The Self Concept Is Our Mental Image Of Our Self Essay

Freud’s view of human nature from a psychoanalytical stand point was he believed that the contents of an individual’s matters consciousness were determined by psychological, individual and biological motivations Freud, S. (2001).. His worldviews presented interpretations of who the individual was, where they came from, and what their destiny was. On the other hand, Rogers believed the psychoanalytical view humans as never free from primitive passions, childhood fixations, and only the product of powerful biological drives was not flexible enough. Rogers’s foundation of

Rogers viewed personality structure in terms of one construct; he named the construct the self. A person’s self-concept is the way he or she views herself. It is all in the mind of the individual. Carl Roger states that each individual is aware of his self-concept, he also emphasis the subjective nature of self-concept. Most people tend to twist their experiences to an extent that they promote a relatively favourable self-concept for example, one might think that she is attractive while another person might not even agree. Roger called the gap between self-concept and reality incongruence. If a person’s self-concept is true than that is called congruence. (Weiten.w.2014)

In Spite of Watson. Most Rogers’s achievements can be seen as a result of Watson’s “negative” view on psychology. After observation had been established, Carl Rogers decided to take a more optimistic approach,

People whose self-concept high incongruence makes their experience contradict with their self-perception. Relatively incongruent self-concept leads to recurrent anxiety. There for from this anxiety they display defensive behaviour in order to relate their experience with their self-concept so that it will seem quite accurate, i.e. they protect their self-concept by displaying defensive behaviour of ignoring, denying and twisting reality (Wieten, 2014).

In this task I will compare two theories of self-esteem which contribute to our understanding of self-concept. The theories which I will be focused on are Bowlby’s and Harter’s.

Another strong influence of Rogers' model was Maslow's theory of self- actualisation. Maslow (1943) believed people are motivated to achieve certain needs that are not related to rewards. He developed a theory that people strive to ‘self-actualise’, to become the best they can be.

When we communicate we influence how others view us and we create an impression, when we receive opinions from others especially our significant other it influences how we feel about ourselves and helps create our self-concept. The reaction of others, your comparison with others, the social roles you play, and the groups of people you identify with all contribute to the development of your self-concept. According to Bevan and Sole part of the way you construct your self-concept is by choosing to accept or reject what other people tell you about yourself. Your self-concept is influenced by the people you surround yourself with and by what they tell you, to keep a positive self-concept it is helpful to surround yourself with someone who is positive and who speaks highly of you. You both must lift each other up and help each other to feel great about yourselves. “To grow and learn about yourself, you must be open-minded about other people 's opinions,” (Bevan and Sole 2014). Your opinions of each other mean a great deal to how you both feel about your selves and how you perceive yourselves. Your self-concept is how you feel about yourself but if you are told everyday of your life that you are ugly you will eventually think that you are a bit ugly, but if you are told you are beautiful you will think you are beautiful. Don’t ever put each other down even if it is unintentionally, always think before you speak! You can criticize or tell one another your thoughts and opinions

Before looking at the latter 3 in more detail, it is important to understand Carl Rogers’s view of the person and perhaps what is ultimately bringing the client to therapy. Carl Rogers believed that there is incongruence between the self that is the actualisation part, that has a desire to grow, is open to experiencing in the moment and ultimately psychological well being and the actual experience of the self. He believed this effect was caused

Rogers seems therefore to be describing an emotional consequence resulting from what the behaviourist BF Skinner called positive and negative conditioning. He conceptualised Conditions of Worth as the limited ways in which a person could see him- or herself as being valued. The formulation was also influenced by psychoanalyst Erik Erikson and his ideas of the early stages of development. Rogers asserted that the child who learns trust and a sense of personal control are more likely to have a sense of self agency and robustness in the face of later difficulties. This comes about when conflicts find a successful resolution leaving both parties emotionally respected and intact. Thus Rogers’ more developed model of how a child is socially instructed can encompass concepts such as shame (Psychoanalysis), Modelling (Albert Bandura) and ideas of Internalization, amongst many others, and as such is more of a meta- model of growth of the personality.

Carl R. Rogers constructed the person-centered theory by his influences of Elizabeth Davis and Frederick Allen who studied under Jessie Taft as well as Otto Rank and John Dewey (Patterson, 2007; Walsh, 2010). Influenced by Jessie Taft, Rogers adopted an optimistic view of people, individuals are capable of recreating themselves and are not the end products of their past (Patterson, 2007; Walsh, 2010). Otto Rank advocated that treatment of a client be centered around that client and that therapist be more emotionally involved within the process. Third Rogers was influenced by John Dewey who helped him understand and develop his position that self-actualized people live in harmony rather then conflict

The founder of the person-centered theory is Carl Rogers, who proposed two general assumptions called the formative tendency and the actualizing tendency. According to Rogers, one is always willing to reach higher development, which is driven by actualizing tendency instead of only being determined by outer forces. Formative tendency, as stated by Rogers, referred to every matter starting as a much simpler form and developing to a much higher one. Rogers entirely believed that one possesses the ability to move in positive directions if the right conditions are given and the individual has the tools within him or herself to do so. A person therefore knows that he or she possesses the tendency to always grow and develop further in his or her personality (Cloninger, 2008).

Carl Rogers view the self-concept as a collection of beliefs about one’s nature, unique qualities, and typical behaviour. Rogers believed that people are aware of their self-concepts. Our self-concept is our mental image of our self. It is a collection of our self-perceptions. For example, a self-concept might include such beliefs as the case example suggests, Dan expresses “I’m such a failure!” or “I just can’t cope with this!” Rogers used the term incongruence to introduce the disparity between one’s self-concept and one’s actual experience. On the contrary, congruence is an adequate match between the self-concept and reality. Our self-concept is not completely constant with our actual experiences. Forthrightly, our self-concept may be imprecise. Most people are likely to misinterpret their experience to a certain degree in order to develop a positive self-concept. For example, you believe that you are brave enough to do a skydive but when the actual time arrives you intend to surrender. Rodgers advocated that a great deal of incongruence can weaken an individual’s psychological well-being. On the other hand, if a person’s self-concept is fairly

Carl Rogers originated client-centred therapy, which is based on the belief that individuals, rather then environment or subconscious drives, can control their choices and values and fulfil their own unique potential. Rogers' theory stresses that it is the individual's own comprehension of his or her experiences that is important, rather then the therapist's professional interpretation (Rogers, 1951). Kelly founded what is known as the personal construct system. He suggested that our personal constructs reflect our constant efforts to make sense of our world, just as scientists make sense of their subject-matter; we observe, we draw conclusions about patterns of cause and effect, and we behave according to those conclusions (Kelly, 1963). Both theories emerged at a time when psychotherapy was the most commonly practiced therapy technique.

     The social constructionist perspective holds the view that the self is continuing "shaped and reshaped through interactions with others and involvement in social and cultural activities" (Wetherell & Maybin, 1996, p 220). Social constructionist is concerned with explicating the processes by which people come to describe, explain, or otherwise account for the world (including themselves) in which they live (Gergen, 1971). Thus, the social constructionist approach implies that the self is shaped by social interaction within historical, cultural and social contexts. Social constructionist's apply an analysis of societal level which explain the self through social relations. Conversely, the