Before stepping onto the topic of the way we see ourselves, we first have to try to fully understand the definition of self-concept. The classification of self-concept is defined in many different ways by various researchers and practitioners over years. According to Purkey and William (1988), the popularity and attention of self-concept has been raising since decades of ignorance. Self-concept is mainly regarded as the realisation of our own existence; who we are, what is our purpose and how we fit into the society. Self-concept can be defined in a very complex manner. For example, it can be explained as a cognitive representation of oneself that gives coherence and meaning to one’s experience, including one’s relations to other people. It organises past experiences and plays an important role in assisting us to recognise and interpret relevant stimuli in the social environment (Hewstone, Stroebe & Jonas, 2008). Nonetheless, self-concept can also be clarified as simple as a statement where Fromm (1956) describe as “life being aware of itself.” After understanding the notion self-concept, we then can proceed to use different approaches to search a suitable answer to the question of “Why do we ‘see’ ourselves in the way that we do?”.
In an experiment done by Montemayor and Eisen (1977), children were studied and questioned for their existence. When the children in the experiment were asked “Who am I?”, the most common answer given are descriptive and are usually about their appearance. For example, “I have brown eyes, I have brown hair and et cetera”. Children tend to mainly focus on the description of physical features of their body, address, procession and play activities; kids’ self-concept is more concrete as well as less abstract. In comparison, teenagers were observed and were asked the same question. As teenagers with wider knowledge of their existence, they will probably come up with more profound words and not only focus on the physical parts of body but somehow personal beliefs, motivation and interpersonal characteristics. For example, “I am a human being. I am a moody person, etc”. Consequently, adolescence’s answers seem to be more abstract but less concrete. By asking this question to both childhood and adolescence, significant increase can be seen in self-conceptions and categorised in followings: occupational rule; existential, individuating; ideological and belief reference; the sense of self- determination; the sense of unity; interpersonal style; and physical style (Montemayor & Eisen, 1977). The experiment has proven that aging does massively affect the way of seeing ourselves in everyone.
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
In unit one of Interactions, the authors Ann Moseley and Jeanette Harris showed a number of readings about the idea of the self. The self-concept is an important matter because people change with age constantly and their thoughts change as well. There are many factors that can affect any individual’s thought of self-concept such as growing up, life experiences, friends and family, and meeting new people. Moreover, a number of readings in unit one by different authors showing their experiences and struggles with self-concept such as ethnicities, economy status, and self-esteem issue. I have had similar experiences with several authors, which are, “Zero” by Paul Logan, “Living in two worlds” by Marcus Mabry, and “The Jacket” by Gary Soto.
What does sense of self-mean? It means what that person sees when they look in a mirror. Whether it is a decent, awful or an indifferent image. Everyone’s self-image is different, and that’s acceptable; normal even. No one person is exactly the same. The authors explain how a sense of self is like internal conflicts and the decision to lie in order to gain approval.
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.
This article, Life as a Maid’s Daughter by Mary Romero, takes the reader through the life a girl named Teresa. She lived a unique life, because she was able to see the differences ways in which different races and social classes of people live in America. Teresa and her mother Carmen are lower class Mexican-Americans, and the people that Carmen is a maid for are upper-middle class white Americans. Throughout her life Teresa learns about different aspects of herself (i.e. race, social class, gender, and family) through interactions with her biological family and the families of the employers.
The sense of being aware of yourself as an individual is called ‘Self Understanding’ A sense of self is not achieved in a single step…it develops gradually throughout your life.
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.
However, despite all of the analysis and vast literature on the topic of selfhood there are still no completely agreed upon definitions of the self. Several scholars argue that it can never be given one simple, consistent description. The majority of authors are inclined to avoid the ‘unanswerable’ question of what self is and their constructions are based more on implicit understandings than clear-cut descriptions. As with the idea of consciousness, the self is catalogued amid those notions that are
In chapter three of Interplay self-concept is defined as the “relatively stable set of perceptions each individual hold of himself or herself (Alder, 2015, p.70).” I say that self-concept is how we view ourselves whether it be by roles and labels in society, or our physical appearances.
The doctrine of self identity is one that has throughout history been a way for people to identify who they were in relation to other individuals and society as a whole. To take into account how an individual’s identity is shaped, it is imperative to know it through the context of oneself and of society. This will not only provide a more holistic approach to understanding how self identity is shaped, but also how it relates to race. Nikki Giovanni’s poem “Nikki-Rosa” and Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” reflect on the idea of racial self identity through harsh critiques from societal and internal pressures seeking to label and categorize people on the basis of race.
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.
We tend to try to understand our self and how we are as a person then we try to act and behave accordingly as to whom we are and this concept is called self-concept. This is our idea of which we are our understanding of our self (Mcleod, 2008). This composes of our belief about our self, our attitude and behavior and our opinion as how we are supposed to behave and how we really behave (Feenstra, 2011). As for me, my self-concept is that I am a worrier and I said this because I always end up telling other people about my worries so I share it with them. This is very different with my friend who always keeps her taught to herself and stays aloof all the time. Then aside from our self-concept, we also have what we call our self-schema. Self-schema is the way we look at ourselves hence it can be associated with what we liked to do. My self-schema is that I am a gardener because I love working on my garden. Every time I see something about gardening, I can easily associate myself with it because of my self-schema hence my behavior shows how I perceive myself. Self-schema is the same as self-awareness hence I am aware of myself either publicly or privately. Private self-awareness ar...
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,
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.
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?