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Understanding Self For
Effectiveness

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Topics to be covered in this module
Understanding of self
Components of self
Self Identity
Self Concept
Self Confidence
Self Image
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Understanding of Self
Who am I? Maybe youve never even
asked yourself this question. You might
think you already know who you are.
Unfortunately, however, its likely that
you dont know who you are at all. And if
you dont know your real identity, youre in
trouble.
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Youll spend your life in a kind of dream state
youll falsely identify yourself as something or
someone you arent.
Then, on the basis of this false identification,
youll determine the goals of your life and the
purpose of your existence.
You use these goals to gauge whether you are
making progress in life, whether you are a
success.
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There is only one corner of the universe
you can b certain of improving and thats
your own self
Self helps you to know your hidden
potentialities which is the true source of
energy and motivation.

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Our identity changes often over the years
from childhood through the teenage years, then
we identify with our career orientation,
then we go into relationships,
maybe parenthood,
then on through those busy years toward midlife
and then the empty nest,
forward to our senior years.
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However, beginning at birth, we lose ourselves
in the sheer energy of living - in activity, in
people, in beliefs, in shoulds and thoughts and
expectations.
Mostly we identify with outward expressions of
ourselves our career, our family, our looks, our
clothes, our home and possessions, our class,
our education all of these things reveal some
aspects of our identity to a certain extent.
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Self Concept

Your social character or abilities

Your physical appearance and your body
image
Your thinking
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Our Self-
Concept
Self-Esteem
Self-Image
Our Self-Concept is made up of our self-esteem and our self-image
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Definitions
SELF-CONCEPT
The sum total of the ways in which we think
about ourselves

SELF ESTEEM
- How highly we think about our abilities and
our self.

SELF IMAGE
- How we view our self based on others
reactions to us.
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Self - Concept Circle
The person I think I am.
The person others think I am.
The person others think I think I am.
My Actions
Others
Reactions
To Me
As Others See Me
As I See Myself
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A Positive Self-Concept
A positive self-concept helps us in
life how we behave and act with
others.

A positive self-concept generally
makes us feel happier.
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Positive Self-Concept
I am an okay
person.
I have
definite
strengths
and abilities.
I can do
anything I
really want
to do.
I see myself
as being as
good as my
friends.
There are
many ways
to solve a
problem.
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Characteristic of
Negative Self-Concept
I am a jerk.
Why try? I
could never do
it anyway.
I cannot do
anything right.
I am not
nearly as
good as my
friends.
I knew my
plans would not
work.
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Influences to Self-Concept
Self-Concept
Age
Appearance
Gender
Culture
Emotional
Maturity
Education
Relationships
self
Life
Experiences
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Age
Self-concept changes as we get older.
YOUNG
CHILDREN:

OLDER
CHILDREN:

ADOLESCENTS:

ADULTS:

ELDERLY:
Younger children are limited to descriptions of
themselves, like boy/girl, size etc.
Older children can provide much more detailed
descriptions; hair and eye colour, address, shoe size etc.
Self concept can be explained in terms of beliefs,
likes and dislikes, relationships.
Adults can explain themselves in terms of quality of
life and their personality.
Older adults may have developed even more self
knowledge and developed wisdom.
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Appearance
By the age of 10 or 12 we begin to compare ourselves
to others. If we think we look good we have a positive
self-image
The important thing is we feel positive about the way
we look. We can easily develop a negative self image
and this can lead to a lack of confidence or to feel
depressed about our relationships with other people.
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Gender
There are different social expectations of men and women
Girls tend to do much better at school than boys, but
boys do better at higher education. Why is this?
Gender affects the type of employment we go for.
Women are more likely to interrupt their careers to look
after children.
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Culture
Different people have different customs and different ways
of thinking. Your family or community may have different
beliefs and expectations from other families and
communities.
These influences affect the way we think and are called
cultural influences. Different cultures have different views
of what is normal or right and wrong and these are our
norms.
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Education
Self-concept is strongly influenced by
school.

You spend more than half your waking
time at school, doing homework or doing
school things.
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The expectations
of teachers
influence your
success or
failure. Students
expected to do
well often
perform better
than those not.
This is a self
fulfilling
prophecy.
Friendships
boost self
esteem as it
shows people
want to be
your friend
Learn theories
and ideas that
help you to
understand
your life and
that of others
Success or
failure at
school has an
affect on self
esteem
You mix with
other people
and compare
yourself to
them
Education
influences
our self-
concept
AGREE OR DISAGREE?
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Can you change your self concept?
Yes
By changing:
your attitudes
your moods
your values
your beliefs
If you change your attitude or your thinking
you can improve your self concept and
your self esteem as well.
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Self Confidence
Self-confidence gives you the freedom
to make mistakes and cope with failure
without feeling that your world has
come to an end or that you are a
worthless person.

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SELF-CONFIDENCE: Sureness about ones self-
worth and capabilities. People with this
competence:

Present themselves with self-assurance; have
presence
Can voice views that are unpopular and go out
on a limb for what is right
Are decisive, able to make sound decisions
despite uncertainties and pressures

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How to Develop Self confidence
1. Make a list of your strong points.
All the positive things about yourself and the things that you are good at doing.
Think of compliments you have received or things that come easily to you. It doesn't
matter what it is, if it's good, write it down.
2. Choose two of those things that you want to work on to improve
even more.
It's important to succeed and by concentrating on the areas you are already good at
you will have a better chance of becoming even more sure of yourself. Remember
that success builds upon success.
3. Exude confidence even if you don't feel like it.
Talk to yourself in an encouraging way and stay away from negative thoughts and
people as you can. Instead surround yourself with positive, confident, and
successful people. This will become a habit and one that will build confidence.
4. Look at yourself in a different way than you are used to doing.
It can change your life and help your confidence level to rise. See yourself as the
self confident person you want to be and before you know it you will become that
person.

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Self confidence tips to help you
Look for a model (someone who has self confidence)
and learn from them. What is it they do that makes them
confident, how do they act?
Focus on your achievements rather than your
failures. If you do find yourself thinking about how you
failed then look at what you managed to do right and
how you could correct what you did next time.
Learn how to feel good about yourself.
Act as if you were self confident! You will feel more
confident.
Focus on who you are and what you like about yourself.
Why do your friends like you?
Prepare thoroughly for any task so that you can be
sure you are ready.

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Work on any skills you need to do what you want,
you can never be overtrained or over skilled for any
challenge in life.
Work on your relaxation skills
Always smile and stand up straight
Set reachable goals for yourself and break difficult
tasks into smaller steps
Reward yourself when you succeed no matter how
small the achievement
Finally, not be too competitive or compare yourself
with others. Be yourself and accept that life is not a
race against others but your self confidence depends on
you and your personal needs.

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Self Image : A person's self image is the
mental picture, generally of a kind that is
quite resistant to change, that depicts not
only details that are potentially available to
objective investigation by others (height,
weight, hair color, I.Q. score, etc.), but
also items that have been learned by that
person about himself or herself, either
from personal experiences or by
internalizing the judgments of others

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Self Image
Self-image is the personal view we have of
ourselves. It is our mental image or self-
portrait. Self-image is an internal dictionary
that describes the characteristics of the
self, including intelligent, beautiful, ugly,
talented, selfish and kind. These
characteristics form a collective
representation of our assets and liabilities
as we see them.
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Self-image is important because how we think
about ourselves directly affects how we feel
about ourselves and how we respond to life.
Self-image can determine the quality of our
relationships with others.
How we think and feel about ourselves
influences the way we react or respond to life
stressors.
A positive self-image affects our physical,
mental, social, emotional and spiritual well
being.
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Ask these questions
Self image includes:
What you think you look like
How you see your personality
What kind of person you think you are
What you believe others think of you
How much you like yourself or you think
others like you
The status you feel you have
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Specific steps to foster a positive self-image

The following are steps that you can take to begin fostering a positive
image of yourself:
Take a self-image inventory
Define personal goals and objectives
Set realistic and measurable goals
Confront thinking distortions
Identify childhood labels
Stop comparing yourself to others
Develop your strengths
Learn to love yourself
Give positive affirmations
Remember that you are unique
Learn to laugh and smile
Remember how far you have come

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Specific steps to enhance body-image:

Explore personal body-image with its strengths
and limitations
Confront thinking distortions related to the body
Challenge misleading assumptions about body
appearance
Accept and love who you are
Be comfortable with your body
Be a friend to your body with positive
affirmations
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How positive is your self-image? Answer these
true or false statements and find out.
1. My glass is always half-empty, not half-full.
2. I'm always apologizing for things.
3. I'm always telling myself I "should" be doing
this or that.
4. I constantly criticize myself.
5. What other people think about me dictates
how I feel about myself.
6. I am critical of my mistakes and relive them
over and over.
7. I always let the people who care about me
down.

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8. I feel like I have the weight of the world on my
shoulders.
9. A partial failure is as bad as a complete
failure.
10. I bend over backwards to please others.
11. I am not sure I have done a good job unless
someone else points it out.
12. It's hard for me to forgive and forget.
13. I have to work harder than others for
relationships and am afraid that the relationships
I have will fail.
14. If I don't do as well as others, it means that I
am not as good as them.
15. If I can't do something well, there is no point
in doing it at all.

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Give yourself 1 point for each question you
answered with a "true".

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Interpretation
0 - 4: You have a generally positive way of
thinking and should feel good about
yourself. Keep it up!
5 - 8: You may be struggling with some
negative emotions. Take time to review
your good qualities.
9 or more: You can be very critical of
yourself. Challenge yourself to change
your way of thinking!