Essay on the Development of Self-Concept

Self-concept is composite of the beliefs, ideas or perception one hi about oneself: one’s physical, psychological, social and emotion characteristics, aspirations and achievements.

This is what an individual refit to as I or me and is the totality of meanings, attitudes and feelings which S individual has of himself/herself-the complete description one could gavel his/her present self. According to ham cheek your opinions of your heal appearance, disposability, influence on others, abilities, and weaknesses aid part of your self-concept.

If we could place a student in a situation in whit he/she felt absolutely free to describe him/herself as accurately as possible the possible description such as intelligent, hardworking, caring, mature responsible, insightful, etc., would capture the essence of his/her self-concept! A self-concept is a person’s total view of him or herself.

The physical self image is usually formed first and is related to the student’s physical appearance Psychological self-image is based on thoughts, feelings and emotions. The; (physical and psychological self-image) consist of the qualities such as courage honesty, independence, self-confidence, aspiration and abilities of various kind

Characteristics of Self-Concept:

(1) Self-concept is organized:

To arrive at a general picture of the self, the individuals collect and organize a great deal of information on which they base their perception.

(2) Self-concept is multifaceted:

Self-concept includes areas such as social acceptance, physical attractiveness, academic abilities, etc.

(3) Self-concept is hierarchical on a dimension of generality:

The multifaceted characters are in a hierarchy which is developmental in nature. Self-concept becomes increasingly differentiated with increasing age.

(4) Self-concept is stable:

Though success/failure or superiority/inferiority in a student may bring change in himself-concept. It however does not change the primary self-concept of the person.

It, however, does not mean that self- concept cannot be improved through appropriate interventions. There is dispute among researchers over (1) whether self-concept can be improved or not (2) if yes, to what extent.

Development of Self-Concept

Self-concept is based on what children believe their parents, teachers and peer think of them. If children believe that these significant people think favorably of them, they think favorably of themselves too.

Encouragement, love, praise, positive comments, sincere caring on the part of parents and others, contributes to the development of positive self-concept or high self-esteem among children. Self-concept is largely learnt over a period of time. With increasing age the self-concept tends to become stable. The individual does not change his attitudes, feelings or ideas about himself.

Children who are constantly and rarely shown affection develop poor self- concept. Children with low self-esteem have less self-confidence, and develop feelings of inferiority. They find difficulty in interacting with other children and getting accepted by them.

As a result the children with self-concept often develop problem behaviour that attracts negative attitudes from peers, teachers and others. Students with positive or high self-concept tend to accept others with ease. They are better achievers as compared to children with low self- concept.

They rely on themselves rather than on others and are willing to accept criticism and suggestions. On the other hand, students with low self- concepts are sensitive to criticism and blame themselves whenever things go wrong.