Self-Esteem and Internal-External Control: A Validation Study

A recent conceptualization of self-esteem defines it within a self-other context in an attempt to take social factors into account (Ziller, Hagey, Smith, & Long, 1969). One of the assumptions that Ziller, et al. make about their self-esteem measure is that Ss who have high self-esteem will have a higher potential for self-reinforcement. From this, one can infer that high scorers on the Ziller, ei al. self-esteem measure should score low on Roaer's (1966) Internal-External Control Scale, since low scores on the I-E scale indicate an internal orientation with respect ro the perceived locus of reinforcements. In contrast, the external person believes that reinforcements are due to luck, fate, chance, etc. A substantial negative correlation between the Ziller, et al. self-other measure of self-esteem and Rotter's I-E scale would add to the construct validity of this new self-esteem measure. Ss were 24 males at Pennsylvania Military College, 36 males at the Universiry of Akron, and 31 females at the University of Akron. They were administered the Rotter I-E scale and the Ziller, ei al. self-esteem measure during their class periods. The fullscale forms of the tesn were used with one exception: the Pennsylvania Military College Ss were given a shorr form of the I-E scale, viz., the 10 items which correlated most highly with the total score. The results clearly did not support the construct validity of the Ziller, el al. (1969) self-esteem measure as far as relationship to perceived locus of reinforcement is concerned. For Pennsylvania Military College males the r was d . 1 7 , for the Universiry of Akron males . l7, and for University of Akron females -.20. Each r is insignificantly different from zero. Although the Ziller, et al. self-esteem measure may receive construct validation via other instances of high self-esteem being associated with some kind of higher potential for self-reinforcements, rhe test did not correlate with the Rocter I-E scale. Future research may show whether the claim is unjustified or whether other measures will indicate that high self-esteem on the self-other measure is related to a higher potential for self-reinforcement.