Self Reflection

Self-esteem and self-concept may not be synonymous on the surface, but after looking over their meanings, they appear interconnected. Just as self-esteem becomes impacted by personal surroundings and environments, McGraw posits that one’s “self” is, “like a chameleon, takes[ing] on the emotional colors of history and environment in which is has existed” (McGraw, 63). A person’s family, parents, and other negative life experiences shapes self-esteem impacts self and self-esteem. Throughout class discussions, the idea rose that even with environmental factors shaping self-perception or self-esteem, these emotions or feelings do not have to impact a person’s future. McGraw in his first chapter appears to be leading a reader down the same path to reach the realization that distorted self-concepts do not have to stay or

In the Article, “Living with Children: High Self-Esteem not the Same as Confidence” from Journal Inquirer, on March 24-25, 2012, John Rosemond elaborates on the general findings researchers had identified between highly self-esteemed individuals from individuals with confidence to help the reader understand the meaning of these two words without interchanging them. According to researches, “People with high regards for themselves have equally low regard for others.” Rosemond stated that, “Highly self- esteemed individuals’ wants attention expects others to do things for them and [crow] about their achievement.” In contrast, Rosemond said individuals who are highly self-esteem lack humility and that, “Humble people pay attention to others, looks

There is a large percentage of people in this country that are struggling with issues related to self-esteem today. Self-esteem issues can be internal from one’s own beliefs or external from the ones that simply know the individuals that thinks so highly of

Self-concept is an individual’s subjective perception about him or herself; this multifaceted set of reserved assumptions is one that greatly affects people even up until late adulthood (Mason, 2011, p. 360). At the age of 87, Mrs. Jones, the subject of the case-study, resides within an elderly living facility. Based on her previous lifestyle and recent activity, she seems to possess low self-esteem that can be portrayed through her lack of social interaction, possible depression, and pessimism. Among the four facets of self-concept—social, physical, cognitive, and academic—the two that impact Mrs. Jones’s self-esteem the most are the social and cognitive (Waller, Lesson 6). The subject enjoys spending time with her grandchildren and close

Self-concept is defined on page 63 as “the relatively stable set of perceptions you hold of yourself.” Self-esteem is defined on the same page as “evaluations of self-worth.” Your self-concept and esteem can be shaped biologically and socially. On page 65 of Looking Out Looking It, it’s stated that research suggests that personality is partly formed by our genetic making, meaning that low self-esteem and concept could be partially ingrained into our coding. However, the book goes onto say that “personality is flexible, dynamic, and shaped by experiences,” so even if low self-esteem is ingrained into you, there is a chance for you to overcome it. As for the social influence of your self-concept and esteem, the way others perceive you can heavily impact the way you see yourself. One example the book gives about how socialization influences your self concept is how children view themselves. On page 65, it is said that “children aren’t born with any sense of identity. They learn to judge themselves only through the way others treat them.” When we assess the way we think others view us and put it into a self-concept, it’s called reflected appraisal. The perceptions of others tend to matter a great deal to most people, however, those with low self-esteem may alter those perceptions in their mind negatively and believe that others dislike them. Social comparisons play a role in our

Self-concept is defined as the “overall idea of who a person thinks he or she is” (A Primer

According with Gill and Williams (2008) none of us was born with a self-concept. It is a product of our experiences in living. From the reaction

Virginia Satir defines self esteem as: a culmination of identity development within a nurturing and validating enviorment. She believed that feelings of worth can only flourish in an atmosphare where the individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open and rules are flexible. This she would define as the kind of atmosphare that is found in a nurturing family.

Looking back on my past work a few prominent subjects are very apparent to me now, such as; the self-portrait, the autobiographical in art, performance and the body. My work’s autobiographical in the sense that it’s been inspired by my experiences and influenced by my environment and social surroundings. The self-portrait is a re-occurring theme in and there are works that I’ve made where I was literally in the work, acting as the performer or artist. These are themes I spent a great deal of time researching for my thesis artwork titled: Open Studio: A Phase in Six Years of my Art Education, which was exhibited at the culmination of my MFA program in 2014, which was a life-sized reproduction of my graduate studio space and a true-to-scale wax self-portrait of myself occupying the space.

At the beginning of this semester, I had no idea that I would take away so much new knowledge/experience from this class. After taking the pre-assessment I had scored myself very high in the goal setting and motivation category as well as the ethics and value category. Throughout the course of this semester I can honestly say I learned a variety of new things about myself and things related to the work field. However, the stress and self-esteem units were my favorite ones to learn about. I enjoyed them because those are two personal problems that I’ve been dealing with for awhile now, but have never taken the time to learn about them and address my personal issues. Thanks to this class, I’ve been able to find out how to deal with my stress

People’s self-esteem either high or low is shaped by their life experiences. I believe a person’s self-esteem begins to take shape at an early age, with their parents being a major influence. Kind, positive, knowledgeable and caring parents help children create a positive self-image. Parents who do not feel good about themselves or others, sometimes take it out on their childern by belittling them or discouraging them. This leads the child down a path of self-doubt and eventually given the right circumstances a lower self-esteem.

As I entered the stage of adolescence a lot started to change. I experienced a transition when I started puberty. I started my period at the age of twelve and soon after I hit a growth spurt, grew a large chest, and began to look more like my age group did. This plays into Erikson’s fifth stage identity versus role diffusion. With two forms self-isolation and lost in the crowd. I believe I was lost in the crowd because my social identity was rooted in my close friend group. I did everything with them and barely went a day or two without being with them. It was nice to always just follow with the crowd but when I was put into situations where I was not with them I felt a little lost. I can remember I was at a leadership convention for a few days and I did not know anyone and had a miserable couple of days because it was hard for me to talk to people I was not used to. This also was Foreclosure in Marcia’s theory of identity development. I made a commitment to my friends at a young age and from then on I never explored what my identity could be with other people or on my own, I just made the commitment right away. At this point I started to feel a little depressed because of situations going on around me. As we entered the teenage years my friend group started to split up. We all got into different sports and activities that took up most of our time. My friends also started to do things that I was not only uncomfortable with but my parents would never allow me to do.

To begin, I found it easy to discuss my race and ethnic background, racial upbringings, and life perceptions in the self-reflection response video because I believe this topic is consistently thrown under the bus due to people feeling reluctant in expressing their personal observations. Throughout my video, I discussed key identifying components such as my background, thoughts and feelings toward terms pertaining to race, early and current childhood experiences, attitude about contemporary racial issues, images of racial groups, personal identity, and social changes. In majority of my responses, I realized that after learning new topics throughout the duration of this course some of those answers were one sided while others were not in agreeance with how I feel today. For example, I made a statement to the following: Data documents that people of color are at a disadvantage in virtually every social indicator. I was asked to explain my reasoning and I stated that I was in agreeance with the statement because people of color need more assistance because they cannot maintain stability as much as someone with higher privilege from another ethnicity. I would like to interject to say that I now disagree with my statement based on personal experiences. Some white people do not report their social class and condition to others and neither do they exploit their downfall on a social platform, hence that statement would not hold as being true. I do believe people of color are

As an undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida, I learned a great deal about how societies generally function and how laws and policies can affect individual members of a society in unique and significant ways. With low-income families not investing in their educations past high school and lacking proper knowledge of how their governing laws and regulations work and are enforced, they often fall into predicaments that could be avoided if they just had someone to point them in the right direction. When I was President of the Student Government Association at Seminole State College, I often encountered peers and classmates who were unaware of the assistance available to them through the city or university if they simply didn’t have the means to meet their everyday needs. These students and other working adults in the community were struggling to acquire food and clothing, and yet there were churches, shelters, thrift stores, and vouchers available and easily accessible to them for assistance; with me being so passionate about helping others, I informed them of these resources available to them. Once I witnessed such hardships firsthand, it served as confirmation for me in what should could have been done and needed to be done for my former students. Also, when I served as the Region 3 Director for the Florida African-American Student Association, I participated in board meetings where my colleagues and I discussed various ways to ensure the equality of

     Man’s individuality embodies numerous traits and self-concept holds the predominant of these traits according to Rogers. It helps the person understand personality and social development, for it is through the developing self-concept that man form increasingly stable picture of their selves, partly, reflected by others in their surroundings (Craig;1996,p.367). As the person interacts with his environment, such as peer groups, school, community and most especially the family, these concepts are constructed. Many developmentalists believe that infants are born without a sense of self (Shaffer, 1989), therefore, we can say that we develop our self-image as we