Personal Reflection on the Self Paper
Camille Beezley
Psy/400
March 2, 2015
Jodi Clarke

Introduction When reviewing the self in a social world, there is a lot to be learned; such as learning about oneself and the process of how one perceives or reflects on the self-image and how we feel about ourselves in general. To learn about self-concept can be one of the hardest things. When we think about who we are as a person, we can begin to understand ourselves better and get a better view of our possible self. Have you ever looked into the mirror and asked the person before you that day old question “who am I” and really looking for the answer? Sometimes we may think we know who we are until you see yourself from a new perspective to answer that question “who am I?” Once we get the basic answer, we can begin to think about our possible self. Not only who am I? But who I want to become (Possible self).
Self-Concept
Self-Concept is how we see ourselves through our perception. Self-concept can be influenced by life experience, environmental influences, and through our genetic background. Self-concept can also be looked at from an attribution perspective on how we view ourselves. The “self-concept,” is the concept the individual has of him or herself as a physical, social, and spiritual or moral being (Gecas, Viktor. (1982). For example a person saw themselves as an artistic person then all their interest would be revolved creative things such as art, galleries, and would be very interested in conversations regarding art, and interest in learning art would be significant to them. How we see ourselves will determine where our attention is directed. Self-concept can also be defined as how we feel, see, and perceive ourselves to be. This would also include our perception of our possible self, who we want to become in life. It is important for one to know who they are and what they wish to become as a person. To understand self-concept is to know one self-better.
The Self When applying the self to my personal life, I see myself in a couple ways when looking at self-concept. I see myself as being obese, I am overweight and am working on correcting the problem, I also see myself as being confident in whom I am as a person, not just my appearance. I perceive myself as being a compassionate person who is very interested in helping others. I always have been ever since grade school. I believe my self-esteem is at average I am not overly confident nor do I feel like I am worthless. I do know my self-worth; however, I do have the occasional low self-esteem but not often, and I believe this is due to my current situation. I have entered that time in my life of pre-menopause and I think has somewhat affected the occasional low self-esteem I feel, but for the most part I am confident in who I am and what I can offer to myself and others. I am focused on my goals and believe in myself and my abilities to reach the goals I set for myself. When I set my goals, I set them at a realistic level. Meaning I do not set them so high that it becomes impossible for the goal to be met, thus avoiding self-disappointment when goals are not reached. I have learned through life to set realistic goals and set them in steps in order to achieve the long-term goal. I can overcome obstacles that attempt to prevent me from reaching my goals. No matter the difficulties that come along I work through them in order to reach each level of goals. For example of goal setting, like with my schooling I set graduating with my BA as the goal I am aiming for. However, I set smaller goals to help me reach that higher goal such as one course at a time. I focus on completing each course as it approaches and focus on doing my best. With each course, I am getting closer to my BA degree. Then I will set another goal such as gaining my Master’s degree and repeat my goal levels with the smaller goals to get to the long term goal. I believe if something is worth having you need to work for it. If it is something that you want out of life, then you should do what needs to be done to get it.
Social Experiences The main social experience that I have gone through that did change my social development in a major way is when I became a teen mother. Becoming pregnant at sixteen years old was a trying time. Before becoming pregnant, I was a popular girl in school, very well-liked and respected because of the way I treated people. I wasn’t that popular girl who gossiped about others or criticized them to make myself feel better. I was the one that people came to for advice on one thing or another. When I became pregnant at the age of sixteen, my social standing had changed and not gradually but rapidly. I was talked about, called hurtful names, and my real friends were not allowed over to my house because their parents (who once thought I was a good influence on their kids) quickly decided I was not. I was used as an example of what happens when engaged in sex. However to my defense they did not know the whole story. I did not willingly become involved in sexual activity but was forced on me. The result of that attack was pregnancy. I decided to keep my child because of my pro-life belief, and it turned out to be the best choice I ever made. However, it did change my social standings and became one of the hardest things I ever had to encounter. I grew up fast and had a new perspective on life. It was no longer about me, but about the child I was bringing into the world.
The second social experience that changed my development was after I was married we hit a hard spot in our finances. My husband was laid off work and the company I worked for went out of business. Finding employment for me was difficult because at that time I had no high school diploma or any real skills to offer. My husband had a hard time finding anything because of the area we lived in was such a small community that there was limited work. We ended up losing our apartment with nowhere to go. We ended up homeless. Once you reach that flat spot in life, you tend to see things in a whole new light. This is where I decided that I needed to return to school and get my diploma or GED that was in 1997. We ended up moving in with my parents, and they helped us get back on our feet. When I received my GED in 1998 that was a big stepping stone for me, this opened up new doors for me. Life got better for me from that point.
Conclusion
Self-concept is what a person perceives themselves to be. How they feel, think and their perception of oneself, this is the reflection on the question who am I? Self-concept also looks at the possible self, who one wants to become in their future. When one reflects on their life and can answer the questions; who am I? And who I want to become can structure a person’s self-esteem, self-concept and self-efficacy. Social experience can change or affect an individual's development and cause them to gain a new perspective on life some are negative, and some are positive. How one handle or deals with the experience will shape their possible self. For myself my social experience of life was both negative experiences and caused me to gain new perspective and became a positive perception. I chose to become the victor rather than the victim of circumstances.

References
Gecas, Viktor. (1982). Self-Concept. Annual review of sociology, vol 8, 1-33.
Myers, D. G. (2010). Social Psychology (10th Ed.). Retrieved from the University of Phoenix ebook collection database.