SELF-ESTEEM, ALTRUISM AND PERSONAL SENSE OF POWER AS CORRELATES OF FEMALE STUDENTS' PARTICIPATION IN CAMPUS POLITICS

Abstract

The study investigated self-esteem, altruism, personal sense of power as correlates of female
students' participation in campus politics. A total number of 320 female students were
purposively selected from eight faculties in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Their age ranged
from 21 to 28 years, with a mean age of 23.46 and standard deviation of 2.09. Four instruments
were used namely: The Political Participation Attitude Scale by Falade (2012), Index of Selfesteem
(ISE) by Hudson (1982), the Self-Report Altruism Scale (SRA) by Rushton, Chrisjohn and
Fekken (1981) and Personal Sense of Power scale by Anderson, John and Keltner (2012). The
study was a correctional design and the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient used
for data analysis. The result revealed that the three hypotheses were all confirmed as there
were significant and positive relationships between self-esteem and female political
participation, altruism and female political participation, and personal sense of power and
female political participation. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that
training the girl child in this part of the world should incorporate psychological paradigms to
foster these characteristics: self-esteem, altruism, and personal sense of power, which are
germane to raising good female political leaders.