SELF CONCEPT

SELF CONCEPT
An important theory relating to self-concept is the self-categorization theory (SCT), which states that the self-concept consists of at least two “levels,” a personal identity and a social identity. In other words, people’s self-evaluations rely on both one’s self-perceptions and how one fits in socially. The self-concept can alternate rapidly between the personal and social identity.
Other psychologists have postulated that men display an independent concept while women display an interdependent self-concept. One study exploring this aimed to discover whether gender stereotypes have an effect on this gender difference in self-construal. Participants read a list of traits and rated to what extent the traits applied to a typical man, a typical woman, and the self. When rating men and women in general, both males and females displayed a stereotype for “relational” women (focused on their relationships with others) and “agentic” men (focused on themselves and their individual accomplishments). Self-ratings also corresponded to these stereotypes.
The Developmental Perspective
According to research, differences in the self-concept between genders begin to develop at an early age as a result of gender-segregation enacted both by adults as well as by children’s own self-directed behaviors. Researchers have found that boys and girls play separately in all cultural settings, regardless of the activity, and it is difficult to alter these preferences. As a result of segregation, boys and girls become involved in different social interactions and relationships. Girls tend to prefer one-on-one dyadic interaction, while boys prefer group activities. Girls tend to share secrets and form tight, intimate bonds with one another. Furthermore, girls are more likely to wait their turn to speak, agree with others, and acknowledge the contributions of others. Boys, on the other hand, build larger group relationships based on shared interests and activities. Boys are more likely to threaten, boast, and call names, suggesting the importance of dominance and hierarchy in groups of male friends. Subsequently, the social characteristics of boys and girls tend to carry over later in life as they become men and women.
KNOWLEDGE OF SELF
Self-knowledge is a term used in psychology to describe the information that an individual draws upon when finding an answer to the question "What am I like?". While seeking to develop the answer to this question, self-knowledge requires ongoing self-awareness and self-consciousness (which is not to be confused with consciousness.) Young infants and even animals will display some of the traits self-awareness and agency/contingency, yet not be classified as also having self-consciousness. At some greater level of cognition, however, a self-conscious component emerges in addition to an increased self-awareness component, and then it becomes possible to ask "What am I like?", and to answer with self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is a component of the self, or more accurately, the self-concept. It is the knowledge of one's self and one's properties and the desire to seek such knowledge that guide the development of the self concept. Self-knowledge informs us of our mental representations of ourselves, which contain attributes that we uniquely pair with ourselves, and theories on whether these attributes are stable, or dynamic.
The self-concept is thought to have three primary aspects:
• The Cognitive Self
• The Affective Self
• The Executive Self
The affective and executive selves are also known as the felt and active selves respectively, as they refer to the emotional and behavioral components of the self-concept. Self-knowledge is linked to the cognitive self in that its motives guide our search to gain greater clarity and assurance that our own self-concept is an accurate representation of our true self; for this reason the cognitive self is also referred to as the known self. The cognitive self is made up of everything we know (or think we know about ourselves). This implies physiological properties such as hair color, race, and height etc.; and psychological properties like beliefs, values, and dislikes to name but a few.
SELF AWARENESS
Self-Awareness Theory states that when we focus our attention on ourselves, we evaluate and compare our current behavior to our internal standards and values. We become self-conscious as objective evaluators of ourselves. However self-awareness is not to be confused with self-consciousness.[9] Various emotional states are intensified by self-awareness, and people sometimes try to reduce or escape it through things like television, video games, drugs, etc. However, some people may seek to increase their self-awareness through these outlets. People are more likely to align their behavior with their standards when made self-aware. People will be negatively affected if they don't live up to their personal standards. Various environmental cues and situations induce awareness of the self, such as mirrors, an audience, or being videotaped or recorded. These cues also increase accuracy of personal memory. In Demetriou's theory, one of the neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development, self-awareness develops systematically from birth through the life span and it is a major factor for the development of general inferential processes.[11] Moreover, a series of recent studies showed that self-awareness about cognitive processes participates in general intelligence on a par with processing efficiency functions, such as working memory, processing speed, and reasoning.
How Self-Awareness Makes You More Effective
Self-awareness helps managers identify gaps in their management skills, which promotes skill development. But self-awareness also helps managers find situations in which they will be most effective, assists with intuitive decision making, and aids stress management and motivation of oneself and others. Skill development. Improvement projects should normally begin with an assessment of the gap between the current situation and the desired future situation. Having an accurate sense of who you are helps you decide what you should do to improve. Often, self-awareness will reveal a skills gap that you want to work on.



PROFESSIONAL SELF-CARE

Professional self-care is an essential underpinning to best practice in the profession of social work. The need for professional self-care has relevance to all social workers in the setting within which they practice. The practice of selfcare is critical to the survival and growth of the profession. Yet professional self-care has not been fully examined or addressed within the profession.
TALK RATIONALLY TO YOURSELF. Ask yourself what real impact the stressful situation will have on you in a day or in a week, and see if you can let the negative thoughts go. Think through whether the situation is your problem or the other person’s. If it is yours, approach it calmly and firmly. If it is the other person’s, there is not much you can do about it. Rather than condemning yourself with hindsight thinking like, “I should have…,” think about what you can learn from the error and plan for the future. Watch out for perfectionism — set realistic and attainable goals. Remember: everyone makes errors. Be careful of procrastination — practice breaking tasks into smaller units to make it manageable, and practice prioritizing to get things
PRACTICE ACCEPTANCE. Many people get distressed over things they won’t let themselves accept. Often, these are things that can’t be changed, for example someone else’s feelings or beliefs.
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH FRIENDS. Friends can be good medicine. Daily doses of conversation, regular social engagements, and occasional sharing of deep feelings and thoughts can reduce stress.
The first step in improving self-care is to look at how you handle stress—both positively and negatively. Ask yourself the following questions:
Do you work a reasonable number of hours?
What do you do during the day to take a break and remove yourself from the environment so you can come back with a fresh perspective?
Do you take time off? What about a vacation? How often are you sick and if it is frequently, what is your immune system trying to tell you? Etc.
SELF DETERMINATION
Self-determination theory ("SDT") is a macro theory of human motivation and personality, concerning people's inherent growth tendencies and their innate psychological needs. It is concerned with the motivation behind the choices that people make without any external influence and interference. SDT focuses on the degree to which an individual’s behavior is self-motivated and self-determined
In the 1970s, research on SDT evolved from studies comparing the intrinsic and extrinsic motives, and the dominant role extrinsic motivation played in an individual’s behavior but it was not until mid-1980s that SDT was formally introduced and accepted as a sound empirical theory. Research applying SDT to different areas in social psychology has increased considerably since the 2000s.
PRINCIPLES OF SELF-DETERMINATION
Freedom:
The exercise of the same rights as all citizens. People with disabilities, with assistance when necessary, will establish where they want to live, with whom they want to live and how their time will be occupied. They do not have to trade their inalienable rights guaranteed under the Constitution for supports or services.
Authority:
The control of whatever sums of money are needed for one's own support, including the re-prioritizing of these dollars when necessary. This is accomplished through the development of an individual budget that "moves" with the person.
Support:
The organization of these resources as determined by the person with a disability. This means that individuals do not receive "supervision" and "staffing". Rather, folks with disabilities may seek companionship for support and contract for any number of discrete tasks for which they need assistance.
SELF-DISCLOSURE
Self-disclosure is defined as a psychological term as sharing with someone information which helps them understand you. A particular point is that the self-disclosure is most revealing when the sharing is in the present and least revealing when the sharing is about the past.
Self-disclosure is defined as sharing how you are reacting to a particular situation, or person in the present moment of time. The degree of self-disclosure is illustrated in two dimensions:
1) information that is difficult or easy to share, and
2) sharing information that is more or less revealing of yourself..
Self-disclosure is both the conscious and unconscious act of revealing more about oneself to others. This may include, but is not limited to, thoughts, feelings, aspirations, goals, failures, successes, fears, dreams as well as one's likes, dislikes, and favorites. Typically, a self-disclosure happens when we initially meet someone and continues as we build and develop our relationships with people. As we get to know each other, we disclose information about ourselves. If one person is not willing to "self-disclose" then the other person may stop disclosing information about themselves as well.
In a counseling session, the patient or client does the "self-disclosing" while the counselor, or therapist listens. The goal is to help the client see things from different perspectives. This allows the client to see and evaluate options he or she may not have thought about, which may give the client more power when making important life decisions. There are several relationship perspectives in self-disclosing information in a counseling session. That of patient to therapist, therapist to patient, supervisor to supervisee, and supervisee to supervisor. Each of these relationships affects the tendency to disclose personal information. The clinical space available for patients to disclose should be far broader than that of the therapist.
SELF-ESTEEM
The original normal definition presents self-esteem as a ratio found by dividing one’s successes in areas of life of importance to a given individual by the failures in them or one’s “success / pretensions” Problems with this approach come from making self-esteem contingent upon success: this implies inherent instability because failure can occur at any moment. In the mid 1960s, Morris Rosenberg and social-learning theorists defined self-esteem in terms of a stable sense of personal worth or worthiness. Nathaniel Branden in 1969 defined self-esteem as "...the experience of being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and being worthy of happiness". According to Branden, self-esteem is the sum of self-confidence (a feeling of personal capacity) and self-respect (a feeling of personal worth). It exists as a consequence of the implicit judgment that every person does about, on one side, his/her ability to face life's challenges, that is, to understand and solve problems, and, on the other side, his right to achieve happiness, or, in other words, to respect and defend his own interests and needs. This two-factor approach, as some have also called it, provides a balanced definition that seems to be capable of dealing with limits of defining self-esteem primarily in terms of competence or worth alone.
Self-esteem is a graduated concept. Taking this into consideration, people may essentially have three main degrees of self-esteem:
• To have a high self-esteem is to feel confidently capable for life, or, in Branden's words, to feel able and worth, or to feel right as a person.
• To have a low self-esteem corresponds to not feeling ready for life, or to feeling wrong as a person.
• To have a middle ground self-esteem is to waver between the two states above, that is, to feel able and useless, right and wrong as a person, and to show these incongruities in behavior, acting, at times, wisely, and rashly at others, thus reinforcing insecurity.
SELF MONITORING
Self-monitoring involves having a students, non-students or any person keep track of his or her behavior. During research involving students monitoring their own behavior, it has been observed that subjects alter their behavior simply after consciously keeping track of it. One reason for such change is that self-monitoring helps decrease impulsivity by training the student to be aware of his or her behavior.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF SELF-MONITORING?
• This intervention is useful in helps people become aware of his or her behavior.
• Self-monitoring is a valuable tool in achieving generalization of appropriate behavior to
other contexts, like the classroom, work place, at home etc.
• Self-monitoring has the benefit of actively involves people students and non-students in the process of behavior modification.

HOW CAN SELF-MONITORING BE USED IN THE CLASSROOM?
• Self-monitoring can be used to increase or decrease behavior, to teach new skills, and to
help a student maintain appropriate behavior in a different environment. Studies have been
conducted showing
• Self-monitoring to be effective in the following specific areas:
teaching neat-paper skills
assignment completion
reducing calling-out behavior
increasing positive statements decreasing negative statements



REFERENCES
Aydede, M., 2003, ‘Is Introspection Inferential?’, in Privileged Access: Philosophical Accounts of Self-Knowledge, B. Gertler (ed.), Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
Bach, K., 1997, ‘Thinking and Believing in Self-Deception’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 20: 105.
Bong, M., & Clark, R. E. (1999). Comparison between self-concept and self-efficacy in academic motivation research. Educational Psychologist, 34(3), 139-153.
Byrne, B. M. (1984). The general/academic self-concept nomological network: A review of construct validation research. Review of Educational Research, 54, 427-456.
Gentry, J. E., Baranowsky, A. B., & Dunning, K. (2002). ARP: The Accelerated Recovery Program: ARP for compassion fatigue. In C. R. Figley (Ed.), Treating compassion fatigue (pp. 123-137). New York: Routledge.

Gamble, S. J. (2002). Self-care for bereavement counselors. In N.B. Webb (Ed.), Helping bereaved children: A handbook for practitioners. New York: Guilford Press.
Hoffman, Rose Marie, John A. Hattie, and L. DiAnne Borders. "Personal definitions of masculinity and femininity as an aspect of gender self-concept." Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development 44.1 (2005): 66+.
Shavelson, R. J., & Bolus, R. (1982). Self-concept: The interplay of theory and methods. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 3-17.
www.selfdetermination.com
www.isu.edu/~bhstamm/tests.htm
Webber, J., Seheuermann, B., McCall, C., & Coleman, M. (1993). Research on self-monitoring as a behavior management technique in special education classrooms: A descriptive review. Remedial and Special Education. 14, 38-56