Investigation of the relationship between measures of the self concept and adjustment in children

Abstract

Methods of assessing the self concept were reviewed. Two measures of the self concept stated by previous experimenters to be related to psychological adjustment as measured by other psychological tests were discussed. These two measures were, uncertainty about what the self is really like, and self acceptance. An experiment was carried out to investigate the relationship of these two aspects of the self concept in children to psychological adjustment, as measured by tneir anxiety, neuroticism ana extraversion scores on the Childrens Personality Questionnaire (C.P.A.T). The subjects were 127 children, between the ages of 7--12 years, and their 6 teachers. An attempt was also made to investigate the reported relationship between the children1s self concept, and the personality of their teachers as measured on the 16 Personality Pactor Questionnaire (I.P.A.T.), and the teachers attitudes to certain teaching situations as assessed on the Sargant Insight test using specially devised armatures.

It was found that increase in uncertainty about the self concept in children between the ages of 7 and 12 years,was associated with significantly higher neuroticism scores than decrease in, or no change in uncertainty scores. (The change was assessed over a 10 week period in a normal school term).

Both increase and decrease in uncertainty about the self were found to be associated with significantly higher anxiety scores than no change in uncertainty. It was found that high self acceptance and medium self acceptance were associated with significantly lower anxiety and neuroticism scores than low self acceptance.

However, looking at the separate age levels tested it was found that: a) the level of anxiety shown by children with high self acceptance scores rose with age. b) the numbers of children with very high self acceptance scores decreased with age.

It was found that the anxiety scores of children in the classes of the three more introverted teachers were significantly higher than those of the children in the classes of the more extraverted teachers.