Self-concept - what is it in simple words, what does it consist of?

The term “Self-concept”, which can be heard today from psychologists of various directions, sociologists and other specialists in the field of the personal sphere of a person, is interpreted as a system of ideas of an individual about himself. These ideas can be perceived by a person to varying degrees and be relatively stable. This concept is the result of a person’s self-knowledge and self-evaluation through individual images within various real and imagined situations, as well as through the opinions of others and a person’s correlation of himself with them.

It doesn't take a genius to come to the conclusion that a person's self-image is very important and has a direct impact on his personality and life. Taking into account the relevance of this topic, we want to talk about the “I-concept”.

What is "I-concept"?

“I-concept” is a stable system of an individual’s ideas about himself, his intellectual abilities, physical capabilities, appearance and other qualities. It is understood that these are not just vague ideas, but quite conscious thoughts that a person can express in concrete words if he is asked what he thinks about himself.

The system of ideas about oneself is formed in the process of knowing and evaluating oneself through the analysis of real and imaginary situations. The opinions of others have a decisive influence on her. In addition, by analyzing his own and others’ behavior, the individual relates himself to other people , while adjusting his ideas about his qualities and what they should be.

There are other established terms to denote this concept, such as “I-image” or “I-image,” but it is the term “I-concept” that is used in the literature as the main one. By the way, in English-language literature the variety of terms is even greater: one's self-concept, self-identity, self-perspective, self-construction.

An important characteristic of the “I-concept” is the degree of its adequacy. This is how well a person’s ideas about himself correspond to reality, how correctly he assesses his physical form, intellectual abilities, appearance and other characteristics. An individual with an adequate “I-concept” adapts more easily to the world around him. Anyone whose self-image does not correspond to reality is in a state of constant internal conflict.

Article “Self-concept and conditions for its formation”

Belousova E.A.

The concept of “I-concept” and its formation

Introduction.

Friends, just like you, I came across the concept of “concept”. Let's talk about this today.

Self-concept is a dynamic system of a person’s ideas about himself, including:

a) awareness of one’s physical, intellectual and other properties;

b) self-esteem;

c) subjective perception of external factors influencing one’s own personality.

Self-concept is the totality of all an individual’s ideas about himself, coupled with their assessment. The descriptive component of the self-concept is often called the image of the self or the picture of the self. The component associated with the attitude towards oneself or towards one’s individual qualities is called self-esteem or self-acceptance. The self-concept, in essence, determines not just what an individual is, but also what he thinks about himself, how he looks at his active beginning and possibilities for development in the future.

The identification of descriptive and evaluative components allows us to consider the self-concept as a set of attitudes aimed at oneself. Most definitions of attitude emphasize three main elements:

A belief that can be either justified or unjustified (the cognitive component of the attitude).

Emotional attitude to this belief (emotional-evaluative component).

An appropriate reaction, which, in particular, can be expressed in behavior (behavioral component).

In relation to the self-concept, these three elements of attitude can be specified as follows:

Self-image is an individual’s idea of ​​himself.

Self-esteem is an affective assessment of this idea, which can have varying intensity, since specific features of the self-image can evoke more or less strong emotions associated with their acceptance or condemnation.

Potential behavioral response, that is, specific actions that can be caused by self-image and self-esteem.

Main part.

The concept of self-concept was born in the 1950s in line with phenomenalistic (humanistic) psychology, whose representatives (A. Maslow, K. Rogers, etc.), unlike behaviorists and Freudians, sought to consider the holistic human self and its personal self-determination in microsociety. Symbolic interactionism (C. Cooley, J. Mead) also had a significant influence on the formation of this concept. However, the first theoretical developments in the field of self-concept undoubtedly belong to W. James, who divided the global, personal self into the interacting self-conscious and self-as an object.

The self-concept is often defined as a set of attitudes aimed at oneself, and then three structural elements are distinguished in it: 1) cognitive - the “image of the self” (characterizes the content of ideas about oneself); 2) emotional-value, affective (reflects the attitude towards oneself as a whole or towards individual aspects of one’s personality, activities, etc. and is manifested in the system of self-esteem); 3) behavioral (characterizes the manifestations of the first two in behavior).

Self-concept is a holistic formation, all components of which, although they have a relatively independent logic of development, are closely interconnected. The self-concept has conscious and unconscious aspects.

It is distinguished by a complex, level structure, understood differently by different authors. For example, R. Burns presents the self-concept as a hierarchical structure. The pinnacle is the global self-concept, which is concretized in the totality of the individual’s attitudes towards himself. These installations have different modalities:

· real self (idea of ​​what I would like to be);

· mirror self (idea of ​​how others see me).

Each of these modalities includes a number of aspects—the physical self, the social self, the mental self, and the emotional self.

An individual's ideas about himself, as a rule, seem convincing to him, regardless of whether they are based on objective knowledge or subjective opinion, whether they are true or false. The specific methods of self-perception leading to the formation of the self-image can be very diverse.

A person tries to express in words the main characteristics of his usual self-perception. They can be listed endlessly, because they include any attributive, role, status, psychological characteristics of an individual, a description of his property, life goals, etc. All of them are included in the image of the Self with different specific weight - some seem more significant to the individual, others - less. Moreover, the significance of the elements of self-description and, accordingly, their hierarchy can change depending on the context, the life experience of the individual, or simply under the influence of the moment. This kind of self-description is a way to characterize the uniqueness of each personality through combinations of its individual traits.

Self-concept is not only a statement, a description of one’s personality traits, but also the entire set of their evaluative characteristics and associated experiences.

If a person has an unattractive appearance, physical disabilities, or is socially inadequate (even if it only seems so to him), then he feels the negative reactions of others (often also only apparent) that accompany him in any interaction with the social environment. In this case, serious difficulties may arise in the development of a positive self-concept. Even characteristics of one’s own personality that are emotionally neutral at first glance usually contain a hidden assessment.

Most authors use the term “self-esteem”. Thus, Coopersmith (1967) calls self-esteem the individual’s attitude towards himself, which develops gradually and acquires a habitual character; it manifests itself as approval or disapproval, the degree of which determines the individual’s conviction in his self-worth and significance. Thus, self-esteem is a personal judgment about one’s own worth, which is expressed in attitudes characteristic of the individual. Rosenberg (1965) defines self-esteem in approximately the same way. For him, this is a positive or negative attitude aimed at a specific object called the Self. Thus, self-esteem reflects the degree to which an individual develops a sense of self-esteem, a sense of self-worth and a positive attitude towards everything that is included in the sphere of his Self. Therefore, low self-esteem implies self-rejection, self-denial, negative attitude towards one’s personality.

Self-esteem manifests itself in the individual's conscious judgments in which he tries to formulate his importance. However, as has been shown, it is latently or explicitly present in any self-description. Any attempt to characterize oneself contains an evaluative element, determined by generally accepted norms, criteria and goals, ideas about levels of achievement, moral principles, rules of conduct, etc.

Understanding self-esteem is as follows: firstly, an important role in its formation is played by the comparison of the image of the real self with the image of the ideal self, that is, with the idea of ​​what a person would like to be, while a high degree of coincidence of the real self with the ideal is considered an important indicator of mental health . In the classical concept of James (1890), the idea of ​​​​actualizing the ideal Self is based on the concept of self-esteem, which is defined as a mathematical ratio - the real achievements of an individual to his claims. So, whoever achieves in reality the characteristics that define for him the ideal image of the Self must have high self-esteem. If a person perceives a gap between these characteristics and the reality of his achievements, his self-esteem is likely to be low.

The second factor important for the formation of self-esteem is associated with the internalization of social reactions to a given individual. In other words, a person tends to evaluate himself the way he thinks others evaluate him. This approach to understanding self-esteem was formulated and developed in the works of Cooley and Mead.

Another view on the nature and formation of self-esteem is that an individual evaluates the success of his actions and manifestations through the prism of his identity. An individual experiences satisfaction not because he simply does something well, but because he has chosen a certain task and does it well. The overall picture is that people make great efforts to “fit” into the structure of society with the greatest success.

It should be emphasized that self-esteem is always subjective.

Motivational and attitudinal structures are truly omnipresent for the human self. Therefore, it is possible to confidently capture in the self-concept not only its cognitive component, but also its emotional, evaluative and potential behavioral component.

A positive self-concept can be equated to a positive attitude towards oneself, self-respect, self-acceptance, and a sense of self-worth. In this case, synonyms for a negative self-concept are a negative attitude towards oneself, self-rejection, and a feeling of inferiority.

Rogers (1951) argues that the self-concept consists of ideas about an individual's own characteristics and abilities, ideas about the possibilities of his interaction with other people and with the world around him, value concepts associated with objects and actions, and ideas about goals or ideas that may have a positive or negative orientation (23). Thus, it is a complex structured picture that exists in the mind of the individual as an independent figure or background, including both the Self itself and the relationships into which it can enter, as well as positive and negative values ​​​​associated with the perceived qualities and relationships of the Self - in past, present and future.

In the definition belonging to Staines, the self-concept is formulated as a system of ideas, images and assessments that exist in the mind of an individual and relate to the individual himself. It includes evaluative ideas that arise as a result of the individual's reactions to himself, as well as ideas about how he looks in the eyes of other people; on the basis of the latter, ideas are formed about what he would like to be and how he should behave.

Any attitude is an emotionally charged belief associated with a specific object. The peculiarity of the self-concept as a complex of attitudes lies only in the fact that the object in this case is the bearer of the attitude itself. Thanks to this self-direction, all emotions and evaluations associated with the self-image are very strong and stable.

Erikson's approach, which is essentially a development of Freud's concept, is addressed to the sociocultural context of the formation of the individual's conscious self - the ego. The problem of self-concept is considered by Erikson through the prism of ego-identity, understood as a product of a certain culture arising on a biological basis. Its character is determined by the characteristics of a given culture and the capabilities of a given individual. The source of ego identity is, according to Erikson, a “culturally significant achievement.” The identity of the ego-individual arises in the process

integration of his individual identities. Erikson's theory describes eight stages of personal development and corresponding changes in ego identity, characterizes the crisis turning points inherent in each of these stages, and indicates the personal qualities that arise when resolving these internal conflicts. The process of developing ego identity during adolescence is especially complex. Therefore, Erikson pays special attention to the adolescent developmental crisis and the “blurring” of ego identity during this period. Erikson defines ego identity as the “subjective sense of continuous self-identity” that energizes a person with psychic energy (1968). He does not provide a more detailed definition anywhere, although he points out that ego identity is not just the sum of the roles accepted by the individual, but also certain combinations of identifications and capabilities of the individual, as they are perceived by him on the basis of experience of interaction with the outside world, as well as knowledge about how others react to him. Since ego identity is formed in the process of interaction of an individual with his sociocultural environment, it has a psychosocial nature.

The mechanism of ego identity formation, according to Erikson, is in many ways similar to the action of the “generalized other” described by Cooley and Mead. However, Erickson believes that this process takes place mainly in the unconscious. He criticizes such concepts as “self-conceptualization”, “self-esteem”, “self-image”, considering them static, while, in his opinion, the main feature of these formations is dynamism, because identity never reaches completeness, is not something something unchangeable that can then be used as a ready-made personality tool (1968). The formation of self-identity is a process that is more reminiscent of self-actualization according to Rogers; it is characterized by the dynamism of crystallizing ideas about oneself, which serve as the basis for the constant expansion of self-awareness and self-knowledge. The sudden awareness of the inadequacy of the existing self-identity, the resulting confusion and subsequent exploration aimed at finding a new identity, new conditions of personal existence - these are the characteristic features of the dynamic process of ego-identity development. Erikson believes that a sense of ego identity is optimal when a person has inner confidence in the direction of his or her life path. In the process of identity formation, what is important is not so much the specific content of individual experience as the ability to perceive different situations as separate links of a single, continuous experience of the individual.

The meaning of self-concept. The self-concept is formed under the influence of various external influences that an individual experiences. Particularly important for him are contacts with significant others, who, in essence, determine the individual’s ideas about himself. But at first, almost any social contacts have a formative effect on him. However, from the moment of its inception, the self-concept itself becomes an active principle, an important factor in the interpretation of experience. Thus, the self-concept plays an essentially threefold role: it contributes to the achievement of internal consistency of the personality, determines the interpretation of experience, and is a source of expectations.

The self-concept is a means of ensuring internal consistency. A number of studies in personality theory are based on the concept that a person always follows a path to achieve maximum internal consistency. Representations of feelings or ideas that conflict with other representations, feelings or ideas of the individual lead to disharmony of the individual, to a situation of psychological discomfort. Following Festinger (1957), psychologists call this state cognitive dissonance. Feeling the need to achieve internal harmony, a person is ready to take various actions that would help restore lost balance.

An essential factor in internal consistency is what an individual thinks about himself. Therefore, in his actions, he is, one way or another, guided by self-perception.

If the new experience does not fit into existing ideas and contradicts the existing self-concept, then the shell acts as a protective screen, preventing a foreign body from entering this balanced organism. In the case where the difference between a new experience and an individual’s existing ideas about himself is not fundamental, it can be introduced into the structure of the self-concept, to the extent that the adaptive capabilities of its constituent self-attitudes allow.

Contradictory experiences that introduce discord into the personality structure can also be assimilated with the help of protective psychological mechanisms, such as, for example, rationalization. These mechanisms make it possible to keep the self-concept in a balanced state, even if real facts put it at risk. However, it must be remembered that you can truly understand the motives of another person’s behavior and see the world through his eyes only by putting yourself in his place.

The essence of the theory of cognitive dissonance developed by Festinger is that the individual cannot come to terms with inconsistent images of the Self, and is forced to look for a way to eliminate the emerging contradiction, resorting, for example, to rationalization. However, internal contradictions of the self-concept quite often become a source of stress, since a person still has the ability to realistically assess the situation.

Another function of the self-concept in behavior is that it determines the nature of the individual’s dual interpretation of experience. Two people faced with the same event may perceive it completely differently.

A person has a strong tendency to build not only his behavior, but also the interpretation of individual experience on the basis of his own ideas about himself. Therefore, once the self-concept has been formed and acts as an active principle, it can be extremely difficult to change it.

So, the self-concept determines, firstly, how an individual will act in a particular situation, and secondly, how he will interpret the actions of others. The third function of the self-concept is that it also determines the individual's expectations, that is, his ideas about what should happen. Many researchers consider this function to be central. For example. McCandless views the self-concept as a set of expectations, as well as evaluations related to various areas of behavior with which these expectations are associated.

Every person has certain expectations that largely determine the nature of his actions. A person who believes that no one can like him either behaves based on this premise or interprets the reactions of others accordingly.

The phenomenalistic approach to understanding the personal Self in psychology (it is sometimes called perceptual or humanistic) in relation to a person comes from the impressions of the subject, and not from the positions of an external observer, that is, how the individual perceives himself, what influence his needs have on the individual’s behavior, feelings, values, beliefs, and only his own perception of the environment. Behavior depends on those meanings that, in the individual's perception, clarify his own past and present experiences. According to this direction, an individual cannot change the events themselves, but he can change his perception of these events and their interpretation. This is precisely the task of psychotherapy: it does not remove the problem, which allows a person experiencing psychological difficulties to look at himself in a new way and more effectively cope with a particular situation.

The central concept of the phenomenalistic approach is perception, that is, the processes of selection, organization and interpretation of perceived phenomena, leading to the emergence in the individual of a holistic picture of the psychological environment. This environment is called variously: the perceptual field, the psychological field, the phenomenological field, or the living space. But in the end, it's not a matter of terminology. In essence, we are talking about individual meanings that are formed in the minds of each person and, one way or another, determine his behavior. According to supporters of the phenomenalistic approach, human behavior can be understood only by taking his point of view. It is not the phenomenon itself, but the individual's unique perception of this phenomenon that is considered by perceptual psychologists as genuine reality. Perception is selective and, due to distortions generated by internal motives, goals, attitudes and defense mechanisms, is often very inadequate (Bruner and Goodman, 1947).

So, the guiding principle of both cognitive and phenomenalistic psychology is that behavior is viewed as the result of the individual's perception of the situation at a given moment. Perception, of course, is different from what physically exists outside. However, what a person perceives is for him the only reality through which he can control his behavior. The phenomenalistic approach to behavior, which is inextricably linked to the self-concept, explains the behavior of the individual based on his subjective field of perception, and not on the basis of analytical categories given by the observer.

The personal self is an internal mechanism that is created by reflexive thought on the basis of stimulus influence. Already at the initial stage of its formation, evaluative and affective attitudes are grouped around it, giving it the quality of “good” or “bad.” The internalization of these evaluative moments is carried out under the influence of culture, other people, and also the Self itself.

The main provisions of Rogers' theory (1954, 1959) are as follows:

· The essence of the phenomenalistic theory of the personal Self, which is part of the general theory of personality, lies in

· the fact that a person lives mainly in his individual and subjective world.

· The self-concept arises on the basis of interaction with the environment, especially the social one. This process is not described in detail by Rogers, but, apparently, his point of view is close to the views of Cooley and Mead.

· Self-concept is a system of self-perceptions. It is the Self-concept, and not some real Self, that has a certain meaning for the individual and his behavior. As Snigg and Combs (1949) noted, the existence of a real self is a rather philosophical question, since it cannot be directly observed.

· Self-concept acts as the most important determinant of responses to the individual’s environment. The self-concept predetermines the perception of meanings attributed to this environment.

Along with the self-concept, the need for a positive attitude from others develops, regardless of whether this need is acquired or innate. Since Rogers is inclined to believe that this need arises in the process of socialization of the individual, it, apparently, can be considered from the point of view of self-actualization of the individual.

According to Rogers, the need for a positive attitude towards oneself, or the need for self-esteem, also develops on the basis of the internalization of positive attitudes towards oneself from others. This need can also be viewed from the point of view of the desire for self-actualization.

Since positive self-regard depends on the evaluations of others, a gap may arise between the individual's actual experience and his or her need for positive self-regard. This is how a mismatch arises between the Self and real experience, in other words, psychological maladaptation develops. Maladjustment should be understood as the result of attempts to protect the existing self-concept from the threat of encountering experiences that do not agree with it. This leads to selectivity and distortions in perception or to ignoring experience in the form of incorrect interpretation.

The human body is a single whole. Like representatives of organismic theories, Rogers attributes to him only one internal motive - dialectical and spontaneous, namely the tendency towards self-actualization.

The development of the self-concept is not simply a process of accumulating data from experience, conditioned reactions and ideas imposed by others. The self-concept is a certain system. Changing one aspect of it can completely change the nature of the Whole. Thus, Rogers uses the concept of self-concept to refer to a person's perception of himself. However, as his theory further develops, Rogers gives this concept a different meaning, understanding the self-concept as a mechanism that controls and integrates the behavior of an individual. But the self-concept influences his choice of the direction of his activity rather than directly directs this activity.

Considering the concept of the ideal self, Rogers believes that thanks to psychotherapeutic influence, the perception of the ideal self becomes more realistic, and the self begins to harmonize more with the ideal. Thus, we can assume that personal disharmony is characterized by the existence of an unrealistic personal ideal and/or a discrepancy between the self-concept and the ideal self. In Rogers’ theory, the root cause of personality disorders is not the conflict between the self-concept and one’s own ideal, but rather the conflict between the self-concept and the direct, “organismic” experience of the individual (23). This is at odds with some other theories in which the ideal self is a central concept and acts as an important factor in psychological adaptation or maladjustment (Horney, 1950).

The main problem in Rogers' approach to understanding the self-concept relates to the individual's use of psychological defense mechanisms necessary to overcome the dissonance between his immediate experience and the self-concept. Rogers views behavior as an attempt to achieve self-concept coherence. Reacting to a state of such dissonance as a threat arising from experiences that contradict the self-concept, the individual uses one of two defense mechanisms - distortion or denial. The former is used to change the personal significance of an experience; the second, as it were, eliminates the very fact of the presence of experience. Rogers especially emphasizes the first mechanism. His logic is as follows: if in negation direct experience is not symbolized in any way, then is the phenomenalistic approach generally applicable in such cases? In turn, the distortion is aimed at bringing the individual’s immediate experiences into conformity with his personal integral self. Events are not assessed objectively, in themselves; They are given meaning by an individual burdened by past experience, who cares about preserving his self-concept. Rogers uses client-centered therapy as a method aimed at modifying the state of the self-concept in order to eliminate the dissonance between it and the individual's immediate experiences. As a result, his neurotic syndrome is eliminated and a state of psychological adaptation is achieved.

If immediate experiences are blocked or distorted and their adequate connection to the self-concept becomes impossible, maladjustment occurs. Rogers views maladjustment as a state of inconsistency, internal dissonance, and its main source lies in the potential conflict between the attitudes of the personal self and the individual’s direct experience. Such a discrepancy may arise in cases where the self-concept is overly conditioned by the values ​​and perceptions emanating from other people and internalized by the individual. An internal conflict of this kind arises in a person if his self-concept strongly emphasizes love for other people and care for them, and the life situation is such that he is in an aggressive state under the influence of frustration. These feelings may be blocked because the person's self-concept cannot accept the idea that he is capable of experiencing hatred. Rogers gives this example: a mother who is unable to admit her aggressive feelings towards her own child perceives his behavior as bad and deserving of punishment. Then she can be aggressive with him without destroying her image of a “good and loving mother.”

Often the reasons for such a discrepancy between the self-concept and organismic feelings should be sought in the early periods of life. Often, the condition for parental love and good attitude is that the child renounces his true feelings. If he is really angry with his mother, then he is a bad boy, an unworthy person. In raising children, Rogers considers it important not to require them to deny or distort their true feelings as a condition of parental affection, although parents do not have the right to demand that children suppress the open expression of these feelings. Rogers takes this point of view: parents should point out to the child that although his feelings are understandable, it is nevertheless unacceptable to be guided by them in his actions, since such behavior can cause harm or cause suffering to loved ones. However, one should not express disapproval of the very fact that a child has these negative feelings. The child should not refuse them, but be restrained in their manifestation. This greatly helps to avoid maladjustment later.

Rogers views human nature as essentially positive, moving toward maturity, socialization, and self-actualization. In his opinion, Freud painted a picture of a person who, deep down, is irrational, unsocialized, destructive towards his own self and towards others. Rogers fully admits that an individual may sometimes express himself in this way, but at this time he acts as a neurotic, and not as a healthy person. When a person experiences psychological freedom, they are open to experience and can act in a positive, trusting, and constructive manner.

So, in general, the phenomenalistic approach appears as part of the important attempts of a number of psychologists to understand what concerns the direct experience of a person by considering his actual behavior. This approach has two important potential limitations: it may exclude some very important variables from consideration and it may lead to unscientific speculation.

Thus, the self-concept is the totality of all an individual’s ideas about himself and includes beliefs, assessments and behavioral tendencies. Because of this, self-concepts can be considered as a set of attitudes characteristic of each individual, aimed at oneself.

The self-concept is an important factor in the organization of the individual’s psyche and behavior, since it determines the interpretation of experience and serves as a source of the individual’s expectations. In the field of theoretical psychology, the first works containing ideas about the self-concept belong to James, Cooley and Mead.

James postulated the difference between two aspects characteristic of the integral Self: the conscious Self - reflexive-processual and the Self as an object - the content of consciousness, in which, in turn, one can distinguish such aspects as the spiritual Self, the material Self, the social Self, the physical Self.

The phenomenalistic approach to understanding the self-concept, developed by Rogers, is based on the following provisions:

· behavior depends on the perspective of individual perception;

· this perspective is subjective in nature;

· every perception of an individual is refracted in the phenomenal field of his consciousness, the center of which is the Self-concept,

Self-concept is both a representation and the inner essence of an individual, which gravitates toward values ​​that have cultural origins,

· Accordingly, the self-concept regulates behavior;

· The self-concept is relatively stable and determines fairly stable patterns of behavior;

· discrepancies between the individual’s experience and his self-concept are neutralized with the help of psychological defense mechanisms;

· The main motivation of every person is the desire for self-actualization.

Depending on the level at which a person’s activity manifests itself—an organism, a social individual, or a personality—the Self-concept is divided into:

- physical self-image (body diagram), caused by the need for the physical well-being of the body;

— social identities: gender, age, ethnicity, citizenship, social role, associated with a person’s need to belong to a community and the desire to be in this community;

- a differentiating image of the Self, characterizing knowledge about oneself in comparison with other people and giving the individual a sense of his own uniqueness, providing for the needs for self-determination and self-realization (V.V. Stolin).

There are other options:

- unconscious, presented only in experience, attitudes towards oneself,

- private, partial self-esteem,

- relatively holistic self-concept,

Self-concept as part of a person’s value orientation system, etc.

In addition, the Self-concept is described from the point of view of the content and nature of ideas about oneself, the complexity and differentiation of these ideas, their subjective significance for the individual, as well as internal integrity and consistency, consistency, continuity and stability over time (Self-past - Self- present - future self) (M. Rosenberg, E. T. Sokolova).

The dynamic self is also distinguished (how, in my opinion, a person changes, develops, and strives to become), the “imagined self,” the “mask self,” the “fantastic self,” etc. The discrepancy between the “ideal self” and “ “real self” serves as an important source of development, however, significant contradictions between them can become a source of intrapersonal conflicts and negative experiences.

The most important function of the self-concept is to ensure the internal consistency of the personality and the relative stability of its behavior. The development of personality, its activities and behavior are significantly influenced by the self-concept.

Conclusions.

Thus, I would like to draw attention to the fact that the self-concept is formed under the influence of a person’s life experience, primarily child-parent relationships, but quite early it itself acquires an active role, influencing the interpretation of this experience, the goals that the individual sets for oneself, on the corresponding system of expectations, forecasts regarding the future, assessment of their achievement and, thereby, on one’s own development.

The relationship between the concepts of self-concept and self-awareness is not precisely defined. They often act as synonyms. At the same time, there is a tendency to consider the self-concept, in contrast to self-awareness, as a result, the final product of the processes of self-awareness.

Questions that reveal the self-concept

“Self-concept” implies the presence of a series of questions, by answering which a person identifies and describes himself:

• "Who am I?" (social status, role in society and team);
• “What am I?” (appearance, physical form, intellectual abilities, character traits);
• "What do I want?" (interests, desires, aspirations, plans, etc.);
• "What I can?" (how an individual assesses his capabilities);
• “What do I own?” (material and intangible values ​​that the individual considers significant).

Answering these questions, a person lists his characteristics, which he considers the most significant. At the same time, he evaluates the significance of different characteristics differently, assigning each of them a certain specific weight. And the specific weight of individual points can vary quite significantly depending on life circumstances.

The structure of the “I-concept”

There are several approaches to determining the structure of the “I-concept”. The main approach in modern psychology is an approach that distinguishes three components: cognitive, evaluative and behavioral. Let's look at each of them in more detail.

1. Cognitive

The word “cognitive” usually refers to everything related to cognition. Accordingly, the cognitive component of the “I-concept” is a person’s knowledge about himself, ideas about his qualities (correct and erroneous). At the same time, he may consider some qualities more significant, while giving others much less importance, considering them insignificant or useless.

2. Evaluation

Having ideas about his characteristics, the individual somehow evaluates each of them. In doing so, he draws attention to the following points:

• how effectively and efficiently he performs certain work;
• to what extent his ideas about himself coincide with the expectations of society;
• to what extent his ideas about himself coincide with his ideas about his ideal self (correlation of the “real self” and the “ideal self”).

The evaluative component implies an emotional response, certain experiences evoked in an individual by his ideas about himself. In particular, these ideas affect his self-esteem, self-respect, self-love and the expectation that others will love him.

3. Behavioral

If the two previous components characterize how a person perceives and evaluates himself, then the behavioral component is the external manifestations of the “I-concept”. These are the actions that he takes to show his strengths and suppress his weaknesses, to demonstrate to others his advantages and hide his shortcomings, to be correctly understood and to obtain a certain status in society or a team.

Despite the fact that each of the listed components can be isolated and considered separately, they are all closely interrelated. In this case, the evaluative component is adjusted to the cognitive component, and together they determine the behavioral component.

Formation mechanism

The mechanisms for the formation of self-psychology were proposed by I. S. Kon:

1. Social comparison. When a system of criteria for self-esteem is formed, people begin to compare themselves with others. This process is called social comparison.
2. Mirror reflection. A person forms an idea of ​​himself based on the reaction to himself from others. From birth, an individual has no criteria for evaluating himself. She borrows them from other people and forms her own system.
3. Self-verification, self-presentation. When a person has formed the initial image of his Self, he conducts a superficial check of the compiled image. To do this, he considers other people's assessments of himself.
4. Hierarchization. The core of the self-concept consists of those qualities, properties, elements that are most important for the individual.
5. Self-attribution. When a person forms an idea of ​​himself, he receives information by observing his behavior, analyzing feelings, and studying the circumstances that influence behavior.
6. Meaningful integration.

If you study the plane of the self-concept, you can identify a number of levels of its formation. They are relevant if all the content components of the structure interact. Levels of formation:

• aharmonious;
• disharmonious;
• mixed;
• optimal;
• harmonious.

As a person grows up, self-images become multi-component and differentiated. The first prerequisites for the formation of the self-concept appear already in infants. The child learns to divide sensations into his own, which manifest themselves from his personal activity, and external ones, which do not depend on him.

How is the “I-concept” formed?

“I-concept” is a stable system, especially over short periods of time. But in the long term, it exhibits plasticity, forming and changing throughout a person’s life under the influence of a large number of internal and external factors.

The greatest influence on the formation of “I-concept” is exerted by such factors as:

1. The influence of “significant others.” For a child, these are, first of all, parents. Later, teachers and peers are added to them, listening to whose opinions, schoolchildren sometimes demonstrate strong conformism. Adults also attach great importance to the opinions of “significant others,” so each of us’ “I-concept” gradually changes throughout life when communicating with friends and loved ones.
2. Emotions and shocks. All the emotions that we experience due to various events, changes in our lives, our state of health, psychosomatic and physiological factors influence our image of ourselves. Some events can have quite a radical impact if we feel very disappointed or delighted with our abilities.
3. Comparison of what is available and what is desired. In his youth, it seems to a teenager that he is still developing and his prospects are almost limitless. But as he grows up, he finds more and more inconsistencies, comparing the “Real Self” and the “Ideal Self.” In addition, he increasingly notices discrepancies in other aspects of his life, for example, between the actions he wants and the actions he takes.
4. Motivation and intrinsic benefits. Our ideas about ourselves often change not because of certain events in the past, but to achieve a certain goal in the future. Therefore, a powerful motivating factor can dramatically improve our perceptions of our own abilities and increase self-esteem, since this is necessary to achieve the desired goal.

Factors of influence

The formation and development of self-concept is influenced by:

• adequate expression of self-awareness;
• clarity of consciousness;
• presence of a threat (there should not be one);
• personal adequacy.

The description of oneself from the outside depends on the influence of external stimuli.

There are three types of self-esteem - low, average, high. The formation of low self-esteem is influenced by:

• constant demands for obedience;
• indifference on the part of relatives;
• conflicts in the family;
• remarriage, parental divorce.

Average self-esteem develops if:

1. Parents accept the child for who he is and tolerate his behavior.
2. Close relatives and friends treat the child patronizingly.
3. Children's actions cause anxiety and worry in parents.

High self-esteem develops in children who:

1. Receive care and attention.
2. They are brought up in a family with clear norms and rules.
3. They see the solidarity and unity of parents.
4. They feel an atmosphere of mutual trust.
5. Maintain good relationships with both parents.
6. Understand the importance of actions that lead to achieving positive social status in the future.

In childhood, the most influential factors in the formation of the self-concept are the relationships between parents and the atmosphere in the family. Self-esteem also depends on maternal deprivation, the order in which children are born, the social status of the family, and relationships with peers.

What is the “I-concept” for?

British psychologist Robert Burns identified the following functions of the “I-concept” as the main ones:

1. Achieving internal personality consistency. According to Burns, a person has a desire to live up to his own self-image. It manifests itself in actions, and even in some characteristics that the individual “adjusts” to his own expectations.
2. Interpretation of life experience. Each person interprets events occurring in the surrounding reality based on his ideas about himself. For example, if an individual does not have a tendency to lie and hypocrisy, then when faced with these phenomena, he cannot correctly identify, understand and explain them. Conversely, a person prone to hypocrisy sees a catch in any good action.
3. Formation of expectations and claims. Each of us expects something from ourselves in the future, expects certain successes, and prepares for certain events. A person with high self-esteem naturally puts much more optimism into his forecasts. At the same time, expectations have a significant impact on his behavior.

A coherent self-concept serves as a buffer against the cognitive dissonance that a person may experience if their behavior is contrary to their own expectations. It helps a person adjust his behavior in such a way that it most closely matches his ideas about himself and looks logical and natural to him.

Early decisions

Parental figures, other people, and life itself provide the child with data about who he is, who other people are, and what the world he finds himself in is like. These messages look like peculiar “messages” that the child periodically receives. He is especially sensitive to parental messages, because he intuitively feels that his life and well-being depend on them.

Some messages are actually in the nature of a verbal message addressed to or overheard by the child; sometimes it is actions or emotional reactions. But it also happens that a child, due to egocentric thinking, may consider an event in his life to be a message, which in reality is not a message. It must be said that what matters is not what the parent intended to convey, but what meaning the child gave to the message.

Analyzing the psychological scenarios of his patients who sought therapeutic help, Bern came to the conclusion that they were based on unconstructive decisions that were made under the influence of special parental messages with negative, destructive content. Some parents transmit them due to some of their own deviations. Such injunctions are like spells that bewitch a child.

Among the verbally transmitted negative instructions are:

• Spells are negative definitions; “You are dirty! Blockhead! Stupid!” etc. “You are a terrible child,” “You are ugly.”
• Curses are wishes for damage, having the nature of a direct command: “May you fail!..”, “We would be much better off without you,” “Why can’t you be human!”
• Negative prophecies - the child is told what awaits him in the future: “Nothing good will come of you!.. The prison is crying for you!..”, “You will never achieve anything.”
• Stoppers are messages that in one form or another indicate what not to do: “Don’t be smart! Don't think about...! Don’t be angry!.. Don’t touch, you won’t succeed; give me, I’d rather do it!”

Instructions can also be conveyed non-verbally. The child invents, fantasizes and incorrectly interprets events and in this way gives himself instructions.

For example, after the death of his father, a child gives himself an order: “Don’t get close to people” - if you don’t love anyone, then you won’t have to be upset about losses. A boy whose decisive behavior is stopped every time may conclude: “You don’t have to be a man.” A child whose feelings are criticized may decide: “You don’t need to show your feelings.” A child who is punished for showing disagreement with elders may conclude: “You don’t need to think.”

A small child is not able to objectively evaluate himself, and parental figures become for him a kind of “mirror” by which he can judge who he is and who the people around him are. If significant others recognize him, he considers himself a worthwhile person and the Self becomes acceptable. However, if these others treat him as bad and harmful, he perceives himself as harmful and believes that this harmfulness lives inside him. The child is too small and inexperienced to understand that these “mirrors” can be crooked. A child who has been hit cannot conclude, “I am not a bad child. Mom spanked me because she is a hysterical person, worried that she is no longer in the Boy, there is something in you... Well done!.. Golden hands!..” Prophecies: “We really hope that you will receive a higher education,” “One day you will become famous...”, “I was created to be a musician.” Permissions: They tell you what you can do, but they don't force you to do it.

It should be noted that the instructions are not “implanted” into the child like an electrode. He has the power to accept them, ignore them, or reverse them. However, once a decision is made based on an order, it is very difficult to violate it. This decision defines a set of central beliefs about who he is, who the people around him are, what the world is like, and how one should behave in it. Thus, a scenario decision is a deep and fundamental cognitive formation, for the confirmation and justification of which a person can turn to individual irrational beliefs. Early decisions become a kind of filter that influences the entire worldview.

History of the “I-concept” in science

Even ancient thinkers tried to understand how a person forms an idea of ​​himself, but the philosophy of that time simply did not have the tools that would allow him to find an answer to this question. The first ideas about the “I-concept” began to form only in the 19th century. And as such a science as psychology became established, it became clear that this concept should be dealt with by psychologists, not philosophers.

The author of the idea of ​​“I-concept” is considered to be the American psychologist William James, who proposed it at the end of the 19th century. He recorded his own experiences daily, thereby creating the scientific basis for this theory. Later, it was significantly developed by his compatriots Carl Rogers (one of the creators of humanistic psychology) and Abraham Maslow (author of the so-called “Maslow’s Pyramid” - the most famous model of human needs).