The Relationship between Self-Esteem and Irrational Attitudes in University Students

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of gender and academic
level on students’ self-esteem and irrational attitudes. Furthermore,
the study examined the relationship between self-esteem and irrational
attitudes. 397 university students, aged 18-23 years, completed the
Rosenberg self-esteem scale and the irrational attitudes questionnaire.
The results showed no significant differences in self-esteem due to
gender or academic level. For irrational attitudes, there were
significant main effects for gender with higher levels of irrational
attitudes for females. No significant main effect for the academic level
was found. Correlational analyses indicated that for females, selfesteem
correlated significantly with the global measure of irrational
attitudes and with three subscales: negative self-evaluation, internal
attribution of failure and irritability. For males, self-esteem was
significantly correlated with the global measure and with the subscale
of negative self-evaluation. All correlations were higher among
females than among males. The counseling implications of these
findings are discussed.