The role of self-esteem on life

satisfaction

By
Hoor Ul Ain
Nargis Sakhi
BS 6th semester
Department of Psychology
University Of Peshawar
 Acknowledgement
We would like to thank our supervisor Dr. Hayat Muhammad Bangash for his support and
suggestions throughout this research. Many thanks go out to all who volunteered to participate
in this study. Also we would like to thank our parents for their moral and financial support.
Furthermore we would like to thank our friends Mahnoor Rehman and Sumbal Zahra for their
help in carrying out this research.
Introduction
The aim of this study is to examine the effect of self-esteem on life satisfaction. Self-esteem
indicates a person's overall personal emotional Assessment of his or her own worth. It is a
evaluation of oneself as well as a viewpoint toward the self. Self-esteem can involve a range
of beliefs about oneself, such as the evaluation of one’s own appearance, beliefs, emotions,
and behaviors. Self-esteem can play a remarkable role in one’s life. Low self-esteem can
lead a person to be unsuccessful at work because a person thinks that he is unable to
complete the task and will not succeed. On the other hand, having a healthy self-esteem
can lead a person to achieve because he or she replaces the negative aspects with the
positive ones. In contrast, Life satisfaction refers to an individual's personal assessment of
comfort and quality of life based on his or her own chosen criteria. Self-esteem and life
satisfaction is highly corelates with each other. High self-esteem in individual’s life shows
that there is positivity in one’s life. In contrast, low self-esteem can lead a person to low life
satisfaction. Hence, it shows that there is significant relationship between self-esteem and
life satisfaction.

LITERATURE REVIEW
1. A study has shown that self-esteem is strongly and positively related to life satisfaction.
Furthermore, boys scored higher on both life satisfaction and self-esteem to girls. (Unni
K. Moksnes. Geir A. Espsnes)
2. Another study has shown that self-esteem is the predictor and both satisfaction with life
and subjective happiness and gender differences in levels of self-esteem, happiness and
over all life satisfaction. (Edel Hill, 2015)
3. A study was conducted in which self-esteem highly influenced life satisfaction, whereas
gender did not influence life satisfaction. There was a significant interaction effect of
self-esteem on gender to predict life satisfaction. (Mayungbo, O.A)
4. A study was conducted in which they studied the close relationship between self-
esteem and life satisfaction in Chinese university students. Results showed that self-
 esteem consistently predicted subsequent life satisfaction among female and males.
Whereas no significant effect of life satisfaction on subsequent self-esteem were found.
(Shengquan Ye , 24 : 12 , 2011)
5. The study was designed to assess the levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction among
the university students. The result showed that the self-esteem and life satisfaction
were significantly positively related. (Sampeet Mahanty , Dr. B . Shushma , Manisha
Mishra)
6. The study was conducted on adolescents to find out the relationship between self-
esteem and life satisfaction. It was shown that adolescent life satisfaction could be best
explained by their self-esteem. It was also found that self-esteem can enhance the
positivity in life. (Zara RABOTEG , 3.4.2008)
7. The study was designed to know about the self-esteem and life satisfaction of twenty
six institutionalization elderly persons. Findings in this study concluded that subjects
who scored high in positive self-esteem tended to score higher on life satisfaction, those
who scored low in self-esteem tended to score lower in life satisfaction. (Sandra J.
Bunkers , 1983)
8. Another study was conducted in which the differences and association were found in
self-esteem and life satisfaction. Result showed that males scored higher than females
on both self-esteem and life satisfaction and self-esteem was positively related to life
satisfaction. (Moksnes Uk , Espnes GA)
9. A study showed that male participants obtained high level of self esteem where females
score low on self esteem. (Quatman and Watson , 2001).
10. According to one recent study, the use of upward comparisons are generally more
threatening to wellbeing and levels of self-esteem than any other action. This supports
my hypothesis that how a person feels about themselves and their own self-worth
really determines how happy they are and how satisfying their life is. It is deduce from
this that high self-esteem levels tends to increase the individual level of happiness and
life satisfaction. This may work alongside Baumeisters idea that the individual may avoid
taking risks such as taking part in a competition to avoid their self-esteem being
threatened. This is turn means avoiding the feeling of worthlessness because their
upward comparisons tend to reduce levels of happiness and life satisfaction.
11. If the individual has low level of self-esteem they tend to make upward comparisons.
Upward comparisons are where they will tend to negatively think about themselves and
their abilities because they compare themselves to people they class as ‘better’ than
them. These comparisons tend to be highly unrealistic, opinion based and can have
severe negative effects on the individual’s overall self believes. The purpose of these
negative comparisons is to reinforce to the individual that they are no good no good and
have low self-esteem (Springer,2000)
12. Self consistency theories suggest that among people low in self-esteem positive life
events might be psychologically disruptive therefore reducing the ability to have
satisfaction in the individual’s life (Andrews, 1989, Swann, 1992). One reason for this
may be that their low levels of self-esteem are not being reinforced as as explained
above through the use of upward comparisons. As psychologists have come to
understand, positive life events can be disturbing for the individual with low self-esteem
 as they may have come to expect a life full of hardship. This then could possibly lead to
reinforced upward comparisons and these events may constantly remind the individual
of the reality that the individual has low levels of self-esteem.
13. Self-esteem is assumed to be responsive to self-esteem. Life changes that bring a person
closer to his or her ideal are thought to increase self-esteem. Thus the purpose of the
study is to investigate if the self-image of a person with high self-esteem is more
positive and allows them to be happier and more satisfied with life and whether having
low self-esteem and a low opinion of their body image means the complete opposite,
that the individual will be happy and dissatisfied with life.

Overall, many previous studies in this area have supported the research aims and objectives
of this study as they support my main hypothesis that high self esteem can lead to high life
satisfaction and self-esteem is positively related to life satisfaction. From these studies as a
researcher I can see that high levels of self-esteem tends to lead to a positive, self-fulfilled,
happy life.

Keywords: self-esteem, life satisfaction , Gender.

AIM/ OBJECTIVE
1. The main objective of this study was to examine the effect of self-esteem on life satisfaction.

2. To find out the relationship between self esteem and life satisfaction.

3. To find out the gender differences in self esteem and life satisfaction.
Hypothesis:
This study will identify three hypothesis which are:
H1: It is expected that self esteem has a positive relationship with life satisfaction .

H2: High self-esteem can lead to high life satisfaction.

H3: It is hypothesized that there will be gender differences on self-esteem and life satisfaction, where
males score higher than females.

Methods

Participants:
The participants of the study were 100 employees currently continuing their jobs at different
fields. Of the participants, 50% were males, n= (50). Whereas 50% females, n= (50). 30 % male
participants were from banks, n= (30). Whereas 30% female participants were from banks, n=
(30). There were 25% participants which were female teachers from university of Peshawar n=
(25) and 15% male participant from university of Peshawar n=(15)
The average age range was 40 to 50

Instruments:
Life Satisfaction:
Life satisfaction was measured by using the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). There are five
items in a scale and items are rated on a seven point Likert scale. They range from strongly
disagree (1) to strongly agree (7), where high score shows that there is higher life satisfaction.
Examples of some items are “ I am satisfied with my life” and “ In most ways my life is closed to
my ideal”. The SWLS has been broadly used and it is highly appropriate for measuring life
satisfaction in people.

Self-Esteem:
Self esteem was assessed by using the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. This is a 10 item scale
which measure global self-esteem. These 10 items are rated on four point Likert scale, which
ranges from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. Higher scores shows that there is high level
of self-esteem.

PROCEDURE:
The data for this research was collected in different institutions like banks and university. Data
was collected from bank’s employees and university’s faculty members. We had been in the
institutions with the permission of that specific institute. We collected the data from 50
participants from banks. And 50 participants from University of Peshawar. It was emphasized
that participation was voluntary and anonymously. It was assured that the information will
become confidential. It took us two days to collect the complete data. The data was collected
between November and December 2017.