What is self-concept? We can define self-concept as the feature set (physical, intellectual, affective, social, etc.) that make up the image that a subject has of himself. This concept of himself does not remain static throughout life, but develops and builds thanks to the intervention of cognitive factors and social interaction throughout development. It is necessary to understand the progress in the concept of the self within the framework of the progress of the capacities and abilities to relate and recognize others.
The self-concept has as one of its premises the awareness that oneself is a being differentiated from others and from the environment, that is, self-consciousness. In Psychology-Online we are going to discover you the definition of self-concept in adolescence and childhood So that, thus, you know better what it consists of.
Index
- What is self-concept
- The self-concept of a baby
- The ability to recognize yourself: self-awareness
- Definition of self-concept according to authors
- The evolution of self-concept in preschool age
- The use of language as a sign of self-concept
- Self-concept in children from 2 years of age
- Self-concept in adolescence
- The importance of self-concept in mental health
What is self-concept.
We started this article on the definition of self-concept in adolescence and childhood making it clear what precisely the "self-concept" or the concept of oneself consists of.
Definition of self-concept
We describe the self-concept as the opinion and assessment that a person has about himself, the self-concept is a very broad construct that encompasses a multitude of salt terms such as self-esteem, self-acceptance and self-respect. and that it is based on both physical and psychological characteristics in order to be able to train properly.
How is self-concept formed?
For most of today's self-concept scholars, the baby does not have a feeling of undifferentiation Overall, not even her world is as disorganized as it was believed. However, his experience of himself as an independent person is, until the end of the second semester of life, very rudimentary, fragile and dependent on the physical and social environment.
During the first months of life, the baby is immersed in an accumulation of sensations and experiences that are produced in contact with the outside, with everyday phenomena and with interactions with people close. The baby must form a general representation, organize these experiences from events that are perceived as isolated. In addition, she is learning to integrate the systems with which she is equipped, those that allow her to perceive the world and others, with those that allow her to act. For example, learns to cry when he wants attention.
From this learning and integration, related to interaction and the increase of cognitive capacities, it will emerge his ability to control the environment, which, in turn, supposes an element of recognition of himself as a being Independent.
The self-concept of a baby.
This primitive sense of self is what Lewis and Brooks-Gunn have called Existential me, in clear allusion to the concept of James. By ten months, babies already have an experience of full differentiation from their caregivers and their environment.
Bandura points out that during these months the baby refines what we might call his self-management capacity and that it is nothing more than the acquisition and sophistication of skills to be able to control events of your environment (pointing to an object you want, crying when you don't like something, smiling when you get something, etc.).
For the first eighteen months, social interaction is an essential source of information and help to become aware of oneself and the existence of others. Important social activities occur in games, such as peeking, in which children They learn regularities and relationship patterns that are based on, and at the same time help, in an experience of the Self and the Other.
Likewise, imitation as a form of relationship and knowledge is one of the influential elements in the emergence of the Self, since it involves putting into play not only control over oneself, but also a recognition of the other as a model.
The ability to recognize yourself: self-awareness.
Self-awareness not only supposes the sense of oneself as a being independent of the environment and of others, but also has a fundamental role as the basis of emotions. Regarding the emotional world of the baby, during the first four months, it is basically made up of feelings of pleasure or disgust that when they begin to be consistent with stimulations from the environment (caresses, games, etc.) they also contribute to organizing their world.
In this way, self-awareness is a great achievement within the cognitive world on which it will be based, throughout the first years, the appearance and the development of emotions such as pride or shame and others that involve a recognition of perspective taking such as empathy or behaviors that tend to deceive. Self-awareness has one of its best expressions in the emergence of the sense of self as an object of knowledge and that can be seen in the acquisition of the capacity for self-recognition.
In order to continue with the definition of self-concept in adolescence and childhood, it is important that we understand how the capacity for self-recognition appears. The emergence of a sense of self as being independent and distinct of the others, it is clearly reflected in the capacity to recognize oneself, that is, in the capacity for self-recognition.
Definition of self-concept according to authors.
Now that we know what self-concept is, it is important to do an analysis of the concept of self-concept (excuse the redundancy) as the years go by.
The classical research on self-recognition carried out by Lewis and Brooks-Gunn were made by painting babies of different ages with lipstick and without them realizing it. Then they were put in front of a mirror to see if they showed signs of self-recognition. It was considered as such when the child reached for the mark. Another strategy to study self-recognition has been carried out through photographs and videos in the that appeared the children of whom it was tried to find out if they were able to recognize themselves in them (Bigelow and Johnson). These studies have shown that self-recognition occurs quite early in development, although there appears to be a lag between the findings of different investigations.
Various studies show how by five months of life some babies are able to recognize and differentiate parts of their body from those of other children when they are placed in front of a mirror, it seems that this ability is more clearly presented by 15 months. However, this capability will continue to be refined and asserted so that, towards 24 months, we can talk about self-recognition strictly speaking. On the other hand, the investigations carried out with videos and photographs seem to provide information about the fact that this self-recognition would appear a few months later, without the reasons for this phenomenon having been explained.
In 1990, Lewis et al. in the framework of his research aimed at discovering the emergence of self-recognition using the mirror, and with children between 15 and 24 months, they complimented and verbally reinforced the children who had recognized themselves in the. When this happened, the children reacted by smiling, lowering their heads and glancing sideways or covered their faces, which is a clear display of feelings of shame at the compliment and investigator. Likewise, children who did not show signs of self-recognition did not respond to this adulation.
Another of the signs of self-recognition and self-awareness is clearly exhibited towards two years, when children show other behaviors that represent a differentiation from others such as use of personal and possessive pronouns (I, my, mine) and the reactions of sadness or struggle for some possession that, far from being interpreted as a negative act, it can be interpreted as a form of exercise in the acquisition and development of the I.
The evolution of self-concept in preschool age.
From the early years the acquisition of symbolic thought and language plays a very important role in the settlement and development of the Self. Language allows the child to think and express the specificity of her as being in a way that never he had previously done so, for example, by using nouns, pronouns or the expression of wishes or feelings.
How does a preschooler see himself? From the age of two, children provide a lot of information about their vision of themselves, since they regularly use expressions referring to them such as "I don't cry when they prick me" or "I already I'm older". These expressions, together with the massive use of possessive pronouns, indicate clearly a conscience on the part of the child of her specificity in front of others. If around two or three years a child is asked what he is like, his answers are usually of the type "I am a child "or" I have green pants ", that is, around physical characteristics, possessions or preferences.
These responses show that the young child bases his self-knowledge on categories, on very concrete aspects and in observable and singular features (Fisher) typical of a thought preoperative. It should be noted that children's self-descriptions are always shaped around positive characteristics and aspects.
If you want to know more about how language is acquired, we recommend reading the following article about Noam Chomsky and the theory of language.
The use of language as a sign of self-concept.
Throughout the preschool years, children show considerable progress using an increasing number and range of categories when describing themselves. These new features include the psychological, emotional and behavioral. Also, thanks to language acquisition, the boy or girl is being able to coordinate categories that previously appeared scattered, for example, they can be described as good at playing cards, with the computer, etc.
Another characteristic of self-knowledge throughout this stage is that children start to use opposites, such as happy or sad, to identify or identify others. These categories, however, are understood by children of these ages as exhaustive, in the sense that either one is good or one is bad, that is, the subjects represent themselves and others as possessors of a single quality, and cannot understand, for example, that someone can be kind to certain people and use a different pattern of behavior with others.
The child's thinking at the beginning of preschool age prevents you from making distinctions and relationships between psychological traits or aptitude and the results of their actions, thus, they believe that everything can be achieved by will or wish. This infantile trait and its progressive modification has one of its interesting aspects in the quality of the relationships that children establish with others, for example, adults.
Self-concept in children from 2 years of age.
Thus, while towards the two or three years exhibiting tantrums Permanent in the face of frustration, they progressively show greater ability for self-control, negotiation and the ability to concession in front of others. This advance is clearly related to developing the competence to understand your motives, desires, emotions, thoughts, etc. and those of others, that is, again with the development of a theory of mind. To the end of preschool period, Children have already developed a concept of themselves, however we could say that this concept is quite superficial and static. Their advancement in social experience, knowledge of others, and their intellectual tools will be the foundation for progress throughout the school years.
Definition of self-concept in children from 6 years of age
Since the six years children's self-knowledge begins to be more complex and integrated. It is enriched, for example, with the possibility of coordinating categories of oneself that were previously separate or that were opposite. This same progress is observed when they describe or intertwine with other people. It is throughout the school years when the child will be able to fully recognize himself, to know and become aware of her internal states as well as to recognize them in others. This enables the child to describe himself and others through personality traits.
During these years, in addition, children begin to use other types of categories that result very interesting and that they have to do with an awareness of belonging to groups. This is how their descriptions include, for example, that they are "fans of a soccer team" or "fans of a singer." This allows them access to a very useful dimension of self-knowledge: the awareness of characteristics shared with others, which identify you with the members of a group but that in turn, does not prevent them from continuing to be themselves. Children of these ages tend to compare themselves in traits and abilities with others or with their groups (Ruble and Frey).
This supposes a very important personal and social advancement since the child also begins to perceive himself as an individual who plays different roles depending on the group to which he is referring to (in the soccer team he is a forward, in his house he is the little one, in school he is the one who knows how to do the math better, etc. ). Precisely, the awareness of these different roles It is one of the bases on which he builds his perception of himself as someone unique compared to others.
These aspects represent a progressive increase in the capacity for self-regulation, that is, to adjust the behavior depending on the situations and people with whom it is interacting. The descriptions, the awareness and the self-concept built around all these traits, the competences intellectual and physical it will become more nuanced, coordinated and made more complex and complete throughout adolescence.
Self-concept in adolescence.
We continue with this article on the definition of self-concept in adolescence and childhood to speak, now, of the adolescent stage. What do we know about self-concept in adolescent boys and girls?
New intellectual abilities and social skills acquired in adolescence involve thinking potentially capable of working with abstraction, in addition to thinking hypothetically, what that helps the subject to coordinate categories and features in a more complex way and, in turn, can generate general categories from features individuals. This supposes an awareness of the multiple dimensions of oneself and the importance of context in its expression. These capabilities, together with their new networks of social relationships, as well as the importance that such networks are endowed with, make subjects during this stage of life tend to spend part of their time analyzing how they are and how they would like to be.
They try discover and understand what your interests are and their motives and what is their position before reality and before others. During preadolescence, in the field of psychological and emotional self-knowledge, They tend to think about themselves around unique and consistent categories or traits, so this lowers and further reduces the likelihood of confronting attributes that could become contrary, that is, they tend to have a consciousness and knowledge that we could call compartmentalized (Fisher, Linville, Harter), so that this could be a strategy to prevent traits considered as negative in one area from "contaminating" other areas. of self-concept.
The importance of self-concept in mental health.
To finish this article on the definition of self-concept, it is essential to talk about its impact on the mental health of the adolescent.
It is necessary to take into account when understanding adolescent self-concept some features of their development in the psycho-emotional field and that were exposed by Elkind. These traits are based on the adolescent's tendency to perceive himself as a being whose experiences and emotions are difficult to understand by the subjects. others (egocentricity), to believe that their life and experience are unique (personal fable) and that they are the center of attention and interest of others (audience imaginary).
They also tend to perceive themselves as safe from the repercussions of behaving in a dangerous or reckless manner, despite being aware of the danger (invincibility fable). Subjects are increasingly capable of adjust your thinking and knowledge from himself to reality, as well as to coordinate and form a global, coherent and integrated idea of contradictory ideas and information about who and how they are. This global self-concept will be made up of diverse spheres such as the social, occupational, political or moral and in which adolescents tend to form and maintain consistent self-concepts around organized and coherent systems of beliefs and values. (Damon and Hart; Higgins).
In tune with this effort to achieve a complex and adjusted self-knowledge, the adolescent seeks to build their own identity. During these ages, the self-descriptions of the subjects continue to contain own traits of previous ages but now they appear with a new quality. In adolescents' narratives about how they are, characteristics related to physical and psychological attributes and, fundamentally, attitudes, have supremacy.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Definition of self-concept in adolescence and childhood, we recommend that you enter our category of Evolutionary Psychology.
