(Pre-Final Coverage)

SELF-CONCEPT
AND ITS
DYNAMICS

Module 3

SELF-
CONCEPT-
WHO I AM?

Of course you know who you are. You know your

first and last name. You know where and when you were
born, and you have no trouble identifying your ethnic
background.
What makes you unique and special are your
thoughts, your beliefs, and your dreams. You have a
unique past history, and this set of experiences
together with your genetic make up- the combination of
genes you inherited from your parents-is unlike anyone
else’s

SELF CONCEPT AND ITS DYNAMIC

* What is Self-Concept?

Self-Concept- refers to the consciousness and

unconsciousness of perceptions or feeling about us with
regards to our worth as a person.
.
* When can you say that a person has low, poor or
negative Self-Concept?
A person is said to have a low, poor or negative self-
concept when he sees little or no worth and feels
unhappy about him/her self.

*How can you know that a person has a high, good,

positive self-concept?
A person is said to have, good or positive self-concept
when he sees himself to have worth and feels good about
him/her self.

*Self-Concept is essential to every individual’s life?

Do you know where this our self-concept originated?

WHERE DID THESE PERCEPTIONS AND FEELINGS OF ONE'’ WORTH

COME FROM?

*When does self-concept start?

 1.Largely it begins during our early development;
how we were told about who we are and what worth
we have as individuals.
2. In the process, we acquire picture of ourselves
and we begin to qualify our experiences according
to this view that we have of our self.
3.We become SUBJECTIVE to our experiencing of
reality

*.Can you cite one example of Self-Confidence?

For example, If I have view myself in a negative
way, my experiences will be more of a reinforcement of
this view until I arrive at a set of negative thoughts
and feeling about myself. This pattern of thoughts and
feeling makes up our self-concept.

THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF SELF-CONCEPT

There are basically three Dimensions of self-concept,

these are the following;

SELF-IMAGE
 What is Self-Image?
 It refers to all our perceptions and feelings
about ourselves with regard to our physical and
social appearance including our genetic
inheritance, such as sex and race; our physical
attributes such as height, built, weight and
others. Our social appearance includes our name,
roles, status and titles.

SELF-CONFIDENCE
*What is Self-confidence?
 It refers to perceptions and feelings about our
worth with regards to our capabilities. This
involves our ability to do things, to achieve and
to develop more competencies.

SELF-ESTEEM

 What does self-Esteem mean?

Refers to our perceptions and feelings about our
worth with regards to our lovability. This refers
to our basic ability to love and be loved.

WHAT STEPS SHOULD YOU TAKE TOWARDS A HEALTHY SELF-

CONCEPT?
You must begin by assessing your present self-
concept level. Is your self-concept basically positive
or negative? Then explore which area in the different
dimensions you are weak.

 How will you know if you have a healthy self-concept

in these three dimensions?
In the area of SELF-IMAGE, a person who feels he
suffers from some form of physical or social
handicap develops a low self-image.
 How? What criteria can you cite to support it?

For instance, just by saying the following to your

self;
~ I have too many pimples.
~ I feel ugly.
~ I’m too stout.
~ I’m too thin.
~ I’m cross-eyed.
~ I’m just a janitor.
 These serve as hindrances for one to feel good
about his appearance. As a result a woman develops
hang-ups and some forms of neurotic behavior as
security blankets. For example, extreme redness,
putting too many make-up; insistence on being
addressed with titles such as “doctor” or “attorney”,
“sir” / “madam”, and even collecting Mercedes Benzes.

A person with positive self-image recognizes some

of his physical and social limitation but does not
allow these to deter him from feeling good about his
appearance. He learns how to acknowledge and accepts
his limitations and therefore, feels at home with
himself. Perhaps the key element to the ability to
transcend physical and social limitations is his
ability to see beyond “external and stress on inner
beauty”. Remember the famous quotation from the
Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery: “It is
with the heart that one can see rightly, what is
essential is invisible to the eye “. His motto is-“I
feel happy just being me”.

WHAT ABOUT THE SELF-CONFIDENCE DIMENSION?

People who believe they are able and capable are

those said to have self-confidence. Self-confidence
paves the way to productivity because the person
believes in his potentials. He allows these potentials
to develop by trying. He is not afraid of making
mistakes. He does not fall into traps of “being
perfect”. The development of his abilities is measured
within his own standards and improvements.

In contrast a person who lacks self-confidence

always says, “I can’t”. “Don’t count on me “. “I will
not foul it up”, “I’ll never make perfect”. Because he
doesn’t believe in himself, his potentials seldom
flourish and grow.

Common roots that affect a person’s confidence

level are: too much stress on achievements, perfection
as standards comparing oneself with others, fear of
making mistakes, or grade. These factors make the
person less courageous to try out potentials and
abilities.

WHAT ABOUT SELF-ESTEEM?

A person with high self-esteem believes he is

lovable. He does not reject and put himself down when
other seem to reject him. He does not subject his
ability to conditions, such as believing he is lovable
only if he is good and looking or if he can achieve. He
believes in his lovable nature being a creature of a
loving GOD. If he let the others happen to love him, he
celebrates it. But he does not let the love of others
can be a factor in determining his lovability. He
simply believes in his love-ability. I am a loving
creature and therefore I can love. A person with a high
self-esteem can love freely and spontaneously.

A person with a low self-esteem does not love

himself. He may doubt the love of others or may
feel he has to work extra hard to earn people’s
love. He is the first to reject himself.
Usually this is the result of the upbringing that he is
very conditional, I am lovable if only I can get good
grades, If I am hardworking, etc. A person with low
self-esteem finds it harder to love others.

IT IS POSSIBLE FOR ONE TO SUFFER FROM ALL THE THREE

DIMENSIONS?

YES, it is possible. It may point at

one dimension, which directly affects
the person. One usually suffers from one dimension and
the other two are affected as a result. For instance, a
person may feel incapable and unlovable largely due to
a physical handicap, which belongs to the dimension of
self-image. Or a person who feels unlovable may
attribute this to his looks and abilities.
I am not lovable because I am ugly. I am
not lovable because I am not able
But in actuality the roots is in his feelings of
unlovability, not on his looks or abilities.

SELF-AWARENESS AND EVALUATION

Introduction
William James, a Harvard psychologist,
firmly stated that man uses only about one-tenth of his
greatest potential in life.

1. That is one of the most frightening facts we will

ever face.
2. Think of all the accomplishments, dreams,
victories and gifts that have never been realized
throughout the lifetime of man on earth.
3. Think of the 90% of you that now lie totally
ignored and untapped.
 4. Think of all you could give yourself and your
family if you use only five percent more of
yourself than you are now using.

The major purpose of this is to show you how you

can use more of your potentials by the process of self-
evaluation, which comes from self-knowledge.
Many people think that we use only about 10% of
our potential because some persons or force limit us.
However;

1. The part of our lives that we fail to touch

does not have to remain so.
2. We can begin to use more of our given
potential if we are willing to learn and use a few
simple truths.

WHY WE ARE THE WAY WE ARE?

A. During waking hour, our actions and statements

reflect what we really feel about ourselves. And yet,
most of us have never really examined what we feel, why
we feel that way, and how we want to feel about
ourselves.
1.Is that so important? YES, if you are not
satisfied with things in your life and feel the
desire to improve.
2.This self-examination is vital if you want to
change your life, your actions, your
accomplishments and your future.
B. As children, we heard the elder saying a multitude
of things about us. Some of these things told us that
we were good, productive, attractive and loved. Some
told us that we were bad, lazy, and unable to do
certain things.
1.Because the people who said these things were so
much older and held so much authority over us, we
accepted the thoughts
without question --- good or bad.
2. As we grow, we incorporated these things we felt
about ourselves into a mental picture of
ourselves called self-image.
3.We took at the good and the bad and the in-
between and accepted them as truth. Very few of
us never stopped logically or objectively
examined those beliefs. We just accepted them.
C. As maturing individuals, we took these mental
pictures and shapes, whether we knew it or not, our
whole lives revolved around what we thought about
ourselves.
1. If we thought about ourselves as incompetent, we
became incompetent.
2. If we thought about ourselves as beautiful and
productive people, we become just that way.
3. This happened because our subconscious mind
accepted the “truth” which the conscious mind
fed it and acted exactly that way. If the
subconscious mind was told that we were stupid,
we acted stupid, because the subconscious mind
obeys instructions from the latter.
D. Many of us believe that we are “stuck” with these
mental pictures of ourselves just because we have
developed from infancy until now with this belief.
1. This is one of the factors that lead us to limit
ourselves.
2. We never have to be “stuck” with any way of
thinking.
 3. As human beings, we will always have the power to
change our thoughts and actions according to our
beliefs.
4. We can always change and upgrade our self-image.

Helps and Hindrances to Self-Concept Development

In this section of the course, we shall

invite you to explore the different factors,
which influence the development of
your self-concept. One significant
area we will look into is PARENTAL BEHAVIOR and its
positive or negative impact on the development of your
self-concept. Another area we will consider is the
influence of CULTURAL NORMS AND EXPECTATIONS ON SELF-
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT. As you explore these two areas,
it is hoped that you will begin to identify and
understand the roots of your self-concept and liberate
yourself from unhealthy influences of the past.
A. PARENTAL BEHAVIOR AND SELF-CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
A friend of mine once shared an
experience she had when she was teaching in
the United States. It was a meeting
she had with one of the mothers in a
parent-teacher conference. Her student
was a
young boy
who was very withdrawn. Out
of concern she approached his mother to initiate some
conversion. To my friend’s horror, the mother openly
berated her son for thirty minutes. What was wrong
about him/her. Finally, my friend decided to interrupt
her and said: “Okey, now that you’ve told me about
what was wrong with your son, why don’t you tell me
something you like about him.”
The mother was taken aback with this statement,
“You mean all the while I wasn’t saying anything
positive about my son?.” She was not even conscious of
it. No wonder the son turned out to be withdrawn.
This incident struck me and once more reaffirms the
significant role a parent plays on his or her child’s
development. Whether conscious or not. Parental
behavior manifested in the way parents relate and rear
their children, do influence the person’s self-concept.
We shall now lead you to a journey back to your
childhood and review the impact your parents or
significant persons like lolo, lola, relatives have on
your feelings of worth as a person. It’s important to
note here that sometimes what is significant is not so
much what really happened then, but how you feel on
what had happened now at this point in time. This is
what we refer to as the “impact of the event”.
Another important note, it is not the aim of this
activity to bring out the anger and bitterness, which
you have had towards your parents. We are not,
however, discounting the possibility that this might
happen especially since the process invites you to
assess your parents influences on you. When you begin
to look back at their faults, weaknesses and
limitations, a human tendency is to blame them
especially when negative consequences have occurred.
In this case, we would advise you not to deny these
negative feelings. Instead, confront them. But learn
to judge your parents not in terms of intentions,
instead, judge them in terms of “behavior” – what they
have done and not done – have hindered you from
growing. Several times we tend to judge a person’s
intention; we believe that they are out to hurt us
purposely. We, however, discover later that this is
not so, seldom do people want to really hurt others.
What they have manifested as negative behaviors
oftentimes, are simply results of their own
psychological ills. With parents, it is not so much
that they want to hurt their children. More often,
they hurt their children because of other factors.
Such as their own deep unresolved resentments with
their own parents, which are coming through. Perhaps
they have a strong feeling of inadequacy in fulfilling
their role as a parent. Only when we see our parents
as human beings too, and that they have sincere
intentions, can we begin the process of healing the
past wounds. We begin to forgive them because they are
victims of their own human weaknesses. Of course, this
is not to say that all is well. We become responsible
to build from what has been set as what we have
envisioned.
B. CULTURAL NORMS AND EXPECTATION AND SELF-
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Our culture has laid down

for us some standards from which we
feel accepted or rejected. For example, in the area of
sex roles, men are expected to be the breadwinner while
women are to maintain the household. Even if both the
husband and wife are working, the women are still
consciously or unconsciously responsible for the
management of the house. This expectation determines
how society regards us which influences our sense of
personal worth. A man, therefore who ends up staying
at home taking care of children while his wife works
would be ostracized by his neighbors. Eventually, he
could lose a sense of respect for himself.
What are Cultural Norms?

Cultural norms and expectations

define our self to others.
Therefore, we live up to them just
as we experience rejection. But sometimes these norms
and expectations become unrealistic and unhealthy for
the individuals. This is why we need to review these
norms and expectations because consciously or
unconsciously they influence the development of our
self-concept. This section leads you to reflect on
culture’s influence and to emerge your capacity to
redefine yourself against standards that may not be
healthy and realistic.
Thus, Cultural Norms are expectations of our
society towards us. So, what is expected of you as a
member of a society?

Go back through your growing up experience and get

in touch with what you have been receiving as standards
for men and women in the areas of;
a.Body image
b.Sex roles
c.Achievements
d.Success

As A Man

How can you answer the following questions?

What have you been told about your body image?

 What body image would be considered more acceptable
for men?

What sex roles have been considered achievement

standards for you as a man?

What qualities do you have to be successful?

As a Woman
How will you react if the following questions will
be asked to you:

What body image has always been dictated to you as

being more acceptable?

What sex roles have been assigned to you as woman?

What achievement standards were set for you as a

woman?

What makes woman successful?