Self-Concept is a stable set of perceptions that you hold of yourself. Self-Concept helps us relate to the world, it is a product of positive and negative messages received throughout a person’s life for example, ego busters “you are ugly “and ego boosters “you have a beautiful face”. Self-Concept is shaped by reflected appraisal whereby a person develop a self-concept that matches the way we believe others see us. Which is done by ego boosters and ego busters. Social comparison also shapes self-concept whereby persons evaluate themselves in terms of how we compare to others. Persons also uses reference groups to influence their self-concept and self-esteem for example the media depicts an idea that women should be skinny and blonde and men should be muscular and have a tight butt, a lot of people in society compares themselves to these people and form a self-concept that this is how they must look in society in order to be accepted. There are two characteristics of self-concept 1.subjective –persons are more critical of themselves when they are experiencing negative moods than when they are feeling positive.
2. Resists change – whereby there is a tendency to cling to an existing self-concept even with evidence showing it is obsolete. Self-concept may become distorted because of obsolete information which is when effects of past failures lingers on, for example I could never be with a man again because my husband was a disaster. Distorted feedback is creating a self-image that is worse or better than factors warrant, self-verification is when people seek out persons who confirm our self-concept for example if a person thinks they are stupid and hang around stupid people they are going to feel stupid. Perfection is cause for negative self-concept is our emphasis on perfection and social expectations is when society rewards people who