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Involves at least four separate but inter-related aspects:
- social - e.g. very friendly
- emotional - e.g. very cold
- intellectual - e.g. above average
- physical - e.g. Sheldon in 1950s classified people as in the table below. He was heavily criticised of this.
| ectomorphic
| tall, thin, delicate
| introverted, ambitious, tense, nervous, stubborn, quiet, liking privacy, sensitive to pain
|
| mesomorphic
| athletic, rounded
| masculine, adventurous, self-reliant, energetic, competitive, liking exercise, bold, assertive, insensitive
|
| endomorphic
| heavy, rotund
| typically perceived as old fashioned, physically weak, talkative, warm-hearted, relaxed and sociable, sympathetic, good-natured, agreeable, trusting, needy, people oriented, loving physical comfort, loving eating
|
Sheldon was heavily criticised for the above. Nevertheless people treat other according to stereotypes and then in tune behave as they are treated. Body shape is therefore important to self image. In addition, physically attractive people are rated higher on favourable personality traits, are more popular, are more likely to be let off alleged misbehaviours.
In addition - an ideal self - what we would want to be.
Self concept is the cognitive part of self-perception; self-esteem is the affective dimension (how we feel about ourselves).
Our feelings about self-worth and self esteem grow in large part from our perceptions of where we see ourselves in relation to significant others whose skills, abilities and talents are similar to our own.
Coopersmith showed that people usually assess their success in terms of:
- Power - the ability to influence and control others
- significance - the acceptance, attention and affection of others
- virtue - adherence to certain moral and ethical standards
- competence successful performance in meeting demands for achievement
Positive feedback tends to raise self-esteem and negative feedback tends to lower it.
Positive self esteem is more likely to elicit positive feedback.
People who think well of themselves tend to think well of others: people who have a negative view of themselves have a negative view of others (Wylie,1978).
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