Personal Reflection on the Self
University of Phoenix

Self-concept is extremely important, it is the image that a person has of themselves, and how they think about or see themselves. Self-concept is the individual's belief about himself or herself, including the person's attributes and who and what the self is" (McLeod, 2008). The self has many aspects that help make up integral parts of it, such as self-awareness, self-esteem, self-perception, and self-efficacy. These are important components of self-concept. Self-awareness is one of the first components of self-concept. Self-awareness is having a clear perception of your personality, including strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions (Van Warmerdam, 2013). In simpler terms, self-awareness is the way a person looks at themselves and the way that they believe that other people see them. Self-awareness is something that every human being has, but everyone looks at themselves in a different way. While self-awareness is something that is central to each and every human being, it is not something that people are acutely aware of at every moment of every day. Instead, self-awareness becomes woven into the fabric of who a person is and emerges at different points depending upon the situation and a person’s personality. However, people are not born with self-awareness (Cherry, 2014). Self-esteem is also an important part of self- concept. In psychology, the term self-esteem is used to describe a person's overall sense of self-worth or personal value (Cherry, 2014). Self-esteem is mostly based on one’s appearance, how one sees themselves is so important. Self-esteem is crucial, people need to have high self-esteem. If somebody has low self-esteem, they will be unhappy and they will never believe in themselves. It is so important for a person to have high self-esteem and to believe in themselves. Possessing little self-regard can lead people to become depressed, to fall short of their potential, or to tolerate abusive situations and relationships (Greer, 2014). Another component of self-concept is self-perception. Self-perception is the way that a person sees and feels about themselves. This is an important part of self-esteem. If somebody sees themselves in a bad way, this will lower their self-esteem and they will eventually start to hate themselves, but if someone loves who they are and sees themselves in a good way, this will raise heat self-esteem and make sure that they are happy. People, especially teenagers, tend to look at themselves in a negative way and do not like the way that they look or the way that they act and people tend to believe that nobody likes them. This is psychological, because they feel like they are worthless and that they are not good enough for everyone else or that they are not as good as their friends. This is something that every person experiences. Self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy are a huge part of everyone’s life. Every single including you and I have these components. These are senses of self-worth and how you see yourself and how others see you. Self-concept and self-esteem are very similar in that they are both about the way that a person sees themselves, and how they believe that everyone else sees them. These are part of every person’s life. Everyone needs to believe that they are worth something, and that they are needed and loved. I am a great example of how self-esteem affects a person. I had very low self-esteem when I was in high school. I viewed myself as this person that nobody liked or wanted to be around, and that the friends that I did have, were just pretending to be my friends. I believed that everyone thought I was a mean person and that people would talk about me behind my back to others. I believed that I was not worth anything to the point where I tried to take my own life repeatedly. My father was abusive and my mother just let it happen because she was too afraid to leave. This made me believe that my parents did not love me, and if they did not love me, then nobody did. I believed that everybody hated me, so everyone would be better off if I was not around. Many teenagers, especially teenage girls believe these things. Almost every teenage girl believes that they are not pretty enough, not skinny enough, not talented enough, not smart enough, etc. They believe that they are not good enough at anything, and they constantly compare themselves to others that in this world’s warped point-of-view are perfect. Self-efficacy is another huge part of life. Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation. Many people identify their goals, but they need to believe that they can achieve these goals in order to actually do it. This applies to every single person, and I have plenty of experiences with self-efficacy. For example, I will start on a diet and set a weight goal. In order to reach this goal, I need to believe that I can actually do it. If I go into this goal thinking that I am not going to be able to do it, I will not achieve it or get anywhere near achieving it. I will not work as hard, because I already believe that I cannot and will not pull it off, so I think “What’s the point of even trying if I already know that I can’t do it.” This is the type of negative thinking that keeps people from achieving goals all the time, and it is extremely unhealthy in trying to achieve a goal. An example of believing in myself and being able to succeed, would be receiving my paralegal degree. I believed that I could do it, so I did. I knew that I was going to be able to remember the stuff I needed to remember in order to receive it. If I had not believed in myself, and thought that I could not succeed at getting my degree, I would not have been able to do it and get my paralegal degree. I am so happy that I did not doubt myself, because otherwise I would not be able to do the job that I love. Social experiences are a huge part of self-concept and how people are affected. Social experiences are experiences with other people that affect the way that a person sees themselves or the way that a person acts. One social experience that I have had that affected my personal development would be being bullied for being overweight throughout my school years. When people would make fun of me, it would make me think that I was not pretty enough because I was not skinny like the “popular” girls. This affected me for many years and the way I carried myself. I thought that I was not good enough, therefore I acted like I was not good enough. I did not try to make friends because I did not believe that I was good enough for anyone and that nobody could possibly like me or want to be friends with me. This haunted me all throughout high school. Another example of a social experience that has affected my personal development would be peer pressure. When I got into my early twenties, my so-called “friends” would offer me drugs and alcohol constantly. This affected me because I did not want to do it most of the time, but I would not want to seem like I was not “cool” because I knew that they would make fun of me. My friends would offer me this stuff and I would try it, and then something bad almost always happened. This affected me terribly because I did not want to do these things, but I would allow my friends to talk me into it. Peer pressure is a terrible thing, and now I look back on those experiences and wish they had not happened. I can never say that I never did drugs or anything illegal now and that bothers me. Self-concept is extremely important, it is the image that a person has of themselves, and how they think about or see themselves. The self has many aspects that help make up integral parts of it, such as self-awareness, self-esteem, self-perception, and self-efficacy. These parts are all so crucial to self-concept and self-concept is crucial to the way that people live their lives.

References:
Cherry, Kendra (2014) what is Self-Awareness Retrieved from: http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/fl/What-Is-Self-Awareness.htm
Cherry, Kendra (2014) what is Self-Esteem Retrieved from: http://psychology.about.com/od/sindex/f/what-is-self-esteem.htm
Greer, Jane (2014) what is Self-Esteem Retrieved from: http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/self-esteem
McLeod, S. (2008) Self-Concept Retrieved from: http://www.simplypsychology.org/self-concept.html
Van Warmerdam, Gary (2013) Self-Awareness Retrieved from: http://www.pathwaytohappiness.com/self-awareness.htm