A human being becomes acquainted with the concept of the self when he starts recognizing a number of things about himself like what are the characteristics, positive and negative things in my personality. Further a human being analyzes that when he is comfortable with any situation and when finds himself in trouble facing any particular situation. Thus self is the set of ideas that a human being embrace about himself and the self plays an important role in the assessment and development of an individual’s personality. This paper discusses the concept of the self and various other related aspects .
After the process of the assessment, the self esteem evolves in a human being which plays a very important role in the life of a human being. Usually it has been observed that a person with a high self esteem performs better than those who have low self esteem. The difference between the both categories of people is reflected right from the beginning and is noticeable in the every part of the life. Psychologist Harold Stevens at the University of Michigan sees the self esteem behind the performance of American students those perform better than the students of Japan, China and several other parts of the world. Harold Stevens says "True self-esteem requires an accurate appraisal of one's own abilities in comparison to those of others a phony self-esteem is vulnerable to puncture by life's experience".
The process of self discovery is a bunch of different processes and Self knowledge is one of them. Human beings have a unique skill to know themselves. They know everything about themselves and are aware with the capacities and weaknesses of their personality. Even kids recognize their unique features when they do not know or recognize other things. When a baby watches a mirror, he recognizes his image and also understands the changes that occur in his figure as compared to the last time.
Self knowledge can be achieved by the physical, social and psychological sources. I believe that all the sources are equally important for the completion of the process. I have learnt a lot from the society and as a student I have also assessed myself, found several things to improve and after a process of self regulation, I observed remarkable improvements in my personality. I am a student in north Georgia and in my culture, self assessment and self improvement is considered very important and the elders have always focused on the same.
Social comparison theory talks about how individuals learn the things and how the society helps the students and children in learning and growing. I have been observing the behavior, style and the way of the people in my society. The way, they work, enjoy, participate and help each other at occasions is amazing. My society is religious and we as Baptist participate in the religious activities and ceremonies of the society. In our community, music, films are the lifeline of the people and people spend a fair amount of time in these activities. Several music groups have taken the folk music at new heights.
After having observed the concept of the Self, various aspects of the concept and several processes, required for self discovery, it is good to say that the success of the process depends on the individuals who wish to improve themselves. The process is very simple yet requires a large amount of determination. Assessment, self regulation and the determination to improve the things help the human beings in the process of the self discovery.
References
Doolin, A. (2009). Self Discovery. Denmark: HBI - Make Success Easy.
O'Connor, R. (2010, September 28). MH Matters. Retrieved December 27, 2011, from www.mental-health-matters.com: http://www.mental-health-matters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=165:self-esteem-in-a-culture-where-winning-is-everything-and-losing-is-shameful&catid=178:self-esteem&Itemid=1912
Pajares, F. (2002). Overview of Social Cognitive Theory and of Self-Efficacy. Retrieved December 27, 2011, from www.des.emory.edu: http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/eff.html
Taylor, S. E., Peplau, L. A., & Sears, D. O. (2006). Social psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
