Browsing by Author "Rantala, Maija"

Ambitions. The main focus of this research is to study links between attributions and self-esteem from young adults` point of view. The framework for this research is in Susan Harter`s theory of self-esteem and Bernard Weiner`s attribution theory. The topic for this study developed from my personal interest towards social psychology and its many phenomena. When becoming a teacher, I feel the need to be on top of this topic since self-esteem is the basis for one's actions. In this research, the goal is to develop means to support children and adolescents` self-esteem. Previous research proves that negative attributes towards themselves are connected to low self-esteem whereas persons with strong self-esteem do not feel the need to blame themselves when experiencing a failure. Methods. I executed this bachelor`s thesis as a quantitative research, where I analyzed Risto Hotulainen and Kristiina Lappalainen`s (2012) control research material. The people participating in this research were 30-year-old young adults, who were sent a questionnaire in December 2012. This questionnaire was answered with 167 young adults during spring 2013. In this research, I compared the control research`s four attribution groups` averages and dispersions ergo variances in social, study and work-related situations. I studied the possibility to statistically recognize the significant differs between these groups. As my method, I used variance analysis. Results and conclusions. The research indicated that the group with attributions towards themselves, had statistically significant lower self-esteem experiencing failure comparison to the other attribution groups. This means that when a person accuses himself in experiencing failure, he has low self-esteem. The same result occurs in both study and work-related situations. This result supports my theory's summary. In these results' point of view, it is reasonable to state that supporting ones` self-esteem and the formation of attributions is important. Throughout this, it is possible to build ones` self-esteem and motivation, which fosters for example learning. It is crucial for teachers to recognize attributions and their meanings to self-esteem because one's well-being develops when self-esteem is being established.