The Notion of the Self Concept - Essay Example

?Running Head: Self Self [Institute’s Self According to the Carl Rogers, “self-concept refers to the collection of beliefs about one’s own nature, unique qualities, ad typical behaviour” (Baumeister, 1999). Self-concept is actually the mental picture of yourself and collections of all the perceptions that one has about him or her. Rogers asserted that one’s self concept is always subjective and may not be always the manifestation of reality or one’s experiences (Baumeister, 1999). Majority of the people, at most occasions would distort their perceptions in such a way manner, which support their own ideas about self. These may be positive or negative. For example, a girl who believes that she is fat may avoid the reassurances for her friends, which suggest otherwise. However, a student who believes that he is smart may continue to believe the same after looking his transcript, which shows a C grade. Rogers labeled this difference between reality and self-concept as “incongruence”. Important here to note is that everybody has some degree of incongruence but what really matters is “how much” (Weiten, 2008). Rogers also believed that the congruence or incongruence has a direct linkage with the childhood experiences of the person. Quite understandably, people and especially children are hungry for love, attention, and affection. During their childhood, parents and guardians are responsible for the same (Weiten, 2008). Rogers argue that parents that provide unconditional love to their children are at the same time fostering congruence; however, parents that make their love conditional, find great disparities between the self-concept and actual experiences of their children, in other words fostering incongruence. This is true because when the love of the parents appears to be conditional for the children, they are more likely to block unfavorable experiences so that they could reassure themselves that they are worthy of love. On the other hand, children getting unconditional love would develop a sense of security and confidence in them, which would them to face the experiences and their reality in a better way (Baumeister, 1999). Development of the concept of self has two important aspects. First is the existential self which refers to “the most basic part of the self-scheme or self-concept; the sense of being separate and distinct from others and the awareness of the constancy of the self” (Baumeister, 1999; (Weiten, 2008). During his early days, a young child realizes that he exists as a separate entity in time and space like everything else does. When he feels the touch of someone else or sees objecting moving due to his force, this is when he gains an understanding of his own existence, which is different from that of others. Second aspect of self is the categorical self, which develops when the child grasps an understanding of the fact that he or she is not a separate entity but at the time is an object like many other objects present in the surrounding. This allows the child to realize that like other objects he or she also has certain properties and characteristics that define him and are an important part or his or her existence. “I am tall”, “I am a girl”, “I am 3” and others. With the passage of time, these characteristics and properties which people apply to themselves become more complex and internal concerning psychological traits, comparative evaluations and others (Weiten, 2008). The relationship between self and emotions is an important one, which also leads to the understanding of self-esteem. Emotions refer to the experiences of an individual’s state of mind and how an individual thinks or feels goes on to determines his self worth or self-esteem (Powell, 2005). Self Esteem refers to the extent to which one values him or herself, the perceived worth and the degree to which he or she approves or accepts his or her existence. Higher self-esteem would refer to a positive view of self which would ultimately lead to optimism, confidence, avoidance of the opinions of others and self-satisfaction (Mruk, 2006; Powell, 2005). On the other hand, lower self-esteem is more likely to lead towards pessimism, concern about the perception of others and mistrust. As mentioned earlier, that a person self image, self-esteem or self worth leads to certain emotions. At most times, these emotions become strong drivers of your personality and behaviour. There are various ways to measure self-esteem such as “Harrill Self Esteem Inventory Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and others” (Zahavi, 2000). Furthermore, important here to note is that self esteem is related to different emotions in different literatures. The clinical literature relates self-esteem with anxiety and depression. Pride and shame are emotions most likely to be associated with self-esteem in developmental literature (Mruk, 2006). Personality psychologists strongly believe that emotions such as happiness and containment have the greatest links with self-esteem. In social psychology, anger and hostility have emerged as the representative emotions of self-esteem (Weiten, 2008). Self and behaviour have a unique relationship with each other. Behaviours are the channel with which a person expresses its self. The energies which are required for the accomplishment of certain behaviors, have their roots in the vital emotions and emotions have a direct linkage with “self”. In fact, behaviour is an expression of the self in it self. A person who behaves well in the society, with politeness, tolerance, respect, patience and courtesy is “presenting it self” with good behaviours in the society (Weiten, 2008). Despite the fact that in majority of the cases, behaviour is the manifestation of self, at certain occasions, persistent and consistent exhibition, practice or observation of behaviours that have no link with the self may lead to alteration of self to include these behaviours as a part of self. As William James suggests that is decent person tries to shout in front of people for a long time or observes such behaviours in his surroundings, he may also find him self one of them showing same behaviours thus making it a part of his “self”. Therefore, the point here is that the link between self and behaviours goes on to determine “self presentation” of an individual (Zahavi, 2000). Furthermore, this self-presentation and behaviours or attitudes of people also differ with cultures. For example, in western cultures, self is viewed in isolation or separation with others. The self-presentation or self-identity of a person does not depend on its relationship with others. They belong from individualistic cultures where they behaviours are self-presentation largely depends on their concern for their self. On the other hand, in eastern cultures self-presentation or self-identity is interdependent on the relationships and linkages with others. Therefore, in these collectivistic cultures, self-presentation and behaviours remains largely a product of association with others (Zahavi, 2000). References Baumeister, R. F. (1999). The self in social psychology. Psychology Press. Mruk, C. J. (2006). Self-esteem research, theory, and practice: toward a positive psychology of self-esteem. Springer Publishing Company. Powell, J. (2005). Self-Esteem. Black Rabbit Books. Weiten, W. (2008). Psychology: Themes and Variations. Cengage Learning. Zahavi, D. (2000). Exploring the self: philosophical and psychopathological perspectives on self-experience. John Benjamins Publishing Company. Read More