Definition Essay On Self Perception

Let me ask you a question. Who are you? A human being? A student? A friendly person? You may even answer this question with your nationality. Well, all your answers are correct. Anything that YOU think defines you is a part of your identity.
It is crucial to understand oneself, not only for the personal self but also for social self. Knowing what we are or even perceiving what we are determines the way in which we behave. Self concept is the set of beliefs we have about ourselves. Wait, let me break that down into simpler words. Self concept is what you perceive yourself to be. You may look in the mirror and think ‘hey! Im a winner!’. THAT is a part of your self concept. On the other hand the different dimensions of ourselves is known is

However, other times we may perceive oursleves based on our actions. This is known as self perception theory. Self perception theory argues that people learn about themselves by examining their own behaviour. People look at their own behaviour and infer aspects about themselves. For example if you eat a salad for lunch you may feel that you’re a healthy person. Hence, our actions determined how we perceived ourselves. However, we cant use self perception all of the time because most of the time we know what we are feeling without the need to examine our behaviour. For example if one chooses not to donate money to a charity, it doesn’t necesserily mean that they are selfish. We use self perception theory in situations when we are unsure about how we feel. For example when you meet someone you may be unsure about whether you like them or not. If you help them out with something then you can conclude that you in fact do like them. In addition, a study was conducted by Tiffany Ito et al in 2006 where they made participants hold pencils in their mouth, change their facial expressions and view photograph of white and black individuals. Results showed that those who smiled while looking at the photos of the black individuals showed less prejudice towards the black participants. On that note, it may be hard to trust our feelings based on our behaviour if the behaviour is forced. If someone forces you to give money to the homeless man outside your school, you cannot necessarily conclude that you are a generous person. The self perception theory offers a perspective that explains how our actions affect the way we think rather than the way in which we view ourselves may influence our day to day