The Psychological Self: My Favorite Mystery PDF

The Psychological Self: My favorite mystery Introduction:  When asked by the question who are you, answers may vary from time to time. The answer we have now, may be different from the answer we will have later, tomorrow, the next day. We may even find that the answer we had i...

The Psychological Self: My favorite mystery Introduction:  When asked by the question who are you, answers may vary from time to time. The answer we have now, may be different from the answer we will have later, tomorrow, the next day. We may even find that the answer we had is no longer true.  At times, we may even feel that our answer is incomplete. We often feel that even words are not enough to give a description of who we really.  There are several factors which includes the expectations of others from us, like the way they want us to behave. We also include our expectations from ourselves like when we often feel like we are underachieving, or when we feel like we are always falling short or like we are always below everybody else. This is analogous to the capacity of water to have shape when placed in a container. Basically, water is shapeless. However, it has the capacity to fit into all container, and when solidified, given enough factor, it may take the form of its container. The Self/Self-concept  According to Car Rogers, the self or our concept of the self is an organized, consistent set of perceptions of and beliefs about one self.  Sometimes we believe that we are victors, at times we feel like we are losers, still sometimes we feel like we are very handsome or beautiful, at some points, we will consider our selves as ugly. These perceptions, these ideas about ourselves are referred to as self- schemas.  Self schemas are formed by several factors: past experiences, personality traits, abilities, physical features, values, goals, social roles, observations, and feedbacks from others.  What makes the self water-like is its capacity to adapt into that which contains it. Real and Ideal Selves  As discussed in the philosophical self, we have the capacity to abstract, or go beyond our immediate surroundings. We have the capacity to imagine. This means that while we have a grasp of the self we have now, we can also imagine ourselves to be someone better.  This ability to perceive our ‘possible’ and ‘better’ selves should guide us in becoming the best version of our selves.  In here, we will be referring to our ability to go beyond the immediate as visual imagining exercises. The key factor here is to be specific in the aspect of your self that you wish to be better in.  When we say possible self, we can also include a visualizing of a worse self. The image of a worse self can work as a preventive activity in order for us not to become a worse version of our selves.  Now, we try to determine how far are we from our vision of ideal selves. In gauging this, we are actually identifying our congruence with the ideal self. Are we becoming similar to the person we aspire to be, or the person we thought is our ideal selves?  If you find however that you are far from the person you really want to be, there is what we call incongruence, there is a misalignment or disparity or a huge gap between our real self and our ideal self.  This may possibly lead to anxiety or disappointment, and may even result to low self- esteem and low self-worth. What do we mean when we say self esteem? Self-esteem and Self-efficacy  Self esteem refers to one’s overall assessment of one’s worth as a person. It refers to how we value our selves and perceive our worth as a person.  Now, our self esteem may be derived from our successes and failure in different aspects of our lives. We find ourselves more valuable for example when we excel in our relationships with each other, or when we excel in our spiritual life, or when we excel in our academic endeavors, or when we excel physically like when we are stronger and firmer. However, we cannot deny that we cannot excel in all aspects of our lives and at times, we would fail in some of them. So, our self esteem depends on what we consider as the successes that matter and the failures that matter, and how significantly we treat these successes and failures.   Self efficacy refers to how we perform and function. We need to take note that when we become better in performing a particular act, our self-esteem improves.  Now, we need to note also that increase in self esteem does not necessarily result to self efficacy, as when we think highly of ourselves but we don’t actually exert effort in performing and functioning. Proper motivations  We need to face the fact that our self-esteem and self-efficacy is not only a product of our lone efforts. Our self-esteem and self- efficacy often result from other’s unconditional positive regard. However, there are times that we feel like we have no source of positive regard or moral support.  It is where the benefit of the doubt comes in. This means that we should not conclude immediately that other people are not supporting us. What we need to do is to entertain the possibility that their support may be manifested in some other ways.  In the long run, as we realize our need for the unconditional positive regard of others, we too realize that we have the capacity to help other people be the better versions of themselves by giving the same unconditional positive regard that we need.  In this regard, we don’t aspire to be perfect. We aspire rather to be better and better every day. Conclusion  What we need to do is to invest on ourselves.  Study ways wherein we can be better. Explore. When faced with circumstances that demoralizes you, like when people discourage you to do what you like, take it as a chance to become better instead.  Never succumb to the impression of others, because at the end of the day, it will be you who will experience depression and stress.  Free your selves from beliefs that decreases your self esteem and would result to the reduction of your self-efficacy and embrace the beliefs that will help you increase your self esteem thus increasing your self- efficacy as well.