Self Concept and Self Esteem

584 Words3 Pages
We describe ourselves differently depending upon where we grew up and who we associate ourselves with, especially in certain situations. We may pride ourselves on being a great basketball player with our friends while we explain the great grades we got on our tests with our parents. Consequently, we may feel good or bad about our choices based on what others would expect of us. This is where self-concept and self-esteem come into play. I believe the two most important influences on the development of self-concept and self-esteem are family and culture. Family has a great influence on how we see ourselves and what we choose to display about ourselves to others. They are the ones who set examples for us of what a good person is and how to act appropriately. They teach us what is most important in life and what is not so important. Therefore, if our family places a great deal of emphasis on education and its importance, we focus on getting good grades more than we focus on our athletic or artistic abilities, and may include intelligent as an attribute when describing ourselves to other people. Our self-concept would probably be focused on studious tendencies and smarts. When we don’t excel in the area of education, we may try to hide our grades and avoid talking about schooling with others because we feel bad about this. This would create low self-esteem. On the other hand, if our parents and siblings tell us that grades don’t matter as long as we try our very best, we may not have any problems telling others we failed a test when we studied for hours preparing for it. We feel good about our efforts, and therefore our self-esteem is higher. I believe the second most significant influence on the development of a person’s self-concept and self-esteem is culture. Our culture also determines what we feel is important and what we deem insignificant. We live in a culture
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