significant correlation between self-esteem and domains of locus of control. It implies that the change in self-esteem will not cause any change in locus of control. Further implications of the study are discussed in detail.