Self-Esteem and Classroom Participation¹

Abstract

Level of self-esteem was hypothesized to be related to aspects of participation in a classroom group. Three measures of self-esteem were used to test the hypotheses that college students with low self-esteem would (1) say less in class (2) contribute a smaller proportion of their thoughts to class discussion and (3) sit farther back in the classroom than Ss with high self-esteem. These hypotheses were not confirmed for the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (2) or for the Ziller Social Self-Esteem Scale (14) , but all were confirmed for the subscale of the Coopersmith inventory specifically related to school self-esteem (t= 2. 06, 3. 35, 3.86, p >.05, .01, .01.