Cognitive and Behavioural Aspects of Self

  • The way we perceive ourselves and the ideas we hold about our competencies and attributes is also called self-concept.
  • At a very general level, this view of oneself is, overall, either positive or negative.
  • The most frequently used method for finding out an individual’s self-concept involves asking the person about herself/ himself.

Self-esteem

  • The value judgment of a person about herself/himself is called self-esteem.
  • Studies indicate that by the age of 6 to 7 years, children seem to have formed self-esteem at least in four areas (mentioned below) which become more refined with age.
  1. academic competence
  2. social competence
  3. physical/ athletic competence
  4. physical appearance,
  • Our capacity to view ourselves in terms of stable dispositions permits us to combine separate self-evaluations into a general psychological image of ourselves. This is known as an overall sense of selfesteem.
  • Self-esteem shows a strong relationship with our everyday behaviour. For instance, children with high academic self-esteem perform better in schools than those with low academic self-esteem, and children with high social self-esteem are more liked by their peers than those with low social self-esteem.
  • Children with low self-esteem are often found to display anxiety, depression, and increasing antisocial behaviour.
  • Children with high self-esteem are often found to display confidence, is self-dependent and a social person.
  • Warm and positive parenting helps in the development of high self-esteem among children as it allows them to know that they are accepted as competent and worthwhile.
  • Children, whose parents help or make decisions for them even when they do not need assistance, often suffer from low self-esteem.

Self-efficacy

  • People differ in the extent to which they believe they themselves control their life outcomes or the outcomes are controlled by luck or fate or other situational factors, e.g. passing an examination.
  • A person who believes that s/he has the ability or behaviours required by a particular situation demonstrates high self-efficacy.
  • The notion of self-efficacy is based on Bandura’s social learning theory. Bandura’s initial studies showed that children and adults learned behaviour by observing and imitating others.
  • People’s expectations of mastery or achievement and their convictions about their own effectiveness also determine the types of behaviour in which they would engage, as also the amount of risk they would undertake.
  • A strong sense of self-efficacy allows people to:
  1. select,
  2. influence,
  3. construct,

the circumstances of their own life,

  1. and feel less fearful.
  • Our society, our parents and our own positive experiences can help in the development of a strong sense of selfefficacy by presenting positive models during the formative years of children.

Self-regulation

  • Self-regulation refers to our ability to organise and monitor our own behaviour.
  • People, who are able to change their behaviour according to the demands of the external environment, are high on self-monitoring.
  • Many situations of life require resistance to situational pressures and control over ourselves. This becomes possible through ‘will power’.
  • Learning to delay or defer the gratification of needs is called self-control. Self-control plays a key role in the fulfilment of long-term goals.
  • Psychological techniques of self-control are:

a) Observation of own behaviour

This provides us with necessary information that may be used to change, modify, or strengthen certain aspects of self.

b)Self-instruction

We often instruct ourselves to do something and behave the way we want to. Such instructions are quite effective in self-regulation.

c) Self-reinforcement

This involves rewarding behaviours that have pleasant outcomes.