The relationship between self-portraits and self-esteem within the local scene

Abstract

Self-esteem is a measure of how a person feels or assesses themselves at any particular moment. The present study looks into the relationship between self-portraits and self-esteem. Participants were gathered through convenience snowball sampling and included 204 participants (n = 107), mostly males, with a mean age of 24.36 years. This study takes a quantitative approach and gathers information through an internet-based questionnaire that evaluated demographics, trait self-esteem, state self-esteem, and habits related to selfies. This study employs bivariate statistics to examine the connections among various demographic factors, selfie patterns, and levels of trait and state self-esteem. Independent sample t-tests and Pearson correlation tests were conducted across these variables on SPSS software. No significant statistical relationships were found between demographics (i.e., age, gender, students), selfie taking/posting and trait/state self-esteem. The predominance of negative findings in this study contrasts with the broader literature, as most studies tend to find a relationship between selfie habits and self-esteem. This dissertation ends by discussing the implications of these findings, in terms of selfie taking and selfie posting frequencies, and their relation to individuals’ self-esteem. Furthermore, other factors that could have skewed these results are also discussed.