1986
HE-396
I Love Me,
I Love Me Not:
Understanding and Improving Self-Concept
by Judith A. Myers-Walls, Extension Specialist
with Mary Litchfield, Graduate Student
Child Development and Family Studies
Who are you? Are you an athlete, an intellectual, an artist? Are you an entertainer, a bore, a good listener? Do you usually succeed at what you try, or are you more likely to fall flat on your face? Are you a pretty good person to be around, or are you lucky to find someone who can put up with you?
All of these questions are related to self-concept—what you think about yourself.
What Is Self-Concept?
There are three basic parts of self-concept. Self-image is the way people see themselves and the way they think others see them. Selfesteem, the second part of self-concept, is the value placed on the view of self. That is, do people like who they are? The third part of self-concept is social identity. This includes how people see themselves valued by society—-especially their race, sex, religion, age, income, and so on.
Everybody has specific, unique ways of thinking about themselves. This may or may not be the way others see them. In addition, neither the way other people see them nor the way they see themselves is necessarily a “realistic” picture. Self-concept is subjective, unique, and individual.
Although people have overall, umbrella views of themselves, those views contain many parts. For example, one person may feel she does excellent work while on the job, but she doesn’t think she’s as successful as a parent. Or, another person may know he’s athletic and good at several sports, while he doesn’t think he’s as good at understanding the economy. All of the parts combine to give a total picture. If one part of the self-concept is especially important to a person, that part will have a strong influence on the overall self-concept.
Sometimes people are unaware of the ideas they hold about themselves, even though those ideas often affect how those people act. To begin to explore your self-concept, try the following exercise.
Use the box below to write a description of yourself. Grade yourself in each area listed by using this rating scale: A = excellent, B = good, C = average, D = poor, and E = terrible.
WHO I AM
Educational background (Rating ____________.):
Job background and current situation (Rating ____________.):
Ability to relate to others (Rating ______________.):
Physical appearance (Rating _________________.):
Special skills (Rating_________________.):
Weaknesses (Rating ____________________.):
Purdue University
Cooperative Extension Service • West Lafayette, Indiana