Amity Institute of Psychology & Allied Sciences

Module II
Self Perception

Ashima Narula
Visiting Faculty
304005
AIPS
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Self-Concept
The Psychological Exploration of "Who Am I?"

• Self-concept is generally thought of as our individual

perceptions of our behavior, abilities, and unique characteristics
—a mental picture of who you are as a person.

• Self-concept tends to be more malleable when people are

younger and still going through the process of self-discovery
and identity formation. As people age, self-perceptions become
much more detailed and organized as people form a better idea
of who they are and what is important to them.
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According to the book Essential Social Psychology by Richard

Crisp and Rhiannon Turner:

• The individual self consists of attributes and personality traits

 that differentiate us from other individuals.
• The relational self is defined by our relationships with
significant others.
• The collective self reflects our membership in social groups.
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• The self-concept is a knowledge representation that contains

knowledge about us, including our beliefs about our personality
traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, and
roles, as well as the knowledge that we exist as individuals.
• Throughout childhood and adolescence, the self-concept
becomes more abstract and complex and is organized into a
variety of different cognitive aspects of the self, known as self-
schemas. 
• Children have self-schemas about their progress in school, their
appearance, their skills at sports and other activities, and many
other aspects.
• The self-concept is the most important of all our schemas, it has
an extraordinary degree of influence on our thoughts, feelings,
and behavior.
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Carl Rogers’ Components of Self-Concept

He suggested that self-concept includes three components:
• Self-Image
Self image is the way we see ourselves. Self-image includes what we know
about ourselves physically (e.g. brown hair, blue eyes, tall), our social roles
(e.g. wife, brother, gardener), and our personality traits (e.g. outgoing, serious,
kind).

Self-image doesn’t always match reality. Some individuals hold an inflated

perception of one or more of their characteristics. These inflated perceptions
may be positive or negative, and an individual may have a more positive view
of certain aspects of the self and a more negative view of others.

• Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is the value we place upon ourselves. Individual levels of self-
esteem are dependent on the way we evaluate ourselves. Those evaluations
incorporate our personal comparisons to others as well as others’ responses to
us.
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• Ideal Self
The ideal self is the self we would like to be. There’s often a difference
between one’s self-image and one's ideal self. This incongruity can negatively
impact one’s self-esteem.
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Self Esteem
• self-esteem is used to describe a person's overall subjective
sense of personal worth or value. In other words, how much
you appreciate and like yourself. It involves a variety of beliefs
about yourself, such as the appraisal of your own appearance,
beliefs, emotions, and behaviors.
• Other terms that are often used interchangeably with self-
esteem include self-worth, self-regard, and self-respect.
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• In addition to, overall sense of self-esteem, we hold specific

evaluations of our abilities in particular areas.
• For Instance: Misha may think well of herself generally but may
know that she is not very diplomatic and very talented
artistically. David may generally think poorly of himself but
know that he is organized and a good painter.

• Two dimensions that are central to self-esteem are:

1. Self competence
2. Self Liking
i.e. evaluation of ourselves
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Social Comparison Theory

• Comparison with other people can be a good source of self-
knowledge. When we want to know where we stand on a
particular quality or ability and objective information is not
available, we compare ourselves with others.

• This strategy is the core of social psychology’s most important

theories- Social comparison theory.

Social Comparison Theory is the idea that people are driven to

evaluate themselves through comparison with other people.
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• In 1954, Leon Festinger, a pioneer in modern social

psychology developed social comparison theory. He believed
that people are motivated to make accurate assessments of their
level of ability and the correctness of their attitude.
• To do this, they assess their own standing in comparison to that
of others like themselves.
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• This theory can be summarized in three statements:

1. People have a drive to evaluate their opinions and abilities
accurately.
2. In the absence of direct physical standards, people evaluate
themselves through comparison with other people.
3. In general, people prefer to compare themselves to similar
other.

• How social comparison process works?

The social comparison process involves people coming to know
themselves by evaluating their own attitudes, abilities, and traits in
comparison with others. In most cases, we try to compare
ourselves to those in our peer group or with whom we are similar
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• There are two kinds of social comparison—

1. Upward social comparison
2. downward social comparison.

• Upward Social Comparison

This takes place when we compare ourselves with those who we
believe are better than us. These upward comparisons often focus
on the desire to improve our current status or level of ability. We
might compare ourselves to someone better off and look for ways
that we can achieve similar results.
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• Downward Social Comparison

This takes place when we compare ourselves to others who are
worse off than us. Such downward comparisons are often centered
on making ourselves feel better about our abilities or traits. We
might not be great at something, but at least we are better off than
someone else
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Goals of social comparison:

• Accurate self-evaluation- Festinger suggested, people
sometimes desire truthful knowledge about themselves, even if
the feedback is not favorable. People feel more confident when
the feedback is consistent with their standing on stable
attributes.

• Self-enhancement: rather than seeking truthful evaluation,

people might seek comparison that show them in favorable
light.

• Self-improvement: comparing to others who serve as model of

success. (This can sometimes be discouraging in some cases).
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Thank you
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Write a short note on any one the following:

• Self and identity
• Culture and self
• Self concept and self esteem
• Model of social comparison