Faculty of Education - Theses

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The effects of imputed popularity and imputed success on self-esteem and school achievement in the eighth grade

Rawlings, Maren ( 1977)

The aim of the investigation was to study the effects of imputed success and imputed popularity on self-esteem and school achievement. 96 eighth-grade students at a Victorian country high school rated themselves and their classmates on "popularity" and "success"; performed three achievement tests (in reading vocabulary, reading comprehension and mathematics); and completed the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory; and the Otis Intermediate Test. It was hypothesized that the more "popular" and more "successful" students would attain higher scores on the three achievement tests and have higher Self-Esteem scores, than less "popular" and less "successful" students. Imputed popularity and imputed success were found to be independent. With the Otis test used as a covariate, students rated high on "success" attained significantly higher scores on the reading vocabulary and mathematics test, and on the Self-Esteem inventory, as hypothesized. Scores on the reading comprehension test were not significantly different. Students rated high on "popularity" did not attain significantly different scores on any of the three achievement tests nor on the Self-Esteem Inventory, than less "popular" students. Implications for classroom practice were discussed.