The Self Paper
Trace Riley
PSYCH/555
November 26, 2012
Gary McCullough, Ph.D.

The Self Paper
The concept of self is a multi-dimensional construct that refers to an individual’s self-perspective of how one represents his or her self. Self-concept develops from an individual’s viewpoint in relation to characteristics, such as racial identity or gender roles. For example, if a young boy develops in a family who favors baseball, the likelihood of the son playing baseball is strong because he may acquire the same likeliness for baseball as his peers. There are multiple factors that contribute to self concept and how it develops. Emotions play a significant role in how self-esteem develops and how self and behavior affects individual self-presentation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of self, how self-concept develops, the relationship between self and emotion and how self and behavior affect self-presentation. Samuel Butler believed that a man’s work and his talent’s is simply a portrait of themselves. One may ask “Does self concept develop from individual behavior or the characteristics one may represent?”
Self Concept
A person develops self concept from a glossary in which he or she has lived. For instance, as mentioned above, the young son of a baseball player may distinguish a personality of a baseball fan or athlete because of his upbringing. Characteristics define an individual’s self-concept for example, his or her self-concept on cultures, races, gifts, talents, and life development. Environmental factors play a significant role in how one develops a concept of self. According to Arens, Yeung, Craven, and Hasselhorn (2011), “Shavelson et al. (1976) defined self-concept as a person’s perceptions of the self that are formed through interactions and experiences with and within the environment” (p. 970). Starting as early as infancy, children learn information about themselves as a means to understand the relationship between themselves and the world socially. There is no specific age that self-concept develops, but the process begins with the question, “Who am I?”
Developing Self Concept
Social roles play a major role in how one develops self concept. According to Fiske (2010), “Social expectations guide encoding, remembering, and responding, mostly to make social thinking more efficient and generally to maintain expectations” (p. 164). Life experiences play a significant role in how one develops self concept. For example, young children thrive on praise and as the child matures self concept cultivates. Characteristics define a person (e.g., manly, womanly) and self esteem and self concept cultivates through life experiences. It is difficult to say when self-concept develops, but independence in young children typically develops in the second year of life (Poole, Miller, and Church (2012).
The Relationship between Self and Emotion and its Effects on Self-Esteem
Emotions play a significant role in how individuals develop self-esteem. According to Brown and McConnell (2011), “Discrepancies between one’s current and desired states evoke negative emotions, which presumably guide self-regulation” (p. 1091). Theoretically, emotions do not technically direct immediate behavior, but they do have an indirect of guiding expectations, which do predict goal-oriented action (Brown & McConnell, 2011). Presumably, emotions pattern behavior through their motivational properties (Brown & McConnell, 2012). There is little argument that emotions play a big role in self concept, but there is not enough empirical evidence to support the relationship between an individual’s current emotional state and self-regulatory behavior (Brown & McConnell, 2011). Self-esteem is dependent upon many factors: family influences, physical characteristics, and social origin are merely a few of the factors that affect self-esteem.
Self, Behavior, and Self-Presentation
Self concept develops through life experiences, and characteristics (e.g., pretty, intelligent) help shape an individual’s self-esteem, as a result, individual behavior erupts. Self-presentation is the effects of one’s identity. For example, a top model is likely to represent oneself in a fashionable manner whereas an obese person would not bring attention to his or her appearance. According to Schlenker and Goldman (1982), “A self-presentation approach suggests that people will attempt to augment their personal responsibility for actions that produce positive consequences when situational cues appear to deny rather than grant them the appropriate credit” (p. 92). In many cases, individuals who have lived under-privileged lives or emotionally affected reflect his or her behavior in how he or she represents themselves. Self-reflection results in how an individual see’s them self and although characteristics (e.g., sex, sportsmanship) help define an individual’s self concept, characteristics are likely to reflect a person’s self-representation.
The concept of self is a multi-dimensional construct that refers to an individual’s self-perspective of how one represents them self. Self-concept develops from an individual’s viewpoint in relation to characteristics, such as racial identity or gender roles. According to Samuel Butler, “Every man’s work, whether it is literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself” (Samuel Butler). There are multiple factors that contribute to self concept and how it develops. Emotions play a significant role in how self-esteem develops and how self and behavior affects individual self-presentation. The concept of self is shaped. It is unclear how emotions affect self concept, but emotions have long been considered a major to individual motivational properties (Brown & McConnell, 2012). Self-esteem is dependent upon many factors: family influences, physical, characteristics, and social origin can all affect self-esteem. Characteristics define a person (e.g., manly, womanly) and the development of self esteem and self concept are the result of one’s upbringing, talents, and achievements.

References
Arens, A., Yeung, A., Craven, R. G., & Hasselhorn, M. (2011). The twofold multidimensionality of academic self-concept: Domain specificity and separation between competence and affect components. Journal Of Educational Psychology, 103(4), 970-981. doi:10.1037/a0025047
Brown, C. M., & McConnell, A. R. (2011). Discrepancy-based and anticipated emotions in behavioral self-regulation. Emotion, 11(5), 1091-1095. doi:10.1037/a0021756
Fiske, S.T. (2010). Social beings Core motives in social psychology (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
Poole, C., Miller, S., Church, E. (2012). Ages and stages: How children develop self concept. Retrieved on November 26, 2012 from: Ages & Stages: How Children Develop Self-Concept | Scholastic.com
Schlenker, B. & Goldman, H. (1982). Attitude change as a self-presentation tactic following attitude-consistent behavior: Effects of choice and role. Retrieved on September 23, 2012 from: JSTOR: Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 2 (Jun., 1982), pp. 92-99