The essence of self-awareness and its structure in different concepts
Definition 1
Self-awareness is a special form of a person’s awareness of himself and his essence, which manifests itself in the form of self-perception, self-esteem, and self-control.
Thanks to self-awareness, a person stands out among all living beings, because only a person can direct mental activity to his inner world, form an image of “I”.
The development of self-awareness occurs from elementary forms, such as self-awareness, self-perception, to more complex ones - self-esteem, self-reflection, self-knowledge.
Self-awareness, says A.G. Spirkin, includes awareness of partial characteristics, thanks to which a person gains the opportunity to holistically assess himself and his place in life.
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Regarding self-awareness, the positions of I.I. are similar. Chesnokova and V.V. Stolin, who consider self-awareness to be an inextricable unity of such independent internal processes as self-knowledge, emotional and value-based attitude towards oneself and self-regulation of behavior in society. In other words, it is seeing oneself as if from an outsider’s perspective.
V.S. has a different point of view. Merlin, who relates self-awareness to the subject of activity, and not to the individual directly. He understands self-awareness as a person’s awareness of his own personality as a subject of activity.
V.S. Mukhina places greater emphasis on the relationship to individual links of self-awareness, believing that self-awareness represents value orientations that form a system of personal meanings and constitute the individual being of a person.
The structure of self-awareness includes three components:
- cognitive,
- evaluative,
- behavioral.
The cognitive component or self-knowledge is a person’s knowledge of himself, which develops into a certain image of the “I”, including the “real I”, “ideal I”, “fantastic I”.
Finished works on a similar topic
Course work Self-esteem of the individual in the structure of self-awareness 440 ₽ Abstract Self-esteem of the individual in the structure of self-awareness 270 ₽ Examination Self-esteem of the individual in the structure of self-awareness 190 ₽
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The evaluative component or self-attitude is the attitude towards what a person knows about himself, how he evaluates his own qualities, as a result forming self-esteem. The formation of self-esteem occurs on the basis of comparisons of oneself with other people and opinions about oneself. Self-esteem associated with the level of a person’s aspirations can be overestimated, underestimated, adequate, inadequate.
The behavioral component or self-actualization relies on self-esteem. Based on the level of self-esteem and its adequacy, a person can behave differently.
In self-awareness, there is a natural level - the separation of the subject from the environment, a social level - comparing oneself with others, the personal level is associated with reflection. In addition, self-awareness performs certain functions - the formation of oneself as a unique personality, i.e. acquisition of one’s own image of “I”, as well as self-defense of one’s image of “I” as a factor in the stability of the individual in life.
Formation of individual self-awareness
During adolescence and adolescence, the foundations of a person’s self-awareness are formed. It is this stage (from eleven to twenty years) that includes the influence on the teenager of his own status among his peers, assessments of social thought, his activities, and the relationship between the real “I” and the ideal. The defining categories for the formation of a person’s self-awareness are the subject’s worldview and self-affirmation.
Worldview is a system of holistic judgments of a person about himself, the surrounding reality and about the life positions and actions of people. It is based on the experience and knowledge accumulated before this period, and gives the activity a conscious character.
Self-affirmation is human behavior that is determined by increasing self-esteem and maintaining the desired social status. The method of self-affirmation depends on the upbringing, capabilities and individual skills of a particular person. A person can assert himself both with the help of his achievements, and also by appropriating non-existent successes.
Other significant categories include: awareness of the irreversibility of time and the meaning of life; formation of full self-respect; understanding of personal attitude towards intimate sensitivity (but there are gender differences due to the fact that girls develop physiologically earlier than boys); comprehension of love as a socio-psychological expression.
Along with these categories, social role and social status should be highlighted as the main criteria for the formation of self-awareness.
A social role is a stable characteristic of social behavior, expressed in the performance of behavior patterns that are consistent with norms and one’s own expectations. It combines role expectations and the actual performance of the role.
The role has a strong influence on the development of the individual, since it is social interaction that significantly helps the individual adapt to life.
Social status refers to a person’s position in a particular society, which includes a number of rights and responsibilities. Some social statuses are acquired at birth, while others are purposefully achieved throughout life.
The place of self-esteem in the structure of self-awareness
The most important component of self-awareness is self-esteem, the problem of which attracts the attention of researchers. In many studies it is defined as the central formation of a person with its own types, properties, and functions.
Despite the great interest in the problem of self-esteem, the development of this phenomenon has methodological and methodological problems. Domestic psychology considers self-esteem as a component of self-awareness, the important function of which is the self-management of individual behavior.
Inside self-awareness, believes L.V. Borozdin, there are substructures that cannot be mixed, these are different elements that have an independent essence.
Self-esteem is a special function of self-awareness. It lies in the presence of a critical position of the individual. This position is considered in relation to what the individual possesses, his assessment from the point of view of a certain value system.
Self-esteem and self-image, as theoretical analysis shows, are different formations of self-awareness. They have certain relationships with each other - a person’s knowledge of himself is a necessary material for self-esteem, and self-assessment makes it possible to correlate certain aspects of the image of “I” with a certain value system.
Experts believe that self-attitude and self-esteem should not be confused, since a certain self-attitude is formed from self-evaluation. The derivatives of self-esteem will be comfort or discomfort, self-acceptance, self-satisfaction.
Individual formations of self-awareness have different timings of action. For example, a junior schoolchild cannot yet complete self-assessment, despite the fact that he has a certain idea of himself. The transition to self-esteem occurs during adolescence, which is associated with a new level of self-awareness.
During the teenage crisis, according to L.I. Bozhovich, self-awareness arises - the ability to direct consciousness to one’s own mental processes. In adolescence, self-awareness has a qualitative originality, which is the driving force on the path to self-affirmation, self-realization, and self-education.
Note 1
Self-esteem, thus, is an independent component of self-awareness, the functioning of which begins in adolescence.
Self-esteem and its representation in an individual’s self-awareness can be interpreted as follows - self-esteem is part of the “I-concept”, reflecting the degree of self-acceptance, the development of a sense of self-esteem, a positive attitude towards everything that is included in the sphere of “I”. With low self-esteem, the individual denies himself and has a negative attitude towards his own personality - within this framework, self-esteem is not distinguished as an autonomous formation and its place in the structure of self-awareness is not established.
The least common point of view is that self-esteem is understood as a cognitive substructure that summarizes a person’s past experience and structures new information about the “I.”
Self-esteem, says L.V. Borozdin, is not reduced to the image of “I” and the emotional and value-based attitude towards oneself. Self-esteem is an individual's critical position in relation to his own potential.
INTRODUCTION
This essay is devoted to the study of personality self-esteem.
The purpose of the work is to study the self-awareness of the individual and the formation of his self-esteem.
The topic I have chosen is quite relevant in its modern form. We constantly hear about courses that help people gain self-confidence and get rid of shyness and low self-esteem. And people willingly sign up for such courses. The service is in considerable demand.
Indeed, with the modern pace of life, one can trace a trend toward an increase in mental illness in people. More and more often, a person’s problem is not his physical health, but his mental health.
Self-esteem is important because a person’s relationships with the people around him, demands on himself and attitude towards his successes and failures depend on it. It is this that influences human activity and development.
Self-esteem is one of the key aspects of our psyche.
The objectives of this essay are:
- Study the structure of the image of “I”;
- Study self-esteem and its types;
- Consider the process of forming self-esteem in a person;
- Summarize the results obtained and draw conclusions.
What is self-esteem?
Self-esteem is a person’s understanding of himself, his qualities, feelings, positive and negative sides. This is an awareness of the importance of one’s personality and one’s actions in society.
Self-assessment performs the following functions:
- Regulatory - allows the individual to make his own decisions.
- Developmental - encourages a person to develop.
- Protective - ensures stability and independence of a person.
- Emotional - helps to feel satisfied with one’s qualities and other characteristics.
- Signal - shows a person’s true attitude towards himself.
- Adaptive - helps to adapt to the environment.
- Predictive - controls activity at the start of the task.
- Corrective - allows you to regulate the process of completing a task.
- Retrospective - gives you the opportunity to evaluate your activities and behavior at the end of the task.
- Motivating - encourages you to act in such a way as to receive praise.
- Terminal - forces you to stop any actions if self-criticism and dissatisfaction with yourself appear in the process of their implementation.
In essence, self-esteem is a person’s opinion of himself, which can be influenced by others: family, friends, work colleagues.
It is important to distinguish adequate self-esteem from self-confidence. Self-confidence is an overestimation of one’s importance to others, arrogance. Adequate self-esteem is the correct balance of one’s own strengths and goals, the most accurate assessment by a person of one’s skills and qualities.
Low self-esteem manifests itself in excessive self-criticism, self-doubt, and shyness. It is difficult for such people to communicate, they are often prone to depression.
Correct self-perception is a healthy assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, a competent presentation of yourself to society and, of course, self-love. A confident person focuses his attention on successes and conducts a constructive analysis of his mistakes without unnecessary self-examination and criticism.
An important point: if a person wants to be loved, he should first love himself. According to psychologists, people are drawn to successful and self-confident individuals.
Let's look at the typical signs of low self-esteem in the next section.
Level of self-esteem
Self-respect and self-esteem are the two cores that make up a person. A person represents what he thinks about himself. The level of self-esteem is determined by the preferred motivation. Self-esteem and internal life goals intersect, and how much a person respects himself will depend on his level of aspirations in spiritual and social life. Self-respect develops through the actions of an individual.
The level of self-esteem can be determined using the Rosenberg scale. The purpose of the test is to diagnose the level of self-esteem of the subject. This questionnaire was created as a one-dimensional one, but factor analysis revealed two independent factors: self-esteem and self-humiliation. Self-respect is inherent in a person both in the absence of self-humiliation and together with it. Test scores are associated with anxiety, depression, psychosomatic symptoms, leadership, communication activity, and a sense of interpersonal security.
The development of self-esteem in an individual motivates action, increases satisfaction with life and gives rise to gratitude to oneself. To achieve self-respect, it is very important to develop and strengthen adequate self-esteem and take actions that will bring the individual closer to his true self.
