Reflection on the Self

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Reflection on the Self Diane Elston PSY400 August 6, 2012 Dr. Timothy Emerick Reflection on the Self The concept of self in the real world is also referred to as a person’s self-concept. This concept is a general term reflecting how a person sees, thinks about, and evaluates oneself. In order to have self-concept, a person has to actually be aware of oneself. Another definition is “the individual’s belief about himself or herself, including the person’s attributes and who and what the self is” (Baumeister, 1999,p. 13). A persons’ self-concept helps “organize our thoughts and actions”, “is curiously flawed” and ultimately affects a persons’ self-esteem, and self-efficacy (Myers, 2010, p. 51). Self-concept is the question of “who am I?” and can be answered with a variety of responses depending on the person. These could include physical descriptions, social roles, personal traits, or existential statements that are quite abstract such as “I am a human being”. The overall self-concept is the accumulation of a person’s knowledge including beliefs (self-schema’s), abilities and competencies (self-efficacy), values, roles and goals. During a persons’ childhood, the focus is more on his or her physical attributes, or skills. As a person gets older, the self-concept can become more complex. Carl Rogers believed that self-concept had three components: self-image (the view a person has of him or herself), self-esteem (how much value her or she places on themselves and the ideal self (the person that he or she wishes that they really were) (Rogers, 1959). This writer would answer the question of who am I in several ways. As for self-concept, the answer would include traits, such as a caring, loving, compassionate, and supportive person trying to make a difference in the world. Instead of answering with physical characteristics which seem rather shallow, this

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