Social Norms And Self-Esteem

According to Charles Horton Cooley, the degree of personal insecurity you display in social situations is determined by what you believe other people think of you. Many believe that one’s personality is determined by their surroundings and what or who is surrounding them. This essay will be looking at the “others” namely the significant other, which are those people who are close to you and add value to your life e.g. your family; and the generalised other which is the people and the society that surrounds you, they do not really make a big difference in your way of carrying yourself but rather how the social norms which are set affect you and how they have an impact on your self-esteem, self-concept, self-perception and self-worth.

Self-concept

Self-esteem is said to make or break a person. When a person has a low self-esteem they are usually the ones who hold back and they do not participate in many things which can in fact help them grow. A person with a very high self-esteem is said to be irritating and drives others away from them, these are the people who think highly of themselves and usually look down on others. A person with the right amount of self-esteem is usually the ones who are able to go further. Significant others impact your esteem by means of being there for the person and being motivating. A person who has the support of family and friend will have a good self-esteem and they will carry themselves well and trust in themselves while the one who is demotivated and undermined by their family and friends will usually be the one who hangs their head down and questions every action they make. The boy who has discovered that they are really a homosexual will have a lot of confidence and self-belief when they find that their friends and family support them unlike the one who finds that they are being judged by their family and friends and will lose confidence and not carry themselves as who they really are because they have a low self-esteem. The impact of the generalised other on a person’s self-esteem is usually not that great as long as the individual has the support of the family. The generalised other usually have an impact when it is church

It could be said that social perception is the overall way one sees themselves all together with their self-esteem, self-concept, and self-worth. The way you perceive yourself determines how you carry yourself. If you see a fat ugly person in the mirror you will carry yourself as that fat ugly person. If the magazines have thin woman on their covers and you are bigger than what they have you will see yourself as fat if you give in to that comparison. It is up to your interpretation and self-evaluation how you will take these cultural teachings, opinions of others and the social comparisons into considerations. The significant others, who are the ones that moulded your personality play the role of exactly that, grooming you in being the person you are at that particular moment. The generalised others are the ones who fall under the social comparisons. Self-perception can also fall under self-actualization in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. According to Maslow self-actualization is the realization or fulfilment of one's talents and potentialities, it is especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone. As a person grows older they grow different perceptions of themselves and they start becoming more independent in their thinking and do not let their surroundings change