Psychological Reports, 1975, 36, 253-254. @ Psychological Reports 1975
NEUROTICISM AND EXTRAVERSION IN RESPONSES T O COOPERSMITH'S SELF-ESTEEM INVENTORY CHRISTOPHER B A G L F f
University oj Surrey, Guild/ord, England
AND
LOUISE EVAN-WONG' Northumber/and College of Education, Newcastle, England
Summary.-A two-factor principal components analysis of dam from the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory for 274 English adolescents produced for both sexes two independent components. These correlated, as hypothesized, with Eysenck's Neuroticism and Extraversion.
Writers about "personality" (2, 4 ) and "self-esteem" (3, 7 ) deal with apparently closely related areas, such as the tendency of human beings to be unhappy, self-disparaging, etc. Yet personalicy theorists and self-esteem theorists do not often cross-reference each others' work nor test hypotheses of mutual concern. Probably the most salient point of contact is Cattell's "self-identification" factor ( 3 ) but even this does not contain any clear measure of esteem, or evaluation of the self. Eysenck and Eysenck ( 5 ) have shown that when a two-factor principal components solution is applied to scores from the Cattell Personality Inventory and the Eysenck Personality Inventory, using the Promax method ( 6 ) to extract higher order, two-factor solution, components which emerge resemble the personality profiles of neuroticism and extraversion in Eysenck's own personalicy scheme. W e hypothesized chat the same kind of structure would emerge if the two-factoi solution were applied to Coopersmith's Self-esteem Scale ( 3 ) . Subjects were a population of 14- to 15-yr.-olds, 143 boys and 131 girls, attending a large high school in Southern England. Subjects completed both Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory and the Eysenck Personality Inventory for use with adolescents ( 5 ) . The two-factor components solution was applied to scores on each scale, separately for the sexes. The first 10 eigenvectors extracted from each scale were obliquely rotated to a higher-order solution. As expected, the higher order, two-factor component solution of the Eysenck scale produced in both boys and girls uncorrelated components resembling Neuroticism and Extraversion, which are familiar in the Eysenck's work. The higher order solution as applied to the Coopersmith inventory produced similar components in boys and girls. The components were largely independent of one another ( r -.09 for boys; 7 -.I7 for girls). The first of these components in both sexes had high loading on items measuring self-disparagement (e.g., "I give in very easily;" "I'm a failure," etc.), confusion (e.g., "Things are all mixed up in my life"), unhappiness at home (e.g., "My parents don't understand me"), and general unhappiness (e.g., "I'm 'C. Bagley, in Department of Suciology; L. Evan-Wong, in the Depament of Education.
254
C. BAGLEY
&
L. EVAN-WONG
pretty unhappy," etc.). The second component in both sexes loaded highly on items measuring social confidence (e.g., "I'm easy to like;" "I'm a lot of fun to be with"), and extraversion (e.g., "I'm popular with other children;" "My parents and I have a lot of fun") .' The factor scores for the higher-order components from the Eysenck and Coopersmich scales were computed and correlated with one anorher. For boys, Eysenck's Neuroticism correlated ,389 ( p < .01) with Coopersmith's component measuring "unhappiness and poor self-esteem;" the comparable correlation in girls was .404 ( p < .01). Eysenck's Extraversion correlated .347 ( 9 < .01) with Coopersmith's "social confidence and extraversion" component in boys, and .356 ( p < .Ol)in girls. Although these results are significant, and in the hypothesized direction, they raise a number of questions. Should self-esteem be subsumed under the general mantle of personality as described by Eysenck and Cactell or should personality profiles as described by psychometricians be subsumed under the concept of self-esteem? From a theoretical point of view one would not have included a measure of sociability or extraversion in a general scale measuring self-esteem, and it seems likely that the Coopersmith scale would have more heuristic value if it were broken down into the two components we have identified. But if, as Becker ( 1) claims, the desire for self-esteem is the dominant motive of man, then personality profiles derived from other scales could logically fall within the domain of self-esteem studies. For example, neuroticism could arise through the failure to achieve an adequate sense of the self. This is the only one of a number of hypotheses which could account for the correlations reported above. REFERENCES 1. BECKER, E. The birth and death o f meaning. London: Pelican Books, 1972. 2. CATIELL,R. The scientific basis o f personality. London: Pelican Books, 1967. 3. COOPERSMITH, S. The antecedents of self-esteem. San Francisco: Freeman, 1967. 4. EYSENCK, H. The slsucture of human personality. London: Methuen, 1970. 5. EYSENCK, H., & EYSENCK, S. B. Personality structure and measurement. London: Routledge, 1969. 6. HENDRICKSON, A., & WHITE.0. Promax: a q u i d method for rotation to oblique simple structure. Bsitish Journal of Statistical Psychology, 1964, 1 7 , 65-70. 7. ROSENBERG. M. Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, N. J.: Univer. of Princeton Press, 1965. Accepted ]anrrary 3, 1975.
=Full derails of questions, and principal component loadings are available from the authors.
NEUROTICISM AND EXTRAVERSION IN RESPONSES T O COOPERSMITH'S SELF-ESTEEM INVENTORY CHRISTOPHER B A G L F f
University oj Surrey, Guild/ord, England
AND
LOUISE EVAN-WONG' Northumber/and College of Education, Newcastle, England
Summary.-A two-factor principal components analysis of dam from the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory for 274 English adolescents produced for both sexes two independent components. These correlated, as hypothesized, with Eysenck's Neuroticism and Extraversion.
Writers about "personality" (2, 4 ) and "self-esteem" (3, 7 ) deal with apparently closely related areas, such as the tendency of human beings to be unhappy, self-disparaging, etc. Yet personalicy theorists and self-esteem theorists do not often cross-reference each others' work nor test hypotheses of mutual concern. Probably the most salient point of contact is Cattell's "self-identification" factor ( 3 ) but even this does not contain any clear measure of esteem, or evaluation of the self. Eysenck and Eysenck ( 5 ) have shown that when a two-factor principal components solution is applied to scores from the Cattell Personality Inventory and the Eysenck Personality Inventory, using the Promax method ( 6 ) to extract higher order, two-factor solution, components which emerge resemble the personality profiles of neuroticism and extraversion in Eysenck's own personalicy scheme. W e hypothesized chat the same kind of structure would emerge if the two-factoi solution were applied to Coopersmith's Self-esteem Scale ( 3 ) . Subjects were a population of 14- to 15-yr.-olds, 143 boys and 131 girls, attending a large high school in Southern England. Subjects completed both Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory and the Eysenck Personality Inventory for use with adolescents ( 5 ) . The two-factor components solution was applied to scores on each scale, separately for the sexes. The first 10 eigenvectors extracted from each scale were obliquely rotated to a higher-order solution. As expected, the higher order, two-factor component solution of the Eysenck scale produced in both boys and girls uncorrelated components resembling Neuroticism and Extraversion, which are familiar in the Eysenck's work. The higher order solution as applied to the Coopersmith inventory produced similar components in boys and girls. The components were largely independent of one another ( r -.09 for boys; 7 -.I7 for girls). The first of these components in both sexes had high loading on items measuring self-disparagement (e.g., "I give in very easily;" "I'm a failure," etc.), confusion (e.g., "Things are all mixed up in my life"), unhappiness at home (e.g., "My parents don't understand me"), and general unhappiness (e.g., "I'm 'C. Bagley, in Department of Suciology; L. Evan-Wong, in the Depament of Education.
254
C. BAGLEY
&
L. EVAN-WONG
pretty unhappy," etc.). The second component in both sexes loaded highly on items measuring social confidence (e.g., "I'm easy to like;" "I'm a lot of fun to be with"), and extraversion (e.g., "I'm popular with other children;" "My parents and I have a lot of fun") .' The factor scores for the higher-order components from the Eysenck and Coopersmich scales were computed and correlated with one anorher. For boys, Eysenck's Neuroticism correlated ,389 ( p < .01) with Coopersmith's component measuring "unhappiness and poor self-esteem;" the comparable correlation in girls was .404 ( p < .01). Eysenck's Extraversion correlated .347 ( 9 < .01) with Coopersmith's "social confidence and extraversion" component in boys, and .356 ( p < .Ol)in girls. Although these results are significant, and in the hypothesized direction, they raise a number of questions. Should self-esteem be subsumed under the general mantle of personality as described by Eysenck and Cactell or should personality profiles as described by psychometricians be subsumed under the concept of self-esteem? From a theoretical point of view one would not have included a measure of sociability or extraversion in a general scale measuring self-esteem, and it seems likely that the Coopersmith scale would have more heuristic value if it were broken down into the two components we have identified. But if, as Becker ( 1) claims, the desire for self-esteem is the dominant motive of man, then personality profiles derived from other scales could logically fall within the domain of self-esteem studies. For example, neuroticism could arise through the failure to achieve an adequate sense of the self. This is the only one of a number of hypotheses which could account for the correlations reported above. REFERENCES 1. BECKER, E. The birth and death o f meaning. London: Pelican Books, 1972. 2. CATIELL,R. The scientific basis o f personality. London: Pelican Books, 1967. 3. COOPERSMITH, S. The antecedents of self-esteem. San Francisco: Freeman, 1967. 4. EYSENCK, H. The slsucture of human personality. London: Methuen, 1970. 5. EYSENCK, H., & EYSENCK, S. B. Personality structure and measurement. London: Routledge, 1969. 6. HENDRICKSON, A., & WHITE.0. Promax: a q u i d method for rotation to oblique simple structure. Bsitish Journal of Statistical Psychology, 1964, 1 7 , 65-70. 7. ROSENBERG. M. Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, N. J.: Univer. of Princeton Press, 1965. Accepted ]anrrary 3, 1975.
=Full derails of questions, and principal component loadings are available from the authors.
