Self-concept is a system of ideas of an individual about himself, on the basis of which he relates to himself and builds relationships with other people. Formed in world psychology as a stable concept.
Intelligence and emotions are the basis of the self-concept
It is worth saying that there is no unity among the world's psychologists in understanding the self-concept. This is due to the fact that the essence of the issue is too general. The self-concept was formed in the middle of the 20th century. Its structure traditionally includes three elements: cognitive, emotional-evaluative and behavioral components. The first is the attitude of a person to himself, the second is aimed at his feelings about this. In accordance with this, the behavioral component of the self-concept determines the behavior of a person, or an individual, with respect to ideas about himself. Thus, the self-concept plays a threefold role.
For example, Rogers believed that the cognitive component consists not only of a person's attitude to himself, but also of his ideas about himself. Thus, he distinguished the ideal and the real cognitive.
Of course, the core of the self-concept, scientists recognized the emotional-evaluative component. After all, this is precisely the self-esteem and the level of aspirations. It is a mistake to think that a person's self-esteem affects only his attitude towards himself. How an individual begins to build relationships with other members of society depends on this personal criterion.
Self-esteem of a person is adjacent to the level of her aspirations. An overestimated level of claims, when a person sets himself really impossible tasks, speaks of overestimated self-esteem, and vice versa. Thus, the self-concept determines what a person is capable of, what he is able to do and what is not.
Another important building block of the self-concept is self-esteem. Not all psychologists pay it worthy of attention, however, the level of a person's comfort directly depends on self-esteem.
Emphasis on self-awareness
It is interesting that a person's ideas about himself are far from always objective, although an individual may think that his conclusions are undeniable and based on a solid evidence base. Far from it.
Do not confuse self-concept and self-awareness. Self-concept is something descriptive, speculative, while self-awareness is a more real concept. However, they remain closely related to each other. Self-esteem is what remains after working out the self-concept. Interestingly, the self-concept as a system is a constantly evolving phenomenon. She "grows up" together with the person, often by the end of her life almost nothing remains of the original self-concept.
