What Affects Our Self Concept?

The first unit on our textbook Interactions by Ann Moseley and Jeanette Harris talks about the self-concept. It is hard to find a definition for the self-concept because it is certain beliefs about ethnicity, religion, and personalities combined. This unit has a number of readings by various authors where it shows struggles with the self. Self-identity, ethnic backgrounds, and self-esteem are the major aspects of those readings. After reading their writings I found that I could relate to their experiences. The three readings that got my attention were “Zero” By Paul Logan, “I’m Just Me” by Lylah Alphonse, and “The Jacket” by Gary Soto.

Self Concept is based on the perceptions that we make of ourselves. The self-concept is important to the study of communication because it drives our behavior, influencing our communication with others and ultimately defining our attitudes about ourselves as products of our environment or creators of our environment. In the beginning of the film, Michael’s Self Concept about himself is very poor. He realizes that he grew up in an unhealthy environment and that affects the way he communicates. When Michael begins school in the film, he realizes and perceives himself as

Self Concept is the image that we have of ourselves. Having different Self Concepts shape us into who we are and who we become and I have many strengths and weakness my strengths included being motivated to do better, being kind and helpful, being open minded, staying focused, learning new things, being creative, seeing the Essence, being confident about who I am, and who I plan to be. My weakness brings down my strengths I can be negative, bossy, shy, rude, stubborn, and I tend to sometimes lose focus.

The effects of self-stigma can lead to a lack of self esteem, lack of confidence, isolation and the increased likelihood of avoiding professional help for their illness. This then has an over all affect on quality of life and where one sees themselves fitting within society (Barney, Griffiths, Jorm & Christensen, 2005; Griffiths & Christensen, 2004; Newell & Gournay, 2000).

Self-concept it is the collection of experiences and beliefs about one self, and how these experiences, beliefs interact to form a picture according to individual’s perspective what kind of a person an individual is. This includes physical and mental

Concept of self, self-esteem and self-efficacy. Refers to beliefs about who we are, how good we feel about ourselves, and how capable we believe we are at performing task.

An individual’s opinion of who and what they helps them form and develop their own individuality. It is established through the individual’s behaviour and attitude. It relates to how they view themselves and is associated with their own self-image, body image and self-esteem. Murphy (as cited by Gross, 2001) stated the self is part of the individual which is understood and know to by the individual them self. A person’s physical appearance is the first thing that is seen when they are in contact with others. If the individual feels positive and confident within themselves then this will influence the development of a strong and healthy life. This can also influence how they experience life allowing them to develop in a positive, healthy way and enabling them to build up strong relationships with others. Self concept can be based upon one’s own expectations and goals which they hold

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

We call the fourteenth century in Europe the Renaissance, a term that literally means rebirth, because there was so much advancement, and the culture started becoming more secular. This was the cause of the end of the Middle Ages, a period of little to no growth for the Europeans. During the Renaissance, people began to think of humans as beings who were not meant to be god-like. They believed that people should live their lives focusing on their future while being on earth, not base all of their actions on getting to heaven. People started to study anatomy, proving the original belief of the body being governed by stars wrong. They started making their art focused on earthly beings and writing about the beauty of the earth. In doing this, they started pushing further away from the authority of the Bible and their curiosity spiked leading them to answer questions that had been left unanswered. This

Self-concept refers to how individuals think about, evaluate or perceive themselves. Johan demonstrates poor self-concept specifically when facing perceived vague, novel and difficult tasks. For example, his parents noted that he continues to ride his bicycle with the training wheels, because he is concerned about falling off his bike. He is also afraid of getting into the pool and swimming and is not willing to learn how to swim. He is reported to be hesitant to start a new extracurricular activity. As an instance his mother reported that Johan agrees to play baseball; however, when he is taken to start the class, he refuses to participate. Furthermore, he is overly dependent on his mother for his daily activities. For example, he sleeps

“Concepts vs. self-actualization- Instead of dedicating your life to actualize a concept of what you should be like, ACTUALIZE YOURSELF. The process of maturing does not mean to become a captive of conceptualization. It is to come to the realization of what lies in our innermost selves.” -Bruce Lee. As humans we are not perfect we are brought up in a world where we are thought by everyone to be what society expects us to be. Unfortunately, a lot of people never accomplish self-actualization and free themselves from this monotonous life cycle most people live in and die still being in the same state of mind. Self-actualization can be defined in many ways, “represents growth of an individual toward fulfillment of the highest needs; those for meaning in life, in particular” according to Maslow is the best definition. It’s almost like the whole human existence is fighting this battle internally without even knowing it exist and how to overcome it. In order to reach self-actualization, we must know what self-actualization is, comprehend its characteristics, understand what self-actualization vs self-protective system and it’s characteristics and absorb the details on how to obtain self-actualization.

One's self-concept affects one's perception, attitude and behavior, which can be demonstrated during the process of interpersonal communication. Aspects of one's life influence their self-concept, which not only affect how people perceive them but how they perceive themselves. Such things are gender, motivational level and psychological type. It is

The first developmental theory in Personal Development is the sense of self. This involves children drawing conclusions of who they are as a person, their perceptions, beliefs, judgements and feelings (Ormrod p. 60). Sense of self can be broken down into two different aspects, self-concept and self-esteem. Self-concept is how someone assess themselves through their own character, strengths and weaknesses. Self-esteem, on the other hand, are the judgements and feelings about

7. Our self-concepts are affected by the thoughts of others more greatly than we may think. How others think of us is reflected in how they treat us. A major example of this is bullying. For example, the bullies view the victim as weaker or lesser than themselves and as a result the victim is left with a feeling of worthlessness or having no purpose. This changes the self-concept of the victim because now they may be closed off and quiet when perhaps before they were outspoken and sociable.

The difference between self-concept and self-esteem is that the self-concept refers to educational settings. Basically self-concept is the perceptions of an individual’s knowledge and ability in activities like athletics, math, reading, science, and friendships (Bohlin, Durwin, & Reese-Weber, page 53). According to the book, the relationship between academic self-concept and achievement is complementary, because while more positive self-concept more higher achievements and while more higher achievements more positive self-concept. For example, if a person has positive self-concept is more likely to have high achievements. I as a Mexican immigrant, reinforce my own self-concept every day because the concept that many people have about Mexican immigrants in this country is too bad. Some people in the United States have the Mexicans in the concept of lazy people that do not like to study. This concept gives me the strength to learn new things, love myself and know what I am able to achieve by myself. Self-concept affects learning in different ways. For example, as immigrant my daughter did not have many academic opportunities and financial aid available for her, but because she knew what she is capable to achieve, she looked for different programs that might help her financially. She graduate from college last year and she finished her fist year at San Jose State. She never gives up and all the time looked for new opportunities because she has a positive healthy self-concept.