Understanding Self-Concept
Self-concept forms an important aspect of one’s self in terms of image, growth and esteem. Self-concept is the perception about oneself - a belief about who one is. There are many self-concepts (local) that forms the self-esteem (global). Examples of self-concepts are cognitive self-concept, physical self-concept, moral self-concept, spiritual self-concept, academic self-concept, etc.
Self-concept is one’s attempt to explain oneself to oneself and it varies from situation to situation and from phrase of life to another. It evolves through constant self-evaluation in different situations/contexts. Children and adolescents are continually asking themselves this question: “How am I performing?” They gauge the verbal and non-verbal reactions of significant people around them, e.g., their parents, other family members, siblings, friends, teachers, etc., to make judgments (Blocher, 1966).
One important way that self-concept affects one’s academic performance in school is through course selection. Academic self-concept, for instance, for a particular subject (e.g., Science) is an important predictor of course selection. In fact, having a positive self-concept in a particular subject is on even bigger factor in selecting courses when self-concept in other subjects is low. The course selected in secondary school, junior college, polytechnic, technical institution or even university puts a student on a path towards his/her future career. Therefore, self-concepts about particular academic subejcts can be life-changing influences.
According to Schmidt (cited in Chia, 2000), self-concept can be categorized into six aspects:
- Physical aspect: appearance, size, shape, etc.
- Emotional aspect: whether one is lovable, attractive, interesting.
- Intellectual aspect: whether one is clever, bright, has the ability to comprehend.
- Behavioral aspect: whether one is skilful, able, independent, and noticeable.
- Social aspect: a sense of uniqueness or inferiority or superiority or invisibility.
- Creative aspect: whether one conforms or resists conformity; whether one likes to be the same as or different from others; whether one “people-pleases” or sees and does things one’s way.
The relationships that parents and other significant adults or figures have with children and/or adolescents need to communicate messages in regard to these six aspects of self that engender in them a deep and genuine celebration of themselves. Unfortunately, the messages children and/or adolescents more typically receive are ones which undermine, weaken, distort, or even destroy any good sense of self.
Children and/or adolescents will do anything to impress their parents and other significant figures. The main vehicle they use to impress is their behavior. It is not sufficient for parents, teachers and others to simply recognize the behavioral efforts of children and/or adolescents, they also need to display that they are impressed by the child or adolescent as a person - a unique individual. When a child’s/adolescent’s effort is recognized, his/her competency and confidence in self will also raise and become positively reinforced.
Copyright © 2007 Angie G.T. Ng. All rights reserved. see Disclaimer