THE RELATION OF SELF-ESTEEM AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE MEANING OF THE SELF

The aim of the study was to test if there are any differences in the s tructure of the meaning oft the self between the persons with the low and high self-esteem. The study was carried out in the samples of seco ndary school students (n = 428, including 184 boys and 244 girls) and university students (n = 188, including 72 boys and 116 girls). In ord er to ascertain the content of the self-concept the method of semantic differential was used and the level of the self-esteem was assessed b y the Rosenberg's self-esteem scale. The structure of the self-concept was studied by the means of factor analysis using the main axes metho d with the Varimax rotation (the number of factors was assessed by the help of scree-test). It was found that the persons with the low and h igh self-esteem differ in the structure of the meaning of the self, an d thus both by the number of extracted factors and by the content of t he identified components of the self-concept. The results are discusse d in the context of the meanings of self-complexity.