The Relationship between Personality and Self-Esteem towards University Students in Malaysia

This research investigated the relationship between personality traits and self-esteem among university students in Malaysia.The main objective of this research is to assess the relationship between personality traits and self-esteem among university students.This research examined the predictive value of Big Five Personality Factors for university students' self-esteem and surveyed the gender difference in Big Five Personality Factors.Participants of this study were 515 university students (258 females and 257 males).The sampling method that was used in this study is purposive sampling.Two highly versatile instruments were used in this research which are Big Five Personality Factor's Scale (Goldberg, 1999) and Coopersmith's Esteem Scale (CSEI).The Big Five Personality Inventory (BFI) is comprised of 44 items, Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree).This instrument has five subscales which are extraversion (E), agreeableness (A), conscientiousness (C), openness (O) and neuroticism (N).The CSEI is a 58 item scale developed by Coopersmith (1967) to measure self-esteem.This scale was based on two options which are, "Like me" or "Unlike me".Results show a significant positive correlation of self-esteem and personality.Simultaneous multiple regression of self-esteem on the personality traits sub scales, revealed that the extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness were significant positive predictor and neuroticism versus emotion stability was significant negative predictor of the self-esteem.The results of analysis t-test indicated gender difference in male and females in two personality traits which are conscientiousness and neuroticism while no significant gender difference extraversion, agreeableness and openness traits.In a nutshell, this study indicates that personality traits influences an individual's life in every domain which serves the purpose of this study and it highlights the connections between self-esteem and the Big Five dimensions can be accounted for by individual differences.