Self-concept: what is it and how is it formed?

On psychology you work with ideas and concepts that, many times, can cause confusion.

The selfconceptFor example, it is one of the most widely used theoretical constructs, but that does not mean that everyone understands what we are talking about when we use this term. Its meaning is not as intuitive as that of the word self-esteem and, in turn, it is not always easy to understand what it is about if we ignore some assumptions from which current psychology works.

So that... What is self-concept exactly? Throughout this article we will see what are the characteristics of this psychological phenomenon, what implications it has for mental health, and why it is important to devote resources to keeping you in good shape condition.

Self-concept: a quick definition

Self-concept is the image we have created about ourselves. Not just a visual image, of course; it is rather the set of ideas that we believe define us, consciously and unconsciously. This includes a practically infinite amount of concepts that could be included in this "image" about us. themselves, since each idea can house many others, creating systems of categories that are one within others.

Thus, it could be a component of our self-concept our idea of ​​what is the shyness, but also a rough idea about our intelligence. There are many elements that can be a constitutive part of this image of oneself, and the self-concept serves to encompass them under a label.

In this way, if we assume that a person's mind is composed of a network of concepts that partially overlap each other (for example, "rosebush" is overlaps a little with "plant" and with "red", if we imagine the flowers of that color), self-concept is the point at which different ideas and beliefs overlap in a The same point, making the concept of "I" arise from this combination, something that is present in animals with the ability to create and interpret concepts abstract.

Definitely, self-concept is the set of characteristics (aesthetic, physical, affective, etc.) that serve to define the image of the "I".

Some keys to understanding what is self-concept

These are some explanations to clarify the meaning of the term self-concept; some of its main features.

1. It is relatively stable

It makes sense to speak of the existence of self-concept precisely because it is possible to find some guidelines and defining characteristics of each person that tend to always be there. If the self-concept totally varied every second, it would not exist.

That is why many psychologists dedicate part of their efforts to discover what defines the self-concept of people. This can be used to treat problems in the clinical psychology, but also, for example, to establish population or consumer profiles.

On the other hand, self-concept can evolve over time, but not abruptly, and always following rather staggered and gentle trends. It can also change through psychotherapy, in which tools such as cognitive restructuring help change beliefs about yourself.

2. Self-concept can change

Although it tends to stay relatively the same over time, self-concept is far from static. It is constantly varying, just as our experiences and the course of our thoughts constantly vary. However, that the self-concept does not always remain the same does not mean that any idea about ourselves fits in it.

It is clear that something that we considered totally alien to our way of being or behaving may, after a while, become part of the set of things that we consider to define us. However, this does not change the fact that, at first, that idea or quality did not form part of our self-concept, and that only with the passing of the days has been able to be encompassed in this.

We found numerous examples of this variability of self-concept in adolescents. Adolescence is a stage in which the ways of understanding reality, of feeling and of relating to others change abruptly. And these "shakes" occur, of course, also in the way these young people see themselves. It is very normal to see how adolescents totally deny an aesthetic and a value system that, shortly after, will be integrated into their self-concept.

3. Self-concept has fuzzy limits

Self-concept it is a theoretical construct that psychologists work with, not something that can be isolated in a laboratory. This means that, where self-concept is embodied, there are also other elements: an emotional and evaluative tinge of oneself, the influences of ideas associated with each other, the influence of culture on the way of conceiving oneself, etc.

Thus, the difference between self-concept and self-esteem, or between self-concept and other concepts (that is, those that refer not to oneself, but to others or to the rest of the world) is fundamentally a limit established by psychologists and that serves to better understand the functioning of the processes mental.

4. The distance between ideas is relative

This is something that follows from the previous point. Usually, People do not understand that all those ideas that are included within our self-concept define us equally, in the same way that there are certain elements that are on the border between what defines us and what does not. That is why everything we talk about when we talk about self-concept is relative. We always assess the extent to which we are defined by something by comparing it with another element.

For example, we may not be big fans of a sportswear brand, but when we think of other types of clothing that we perceive totally alien to we (to put a case, a folk costume from some remote islands), we consider that this brand is quite close to the set of ideas that populate our selfconcept.

5. There is a difference between self-concept and self-esteem

Although both ideas are similar, self-concept is not the same as self-esteem. The first serves only to describe ourselves, while self-esteem is the concept that refers to our way of valuing ourselves. That is, the self-concept serves to refer to the cognitive aspect of our way of seeing ourselves, while self-esteem has its reason for being in the emotional and evaluative component from which we we judge. Both theoretical constructs, however, refer to something subjective and private.

Many times, in addition, the term "self-concept" is used already assuming that it includes both self-concept and self-esteem. However, to clear up doubts, it is recommended to use these terms separately.

6. It is related to self-awareness

There is a self-concept because we are aware that we exist as an entity differentiated from the rest. That is why, The moment we begin to perceive the presence of things that are alien to us, a form of self-concept is already being born, however rudimentary it may be.. It is a dialectic in which one concept gives rise to the existence of the other.

7. It is sensitive to the environment

The term self-concept can lead us to the error that this is a mental phenomenon that appears simply in people, and whose only relationship with the environment is from the inside out: it affects how we behave and act by modifying the environment, but it is not affected from outside. This is a mistake.

Self-concept is a dynamic process, caused by a mixture of interactions between genes and the environment. Therefore, it is not isolated within people, but our experiences and habits make it evolve. This is the reason why self-concept is closely linked to our social life, and it is through language, a phenomenon that arises from the community, that we are capable of arriving at an idea of "Me".

What is it for?

Self-concept allows us to make inferences about everything that has to do with our way of behaving and the way in which others behave towards us. If, for example, we believe that we are not good at football and we assume that our teammates value this negatively, we will tend to believe that in that social circle the chances of having a good status are reduced, and perhaps we choose to meet new people.

Another behavior-based perspective

The term self-concept can make us think that this is one more piece of the brain, an element that makes us emit certain types of behaviors and not others. However, there is a paradigm of psychology that denies this type of definition of self-concept.

For behaviorism, self-concept is not an internal phenomenon of the human mind, but a behavior, a way to perform certain actions; more specifically, a way of making verbal evaluations about how we usually behave in relation to what surrounds us.

Thus, we must not lose sight of the fact that self-concept always exists in relation to the material world in which we live, and not in isolation in our body.