Social Support And Self Esteem Essay

Title of Practical: Social support and self-esteem in college students

Introduction section

1. Outline the main topics focused upon in this research and why it is a good idea to study these topics. Finish with a one-sentence statement of your research question. [200 words]

Social support can be broadly explained as being the modes of support that help an individual cope with life, provided by other individuals and/or groups. In specific, social support refers to the functional substance of relationships such as perceived or actual support(Wilcox, Winn, & Fyvie-Gauld, 2005), and may be in the form of emotional, informational and/or appraisive support (House, 1981). Self-esteem is a sociometer, an internal monitor of the degree to which

What statistical analysis was conducted and what did it show (referring to statistical significance)?

[Three to four sentences max.]

A Pearson’s r (Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient test) was conducted to examine if a significant correlation existed between perceived social support and self-esteem among college students. Social support was measured on an interval scale of measurement and was taken as a mean score on the Social Support at University Scale (SSUS). Self-esteem was also measured on an interval scale of measurement and was taken as a mean score on Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale (RSES). As both tests were on an interval scale of measurement, Pearson’s r was a suitable choice of test.

Pearson’s r indicated that there was significant positive correlation between perceived social support and self-esteem among college students, r=+.42, N=245, p<.001.

Discussion

9. In plain language, what is the answer to the research question? [One sentence max.]

In this sample of undergraduate psychology students at Mary Immaculate College, there is strong correlation between social support and

Discuss the study in light of your interpretations of the findings, your critique of procedures, and your recommendations for future research. [200 words max.]

The present study found significant positive correlation between social support and self-esteem. Such findings are consistent with assertions commonly made with regard to social psychology, and hence can be regarded as reliable on the surface. The findings corroborate previous research, most of which accepts the relationship between social support and self-esteem.

Whether or not the present study sheds conclusive light on these established findings must also be interpreted in the context of its own methodological limitations and strengths.

As the present study was a correlation research, the findings do not determine or infer causality, that is, it cannot be conclusively determined if it is social support that impacts on self-esteem or vice versa. While the measures used were of high quality, the SSUS focused exclusively on relationships within the college environment. Hence, not all dynamics of the broad area of social support, which can range from family to significant others, were examined in this