Evaluation and Research in Education
Editor: Professor Keith Morrison, Inter-University Institute of Macau
Associate Editor: Professor Stephen Gorard, University of York
Statistical Adviser: Professor Colin Baker, University of Wales Bangor
Reviews Editor: Dr. Emma Smith, University of York
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Volume: 15 Number: 1 Page: 1–16
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How Students Determine the Importance of Self-Perception Domains and How This Relates to Self-Esteem
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E. Makri-Botsari
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The purpose of the study was to test the selectivity hypothesis according to which individuals selectively assign the greatest importance to those domains in their life in which their self-perceptions are
most positive and assign the least importance to areas in which their self-perceptions are poorest. The sample of the study consisted of 1033 Greek senior high school students in grades eleven and twelve.
Our findings revealed that for all eight domains examined in our study, except for physical appearance, there was a self-perception significant and positive main effect on the domains' importance. Thus,
the lower the self-perception in a specific domain, the lower the importance assigned to the domain. These tendencies were somewhat stronger for participants with higher self-esteem. Physical appearance
was the domain which even the high self-esteem students found most difficult to discount. Among the two subscales tapping students' likeability by peers, the domain of close friendship seems to be somewhat
easier to discount than the domain of acceptance by classmates. The discounting of behavioural conduct offers the platform for a culturally interesting interpretation on the basis of the Greek concept of
'philotimo'.
© Multilingual Matters 2001
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