How do self concept self esteem and self identity differ

Self-concept is a more encompassing self-perception than self-esteem. They have different components and different manifestations in a mentally healthy individual. More about these two psychological constructs and their differences are discussed further in the following sections. Another prominent thinker on the idea of self is Sigmund Freud who proposed the term ego as something that regulates the other aspects of a personality.

In the late 20 th century though came the most well-known theory, the self-concept theory of personality of Carl Rogers. Rogers proposed that the self-concept is made of three components, the self-image, the ideal self and the self-worth which is more commonly known as self-esteem. Self-concept develops throughout the lifespan of an individual and is influenced by many factors. Most theorists agree though on two main ones, biological factors and environmental factors which include social interaction.

According to Carl Rogers, a person with a healthy self-concept has foremost a congruent self-image and ideal self. This congruence allows for a healthy self-worth, which in turn results to a fully-functioning individual that strives for self-actualization. With its broad conceptualization, self-concept has some similarities with other terms. Aside from being a component, self-image is different in that it is a perception of the self that may not necessarily align with reality.

This is simplified further outside of the scientific community as just being how much one likes oneself. The concept has later come under heavy influence from the humanistic school of personality, led by Carl Rogers and others. Abraham Maslow, a contemporary of Carl Rogers in the humanistic school of personality, proposed that self-esteem is a need that every person has and must eventually satisfy. Also in the late 20 th century was Nathaniel Branden, who theorized that self-esteem is composed of self-efficacy and self-respect.

Similar to self-concept, self-esteem is influenced by biological and environmental factors including social interaction. Shrestha, Sujan. McLeod, Saul. Cherry, Kendra, and Steven Gans. CC BY 2. Upen, BA Honours in Languages and Linguistics, has academic experiences and knowledge on international relations and politics. View all posts. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Self-concept, although it is linked to self-esteem and therefore its changes partly correspond to those of self, is somewhat easier to change, as it can be changed directly through cognitive restructuring.

For example, if we think that we are very shy but realize that in the past we have become very confident and confident to lecture in front of many people in an exhibition on a topic that we are passionate about, it is easy to pass to think that our shyness is a little more moderate and circumstantial. We can remind ourselves on future occasions that we are not that shy after all and therefore behave so shyly, which would make others give more importance to our presence and, here yes, to our esteem.

Although there are differences between self-concept and self-esteem, it should be clear that both are theoretical constructs of psychology, which they help to understand how we think and how we act, but which do not describe clearly differentiable elements of reality.

In reality, the two take place together; like virtually all mental processes and subjective phenomena that we experience, they are the result of a looping system of parts of the brain that work at incredible speed and constantly interact with our environment by coordinating with each other. This means that, at least in human beings, self-concept cannot exist without self-esteem, and vice versa. Psychologist Albert Bandura proposed the self-efficacy theory where he believed that every person has a belief that they have the ability to influence events in their life and have control over them.

Because these social constructs are multi-dimensional, we may see ourselves in a positive or negative light. People have different perceptions of themselves and some might even have a positive self-concept in one aspect while having a negative self-concept in another. On the other hand, self-image refers to your own physical description, social roles, and personal traits.

This does not necessarily reflect reality and, most of the time, we have a distorted perception of ourselves. While self-esteem and self-image are different from these aspects, their similarity lies in the fact that they can be positive in some specific areas while being negative in some. But what do they really mean and why are they important?