Self-Concept

Introduction

The term self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about or perceives themselves.

The self-concept is the accumulation of knowledge about the self. The self-concept is composed of relatively permanent self-assessments such as beliefs regarding personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, and roles.

Contd….

Beginning in infancy, children acquire and organize information about  themselves as a way to enable them to understand the relation between the self and their social world.

The self-concept is not restricted to the present. It includes past selves and future selves. Future selves or "possible selves" represent individuals' ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming. 

Definition

Self-concept is a multi-dimensional construct that refers to an individual's perception of "self" in relation to any number of characteristics, such as academics, gender roles and sexuality, racial identity, and many others.

Bums (1980) defines it as, 'the set of attitudes a person holds towards himself."

Gross: 1992:607: “Me self-concept is basically each person's own subjective -view or image of him- or herself as a person. "

Recap

Our Self-Concept

Self-Esteem Self-Image

Our Self-Concept is made up of our self-esteem and our self-image

Definitions

SELF-CONCEPT• The sum total of the ways in which we think

about ourselves

• SELF ESTEEM

- How highly we think about our abilities and our self.

• SELF IMAGE

- How we view our self based on others reactions to us.

Self-Concept

Self-concept is an individual’s perception of self and is what helps make each individual unique.

Positive and negative self-assessments in the physical, emotional, intellectual, and functional dimensions change over time.

Self-concept affects the ability to function and greatly influences health status.

Dimensions of Self-Concept

Self-knowledge — “Who am I?” Self-expectation — “Who or what do I want

to be?” Social self – How person perceived by

others? Self-evaluation — “How well do I like

myself?”

Self knowledge

Global self: is the term used to describe the composite of all basic facts, qualities, traits, images and feelings one holds about oneself.

It includes:

1. Basic facts: sex, age, race, occupation, cultural background, sexual orientation

2. Person’s position with social groups

3. Qualities or traits that describe typical behaviours, feelings, moods and other characteristics (generous, hot-headed , ambitious, intelligent, )

Self expectations

Expectations for self flow from various sources.

The ideal self constitutes the self one want to be.

Self expectations develop unconsciously early in childhood and are based on image of role models such as parents

Self evaluation

Self esteem is the evaluative and affective component of self concept

Maslow’s Subsets of Esteem Needs:1. Self-esteem (strength, achievement,

mastery, competence, ..)

2. Respect needs or the need for esteem from others

COMPONENETS OF SELF-CONCEPT

Self-Esteem

The term “Self-esteem” means to regard favorably, with admiration or respect.

Self-esteem can be defined as the degree to which one has a positive evaluation of one’s self, based on one’s perceptions of how one is viewed by others as well as one’s views about self.

Self esteem refers to the extent to which we like accept or approve of ourselves or how much we value ourselves. Self esteem always involves a degree of evaluation and we may have either a positive or a negative view of ourselves.

Development of Self-esteem

Two schools of thoughts of development of Self-esteem:

1.First: self-esteem forms early in life, is based primarily on relationships with early caregivers, and is relatively fixed throughout life.

2.Second: self-esteem fluctuates whenever life transitions, crises, or illnesses challenge the self-concept or alter the person’s status or role. - (Arnold & Boggs, 2006)

Important facts

Having a high self-esteem leads to a high level of satisfaction with oneself.

People who possess high self-esteem tend to be more content, in control, confident, accountable, and capable.

Lack of self-esteem can result in lack of confidence, and inability to act in own interest, feeling of being over-whelmed, having decreased activity or energy, powerlessness, and reduced ability to function.

Coopersmith’s 4 components of self-esteem

Coopersmith in 1981 identified four important components in the development of positive self-esteem. They are:

a.Acceptance/worthiness

b.Power/Control

c.Moral worth/Virtue

d.Competence/Mastery

Acceptance/Worthiness

It relates to the perception, attention and affection of others.

It is the amount of concern and care that a person receives from significant others.

Power/Control

It is the ability to influence and control others.

This make child’s first appearance in toddlerhood and continues to develop in school-age.

Toddler learns the concept of power/control by exploring their environment and manipulating objects within the environment.

Moral worth/Virtue

It is the adherence to moral and ethical standards.

The values and morals of significant others are internalized by the preschool-age and the school-age child.

In early childhood the child adopts behaviors through identification with the same-sex parent and a desire to please that parent.

As they are learning to adopt the behaviors of their same-sex parent, they learn both good or bad moral.

Competence/Mastery

It refers to successful performance or achievement.

It is marked by high levels of performance, with the level and the tasks varying depending on developmental stage. When abilities are sufficient to complete a task, competence/mastery is present.

The development of initiative and industry leads to feeling of competence.

2. Personal Identity

Personal identity is the organizing principle of the personality that accounts for the unity, continuity, consistency and uniqueness of a person. (Carpenito, 2005)

The composition of personal identity are emotional images, cognitive images and perceptual images.

Emotional images are those feelings about oneself that one experiences as being consistent with the self and that feel familiar and normal.

Cognitive images involves intelligence, past experiences, educational experiences and the process of thinking.

Perceptual images are derived from the external sensory data and are translated into mental pictures of reality.

3. Role Performance

It refers to a person’s fulfillment of the roles & current responsibilities in that person’s life, and it includes the actions, thoughts, and feelings.

A role is a homogenous set of behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, principles and values that are normally defined and expected in a given social position in a group. Role is defined in terms of relationship to others & prescribed by age, sex or position in the family and society. The ability to fulfill prescribed role behaviors can affect the self-concept.

4. Body Image

Body image is the perception of one’s own body. It is the physical dimension of self-concept, or how

one perceives and evaluates one’s appearance and function. It is closely related to personal identity, role performance and self-esteem.

People can perceive their bodies as fat or thin, ugly or beautiful, etc.

Body images changes with the conditions like physical growth, illness, aging, accidents and social/cultural influences.

Factors Affecting Self-Concept

Factors Across the Life Span

Infants to Preschoolers School-Age Children Adolescents Young Adults Middle Adults Older Adults

Psychological Factors

Depression Stress Loss Abusive relationships

Cultural and Lifestyle Factors

Culture Socioeconomic status Living conditions