Self-esteem and Stress

Introduction:

In this era of competition, technology, forwardness, and modernization, the struggle to stay at the first place is increasing. Every individual wants to dominate the other person and wants to achieve so much in little time, without much of the hard work. This race of life has left people impatient, materialistic and a feeling of worthlessness. Having little self-regard can lead people to become more stressed, depressed, to fall short of their potential and less tolerant in certain situations and relationships.

“”The relationship of one individual with others is self-esteem. (Sam, Sam & ?–ngen (2010). Self esteem is basically how a person comprehends, perceives, accept and reject himself as a person to be fit in the society as well as what he thinks about himself. Studies say that if an individual has a positive attitude towards himself and self-evaluation, his self-esteem will be high; On the contrary, a person having a negative attitude towards him and others has lower self esteem.

Those individuals who value and consider themselves as a respectable and valuable member of the society, prove to have a high self esteem, as compared to the people who don’t consider themselves as a useful member of the society and thus have low self esteem. (Rosenberg 1965; Fennell 1997) “”Self-esteem is the disposition to experience oneself as being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and of being worthy of happiness. It is confidence in the efficacy of our mind, in our ability to think. By extension, it is confidence in our ability to learn, make appropriate choices and decisions, and respond effectively to change. (Simon & Schuster 1997).

A study was done on Contact Disturbances, Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction of University Students by ?–zlem TAGAY. The final finding of the study was a significant positive correlation between self esteem and life satisfaction. There are some more studies conducted on Life satisfaction and Self esteem. Dilma?§ & Ek??i (2008) and Rey, Extremera & Pera (2011) all stated a significant positive correlation between self-esteem and life satisfaction in their studies.

“”Life satisfaction is among the subjects of psychology that focuses on the positive attributes of human nature. Diener & Diener (1995) suggests that life satisfaction emphasizes the cognitive aspect of subjective well-being as a concept concerning the happiness of individuals. The term life satisfaction deals with life in general and not your satisfaction in certain situations (Wilson & Peterson, 1988). The indicator of life satisfaction is to achieve well being which is closely linked with physical and mental health (Melendez et al., 2009). Numerous studies suggest that with an increase in gratitude through interventions, individuals’ life satisfaction also tended to increase (e.g., Emmons and McCullough 2003; (Froh et al. 2008).

This study also supports the theory that gratitude has a significant effect on life satisfaction in accordance with other studies (Bono, Emmons, & McCullough, 2004; Emmons & Crumpler, 2000; Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Froh et al., 2009; Kashdan, Uswatte, & Julian, 2006; Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005; Watkins, 2004; Watkins, Woodward, Stone, Kolts, 2003; Wood, Joseph, & Linley, 2007b; Wood, Maltby, Gillett, Linley, & Jospeh, 2008)

“”Gratitude could refer to a subjective feeling of wonder and appreciation for life (Emmons & Shelton, 2002). Gratitude is basically personality strength as well as to be aware of the good things that happen to you and to not take them as granted, even appreciating the little good things in life. A person having a high level of gratitude has a sense of positivity, thankfulness, appreciation for life and for future. They show their gratitude towards others in the form of politeness, regards and appreciation. (Emmons, R.A and McCullough, M.E. 2003). A person who shows more gratitude feels more happy and healthy and less lonely, depressed and frustrated.

Moreover, Seligman defined it as “”A sense of thankfulness and joy in response to receiving a gift, whether the gift is a tangible benefit from a specific other or a moment of peaceful bliss evoked by natural beauty (Seligman, 2002). Numerous empirical studies have shown that grateful people have a propensity to have higher levels of self-esteem (Li et al. 2012; Kashdan et al. 2006; Strelan 2007). Moreover, self-esteem theoretically (e.g., Hermans 1992; Mack 1983) and empirically (e.g., Kong and You 2013; Kong et al. 2012b; Sedikides et al. 2004) contributes to life satisfaction. Thus, gratitude is likely to be associated with higher levels of life satisfaction by a greater sense of self-esteem.

The importance of self-esteem is underscored by decades of theory development and research supporting its link with a range of positive outcomes including psychological health and well-being during adolescence (Gilman, R., & Huebner, S. (2006). Conversely, low self-esteem has been related to symptoms of depression and anxiety Moksnes, U. K., & Espnes, G. A. (2012).

Individuals with high self-esteem are assumed to show more positive coping and better adjustment in relation to adverse life events, which may further promote health and well-being. Life satisfaction is a key part of the subjective well being. On the other hand, gratitude makes us appreciate the value of something, and when we appreciate the value of something, we extract more benefits from it; we’re less likely to take it for granted.

In short, the current research aims to find the relationship between self esteem, life satisfaction and gratitude among university students. Based on previous researches and studies we propose following hypothesis: (1) Self-esteem is significantly associated with life satisfaction, where a positive correlation will be found. (2) A positive relationship will be found between Life satisfaction and Gratitude. (3) Gratitude and self esteem will show a positive relationship.

The present study was held in two phases. Firstly, the research questionnaires were distributed in a group of 52 students, and each of the students belongs to Karachi University Psychology Department. Each of the participants was well informed regarding the purpose of the study. The researcher informed them about the research work and, at the same time assured them of the confidentiality and secrecy of their response as it was not necessary to write the name on the questionnaire.

A multi-section questionnaire was administered to the participants in a quiet classroom environment regarding their life satisfaction, self esteem and gratitude in a group setting. Each section consists of 5 questions. All participants returned their filled questionnaire for further data analysis. Secondly, the same research participants than acted as research assistors and individually administered the questionnaire in different departments of Karachi University.

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