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The Self-Concept is a complicated process of gaining self-awareness. It consists of mental images an individual has of oneself: physical appearance, health, accomplishments, skills, social talents, roles, intellectual traits, and emotional states and more –all make up our self-concept.
The development process begins at about six or seven months of age. The child begins to recognize “self” as distinct from surroundings. They stare at anything they see, including their own body parts; hands, feet, toes, and fingers. As they grow, their sense of identity expands through interactions with others –creating self-esteem levels that become the “booster” for the ability to interact.
There are two theories that describe how interactions shape our self-views. One defines perceptions of the judgments of others called Reflected Appraisal. It is the notion of receiving supportive and nonsupportive messages. It states that positive appreciation and a high level of self-value is gain when supportive messages are received. In contrast, receiving nonsupportive messages leads to feeling less valuable, lovable, and capable. Everyone that you and I interact with influences these self-evaluations. Either from your past or from present –all shapes how you view yourself, especially from our significant others. The strength of messages from significant others become stronger and eventually affect the health, when they are nonsupportive; depression, for instance, leads to less physical activities that are necessary for a healthy body. However, the foremost important influences are our parents. Supportive parents raise children with healthy self-concepts. While nonsupportive parents raise an unhappy child who view his/her self in negative ways.
The other theory defines evaluation of ourselves in terms of how we compare with others, called Social Comparison. There are two types, superior or inferior comparison and same as or different from others. We compare by attractiveness, success or failures, intelligence, and it all depends on whom we are comparing ourselves with. For instance, an individual might feel inferior when compared with an inappropriate reference group. Therefore, he or she might feel inferior because she feels less of everything from the reference. Similarly, the opposite occurs when compared with an appropriate reference group.
In addition, we a...
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... behavior. This means that self-awareness must also come into play. I will have to be concerned about the way I present my ideas, as well as my behavior; otherwise, it will be perceived negatively.
So far, my self-concept has changed positively and in time, it will improve (optimists). The only difficulty that I have been facing is the ability to defend myself against negative comments from others. Because of my thinking process speed, it takes time for me to acquire comments and how to say them immediately. In addition, I found that it is not necessary to give a response back to negative comments in order to defend yourself, except in courtrooms. Nonverbal expressions are also as powerful. For example, ignoring critical comments create a serious climate between you and the speaker –sending a message that the comment was unnecessary and offensive. But in some cases, verbal messages are necessary, such as that in debates over issues.
In conclusion, I would have to say that what has been written are only a scratch on a big surface of interpersonal communication skills that I have learned from this class. This concept just happened to be the most important for improvement.
A variety of studies, such as the ones described below, have been conducted over the years in an attempt to explain and examine the emergence of self-recognition in infants. As a result the general consensus is that infants as young as 15 months old and most infants by 24-month are able to respond to their image in a mirror (Anderson, 2005). Research has also shown there are various self-conscious reactions and self-labeling that also indicate the toddler has self-recognition during the second year, though more research is needed to test their validity (Anderson, 2005).
According to Carl Rogers (1959) self concept has three different components: The view you have of yourself (Self image); How much value you place on yourself (Self esteem or self-worth); What you wish you were really like (Ideal self). These ideas of self concept do not necessary have to reflect the reality of what is to be known as truth to the outside observer. Such as in the case of those who struggle with anorexia. Though they may appear to the observer as being extremely underweight through the eyes of the observed they find themselves to be overweight. This is believed to be related to concept of self image. Baumeister (1999) provides the following self concept definition: "the individual's belief about himself or herself, including the person's attributes and who and what the self
Self-esteem has a strong relation to happiness. Low self-esteem is more likely than high to lead to depression under some circumstances. Some studies support the buffer hypothesis, which is that high self-esteem mitigates the effects of stress, but other studies come to the opposite conclusion, indicating that the negative effects of low self-esteem are mainly felt in good times. Still others find that high self-esteem leads to happier outcomes regardless of stress or other circumstances (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs,
The first unit on our textbook Interactions by Ann Moseley and Jeanette Harris talks about the self-concept. It is hard to find a definition for the self-concept because it is certain beliefs about ethnicity, religion, and personalities combined. This unit has a number of readings by various authors where it shows struggles with the self. Self-identity, ethnic backgrounds, and self-esteem are the major aspects of those readings. After reading their writings I found that I could relate to their experiences. The three readings that got my attention were “Zero” By Paul Logan, “I’m Just Me” by Lylah Alphonse, and “The Jacket” by Gary Soto.
Self-concept is who you think you are and the relatively stable set of perceptions you hold of your self, not only the physical features but also including emotional states, talents, likes, values, roles.
how we imaged others have judged us. The result of this process is negative or
Self-concept is an individual’s compilation of feelings, self-perception, and an idea of the basis of human personality. Self-esteem, usually identified in a positive approach, is the concept of one’s confidence in abilities and self worth, and the idea of self-respect. Self-evaluative standards evidently have a vital role in shaping future emotions and subsequent behaviors (Kuiper & McHale, 2009; 143.4: 359-76). According to Abraham Maslow’s Theory of Self-Actualization, self-esteem, notably confidence in oneself, respect for and by others, is achieved after physiological needs, safety needs, and love and belonging needs. Self-esteem, then, is combination of several characteristics, which result in a physiological
Myers, D. G., (2009). Self-Concept: Who Am I?. In M. Ryan(Ed.), Exploring social psychology (pp. 23-33). New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
Self concept is not inherent. It is shaped and reshaped by the people around us, the people who influence us directly or indirectly. Self concept of a child depends upon the description provided to him by these people e.g. parents, teachers, peers etc. it may be correct or incorrect as it is formed by the people, how they see the child e.g. if the family members tell the child constantly that he / she is lazy, the child starts to see himself/ herself as lazy. However due to the subjective opinion of family members it may not be correct
One's self-concept affects one's perception, attitude and behavior, which can be demonstrated during the process of interpersonal communication. Aspects of one's life influence their self-concept, which not only affect how people perceive them but how they perceive themselves. Such things are gender, motivational level and psychological type. It is widely known that in order to communicate with others one must first understand oneself. This is self-concept, and affects the way one communicates. In the process of communication, self-knowledge and the way one feel about oneself is revealed to others, and affects how others react to them. Consequently, the perceptions one believes others have of them affect how they receive their communication, which influences their response.
When reading the opening lecture I cringed at the thought of dealing with communication. Sort of that belly ache feeling you get when you had to do an oral presentation in front of the class in elementary school. I understand have a number of strong qualities but self-image and my perception are still traits I long to improve.
Self-concept can be described as how a person views themselves. There is a variety of factors that impact a person’s self-concept but the biggest impact comes from self-esteem. Self-esteem is much like self-concept the only difference is the addition of emotions. For example say an individual likes a brand they are aware that they enjoy the brand so that’s self-concept. Self-esteem on the other hand, if nobody else in the workplace likes the brand programme individual likes that could have a negative effect on a person’s self-esteem and therefore effect a person’s self-concept. In the workplace self-concept is of the uttermost importance when estab...
As I read through the Thinking Philosophically box in our text, the first question that comes up is, “What is a self?” It is wonderful to start off with an easy question, right? Well, Wikipedia defines the self as the subject of one’s own experience of phenomena: perceptions, emotions, thoughts ("Self," 2014). A standard dictionary definition is a person’s essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action; and a person’s particular nature or personality; the qualities that make a person individual or unique ("Oxford dictionary," 2014). Don’t you feel more enlightened already?
A reflection of the self is an important tool to use to figure out whether or not your self-concept provides you with a positive self-esteem. First ask yourself, ‘who am I?’ and once you figure that out, determine if your perception of yourself is a positive one. If it’s not positive, you might want to consider making a change very quickly in order to live a fulfilling life. An even more important tool is to compare your own self-concept to the perception others have of you. I interviewed four people and asked them three questions. Those questions were as follows. “How do you perceive me physically? How do you perceive me socially? How do you perceive me psychologically?” Their overall physical perception of me is, I am beautiful,
Before exposure to the content of this course, I was confident in my ability to communicate interpersonally. Upon my first encounter with feedback from my peers, I was surprised to find out that others did not also think this. Coming into this course, I relied heavily on only verbal communication. I was introduced to several important new skills that help me communicate with others more precisely, including paraphrasing, c...