The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Historical Involvement and Mastery of a skill on Self-Esteem. Much of the literature on the relationship between self-esteem and physical conditioning has mixed findings. In this study it was hypothesized that Historical Involvement and Mastery of physical conditioning skills and industrial arts skills would significantly influence self-esteem scores.Physical Conditioning and Industrial Arts skills groups were utlized as Ss. Eighty-five male and female undergraduates from physical conditioning skills classes and ninety-three male and female undergraduates from industrial arts skills classes participated. Both groups participated in their respective skills for one hour a day, four days a week, for ten consecutive weeks. They completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale prior to and immediately following the classes. They also completed an Historical Involvement questionnaire for their respective skill.In the primary analysis, a 2 (Skill--Physical Conditioning, Industrial Arts) x 3 (History--Mastery/History, Mastery/Non-History, Non-Mastery)-Analysis of Variance was performed. Mastery was distinguished by the grade B or above. Five planned comparisons using t tests were performed to test the research hypotheses. The levels of Historical Involvement and Mastery did not significantly affect self-esteem scores in either skills group. As was hypothesized, there were no significant differences in self-esteem scores either in the Non-History/mastery condition. Physical conditioning classes overall did produce higher scores than industrial arts classes, regardless of History or Mastery. However, when a ninety-five percent confidence interval was constructed, the difference between these two groups could have been as little as 0.2 units or as much as 1.5 units. Therefore, while statistically significant, this finding should be interpreted cautiously.A secondary analysis was performed in the Physical Conditioning group only, measuring percentage of skill improvement. The Ss were grouped into High and Low percentages of improvement and showed no significant differences on self-esteem scores.It is suggested that individuals' attitudes toward a particular skill and the value it has in their lives and/or their perceptions of their improvement might be the factors that relate to changes in self-esteem with mastery of that skill.