The Self Paper
Kimberly Kline
Psych/555
January 20, 2014
Tracy Masiello

The Self Paper
This paper will define the concept of self, and explain how an individual develops a self-concept. It will explain the relationship between the self and emotion and how this relationship affects an individual’s self-esteem. It will also explain the relationship between the self and behavior and how this relationship affects an individual’s self-presentation. The Concept of Self
Self- concept is the knowledge and beliefs people have about themselves. According to Fiske, (2010) self-concept is broken down into conceptual self and operational self. Conceptual self can be broken down into the material self which looks at the boundaries of our physical bodies, the inner self which is more of our private self or our inner identity, the interpersonal self is the role we play in our lives and how we interact with others and the societal self which deals with the society we live in and/or our culture. The operational self relates to self-concept, self –esteem and self-presentation. Self-concept deals with the cognitive aspect of self. It is the knowledge and beliefs we have about ourselves and how we represent our self to others. Self-esteem is more of our self and our emotions. Self-esteem is measure by how people feel about themselves. If people feel valuable and meaningful their self-esteem is rated to be high. If a person feels insignificant or worthless their self-esteem is viewed as being low. Self-presentation is another part of the operational self. Self-presentation is how we behave or our behavior in everyday life. Our images we portray to other or the impressions we leave on other people (Fiske, 2010). How Individuals Develops Self- Concept
Some Social Psychologist suggests that people obtain self-concept through four key sources: self-perception, introspection, social comparison, and social feedback (Diaz, 2011). Daryl Bam developed the self-perception theory. His theory suggests that internal states are implications resulting from observations of how a person behaves. Self- perception is important to self- knowledge because it offer an explanation of how one develops their own self- knowledge. Self -perception also acts as a foil to the cognitive dissonance theory which is the theory of how people behavior shapes self-knowledge (Jopling, 2000). When people have an understanding of their own self-knowledge it set a good basis for which people use to form their values, preferences and attitudes (Fiske, 2010).
Introspection deals with people gaining a sense of their inner most thoughts and feelings (Diaz, 2011). In introspection people will consider their own inner experiences before considering their behavior. This helps people to identify their attitudes which may or may not be coincide with their actions or behaviors. People tend to believe that what they think about and how they feel is more revealing to other then their behaviors (Diaz, 2011).
Social comparison is when people compare themselves with other people in order to institute growth within them. It also helps people to obtain self-knowledge when they are observing other people. This means that we often time compare ourselves to other people to determine how we measure up with our economic status, our intelligence, and our emotional stability (Diaz, 2011).
Social feedback is also significant when talking about self-knowledge. It refers to decisions people make about themselves from the reaction they get from others. A person's self-concept can have an effect on by both actual and perceived appraisals; how people think they are viewed by others (Fiske, 2010)
Relationships Between the self and Emotion and how this Relationship affects an Individual Self-esteem
The relationship between self and emotion and how it affects an individual self-esteem is how people perceive themselves weather negative or positive. The concept self- esteem measures how people feel about themselves during self- evaluations and how they respond to their successes and the outcome of their successes (Fiske, 2010).
The relationship between self-concept and self-esteem can be looked at in relations to three psychological theories: self-discrepancy theory, self-evaluation maintenance theory, and affective forecasting theory (Diaz, 2011). The self-discrepancy theory is the theory that deals with the actual self, which is who the person currently is, the ought self is who the person feels they can become and the ideal self is the person the individual wants to become. The self-evaluation maintenance theory deals with the relationship between how people perform along with the performance of other people in area of high importance. Meaning if one individual score higher in self- importance issues this may decrease ones self-esteem (Diaz, 2011). The affective forecasting theory looks at the way people will foresee how things in the future will make them feel. This theory deals with people miscalculating their future actions. People sometimes exaggerate the influence of negative events and take the way they cope with things lightly. This means that people with low self-esteem tend to feel negatively about their coping skills and people with higher self-esteem feel more positively about their abilities to cope (Diaz, 2011).
Relationship Between self and Behavior and how this Relationship Affects an Individual’s Self- Presentation The relationship between self and behavior affects an individual’s self-presentation when people try to express their identities or images to other people (Fiske, 2010). To explain self-presentation personal goals, the audience, the immediate situation and the society in which one live must be looked at (Fiske, 2011). Self- presentation also looks at people personal goal. If a basketball player wants to achieve winning scores, he must present himself as a good basketball player.
Audience, people have expectations based on what they believe the audience wants. Immediate situation can form self-presentation by people describing themselves on what they feel their identity is in any setting or situation. Society is a bigger issue when talking about self-presentation. People described themselves according to the society or culture they live in. People will often times describe their ethnicity when asked to describe themselves (Fiske, 2010). Self-presentation focuses mainly the core social motive of belonging. It can also serve as self-enhancement and self-understanding where as it makes people attentive about the impact they have on other people. All people have a need to belong so people try to be aware of how they present themselves to others to decrease loneliness in their social circle. Conclusion Self- concept is the knowledge and beliefs people have about themselves. It is broken down into two concepts operational and conceptual. How people develop self-concept is based on their self-knowledge, and four key sources: self-perception, introspection, social comparison, and social feedback. The relationship between self and emotion and how it affects an individual self-esteem is how people perceive themselves weather negative or positive. The relationship between self and behavior affects an individual’s self-presentation when people try to express their identities or images to other people. People tend to change their behavior according to their social setting or social situations, however people seek out the social environment that best suites them or makes them feel good about themselves.

References

Diaz, M. (2011). Developing self-concept: Just who do you think you are? Retrieved from website: http://www.voices.yahoo.com/developing-self-concept-just-think-you-8681757.html.

Fiske, S.T. (2010). Social Being. Core motives in social psychology. (2nd edition). Hoeboken. N.J., John Wiley&Sons Inc.

Jopling, A. D. (2000). Self-Perception, self- knowledge and the self. Questa. Retrieved from website: http://www.questia.com/library/psychology/self-perception.html.