Self-Concept: Theories and Practicality - Research Paper Example

Self Concept: Theories and Practicality Self Concept: Theories and Practicality Self concept is a matter about which various scholars have propounded various theories. All these underwent radical changes from time to time. Self concept can be defined as the totality of one’s beliefs, preferences, opinions and attitudes organized in a systematic manner towards one’s personal existence. In simple words, it can be explained as the way one thinks about oneself and about how one should think, behave and act out one’s various life roles. The prominent figures who gave birth to this concept are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. In the opinion of Rogers, all people try to become an ‘ideal self’. This ideal self gives a person unconditional happiness. One essential factor to reach this stage is unconditional positive regard. The term ‘unconditional positive regard’ can be defined as accepting a person without approving or disapproving the person’s behavior and character. In other words, it is offering a person a certain level of affecting irrespective of the person’s actions. Thus, deviating from the deterministic nature of the traditional psychoanalysis and behaviorism, people like Rogers claimed that a person behaves in a particular way because of the way that person perceives the situation. There was a time when people like Sigmund Freud claimed that a person’s thinking about himself is dependent on the way the three aspects of his mind work. These three aspects are id, ego, and super-ego. According to psychoanalysis, the concept of self is molded mainly through unconscious forces and biological impulses. For example, a person may be hesitant to changes even after childhood due to his or her personal traits (Wylie, 1974, p. 5). It is followed by behaviorism. According to behaviorism, as Watson (1924, p. 34) points out, self concept is purely a product of environmental learning experiences. This view took self concept away from scientific scrutiny. In fact, both these theories are similar in the fact that they both are linear and unidirectional. While the psychoanalytic theory claims that human self concept is molded by intrapsychic forces, the behavioral theory claims that it is molded by environmental factors. Thus, these two theories failed to consider an interaction between both these internal and external factors. It is at this point that the self categorization theory gains importance. According to this theory, self concept consists of two levels; a personal identity and a social identity. In other words, an individual’s self concept is based on a person’s self perceptions and how one fits in socially. So, self concept can alter between personal and social identity. According to the self concept theory, self concept is learned. This means that no one is born with a self concept, but it can be learned, changed, and affected by environmental factors. In simple terms, self concept is the product of socialization and development. Another point is that self concept is organized, i.e., all the insights a person has about himself are connected together in a single perception. Also, it is clear that the person likes to stick to that perception for a long time. The third important point is that self concept is dynamic. In other words, as Wylie (1974) points out, the way one responds to various life situations can change the way one thinks about himself. It is at this juncture that humanistic theories gain their importance. According to the concept, the self concept has three components; self worth, self image, and ideal self. Out of them, the self worth is formed in early childhood, and it is formed as the result of the child’s interaction with mother and father. Also, it is necessary to have unconditional positive regard from others as the child grows. A person’s self image should be in harmony with the actual social experience. When there is a conflict between the self image and the actual experience of the person, there exists incongruence. According to social psychology, self can be represented in both affective and cognitive ways. Also, the self can be expressed in the form of verbal, image, neural or sensorimotor representations. According to this thought, self is a collection of the self schemes which are created as a result of past experiences. In simple terms, it is a collection of modular processing structures which are created from different contexts. These processing structures have cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects. It was James (1890) who clearly distinguished self as the object from self as the subject; according to him, self is the empirical ego or the known me. In the words of James (1890), history of self can be divided into many parts; they are the material self, the social self and the spiritual self, pure ego, the self feelings, self seeking, and self preservation. In almost similar terms, Freud (1917, as cited in the History of Psychiatric Movement) used terms such as ego, narcissism, wellbeing, self-regard and self-esteem. He based his concept of self on the Oedipus Complex Theory with various conflicting drives. Also, he used his libido theory and pleasurable/unpleasurable principles. He pointed out that all humans have some internal basic needs from birth. It is necessary for the external world to meet these needs for the ego to develop. These basic needs are classified into two: biological needs and psychological needs. When these needs are not properly met, one faces disturbances in ego, which, in turn, affects the self experience. This Freudian theory was further elaborated by Jung (1921). He pointed out that self is the innate disposition that each person has. This helps the person’s growth, perfection and completion. This self includes both conscious and unconscious of both personal and collective nature. In the opinion of Sullivan (1953, as cited in the History of Psychiatric Movement), people develop their personality and sense of self within a social context. According to him, the self system arises when there are interpersonal situations. Also, the scholar claims that the purpose of this self concept is to protect the person from anxiety. To illustrate, as a child grows up he/she learns which actions and reactions are appropriate to reduce anxiety. As this self system grows, people try to avoid such situations which might contradict this self-regard or self-image. The purpose of this avoidance is to reduce anxiety by avoiding damage to self-esteem. However, in the words of Bandura (1989, p. 55), self system is a set of cognitive structures which can provide some degree of consistency to people’s behavior. With this, people are able to observe and do some self regulation because self system includes self evaluation, self regulation and self efficacy. Thus, from a historical perspective, one can reach the conclusion that self concept is formed through the action and interaction of both internal and external factors. In fact, an individual’s self identity consists of both social and personal identities. An individual does an individual self categorization based on what differences from and similarities with others one feels about oneself. In other words, personal identity is a person’s feeling of uniqueness as an individual. On the other hand, social identity is based on what an individual feels about himself in terms of social relations to others or in terms of membership in social groups. Thus, both personal identity and social identity are a part of a person’s self concept. In fact, there are various views of self concept. The first class is pragmatic view which claims that self concept is the result of interaction with others. According to this view as propounded by William James, there are four constituents of self. They are; the material self, the social self, the spiritual self, and the ego. All these constituents are considered as the part of ‘me’. So, people possess the tendency to preserve all these things unharmed. On the other hand, in the dramatistic view, as founded by Erving Goffman, human actions are purely based on time, place and audience. In simple terms, every person puts on a particular role depending on cultural norms, values, and expectations. According to this theory, a person’s identity is not stable or independent, but is psychological and considerably changed from time to time depending on the interaction with others. Postmodern view considers self as relational in nature. According to this view, a person’s self concept is formed in relation to various factors ranging from political forces, social institutions and various other factors; not just the proximate ones. In the opinion of Lawrence (2006), as self concept is the basis of self-esteem, it is possible to use the same to enhance self-esteem in the classroom. In the opinion of the scholar, self concept is the umbrella under which all other points such as cognitive, affective, and behavioral characteristics develop (Lawrence, 2006, p. 3). Thus, one reaches the insight that positive social influence, or positive feedback, can have positive impact on the way people perform. It has been found in studies (Lawrence, 2006, p. 45) that when students are given positive feedback or positive influence, there is an improvement in their academic performance. That means the first practical application of self concept and self esteem is in education. In almost similar terms, another study proved that the self esteem of people can be altered using words which describe their features. In other words, the feedback had an impact on the way they perceived themselves, or they were disturbed when their own concept of themselves was found not in harmony with the social acceptance. Another practical application is the Twenty Statement Test. In fact, this test involves answering twenty questions which make one more aware of their own physical traits, social roles, and personal traits. Thus in total, it becomes evident that self includes various factors ranging from one’s own temperament or biologically based predispositions, physical image, feedback from others, experiences, stability in social roles, and values and beliefs. While temperament has probably a strong biological base, feedback from others and social roles are purely social in nature. To sum up, self can be identified as an internal property, a collection of stable predispositions to respond to situations, a product of one’s own personal history, and finally an objective entity. Moreover, it becomes evident that self image is an ongoing phenomenon as it goes lifelong. Also, it is a subjective construction and is largely influenced by the feedback one receives from the society. References Bandura, A. (1989). Social cognitive theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of child development: Six theories of child development (Vo. 6). Greenwich: CTI. James, W. (1890). The consciousness of self. Journal of Cosmology, 14. Retrieved from http://journalofcosmology.com/Consciousness123.html. Lawrence, D. (2006). Enhancing self esteem in the classroom. London: Pine Forge Press. The history of psychoanalytic movement. Bartleby.com. Retrieved from http://www.bartleby.com/286/3.html. Watson, J. B. (1924). Behaviorism. New York: Transaction Publishers. Wylie, R. C. (1974). The self concept, Volume 2. Theory and research on selected topics. US: U of Nebraska Press. Read More