The Influence Of Self-Esteem

College: a stretch of time characterized by rivers of shitty beer, clouds of skunk smelling smoke, and sexual tension that heats up rooms. Amidst all of these antics students are free to do as they please, not accountable for their actions or held to responsibilities. Living in this bubble called college, generally at an age of development and maturation, has many effects on who people are. Specifically, college is a time for ‘finding yourself,’ or defining who you are and how you feel about who you are. A very vital aspect of this is the social interactions had in college. Because college students are at the age of heightened interest in sex, romantic relationships have a pivotal influence on self-esteem. While the correlation between one’s …show more content…
For this study, the definition of self-esteem will be adapted from the research of Alicia D. Cast and Peter J. Burke so that self-esteem refers to “an individual’s overall positive evaluation of the self,” (Cast 2002, 1042). This evaluation one has of their self can be understood as their perception of their competence and worth. In this survey I will be measuring self-esteem through the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (University of Maryland). This scale consists of 10 questions regarding one’s perceptions of their self. Each question is answered on a four level scale from strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree and is scored as a Likert scale. This scale has been used in many sociological research to measure self-esteem and will be sufficient in measuring the self-esteem of students in this …show more content…
Looking at the question at hand (‘how does relationship status affect self-esteem differently between males and female college students?’) through the lense of a symbolic interactionist reveals the social scripts that are attached to romantic relationships and relationship status (Waskul 2010). These scripts shape what relationships we have, whether or not they become romantic, and how we perceive our relationship status. Through the scripts we are socialized to believe that we must find our mate and settle down. When an individual does not fill this role of the script, they lack verification and thus their self-esteem diminishes. Looking at the research question through a symbolic interactionist perspective like this makes me believe that self-esteem and relationship status will have a very strong relationship. I believe that having a relationship (whether exclusive or nonexclusive) will result in higher self-esteem than those who are not in a relationship. Furthermore, because it is supported in previous research that women have a greater emotional investment in their relationship status (Jaret 2005) and that women are overall less happy with existing relationships (Stevenson 2009), I believe that females will have overall lower-levels of self-esteem than males despite relationship