Formation & Change - Self-Concept
Formation & Change - Self-Concept
This assignment is about how a person constructs their self-concept and how they then live their lives in a way which supports this self construct. I then explore Rogers theory of personality and how change occurs in a therapeutic relationship.
When a child is born he is totally egocentric. Not only does everything revolve around him, but the world is ‘self’, he has no concept of any world outside of self. When his psychological needs are not being met he cries. When he is hungry milk is seen as positive in his life, when he is not hungry milk has no meaning. He has a totally internal locus of evaluation, he does not care about anything but getting his own needs met.
Even at this stage he is not a blank canvas. He has within him a blueprint to survive and grow and certain aspects of his personality are already there. Even at birth some babies are placid, sleep more than average and can delay gratification, i.e. can be distracted for a while if hungry. Other children are restless, cry a lot and create havoc if milk isn’t forthcoming the moment they want it.
Personality theories are hypotheses, which look at the individual and try and understand the relationship between nature and nurture which forms the person’s way of being. Most people and psychologists would agree that both nature and nurture have an affect on who we eventually become, what is less universal is where the balance falls. As we grow our innate personality (nature) interacts with our environment (nurture) to produce who we are and during this we produce our own picture of who we are and our perceived place and worth in the world.
However great or small the nurturing influence is believed to have, the greatest effects that nurture has on our ‘self’ is during childhood and I shall look at the effects of various (none) nurturing behaviours. Freud thinks that a person’s innate personality is basically bad and that good nurturing may to some
This assignment is about how a person constructs their self-concept and how they then live their lives in a way which supports this self construct. I then explore Rogers theory of personality and how change occurs in a therapeutic relationship.
When a child is born he is totally egocentric. Not only does everything revolve around him, but the world is ‘self’, he has no concept of any world outside of self. When his psychological needs are not being met he cries. When he is hungry milk is seen as positive in his life, when he is not hungry milk has no meaning. He has a totally internal locus of evaluation, he does not care about anything but getting his own needs met.
Even at this stage he is not a blank canvas. He has within him a blueprint to survive and grow and certain aspects of his personality are already there. Even at birth some babies are placid, sleep more than average and can delay gratification, i.e. can be distracted for a while if hungry. Other children are restless, cry a lot and create havoc if milk isn’t forthcoming the moment they want it.
Personality theories are hypotheses, which look at the individual and try and understand the relationship between nature and nurture which forms the person’s way of being. Most people and psychologists would agree that both nature and nurture have an affect on who we eventually become, what is less universal is where the balance falls. As we grow our innate personality (nature) interacts with our environment (nurture) to produce who we are and during this we produce our own picture of who we are and our perceived place and worth in the world.
However great or small the nurturing influence is believed to have, the greatest effects that nurture has on our ‘self’ is during childhood and I shall look at the effects of various (none) nurturing behaviours. Freud thinks that a person’s innate personality is basically bad and that good nurturing may to some