Book Description

The present study was undertaken to investigate the relationship of self-esteem and locus of control to defending behavior as perceived by classmates in junior high schools in Japan, and to examine the relationship of all three of these to school grades. Special attention was given to how the present test-centered education in junior high in Japan might be negatively affecting the self-concepts of the students. Girls with high self-esteem were picked as copers by their classmates and girls with low-esteem as defenders. Boys who see themselves as in control of their lives were picked more often by their peers as copers, and boys who consider their lives influenced by luck were picked as defenders. The relationship between self-esteem and locus of control was significant for both boys and girls. A strong relationship between defending behavior and low GPA was found for both boys and girls. Low self-esteem appeared related to low GPA for girls only, and a relationship between external locus of control and low GPA was found only for boys. The inter-action among defending behavior, self-esteem and locus of control in relation to GPA was not significant. An analysis of the self-esteem item-placement scores revealed significant differences between students in the high and low quartiles in defending behavior for 15 items, suggesting meaningful differences in the way these students see themselves. Low self-esteem students and high self-esteem students appeared significantly different in how they see themselves in 51 of the 53 Q-sort items, but their ideals were significantly different in only 12 items--suggesting that "low self-esteem" is affected more by negative attitude toward self than by higher than average ideals. Almost without exception, high self-esteem students, coping students, internal students, and students with higher grades put positive self-referent items closer to "like me" in the Q-sort than did students with the opposite characteristics. Low self-esteem girls who are defending and have low grades seemed to have very negative self-concepts, and to be using the defense of sensitization. Defending boys with external locus of control and low grades had self-Concepts similar to those of other boys, and seemed to be defending by repression. The findings were related to recent literature on guilt toward parents as a motive for studying in Japan, and to frustrated dependency wishes. The data suggested that the strong emphasis on academic achievement is harming the self-esteem of most of the students in the sample. The results suggest that an attempt to help defending boys with low grades in Japan should focus on helping them become more internal in locus of control. They suggest that attempts to help defending girls with low grades should be concentrated on helping them improve in self-esteem.