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Concept of the Self in the Social World

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Concept of the self is a system of the individual representations about himself; realized part of the personality; the image of the self. (Sedikides, 2007) The formation of the self is influenced by a range of factors, which are the self-concept, self-esteem, social self and self-knowledge. In particular, the body, abilities, social relations and many other personal manifestations can be the subject of self-perception and self-esteem of the individual. Based on the self-concept, the individual builds interaction with others and with himself. Therefore, the formation of an adequate self-concept, and self-awareness as a whole, is an important condition of education of conscious member of society. The concept of the self was created in 1950 by Maslow and Rogers in branch of the phenomenological and humanistic psychology, and it was considered as the integrity human self, as a fundamental factor of behavior and development of personality. (Sedikides, 2007) Often the term is used as a synonym for self-awareness, but the self-concept is less neutral, it includes an evaluative aspect of self-awareness. In essence, the self-concept does not define just what an individual is, but also what he thinks of himself as looking at his active principle and development opportunities in the future. Throughout adulthood, the self-concept of man simultaneously seeks to preserve the continuity and but it changes. (Sedikides, 2007) Important life events, such as change of job, marriage, birth of children and grandchildren, divorce, job loss, war, personal tragedy, make people to reconsider attitude to them. For example, my perception of the college will actually be very different depending on what I think of myself and teachers, director or parent. Depending on my self-concept, the exam can be perceived as a positive incentive or as a threat, and the first desk in the classroom can be perceived as a place, which is under the nose of the teacher, or as a place where the teacher’s explanation is the best heard.
Self-respect is respect (or disrespect) of the person to himself, based on objective merits and achievements of the person, or, on the contrary, due to the fault or error. Self-esteem is a model of father, demanding love in relation to the self. (Shavelson, 1982) There is no reliable data, which connect the self-esteem and lifetime achievement. Many researchers believe that the self-esteem helps to better learning or to succeed at goal, that the self-esteem and self-respect are the armor that can protect children from school failure (or hobbies and drug offenses) and persons of ripe years from alcoholism, for example. However, other researchers do not rule out that the situation is diametrically opposite, for example, they believe that academic success leads to high self-esteem, and poor training lowers self-esteem. Often children compensate the lack of self-respect and self-esteem by striving for good grades, but this does not imply that all the high achiever have internal problems. Self-respect is not given to man by birth and is not directly related to results of operations. (Shavelson, 1982) Most often a feeling of self-worth is absorbed by copying samples; comes as a result of conscious or unconscious suggestions by others or as a result of training (education) by parents, who teach the child to appropriate behavior. As for me, for example, good grades always are the stimulus to study harder, because I see that I can and the teacher understand that I am able student. It gives my forces to do more. But it does not mean that poor grades are not stimulus for me. On the contrary, in such case I want to prove that I can better.
The concept of self-efficacy is the basis of the theory of social psychologist Albert Bandura. According to Bandura, self-efficacy is a belief in own ability to cope with difficult situations. In other words, self-efficacy is a belief of the individual in the success of his actions in a given situation. (Shavelson, 1982) Almost all people can set goals and wish that these objectives will be achieved. However, many people are aware that implement their plans are not so easy. Bandura and many researchers have found that individual’s self-efficacy plays an important role in that how the goals, desires and motives come to life. People with high self-efficacy believe that intractable situations do not exist; develop a deep interest in that sphere of activity in which they are engaged; fairly quickly come to life after the failure and stress. People with low self-efficacy avoid difficult situations; believe that complex tasks and assignments are not for them; dwell on their mistakes and failures; quickly lose faith and confidence in their own ability. This faith begins to develop in early childhood. Nevertheless, the development of self-efficacy does not end in the youth, but it continues to develop throughout the person's life by gaining new experiences, knowledge and understanding For example, when I get a poor grade, I don’t lose heart. I take a reality check and try to realize my mistakes for the purpose of their rectification. Because I understand that my inactivity cannot help me to break into the big time.
The social experiences that affected my personal development were my native city and family. I grew up in a small town where life of everybody was in sight. Firstly, due to that I was able to get used to the general control, constant competition; I had developed the self-esteem, which allowed me to ignore the evil tongues and be above all that was happening around. Secondly, childhood in a small town, allowed me to find self-sufficiency, because everything was not far from home, so my parents were not afraid to leave me alone. Compared with my peers who grew up in big cities, I consider myself as more independent, adventurous, strong and brave. I grew up in a family of highly educated people, so the bar of higher education was set at my birth. The birth of my younger brother had a great influence on me. It saved me from selfishness, which was inherited to the majority of children, who had no brothers and sisters, as well as added independence. After returning from school, I warmed my food by myself, teach lessons, and then went to kindergarten for my brother. Also, I could go to the store, pay for public utilities and perform other tasks instructed by my mother. My father influenced the quality of my upbringing and education, because he supervised my homework performance, helped if something was not clear, in general, worked with me. Control of my father was not a total and comprehensive, I just felt uphold and knew that I had to turn to somebody. I always wanted to make a pleasure to my father and brought good grades. Even while I’m studying at the college, I feel his support. Here I develop qualities such as diligence, perseverance, responsibility and logical thinking; I acquire study skills.
Socialization of the person is associated with labor, social, political and human cognitive activity. It is not enough to simply have the knowledge, but they have to be turned into beliefs that will be represented in the actions of the individual. The compound of knowledge, beliefs and practices form the characteristics and qualities, which are peculiar to different type of personality. References
Sedikides, C., Spencer, S.J. (2007). The Self. New York: Psychology Press.
Shavelson, R.J., Bolus, R. (1982). Self concept: The interplay of theory and methods. Journal of Educational Psychology 74 (1). Pp. 3–17.

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