THE CONCEPT OF THE SELF 1
The Concept of the Self
Garnett Strother
University Of Phoenix
David King, PhD
The Concept of the Self
Introduction
Self-concept is an area in psychology and social sciences thatdeals with human perceptions, emotions and self esteem. Self concept refers to the understanding, knowledge and perceptions that an individual has towards his/her own abilities, goals, personality, physical features, and values among other traits that indentify people (Hattie, 2014). The concept of self is first realized during childhood when infants start collecting and organizing their information that helps them to realize their status and position in the social community.
Interaction with the external environment improves learning towards understanding the concept of self thus most of the childhood is spend in understanding the environment, interactions and gaining perceptions of oneself amongst other individuals in a social world. Importantly, self concept is used in the social setting as an identity of an individual at a personal as well as a societal identity. Individual perceptions and methods that an individual uses to interact with the environment ultimately define the identity for such individual. The importance of self concept is understood on its significance in helping organized thinking processes and guiding individuals in good behavior.
Conceptual views of the self
According to Shaffer, (2014),self concept is the entirety of all people attitudes, beliefs, and inclinations, preferences opinions that are well organized and demonstrated through interactions with the society. Self concept is the foundation of each individual’s existence and the basis for how human beings think of themselves, act in various situations as well as changes in behavioural patterns. The fact that each individual has unique personalities, traits, behavioural patterns, preferences and abilities makes the concept of self very complicated phenomenon to understand. However, the conceptual view of the self provides fundamental knowledge on the significance of people perceptions and their relations to each individual’s existence.
One of the primary conceptual views of the self is that, no individual is born with self concept but develops and learns with other developments within the body. The perceptions individuals have towards themselves can therefore be changed through modification of behaviour or influence from the environment. Seemingly, self concept is achieved through individual development, and interacting with the environment, particularly through the socialization process. Notably, understanding oneself is different from what other people or the society perceives an individual. For instance, an individual may think or perceive himself/herself as selfish while the society considers such an individual very generous.
Another conceptual view postulates that self concept is entirely structured and organized. While an individual may have various perceptions of his self, there is only a single acuity that directs and controls all the other insights (Bowden, 2011). For instance, an individual may express various perceptions such as loving, selfish, stubborn or rude but above that there is one super quality that overrides all and that becomes the self concept for the individual. However, perceptions are not fixed but can change from time to time explaining why nuisance and troublesome young people end up being very responsible and respected members of the society.
The many situations that an individual goes through in the life span have the capabilities of altering the personal perceptions depending on individual reactions to various life situations. Therefore, self concept is dynamic and varies much according to situations an individual is in at different times. Self concept is a continuous part of human growth and development that involves picking things of interest and dropping those not harmonious and helpful in the individual existence or building positive perceptions
Operational views of the self
Collins-Donnelly (2014) points out that there are many functional views of the self that explain how self concept originates, its development and the relationship and mutual influences with self esteem. Different people present varying ways in developing their self concept depending on the environment they are raised in as well as genetic and the continuing interaction with the society. The main significance of self concept is to help individuals organize their thoughts as well as guide them towards the accepted and right behavioural patterns thus interactions that individuals have with the environment leading to social experiences that are very important in growth and development of self concept.
These experiences result in many social ratings and comparisons such as failures and successes which eventually determine how the society views an individual. Notably, the role an individual has in various social contexts also helps in development of self concept. For instance, an individual can play various roles in the society such as a parent, teacher, village elder, uncle and a god father. When these roles correlate they form the identity of such individuals thus developing and defining the self concept for that individual.
The realization of a separate and existential self is one of the ways that individual develop self concept. The understanding that each individual is a separate entity connected to the other through genetic relations and societal forces creates the awareness of self identity. This understanding and realization starts at a very early age when kids start recognizing that they are separate entities from the rest of the society and continue to grow and develop through time as separate entities. While individual at this young age are aware of the existential self, their relation to the society and the environment helps them grow their self concepts and identity.
On the other hand, the realization that every individual exist as separate being from the social world leads to the comprehension that each individual is an object existing in the world. Like any other object, individuals have various properties that be experienced by other objects leading to development of the categorical self that is commonly used to differentiate diverse individuals. The development of this area of self concept leads to distinguishing people in the levels of age, gender, color, skills or height. These are some of the traits and self description references that children use as their identity.
Self esteem is an important component in developing and sustaining self concept. Self esteem is a personal emotional assessment that people use to understand their worth and position in the society (Kernis, 2013). It is usually an evaluation and attitude towards ones worth in relation to other individuals and the society. Essentially, individuals desire to have higher self esteem because with increased self worth, confidence is always guaranteed. In addition to boosting confidence, high self esteem helps individuals control their emotions and manage different activities rationally especially in social and psychological injuries like break ups, rejections, anxiety, stress or general life failures. Notably, individual self esteem works as an emotional immune system creating a dependence relationship between the self and various emotions and feelings. Additionally, self esteem has relations to many feelings and emotions such as depression, pride, hostility and anger among other psychological aspects.
References
Bowden, K. (2011). Overcoming my self-esteem and self-concept who am i?. Mason: Xlibris Corporation
Collins-Donnelly, K. (2014). Banish your self-esteem thief: a cognitive behavioral therapy workbook on building positive self-esteem for young people. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Hattie, J. (2014). Self-concept. New York: Psychology Press.
Kernis, M. (2013). Self-esteem issues and answers: a sourcebook of current perspectives. New York: Psychology Press.
Shaffer, D. (2014). Social and personality development. Belmont: Cengage Learning.