It is common knowledge to assume that what one thinks of oneself is reflected in one's interactions with others, but what many do not understand is how the development of such thinking comes to be. In a study by Marloes P. A. Van Dijk, Susan Branje, Loes Keijsers, Skyler T. Hawk, William W. Hale III, and Wim Meeus titled, Self-Concept Clarity Across Adolescence: Longitudinal Associations With Open Communication With Parents and Internalizing Symptoms, researches test the idea that open communication can promote higher self-concept clarity and that problems with self-concept clarity development could enhance internalizing problems in adolescence and vice versa. In this paper, I will present their research by first discussing their experiment, …show more content…
Self-concept is a very broad phrase that refers to how a person generally perceives themselves. A person who thinks highly of themselves is likely to be more confident, and confidence is a key element in effective communication as it allows for clarity, boldness in speech, and overall likeability. In a study conducted by Dr. Ferullo of Boston University, the self-concept and personality traits of a group of students and its relation to their varying degrees of communication was investigated, and it was concluded that better communicators tend to reveal a significantly higher degree of self-satisfaction, self-acceptance, and emotional control than did the poorer communicators. These are findings that support the hypothesis that self-concept plays a crucial role in how we …show more content…
Many different factors contribute to shaping the self-concept. One of its most important factors is socialization with significant others. Our peers and others around us play a large role in shaping our self-concept because as discussed in Ronald B. Adler's, Looking In Looking Out, despite what we think of ourselves, we would not be able to evaluate our appearance without appraisals from others. Significant others are people whose opinions we especially value, and one of the most influential significant others in the lives of most people are parents, as many people themselves are a reflection of the people that raised them. Because the opinion of parents and how we are perceived by them is so important, it has the power to raise and lower our self esteem and how we feel accordingly. As our emotions play a big role in the development of our self-concept as previously discussed, if feelings of depression and anxiety during adolescence cannot be openly discussed with parents and are forced to be suppressed, self-concept can diminish and in turn, so will skills needed for effective
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.
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.
An individuals sense of self-importance or self-esteem can go a long distance in determining their perspective of themselves and their world around them. Erik Erikson, a developmental psychologist, highlights the importance of how the role of society and culture can affect an individual's ego. Erikson’s theory on the development of human beings discusses how a person’s level of confidence influences their ability to solve problems in society. Erikson believed that a persons potential in trusting others, or how a person views themselves personally is affected by how their confidence levels developed throughout certain stages of their life (McLeod, Saul). In order to expand on Erikson's ideas of the development of the human ego, he created a model that represents eight stages of development that occurs in a person's lifespan. In this model, the first five stages take place up to adulthood and the other three stages take place into and after adulthood. The progression and development of these stages is dependent on the previous stage (Davis & Clifton, 1995).
After reviewing both studies it can be concluded that an individual’s self-esteem changes based on their relationship status, ethnicity, personality characteristics and a possible effect on gender. Individuals that have high self-esteem are usually individuals that are outgoing, energetic and easy going. Those individuals have a lot of friends and are sociable. Adolescence self –esteem can be based on how popular they are in school those adolescences that are popular will have a higher self-esteem opposed to the adolescence that are more reserved, and that do not have many friends. Individual’s self- esteem can change during their twenties and sometimes into their thirties and beyond.
This model by Donald Super explains that during elementary school children begin to develop self concepts (Sharf, 2013). Self-concept is the core of Super's theory. Many factors contribute to the self-concept such as biological characteristics, social roles, and the interplay of others reactions on the individual. Development of the self concept begins in late to early adolescence. It is subjective and can be influenced by perceptions from family, peers, and teachers about themselves or about occupations.
Self-esteem can be defined as how children feel about themselves. Children's levels of self-esteem are evident in their behavior and attitudes. If children feel good about themselves, these good feelings will be reflected in how they relate to friends, teachers, siblings, parents, and others. Self-esteem is something that affects individuals throughout life. Therefore, it is very important for parents to help their children develop healthy levels of self-esteem. There are many things parents can do to help their children learn that they are lovable, capable, and competent, beginning when their children are at a very young age. Unfortunately, it is also at a very young age that children can begin to develop low self-esteem. Parents must be very careful not to plant the seeds of low self-esteem in their children unknowingly. Children learn their first lessons about self-esteem from their parents.
Biological influences combined with societal and social expectations contribute to how well people learn to adapt to their environments (2013). According to Erikson, there are eight stages of development. Within these states, there are different psychological, emotional and cognitive tasks. In order to adjust, individuals must learn to develop these tasks. During adolescence, Erikson states that each person needs to navigate through the development task of ‘‘Identity vs. Identity confusion ’’ (2013). He defined this task by stating that adolescent children must learn to develop a sense of self and establish independence. Prior to this stage of development, a person’s parents largely influence their identity. In this stage the adolescent children begin to explore and develop their identity outside of their parents’ influence (Hill, Bromell, Tyson, & Flint, 2007). Adolescents are generally more egocentric at this stage and have an increased sense of self-consciousness. They also have a strong desire to conform to peer influence and develop concerns regarding their appearance. They develop concern about their level of competence in relation to their peer group as well. As peer influence increases, during this stage, parental influence decreases (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013; Hill et. al, 2007). Conflict generally increases between parent and child at this stage of development (2007).
... communication. Without understanding oneself, it is impossible to have clear communication with anyone else. Self-concept affects one's attitude, perception and behavior, and without having good self-concept it is impossible to communicate clearly. Three aspects discussed that have affect on self-concept are gender, motivational level and psychological types. These all play an essential role in the way one communicate. A large portion of one's self-concept comes from past experience, and the people that surround them. Therefore one's perceptions, behaviors, attitudes gain from experience and people may alter one's self-concept.
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...
When talking about communication and the self, one might ask: what does the self have to do with communication? The answer is everything. In order to communicate correctly with others, one must know who they are. Once we know who we are, it will then reflect on how one communicates with others (Chapter 3). One important aspect of the self is knowing who you are, or self-concept. Self-concept is the set of perceptions we hold of ourselves. This isn’t just about physical aspects of one’s self, but also one’s talents, likes, dislikes, and values. There are multiple characteristics to the self-concept. First off, the self-concept is subjective; meaning it is based on personal feelings and opinions. The second characteristic is that self-concept
10. Adolescents and their Families, Paths of Ego Development, Stuart T. Hauser, Sally I. Powers, Gil G. Noam 1991
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,
She seemed much more hesitant to describe herself, however, she was more than willing to talk about her peer groups. Juliana’s responses constructed several theories that have been discussed in class, based on peer groups: family, school climate and achievement, and gender. When asked how she would describe herself she said, “I like to think of myself as a gentle and caring person”. This seemly short and simple response is actually quite intuitive to the way that adolescents think. During adolescence many cognitive transitions occur; one of them is an adolescent’s ability to think in multiple dimensions. Children often describe themselves based on physical characteristics while adolescents describe themselves by physical and personality traits. Therefore, although Juliana only used two characteristics to describe herself, they were both related to her personality, thus showing her cognitive developments as an adolescent. In accordance with studies of adolescents’ peer relations, Juliana defines her peer group as people she spends time with based on common interests. She considers the classmates in her honors classes to be her peer group. This group plays an important role in the adolescent’s identity development as it is considered a reference group, or a group against which an individual compares himself or herself. Juliana reflects on her own
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.
If this process are not successful, the individual will struggle with knowing who they are (Marcia et al., 1993). Self-acceptance plays a key role in self-esteem which include the elements, self-confidence and self-depreciation. An individual places an intrinsic value on who they are, if the external environment confirms the intrinsic value individuals place on themselves, it enhances their self-esteem. On the other hand self-esteem will be decrease when the environment do not allow for individuals to build their self-esteem. Past studies suggest that there is a direct connection between of self-esteem and well-being (Yap, & Baharudin,