The Concept of Self - Essay Example

The Concept of Self 2008 The Concept of Self The self-concept is an exceptionally complex multidimensional system that relates to variety of theories, conceptions, prototypes, images, schemas, goals and tasks organized to form a more or less coherent psychological structure of an individual (Markus, & Wurf, 1987). This includes the whole base of knowledge about the self accumulated since the moment of birth. The concept of self is the central construct in the theory of personality developed by Carl Rogers, the brightest representative of humanistic psychology.

Rogers (1959) believes that the fundamental of personality is the psychological reality which is the subjective experience according to which the reality is interpreted. Since the first day of life children begin to intensively acquire information about their selves trying to understand the system of relationships between them and the environment. This accumulated knowledge or, as Rogers terms it, ‘field of experience’ includes all experiences available at the given moment, both conscious and unconscious.

During the process of development, one portion of this field separates and becomes the persons ‘self’. This separated self develops through interactions with environmental and involves awareness of being and functioning and can be defined as-concept is "the organized set of characteristics that the individual perceives as peculiar to himself/herself" (Ryckman, 1993, p.106). Theoretically, an individual may develop optimally and avoid the influence of negative experiences. The needs for positive regard from others and positive self-regard would match persons evaluation and there would be congruence between self and experience, with full psychological adjustment as a result (Rogers, 1959).

This ideal human condition is embodied in the fully functioning person who is open to experience able to live existentially, expresses feelings freely, acts independently, is creative and lives a richer life. By contrast, the maladjusted person is the polar opposite of the fully functioning individual. The maladjusted individual is defensive, maintains rather than enhances his life, lives according to a preconceived plan, feels manipulated rather than free, and is conforming rather than creative.

The fully functioning person, on the contrary, is completely defense-free, open to experience, creative and able to live "the good life". Empirical support for the fully functioning person is somewhat mixed (Rogers, 1959).The person possessing positive self-concept treats the reality differently from the person with negative self-concept. This often happens because the self-concept may misrepresent the reality, be fictional or distorting: for example, information that does not suit the person’s self-concept can be repressed and negated regardless of its content and objectivity.

In other words, the degree of persons contentment directly depends upon to what degree his real self-concept and his ideal self match each other. Unfortunately, Rogers (1959) believes that this ideal human condition (the fully functioning person) is exceptionally rare: normally the ideal and the actual self-concepts do not coincide though the degree of inconsistency between them varies significantly from person to person.However the complexity, coupled with specific barely measurable nature of self-concept suggests that a person is not able to properly assess the incongruence between her actual self-concept and the ideal self-concept.

As a result, there emerges the third self-concept that reflects the subjective perceptions and views of the person about her own self. A bright illustration of these multiple selves that coexist in one person is provided in the classic theory of interpersonal communication developed by the outstanding American psychologist John G. Holmes. Holmes (2000) claims that any process of social interaction between two persons involves at least three participants from each side: the real objective self (1); the self as perceived by the person herself (2), and the self as perceived by the partner (3).

Evidently, the ideal self-concept, the self-perceived self, and the actual self of the individual differ substantially in the majority of cases though it is possible that in some persons they may coincide. The fact that Rogers’s whose theory of personality focuses on the concept of self elaborated it on the basis of his person-centered therapy suggests that he was aware of these differences as well as the need to help people reduce them. ReferencesHolmes, J. G. (2000). Social relationships: The nature and function of relational schemas.

European Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 447-496.Markus, H. & Wurf, E. (1987). The Dynamic Self-Concept: A Social Psychological Perspective. Annual Review of Psychology Vol. 38: 299-337.Rogers, C. (1959). A Theory of therapy, personality, and interpersonal relationships as developed in the client-centered framework. In: Koch, Sigmund (ed.), Psychology. A study of science. Volume III: Formulations of the Person and the Social Context. New York: McGraw Hill 1959, 184-256.Ryckmann, R.M. (1993).

Theories of personality (5th ed.) California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.