Locus of control and self-esteem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Locus of control and self-esteem - Essay Example 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. 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,