Profile of the Self “You are requested to close the eyes.” This urging that Sigmund Freud experienced in a dream helped to unlock repressed feelings, and gave him insight into his personality. Fortunately, there are now tests available to help us to understand ourselves. Our behavior can be determined and understood by analyzing different aspects of ourselves. The four main aspects are: Decision Making, Self-Concept, Interpersonal Relationships, and Affect. Decision Making is very important. Making decisions is really much more complicated than it seems. When I make decisions, my Id, Ego, and Superego decide my fate. Unfortunately for me, my Id wins far too often, as I often do not study enough. Other personality traits, such as my tendency to over-think and analyze too many things, also play a role. This can influence my other behaviors by making me seem cold and distant with others because I’m too busy thinking. My self-concept is also important. Self-concept is how I view myself. This affects me in a number of ways. My self esteem and role expectations are all based off of my self-concept. My self-concept also can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If I think that I have low self discipline, then I may subconsciously change my behavior to achieve what I think I am or should be. My real self still does not meet with my ideal self, which could potentially cause problems, or cause things to go well. My inadequacies in orderliness can never improve as long a...
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
The essay How You See Yourself by Nicholas Mirzoeff discusses the evolution of art. The author discusses the use of art to represent changing identities over the years including cultural practices and societal expectations. The selfie, according to Nicholas Mirzoeff’s essay, is the equivalent of a self-portrait in the previous centuries preceding the technological development required for the present day selfie. The essay explores the different periods and the significance of art, particularly self-portraits, the selfies of the time, and their development over time. The author focuses on different themes including heroism, gender definition, and the focus of an image. Mirzoeff effectively provides examples illustrating and reinforcing the themes he highlights in his essay.
It’s hard to believe how making one decision can impact and shape your life for the future. According to Google, decision-making is the action or process of making decisions, especially important ones. While discussing this important topic, decision-making, I’ve come across some things I’ve learned and how they can impact my life. First, impulsive decisions can lead to bad outcomes. In the short story, The Monkey’s Paw, by W.W. Jacobs, the story is based around the idea; think more about a decision than quickly resolving one. Secondly, deciding to run away from your problems can lead to an even greater one. In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, The Masque of the Red Death, the characters are faced with a problem, but when they believe it has been resolved it turns out to be deadlier than
Sigmund Freud provides a concept of how a person’s personality is structured and to have a healthy personality requires a balance in the interaction between the id, ego, and superego. Bandura’s theory of observational learning plays a vital role in the persons conditioning process. By understanding the basis of observational learning that includes modeling, disinhibition, and trolling, one can recognize the different types of reinforcements that contribute to how one learns and then behaves in situations throughout their life. The experience and knowledge of self-discovery comes gradually without an instantaneous impact. Although, moments of true realization can give one a release from past insecurities, doubt, and shame just to name a few. Such realizations can change how one views or feels about their past, which includes their choices, successes, failures, and the different relationships they have had from birth to the present. In conclusion, one should invest in getting to know their own personality to educate themselves and receive the benefits of a healthy state of mental
Identity; the meaning of which can represent a number, a name, or an origin. It can be concrete and documented on a social security card or birth certificate. Quite the opposite is the quality of fluidity it offers. Simply from how one presents themselves, their identity can be interpreted and assumed from a passerby’s glance. Femininity characterized by long hair and makeup. A smile projecting happiness, while a scrunched brow displays distress. “Self-Portrait” by Robert Mapplethorpe sets out to illustrate how varying traits, even while on the same subject matter, can change how one perceives another’s gender. However, without the obvious attributes that are stereotypical for one gender, the harsh line dividing masculinity and femininity dissolves. Nancy Burson does an excellent job of demonstrating such in her project “Portrait” by causing the observer to be unsure as to what the gender of each model is.
Self-concept - our traits, attitude, skills and talents, and roles- is how we think and feel about ourselves. It is affected by our interactions, past experiences or change. Changes happen regularly, some good, while others are not; it could be something as simple as changing your pencil brand to something stellar like moving to another country. My experience with change is detestable; I disdain change, no matter how insignificant.
Self-concept can be described as “who we are” in our own mind’s eye. It is the broadest recognition of self, deriving from all the knowledge and information we have about ourselves. It refers to what we “know” about ourselves; our strengths, weakness, attributes and qualities. These can be emotional, physical, psychological, intellectual, to name a few. It is the sum total of all the knowledge we have about ourselves innately as well as from the responses others have to us (Aron, Paris, Aron, 1995). Thus relationships in which we experience new activities, thoughts and beliefs and where we receive feedback can broaden our self-concept. People who have the ability to broaden their self-concept tend to have greater self-esteem and can resolve problems more easily (Aron et al.,
“Self-concept consists of knowledge, views and evaluation of the self, ranging from miscellaneous facts of personal history to the identity that gives a sense of purpose and coherence to life” (McCrae and Costa, 1996). With self-concept, we learn who we are by observing ourselves and using our cognitive processes to judge and evaluate our behaviour. However, with self-regulation, we are able to use this knowledge and judgment and apply it to future situations and so predicts behaviour and says a lot about our personality. If we are willing to cognitively analyse past situations and apply it effectively to future situations, this means we are changing our behaviour, thus changing our
The better which a person develops an understanding of themselves and of the other people around them, the better able they will be able to develop intimate relationships. A person who has a negative model of self and has a negative model of others , otherwise known as Fearful, is going to shy away from attachment and be socially avoidant which obviously is going to affect the crisis of intimacy versus isolation. The example describes a person who is hesitant to make long term commitments and resists urges to display intimacy, but is capable of forming a dependency on him by the other in the relationship. A Preoccupied person has a negative self model and a positive model of others. They often tend to be overly dependent and ambivalent. The example suggests a person who might be shy and conservative but is capable of not displaying their awkward feelings to the other person. A Secure individual has a positive model of self and others. They are comfortable with intimacy and autonomy and often do not have a difficult time in forming intimate relationships. The example describes this person as someone who is very capable of healthy relationships and good communication skills. It seems like a secure person has all the good qualities that any relationship requires. And finally, a Dismissing person has a positive model of self but a negative model of others. They are characterized by denying attachment and their counter dependency. All of the differences among the different models result from past experiences in the individual’s life. How they were raised in terms of different parenting styles and methods of child raising affect an individuals internal working models of self and others.
In order to understand how one perceives situations and how they can determine the way one communicates; we first must understand the value of self-concept. Self is easily defined; it is one's beliefs, attitudes, feelings and values. It is who one is and what one stands for. Self-concept, is a relevantly stable set of perceptions and emotional states. It is the way one sees and understands oneself, and contributes to how one perceives oneself and perceives situations. One's self-concept may alter their perception, and either enhance or impede one's communication effectiveness. The way one sees oneself can influence the way they see their social surroundings. Only after one become aware of oneself can they be aware of their physical and social surroundings, which will allow one to perceive situations and people with a truer idea and create a more positive outcome.
John F. Crosby in his work, The Selfhood of the Human Person, attempts to provide an advancement in the understanding of the human person. Persons are conscious beings who think and know they are thinking. He claims persons are not merely replaceable objects, but characters who cannot be substituted or owned. Crosby describes personhood as standing in yourself, being an end to yourself, and being anchored in yourself. A feature of personhood is that persons can be conscious of everything in the universe while the universe acts on them. Additionally, personhood means persons exist for their own sake and not for the sake of others. However, persons who are centered in themselves often give of themselves. Persons are incommunicable unlike any other piece of creation. A quality of the incommunicability of persons is action. Aquinas explains person are not acted on but act through themselves.
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...
Within everyday life people believe themselves to be constantly changing. In actuality, the changes that one believes to have are but minor changes. A person’s personality is usually set at an early age in childhood. A social psychologist named George Herbert Mead understood society through socialization stems he called social behaviorism. Mead and another psychologist by the name of John B. Watson worked together on this approach. Watson focused on outward behavior in this partnership of ideas. However, Mead emphasized on inward thinking, which he contended was humanity’s defining trait.
Is the “self” affected by the outside world? Whitman seems to think so, but Descartes claims that we cannot trust the outside world because we are being deceived by an evil demon. Both philosopher’s obviously differ on what we can and cannot consider to be true. Descartes and Whitman had very different ideas of the self and what could affect the self. While Whitman believed that we could achieve knowledge of the self through the senses, Descartes argued that we should throw the senses to the side and only believe in what we could distinctly perceive and truly understand. However, if we mix both of these philosopher’s thoughts on the “self” we can really grow to understand and experience the world around us in a much meaningful way and therefore, allowing us to know the “self” and helping it grow.
Over the years, people have wondered what goes on in a person's mind that guides them to meet their needs. Sigmund Freud developed a system of personality that boldly attempts to explain the course of personality and what was it origins. Freud theory assumes that one's personality is shaped and some powerful inner forces motivate one's behavior. According to Freud, personality differences commence from the different ways in which people deal with their underlying drives. By picturing a continuing battle between antagonistic parts of personality, Freud was able to develop three systems that make up the total personality. The three systems of personality are the id, ego, and the superego. If the three systems work together in harmony and unite together to form one complete organization, it enables one to create a positive transaction with the environment. If the systems are fighting with each other, one is said to be dissatisfied with himself or the world. By examining the ego, the id, and the superego, one should see how these three systems of personality play an important role in the development of one's personality. In doing so one should understand what conscious and unconscious, and the functions of the id, ego, and superego.