RECOGNITION AND SELF CONCEPT
Dr. S. Gowri
Senior Professor, Sankara Institute of Management Science(SIMS)
Self Concept:
Self-concept is the image that we have of ourselves. Psychologists define self-concept as individual’s perception of their behavior, abilities, and unique characteristics.
Self-concept is essentially a mental picture of who you are as a person. For example, beliefs such as “I am a good friend” or “I am a kind person” are part of an overall self-concept. Self-concept tends to be more malleable when people are younger and still going through the process of self-discovery and identity formation. As people age, self-perceptions become much more detailed and organized as people form a better idea of who they are and what is important to them.
How exactly does this self-image form and change over time? This image develops in a number of ways but is particularly influenced by our interactions with important people in our lives.
Authors Crisp and Turner says “The individual self consists of attributes and personality traits that differentiate us from other individuals (for example, ‘introverted’)
Components of Self-Concept
Like many topics within psychology, a number of theorists have proposed different ways of thinking about self-concept.
According to a theory known as social identity theory, self-concept is composed of two key parts: personal identity and social identity. Our personal identity includes such things as personality traits and other characteristics that make each person unique. Social identity includes the groups we belong to including our community, religion, college, and other groups.
Bracken (1992) suggested that there are six specific domains related to self-concept:
- Social – the ability to interact with others
- Competence – ability to meet basic needs
- Affect – awareness of emotional states
- Physical – feelings about looks, health, physical condition, and overall appearance
- Academic – success or failure in school
- Family – how well one functions within the family unit
Humanist psychologist, Carl Rogers believed that there were three different parts of self-concept:
- Self-image or how you see yourself. It is important to realize that self-image does not necessarily coincide with reality. People might have an inflated self-image and believe that they are better at things than they really are. Conversely, people are also prone to having negative self-images and perceive or exaggerate flaws or weaknesses.
For example, a teenage boy might believe that he is clumsy and socially awkward when he is really quite charming and likable. A teenage girl might believe that she is overweight when she is really quite thin. Each individual’s self-image is probably a mix of different aspects including your physical characteristics, personality traits, and social roles.
- Self-esteem, or how much you value yourself. A number of factors can impact self-esteem, including how we compare ourselves to others and how others respond to us. When people respond positively to our behavior, we are more likely to develop positive self-esteem. When we compare ourselves to others and find ourselves lacking, it can have a negative impact on our self-esteem.
- Ideal self, or how you wish you could be. In many cases, the way we see ourselves and how we would like to see ourselves do not quite match up.
Congruence and Incongruence
As mentioned earlier, our self-concepts are not always perfectly aligned with reality. Some students might believe that they are great at academics, but their school transcripts might tell a different story.
According to Carl Rogers, the degree to which a person’s self-concept matches up to reality is known as congruence and incongruence.
Rogers believed that incongruence has its earliest roots in childhood. When parents place conditions on their affection for their children (only expressing love if children “earn it” through certain behaviors and living up to the parents’ expectations), children begin to distort the memories of experiences that leave them feeling unworthy of their parents’ love.
Unconditional love, on the other hand, helps to foster congruence. Children who experience such love feel no need to continually distort their memories in order to believe that other people will love and accept them as they are.
Linking Self Concept and Recognition:
There is a strong connection between self concept and recognition for one self. Recognition as such is the acceptance of one by others; let it be peers, friends or other social environment. What happens to us when others don’t accept us and we are not being recognized by others?
As we all know that we are the social animal, we basically want to live with others. In the process we adjust with others, share thought, feeling and emotions with others. By then we feel emotionally stable and feel secured. At times some people are detached from this common phenomenon. This condition may be resultant of many factors such as deprivation of parental care at the childhood or loss of parents, negative inputs from parents, teachers and friends about self. (Incongruence- where the self concept does not match with reality)
What happens if this condition continues in adulthood?
This kind of people might take either fight or flight decision as they feel depressed and inadequate thinking that the whole world is bad for him but looks good for others.
The person might get agitated about the whole environment and might take the decision to take revenge in extraordinary circumstances.
To solve the issue;
These people try to seek the attention from others by hook or crook. In Most cases they are the one who does some socially unaccepted activities or indulging in disruptive activities in the class room. This results in suspension or some punishment by which they are fulfilling their identity or recognition hunger.
Usually they are either overactive or silent in social set up. By interacting with these people and giving some responsibility based on their caliber, we can easily solve the problem.
If they know themselves that they belong to this category, they can voluntarily interact and seek opinion about their activities. This will put them in comfort when someone appreciates or comments about it. In extreme cases they can approach a psychologist or a counselor for mentoring.
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