The Rosenberg scale is a type of test that measures perceived self-esteem by an average of a series of ten unique questions. The questions are more or less generally stated, and they reflect a self-perception in regards to how a particular individual feels about their state of being. The person taking the test has the option of agreeing or disagreeing to each question, and there is also a scale to the level at which any individual can "agree". There is a selection r ging from "strongly agree", "agree", "disagree", and 64 strongly disagree". Each response has a numerical value, on a scale of zero to three(three being "strongly agree"). At times, the scale must be reversed, as some questions imply different qualitative values in relation to the individual's response. For example, the question-statement "On the whole, I am satisfied with myself 'would have a highest value of "strongly agree", a score of thre In this case a person who sees himself or herself as being very satisfied with thems in general, would probably mark the "SA" box, thus gaining a score of "three" to add to the overall average. But consider the question-statement "At times I think I am no good at all"...this response should be valued differently on the "agree" scale. A high score here would lance the high score for
the "On the whole, I am satisfied with myself' question. If the questions were weighted the same, someone with a type of BI-polar personality that is extremely satisfied with themselves one moment and feels no good at all at other moments would score quite high on the scale, all for the sake of a BI-polar personality type. This feeling might not be/ uncommon in many individuals day-to-day lives, but when measuring esteem a type of "average feeling" must be derived. This explanation may serve as a general background by which the esteems are quantified.
The variable to which I will apply the scale is a group of athletes, male and female, who train together. The specific sport in swimming, because at Division Three and Division Two levels the males and females train together, and are only segregated for special needs(e.g. a championship meet). There are also mixed relays at many meets, so males and females not only train but also compete together. This variable (male-female) will serve as an interesting factor in relation to their scoring on the self-esteem scale. Another variable that I will take into account is if the individuals(both male and female) feel that they are going to qualify for their NCAA championship meet. My feeling is that both males and NCAA qualifiers will, in general, score higher on the esteem scale.
Division Three swinuning at a school like Colorado College is an intriguing event to witness because there is a great range of ability in terms of athletic prowess. ere are some NCAA qualifiers, but also some for whom swimming is a new sport. Since this is the case, not only do males and females train together, but males, females, swimmers with great ability and also beginners are all grouped together for a conim:"se. Of course everyone recognizes who the best swimmers are, but here swinuning may not have a great correlation to a person's self-esteem. For an average swimmer, the sport may be only a small part of their overall personality or "who they are". But swimming could also be very important to them, something that defines who they really are. In this case their self-esteem might me more affected by their athletic performance, if they do not have great grades or five extra-curricular to support a day-to-day class schedule.
Something that could the data is my inclusion of the Colorado School of Mines Swim Team. They are all Division Two swimmers so are receiving at least partial scholarships, whereas CC swimmers only receive the joy of training for 25 hours a week for meets that last hours upon hours. The Mines swimmers probably place more weight on their swinuning ability, because to an extent they are at that particular school "to swim"...it is their job. Most CC swimmers can resort to drinking large amounts of niicro-brew to gloss over the fact that they are routinely routed by the opposing Colorado schools, but most competitive swimmers who receive scholarships have a different outlook on their ability.
With this in mind, I decided that it would still be acceptable to include the Mines swimmers in the survey, as their overall athletic ability in terms of NCAA standards in not the only factor that I am investigating. The male-female variable is more important than the Division 1-2 one, and males and females training together and their self-esteem is a greater cause for which is sacrificed the particular Division. NCAA championships plays more heavily into this factor. Division Two swimmers are more likely to "make nationals" (e.g. NCAA championships) but, once again, this factor could likely be balanced out by the non-committal attitude of CC swimmers. CC swimmers have other "self-esteem increasing" outlets. Even if this is not the case, the amount they work and their expectations could be proportional to the Mines swimmers. Here the expectations for both groups are different, but these expectations apply mostly within the group itself. Thus, it can be argued that the ability-stress levels for both groups is proportionally the same, and that Division Two and Division Three swinuuers have the same expectation and the same worries but that they both manifest themselves differently in each group.
The fact that I am able to equate self-esteem with the sport of swimming at all has something to do with the fact that the surveys were given in a "swimming context". In both cases, the teams took the surveys as a group, on a team fimction, so it was probably hard for them to subconsciously divorce swimming from their self-perception.
My method was randomized in a way, as it was for collecting the information from the CC team. I could not choose the individuals for whom I would conduct the survey, because I did not "force" anyone to fill out the survey. The swimmers on both teams chose to take the survey, and I also only offered it once, so who was present at the time I offered the survey was slightly random. More so for the Mines team, as I could only use the individuals who happened to be present at that particular meet. But the selection was intentional, and people swim for a reason, and also my choices were limited as far as the number of people I had access to.
In general, the collecting of the data and its documentation shed quite a bit of light on the state of men's and women's self-esteem in sports where men and women train together. The inherent biases included a non-randomized survey, a small number of individuals, and two conflicting groups of individuals(involving the grouping of Division I and Division 2 Swimmers). But I believe that the overall goal in comparing self-esteem to sex was realized. The conclusions I reached were ones that one might have predicted, but there was also a lesser difference in the male-female groups than I was expecting. In the male group, there was a higher concentration of self-esteem values at 2.13 and 2.63, whereas in the female group the largest concentration was at 2.13. The average of the males was 2.3 1, and the female average was 2.24. The male esteem ranged from 1.70 to 3.00, and the female esteem ranged from 1.30 to 3.00. There was only one real outlier, a
certain male who was a strong competitor and was confident of making the national championships but scored quite low on the esteem scale, he even included in the
optional Comments" section that his answers were "likely to change in thirty minutes".
A "two-sample z-test" was used to compare the data, and the "P" value was high
enough to not warrant a statistical difference between the two groups. So, there is actually not a large statistical difference in the self-perception of male and female athletes in sports where males and females train together. Males, in general, do not perceive themselves more positively, although they are concentrated more around greater self- esteem scores. The supporting data will show that the calculations that lead to this conclusion are in-line with proven methods. If the "P" value was less than 5, then I could reject the Null Hypothesis that says that there is no difference between the self-esteem of men and women in sports where men and women train together. But "P" is greater than 5, so the Null cannot be rejected. Of course, the Alternative Hypothesis merely states that there is in fact a difference in the self-esteem of men and women in sports where
they train together(or in swimming, more specifically). This outcome, when looked at as a general statistic, confirms that although males outwardly may display a show of self-confidence they are just as subject to low self-esteem as women. Although males have a slightly greater "high esteem" values, women feel just as confident as men. In fact, to look at the NCAA-esteem bar graph, we can see that most of the qualifiers with high self- esteem were women. The other bar graph compares men and women, together, and displays their self-esteem at a certain vantage point. Here, the results are "not so surprising", as both male and female athletes have both high and low self-perceptions, but these perceptions just manifest themselves differently in each case.
