The Relationship between Irrational Thoughts, Educational Level, Gender and Self-Esteem in Tafila Technical University Students

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between gender and educational level on students’ self-esteem and irrational thoughts. Furthermore, the study examined the relationship between self-esteem and irrational thoughts. A sample of 280 university students, aged 18-23 years, completed the Rosenberg self-esteem scale and the irrational thoughts questionnaire. The result showed significant differences in self-esteem due to gender and academic level. For irrational thoughts, there were significant main effects for gender with higher levels of irrational thoughts for females. And significant main effect for the academic level was found. Correlation analyses indicated that for females, self-esteem correlated significantly with the global measure of irrational thoughts and with three subscales: negative self-evaluation, internal attribution of failure and irritability.