Exploring Self-Concept: Self-Esteem, Impression Management, and Reflected Appraisals

In this paper I will be discussing the importance and necessity of having a strong self-concept. Also, I will be examining and thoroughly analyzing the in-depth concepts that help contribute to or compose your own self-concept. The ideas that I will be discussing in-depth are: self-esteem and it’s effect upon our lives, impression management and how society could fall apart without it and the ways that our society benefits from reflected appraisals. Self-Esteem is something that could be considered an “X-factor” part of our personalities. Having strong self-esteem is something that is preached and recommended as an answer to almost any problem that people are facing socially. One of the most evident examples of this phenomenon would be in

A simple example would be how it is hard-wired in all of our brains to simply respond “Fine, and you?” any time we are asked “Hey! How are ya?”. This is so ingrained in our brains because it is a simple form of impression management. Modern society teaches us to be normal, anything that isn’t “normal” is considered weird. An example of this behavior externalized would be how it was popular in the late 1900s for children to ridicule other children with glasses. Obviously there is nothing wrong with requiring corrective lenses, but because it was outside of the social norm, it was commonplace to consider those kids “weird”. As such, we have developed strong tools such as impression management in order to be able to always present ourselves as “normal”. Our textbook defines impression management as “The communication strategies people use to influence how others view them” (Adler, Rosenfeld & Proctor, 80). These have become integrated into our society with such force that many people dismay the “fakeness” that may be associated with impression management. A common example of impression management would be dressing appropriately for work in order to communicate the message that you are a professional and are to be treated as such. However, that same person may dress in work-out clothes during their trip to the gym in order to be seen