Locus of Control and Self -Esteem Among Young Adults: A Comparative Study of Boys and Girls

The present study was intended to explore the level of locus of control and self esteem among Young Adults. For this a sample of 50 boys and 50 girls from different colleges of Jammu district were selected. Locus of Control and Self-Esteem were measured by using Rotter's locus of control scale and self-esteem inventory by M.S Prasad and G.P Thakur were used to gather data. Data were analyzed by using Mean, standard deviation and 't'-test. Results indicated that boys experience high locus of control( external locus of control) and high self-esteem than girls.

Locus of control is concerned with the question of whether or not an individual believes that his behavior, skills or internal disposition determines what reinforcements he receives" (Rotter et al., 1972), and refers to a person's beliefs about control over life event. An academic locus of control manifests student's beliefs regarding their control over the academic situations. Those with an internal locus of control believe that the consequences of their behavior are under their personal control and that they are effective in controlling their destiny and determining the occurrence of reinforcement, and feel personally responsible for the things that happen to them; whereas those with an external locus of control believe that the outcomes of their performances in life are determined by forces beyond their control e.g., fate, chance, luck, powerful others and supernatural forces, which determine the occurrence of specified events. It might be described as a self-appraisal of the degree to which an individual views himself/herself as having a causal role in determining specific events. A student with an internal academic locus of control believes that success or failure is not beyond his or her control, whereas a student with an external academic locus of control believes that success or failure is controlled by external forces beyond his or her control and may believe that grades do not reflect effort and are effected by external factors (Trice, 1985). Most of young adults begin to make self-evaluation about their body, social skills, talents, accomplishments and other personality aspects (Aronson et al, 1997;Amato & Booth, 1997). Our self-esteem develops and evolves throughout our lives as we build an image of ourselves through our experiences with different people and activities. When we are growing up our successes and failures and how we were treated by the members of our immediate family, by our teachers, coaches, religious authorities, and by our peers, all contributed to the creation of our basic self-esteem (Yaratan and Yucesoylu, 2010).
A great difference in the outcome of the studies have, also been reported. Saricamet.al., 2012 found that females have internal locus of control whereas males have external locus of control. The study of Zaidi & Mohsin, 2011 revealed that men have internal locus of control and women are high on external locus of control. Significant difference between locus of control attribute to Gender, where females have externalized locus of control more than males.

Objectives of the Study:
1. To assess the level of locus of control among young adults (boys and girls). 2. To assess the level of self-esteem among young adults(boys and girls).

Hypothesis
1. There will be significant difference in locus of control among Young adults (boys and girls). 2. There will be significant difference in self-esteem among young adults (boys and girls).

Sample
The convenient sampling consisted of 100 Young Adults, between the age range of (18-23). Out of which 50 were girls and 50 boys.

Measures
1. Rotter's Locus of control scale was used to measure locus of control. 29 items are in the questionnaire and each of the items has two responses. The reliability of the inventory was determined by split-half method and test retest methods. A split-half indexed reliability coefficient is .88 and test retest reliability is .85 and construct validity of the inventory is determined by finding coefficient of correlation between scores on Maslow crown desirability scale. 2. Self-esteem inventory developed and standardized by M S Prasad and G P Thakur for measuring self-esteem. The test consisted of 30 items. The subjects were required to respond to each item in terms of 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1. The test spit half reliability range from .82 to .78 are highly reliable. Descriptive statistical technique-mean, standard deviation and 't' were calculated to study the main effects of different variables on each other.

Table
(1) indicates the Self-esteem among young adults. The mean value of college boys is 92.70 and standard deviation is 6.03, whereas, the mean value of college girls is 81.53 and S.D is 6.03, whereas the mean value of college girls is 81.53 and S.D is 5.38 and the t-value is 8.74. Both the groups differ significantly at 0.05 level.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The results of the study indicate significant difference in young adults (boys and girls) regarding locus of control and self-esteem. The boys were experiencing internal locus of control and high self-esteem and felt more confident than college girls. Both the gender face problems differently and also use different resources for locus of control and self-esteem. The obtained results also receive support from various studied. Saricam et.al (2012) reported that females have internal locus of control whereas males have external locus of control. The qualities of the individuals with internal locus of control have considerable impact upon work performance and content levels.