INFLUENCE OF SELF-ESTEEM ON CONFLICT BEHAVIOUR OF ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

The article deals with a problem of self-esteem influence on a conflict behaviour of teenagers. The problem has been found out to be the most relevant in adolescence as a transition period from childhood to adulthood, accompanied by increasing internal contradictions of the development and tension of interpersonal interaction with peers, adults and parents. The issue of conflicts has been considered as fundamental for psychological science. Psychological conflicts, their character and content have been determined as a basis for personality models in many theory approaches. Contradictions, conflicts, crises a person facing in the life become a source of personal development as well as determine constructive or destructive life scenario of a personality. The self-esteem has been determined as one of many factors influencing the conflicts’ occurrence. The issue of selfesteem influence on the conflict behaviour has not been studied totally despite of numerous amount of researches, and the relevance of the present research has been determined by this. The results of empiric studies of the self-esteem influence on conflict behaviour have been presented and analyzed with statistic assessment of data. The mathematical methods of statistics have been applied to research (Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient), as well as the following psychodiagnostic instruments – “Conflict Personality” Test by V.P. Pugachov, “Selfevaluation of Conflictuality” Test by V.F. Riakhovskyi, the Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode instrument, Dembo-Rubinshtein self-esteem level test, self-esteem level tests by S.V. Kovalyov, and H.N. Kazantseva. Interrelation of self-esteem with conflict behaviour of personality has been determined as result of empiric research and correlation analysis. Therefore, the high levels of self-esteem may predispose conflict behaviour and competition in a conflict resolution. Correspondingly, a person with low self-esteem may be less conflicting and it may prefer strategies of collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating. The conclusion has been made on the basis of received data that it is necessary to investigate different determinants of influence on conflict behaviour of adolescent.