Abstract
- Objective: The aim of the study is to investigate if a link among extraversion personality, mental health, and self-esteem exists.
- Method: To determine whether the link exists, the study utilized structured questionnaires to gather data from participants in aspects of extraversion personality, mental health, and self-esteem.
- The results: Analysis of the data showed that extraversion, mental health and self-esteem do not link each other.
- Conclusion: The findings indicate that extraversion, mental health, and self-esteem do not have links that make them have significant influence on each other.
The Links among Extraversion Personality, Mental Health, and Self-Esteem
Introduction
Personality traits usually have intricate relationships with different variables in a person such mental health, self-esteem, happiness, and social interaction amongst others. Extraversion is a dominant personality trait that is apparent because a person with this personality trait exhibits attributes such as excitability, assertiveness, sociability, and talkativeness. As one of the major personality traits, extraversion has intricate relationships with mental health and self-esteem for they are psychological attributes that vary from one person to another. Mental health and self-esteem are two variables that depend on the extent of extraversion attributes that a person possesses.
Establishment of the relationships that exist among extraversion, mental health, and self-esteem enhances the understanding of personality traits. According to Robins, Tracy, and Trzesniewski (2001), “the connections among social desirability, self-esteem, and personality raise the question of whether any of the relations between self-esteem and the big five dimensions can be accounted for by individual differences in social desirability” (p. 465). This means that self-esteem is a variable of the extraversion personality that is apparent in persons. Additionally, mental health is another variable that influences extraversion personality among people. Therefore, does a link exist among extraversion personality, mental health, and self-esteem?
Null and Alternative Hypotheses
Hypothesis (H1): Mental health and self-esteem correlate with the extraversion personality.
Hypothesis (H0): Mental health and self-esteem do not correlate with the extraversion personality.
Methods
The study selected the 20 participants from the students and administered questionnaires that measure extraversion personality, mental health, and self-esteem. The study selected 20 participants using a random sampling method to reduce biasness associated with the selection of participants. Normally, random sampling provides an equal chance of participation to all students, thus eliminating biasness that researchers experience when selecting participants for a study.
The 20 participants comprised 10 whites, 6 Black Americans, and 4 Native Americans. Additionally, the researchers also selected male students only for the study. Study of the effect of the extraversion personality on mental health and self-esteem requires participants of one gender to avert gender attributes that may confound the study variables.
Before conducting the study, the researchers informed the students about the study and the use of data generated by the study. To select the participants, the study inquired from the students who wanted to participate in psychological research as the process of obtaining informed consent. Informed consent is an ethical requirement so that the participants can feel free when sharing their information without having any reservations that may influence the nature of data collected (Kitchener, 2000). Hence, during data collection, the researchers explained to the participants the importance of the study and the nature of the information that they need to provide. The 20 participants selected for the study signed informed consent forms and proceeded to answer the questionnaires provided to them by the researchers.
The Questionnaires
The study employed structured questionnaires in form of Liker scale to collect information regarding extraversion personality, mental health, and self-esteem. In assessing extraversion personality, the questionnaire used a five factor personality inventory. The five factor personality inventory provides 12 questions that have a five-level Likert scale. The highest score for extraversion personality in a Likert scaled questions is 60 while the lowest score is 12.
Regarding self-esteem, the study scaled the questions using a ten-level Likert scale. The self-esteem questionnaire has 14 questions, which means that a participant with the maximum self-esteem scores140, while the one with the lowest self-esteem scores 14. During analysis of the data, the study recoded the data into low, medium, and high self-esteem as part of data analysis. The general health questionnaire (GHQ) has 28 questions each having four-level Likert scale. The 28 questions in GHQ show that a participant with the best health condition can score 112 while the one with the poorest health condition can score 28.
The questionnaire is reliable because it assesses different variables that determine extraversion personality, mental health, and self-esteem. The questionnaire that assesses extraversion personality uses 12 questions with a five-level Likert scale that comprehensively cover the human personality as per the five factor personality inventory. Likewise, in mental health, the questionnaire is very reliable because it uses four-level Likert scale in 28 questions.
The 28 questions extensively cover the mental conditions of a person; hence, they effectively determine the mental health of the participants. Concerning self-esteem, the ten-level Likert scale is reliable since the scale is wide enough, thus enhancing its sensitivity in the measurement of self-esteem among the participants. Overall, the questions and scales used in the formulation of the questionnaire are very reliable in determining extraversion personality, mental health, and self-esteem.
Results
Frequency Tables
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3
Table 4
Table 5
Table 6
Table 7
Descriptive Statistics
Correlation Analysis
Discussion
The descriptive statistics show that the participants of the study comprised of male students only. Their ethnicities are 10 whites, 6 Black Americans, and 4 Native Americans. The frequency table for age shows that all the participants were male who have the ages between 18 to 24 years.
The frequency table of the colleges indicates that the participants emanated from seven different colleges. Concerning the research variables, extraversion, mental health, and self-esteem, the frequency tables depict their distribution among participants. The extraversion frequency table indicates that most of the participants scored between 34 and 36 values, while self-esteem frequency table shows that about half of the participants have high self-esteem. The general health frequency table indicates most participants scored a value of 49 on the self-esteem scale. Overall, the frequency tables illustrate the distribution of the participants in terms of gender, age, colleges, extraversion, mental health, and self-esteem.
The descriptive statistics show that extraversion has a minimum value of 24 and maximum value of 48. The mean value of the extraversion is 34 while the standard deviation is 6.28. Likewise, self-esteem has a minimum value of 1 and a maximum value of 3. The mean value of the self-esteem is 2.25 while the standard deviation is 0.79. The general health is the most diverse variable because the minimum value is 39, while the highest value is 87. Hence, the general health variable has a mean of 53.6 and a standard deviation of 12.66.
Correlation analysis shows that extraversion and self-esteem have a correlation value of 0.256, which is a weak correlation value. The correlation has a significance value of 0.277, which is greater than 0.05; hence, rejection of the null hypothesis.
According to Cunningham and Aldrich (2011), if a significance value exceeds 0.05, one should reject a null hypothesis and accept the alternative one. Since the correlation between extraversion and general health also has a weak correlation value of 0.232 and a significance value of 0.324, which is greater than 0.05, the null hypothesis is rejected. The correlation between general health and self-esteems has a correlation value of 0.174 with a significance value of 0.462, which is greater than 0.05. This means that the null hypothesis is rejected, and the alternative hypothesis accepted. Therefore, the study found out that mental health and self-esteem do not correlate with the extraversion personality.
Conclusion
Psychological variables such as extraversion personality, mental health, and self-esteem have some links with each other as they interact within a person. The study of 20 participants conducted using extraversion, mental health, self-esteemed questionnaires shows that the variables have no correlation against each other. The findings then show that mental health, self-esteem, and extraversion personality do not have any significant links that determine their correlation.
References
Cunningham, J., & Aldrich, J. (2011). Using SPSS: An Interactive Hand-On Approach. New York: SAGE Publisher.
Kitchener, K. (2000). Foundations of Ethical Practice, Research, and teaching in Psychology. New York: Routledge Publisher.
Robins, R., Tracy, J., & Trzesniewski, K. (2001). Personality Correlates of Self-Esteem. Journal of Research in Personality, 35(4), 463-482.