2.2. Factors affecting the development of self-esteem

2.2.1. Family factors

Whatever forms the family takes, it is still the most important unit of society. It is in the family that the child discovers for the first time whether he is loved, whether he is accepted for who he is, whether he succeeds or fails. According to many psychologists, it is in the first five years of life that a person’s personality structure is mainly formed, the foundations of the I-concept are laid. During this period, the child is especially vulnerable and dependent, emotionally dependent on the family, in which his needs are fully or partially satisfied. Therefore, it is very important to inform people, and, first of all, parents about the problems, difficulties and consequences that arise from the wrong attitude towards the child.

Self-esteem is related to family size and seniority among children. In Coopersmith's studies, 70% of children with low and moderate self-esteem were not firstborn. At the same time, only 42% of children in the group with high self-esteem were not firstborn. The first and only children in the family seem to have certain advantages: the conditions in which they develop are more favorable for the formation of high self-esteem.

According to the study, in boys with high self-esteem, relationships with brothers and sisters turned out to be more close than conflict. This harmony in relationships, apparently, extends beyond the family, because high self-esteem ensures a good command of the technique of social contacts, allows the individual to show his worth without making any special efforts. The child acquired in the family the ability to cooperate, the confidence that he is surrounded by love, care and attention. All this creates a solid foundation for its social development. In families of this type, jealousy and rivalry between children are rare.

Mothers of boys with high self-esteem say they know more than half of their son's friends. Conversely, a third of the mothers of boys with low self-esteem practically do not know at all which of their peers their son is friends with. It is likely that such ignorance of parents can be regarded as evidence of the child's distrust of them, due to his assessment of his role and position in the family.

Low self-esteem is closely related to the attempts of parents to form the child's ability to accommodate, that is, to adaptive behavior. This is expressed in the following requirements for him: obedience; the ability to adapt to other people; dependence on adults in everyday life; neatness; conflict-free interaction with peers. Apparently, success, achieved by the ability to adapt to the desires of other people, and not on the basis of personal achievements, leads to the formation of low self-esteem.

The desire of parents to put children in a subordinate, dependent position leads to a decrease in self-esteem. The child in this situation is psychologically broken, he does not trust the world around him, he lacks a sense of his own personal value.

Mothers of children with high self-esteem are satisfied with the relationship between their son and father. The children themselves also considered the father to be the main confidant. An important feature of the families of such a group is clear, predetermined powers in decision-making, unambiguous manifestation of authority and responsibility. One of the parents takes over the main decisions that the whole family agrees on. Less fundamental decisions on various everyday issues are generally made collectively. Appropriate standards of family behavior enjoy general support in such families. An atmosphere of mutual trust reigns here, each member of the family feels included in a common home circle. In most cases, the main decisions are made by the father, but, for the formation of high self-esteem, it is rather that these decisions are approved by the whole family. Thus, high self-esteem develops in children in families characterized by cohesion and solidarity.

2.2.2. Social factors

As mentioned above, general self-esteem is formed at primary school age. But there are also private self-assessments that are situational and capable of fluctuating. Fluctuations in private self-esteem cause situational changes in a person's life: success or failure, comparing oneself with others, the influence of society, etc.

If a person's self-esteem is determined by the opinion of other people about him, then there is reason to expect that among representatives of the upper classes it will be maximum. The position occupied by young people in society is based not on their own achievements, but on the social status of their parents. Therefore, it is quite possible that in adolescence, the sense of one's own worth is determined more by the opinions of relatives, friends, neighbors, than by social prestige as such.

The decline in general self-esteem under the influence of experimental failure is accompanied by thoughts of death in some people, and a successful test of a highly valued ability causes a significant increase in the level of self-esteem of other qualities. According to some data, an increase in general self-esteem under the influence of private success is more common than its decrease due to failure.

According to the American psychologist Ruth Wylie, who critically analyzed the existing empirical research, the presence or absence of shifts in self-esteem under the influence of experimental failure may depend on a number of factors: a person’s personality traits, for example, the general level of self-esteem and anxiety; specific qualities that have been depreciated in the experiment; how a person evaluates the source of information about his defeat or success and how much he trusts this source. Wylie concluded that in most cases, "a person is driven not only by the desire for self-assertion, but also by objective considerations. The deterioration in performance and the increase in anxiety due to experimental failure may be greater in people with low overall levels of self-esteem." In other words, any experimental or life situation is experienced and evaluated by the subject in the light of his long-term experience, including his past self-esteem. A person with low self-esteem will experience any private failure deeper harder than a calm and self-confident person.

2.2.3. Principles of "self"

A person's idea of ​​himself largely depends on how others evaluate him, especially if it is a collective, group assessment. Under the influence of favorable opinions, self-esteem increases, unfavorable opinions decrease. Often such a shift is quite stable, and along with the main self-assessments, quite often those that are not directly affected by the assessment of others also change. For example, in a person who receives inflated ratings on behalf of a group, over time, the overall level of claims rises beyond the limits of those qualities that were marked as positive.

Principle internalization of other people's estimates. Changes, under the influence of external assessments, of the “I-image”, as well as social and moral attitudes, are more significant if the subject thinks that significant persons for him (for example, workmates) are unanimous in assessing his qualities or behavior than in those cases when their opinions differ. Finally, different people are unequally sensitive and receptive to other people's opinions, ranging from complete indifference to a complete restructuring of their own "self" in accordance with the desires of others. The psychological complexity of internalization is well illustrated experimentally. Members of several small production teams (five to seven people each) were asked to evaluate the organizational and business qualities of everyone, including themselves, and predict how others would evaluate him for this quality. Three indicators were compared: self-assessment; an objective group rating obtained by averaging the ratings given to an individual by his fellow workers; estimated group score. It turned out that people with high self-esteem received a higher group score than people with low self-esteem; perceived and objective group ratings were also found to be related. However, the coincidence of self-assessments and estimated assessments turned out to be higher than that of self-assessments and objective group assessments. Only 40% of individuals with high self-esteem received a high group score, and only 26% of individuals with average self-esteem received an average group score. On the scale of business qualities, more than half of the individuals with high self-esteem received a low group rating.

The internalization of other people's opinions involves both social comparison and attributive processes (usually, people first attribute this or that attitude to themselves to others, and then accept or reject it as an evaluation criterion), and the selection of information in accordance with the already existing "I-image" and value criteria.

Principlesocial comparison. Although many elements of our "I" look purely descriptive, factual, in most cases they are correlative and tacitly imply some kind of quantitative or qualitative comparison. First, the individual compares his present "I" with the past or future, and his claims - with achievements. Secondly, he compares himself to other people.

The first moment is already reflected in the famous formula of W. James:

One person is unbearably ashamed that he is the second, and not the first glove of the world, the other rejoices at the victory in regional competitions. The higher the level of claims, the more difficult it is to satisfy them. The validity of the James formula is proved not only by everyday experience, but also by many special experiments showing that successes and failures in any activity significantly affect the individual's self-esteem of his abilities.

But the process of social comparison is two-way. The individual perceives and evaluates himself in comparison with others, and others - in himself. The question arises: when does the “other” serve as the prototype of the “I”, and when, on the contrary, does the “I” serve as the starting point, the referent of the perception of the “other”? Although self-knowledge has always been considered difficult, people usually find it easier to judge themselves than others, and trust such judgments more, especially when it comes to internal states, motives, etc. Hence the proverb: "An alien soul is darkness." What seems to us to be "direct knowledge of oneself" is in fact the result of a complex process of attribution (attributing certain properties to oneself).

Although private self-assessments are important indicators, indicators of how a person perceives "sees" himself, they still remain local and do not allow judging the structure and dynamics of a person's self-consciousness as a whole. To capture the human "I" in its unity, much more complex studies and theoretical models are needed.

Conclusion

Self-assessment is a multi-level, hierarchically organized entity that functions as a system that has specific characteristics and patterns of development, the system-forming factor of which is the means of its provision, determined by the level of development of the subject of self-assessment activity. The means of self-assessment can be direct borrowing of external assessments (internalized opinion of others), the subject's appeal to his emotional-need sphere, to non-specific conditions of activity, to the analysis of past experience and the objective and subjective factors inherent in the situation of self-assessment, i.e. to the analysis of activity and its object (act) and its own qualities manifested in it.

The most effective in ensuring the effectiveness and reliability of self-assessment as a mechanism for self-regulation are precisely these latter means, i.e. the subject's appeal to the analysis of the object, methods and results of activity (an act, its motive and consequences) and himself as its subject using socially specified evaluation criteria.

Self-esteem should be considered as a unity of structural and functional characteristics that are implemented in various areas of the subject's life and can be represented as a structural-dynamic model that reflects the complex interaction of elements, conditions and directions for the development of self-esteem, possible forms, types and levels of its representation.

Self-esteem can have a huge impact on the entire life path of a person. People with low self-esteem tend to be passive, suggestive, and less popular. These people are overly sensitive to criticism, considering it a confirmation of their inferiority. They have a hard time accepting compliments. Most often, low self-esteem becomes the cause of constant loneliness. The way we think about ourselves has a profound effect on our entire lives. And what we can achieve in life, we can say, directly depends on the attitude towards ourselves, on our self-esteem.

Thus, knowing oneself, one's self-esteem and the factors influencing its development and formation can significantly change the life of every person.

Bibliography

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5. Muddy S. Theories of personality. Comparative analysis. - St. Petersburg: Speech, 2002.

6. Nemov R.S. Psychology: Proc. for stud. higher ped. textbook institutions: In 3 books. - 4th ed. - M., 2000.

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8. Rozhders K. Theory of personality. – K.: PSYLIB, 2005.

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Conversations with parents of students on problems self-esteem And her development. Theoretical significance is the material of my work... . Belobrykina O.A. The influence of the social environment on development self-esteem older preschoolers. // Issues of psychology, No. 4, 2001 ...

A person is a part of society, and the attitude of others, assessment of his qualities, attractiveness is important for him. But no less important for us is self-esteem, the attitude towards oneself, which is formed in a person throughout his life. The place in society that we occupy, and the degree of social activity largely depend on the level of our own assessment of our merits and demerits.

In psychology, self-esteem is considered as a complex of a person's ideas about himself, which were formed on the basis of comparing himself with others. These representations play an important role in shaping the image of one's own "I" or.

Consciously or unconsciously, we always compare ourselves with others and evaluate ourselves from the position of “better”, “worse” or “the same as everyone else”. First of all, important, significant qualities for society are evaluated. For example, for a young man of the nobility in the first quarter of the 19th century, it was normal to talk about whether he dances a mazurka better or worse than Lieutenant Rzhevsky. And for a modern person, this quality does not matter, and therefore is not appreciated.

Thus, self-esteem is based on socially significant values, without which it is impossible to realize oneself worthy of respect in a given society and at a given time.

It is clear that you can evaluate yourself in different ways, all the more there are situations when we are satisfied with ourselves and like ourselves, and at other times some act makes us experience acute dissatisfaction, and we are engaged in self-flagellation. But self-esteem as a part of the personality is a stable formation, although it can change, it does not depend on the situational attitude towards oneself. On the contrary, self-assessment corrects this attitude:

• A person with a high opinion of himself will say: “How could I do this, this is completely uncharacteristic for me,” and will try to forget about the oversight.
• And the one who has low self-esteem, on the contrary, focuses on his mistakes, will reproach himself for them for a long time, will think that “he is a crooked loser in life who doesn’t really know how to do anything.”

Types and levels of self-esteem

In psychology, there are two types of self-esteem: adequate and inadequate. Sometimes they also talk about optimal and suboptimal self-esteem, thereby emphasizing that many people tend to rate themselves slightly above average, and this is more of a norm than a deviation. Another thing is how highly we value ourselves.

Adequate self-esteem

Adequate self-esteem to some extent correctly reflects the abilities and qualities of the individual, that is, this is a person's idea of ​​himself, which corresponds to the real state of things. Such representations can be both with a + sign and with a − sign, because people are not perfect. For example, when a person says that a bear stepped on his ear, this may not be a belittling of his own abilities in music, but their adequate assessment.

Self-esteem affects all human behavior and attitudes towards oneself and towards other people. So, with adequate self-esteem, an individual:

• correctly assesses the balance of their desires and abilities;
• sets realistic goals that they are able to achieve;
• able to critically look at himself from the outside;
• tries to anticipate the results of his actions.

In general, for a person with adequate self-esteem, the people around him are important. But he also evaluates their opinion adequately, focusing more on his own ideas about the benefits or harms of his actions.

Inadequate self-esteem

Inadequate self-esteem is of two types: low and high. The degree of inadequacy comes in different levels. Self-assessments of a level slightly above or slightly below average are a fairly common phenomenon, and they almost do not manifest themselves in the behavior of an individual, do not prevent him from living and interacting with others. To determine the deviation in this case is possible only with the help of special psychological tests. And self-esteem slightly above average does not even need to be corrected, since a person can quite deservedly respect and appreciate himself, and self-respect has never bothered anyone.

But it happens (and often) that self-esteem is far from optimal and significantly above or below the average level. In this case, it has a serious impact on a person's actions and can lead to inappropriate behavior with others.

Individual characteristics of people with high self-esteem

People with overly high self-esteem can be quickly noticed in any team - they strive to be in the public eye, advise everyone, lead everyone and dominate everywhere. Such people are characterized by the following features:

• they overestimate their capabilities and their importance;
• they do not perceive criticism, and they are annoyed by someone else's opinion that does not coincide with their own;
• often have a superiority complex, considering themselves right in everything;
• emphatically independent and even arrogant;
• reject the help and support of others;
• they blame other people or circumstances for their failures and problems;
• do not notice their weaknesses or pass them off as strengths, for example, stubbornness for perseverance, and arrogance for determination;
• often differ in a demonstrative type of behavior, they like to perform deeds for show;
• tend to be disrespectful towards others.

There is an opinion that it is better to have an overestimated self-esteem than an underestimated one. But it all depends on the level - people who value themselves too highly can be very unpleasant.

Low self-esteem

People with a level of self-esteem significantly below the average are not always immediately noticeable, especially in a team. They do not seek to be seen and seem simply modest. But in the process of communicating with them, their far from the most pleasant qualities are revealed:

• indecision and excessive caution;
• dependence on the opinions of other people and the constant need for their support;
• the desire to shift responsibility, including for their actions, onto the shoulders of others;
• inferiority complex and, as a consequence, excessive vulnerability, quarrelsomeness;
• excessive demands on oneself and others, perfectionism;
• pettiness, vindictiveness and envy;
• suffering from low self-esteem, they nevertheless try to prove to everyone their "toughness" and commit inadequate actions.

Low self-esteem also makes people selfish, only this is a different kind of selfishness. They are so immersed in their failures and obsessed with self-pity that they do not notice the problems of their loved ones. Very often, those who have too low a level of self-esteem do not know how to respect or love.

Structure of self-assessment

In the structure of self-esteem, psychologists distinguish two components: cognitive and emotional:

• The cognitive component (from the Latin cognition - knowledge) includes a person's knowledge about himself, his abilities, skills, capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. This component is formed in the process of self-knowledge and largely affects the level of self-esteem. Inadequate self-esteem, as a rule, is associated either with ideas about one's own "I" that do not correspond to reality, or with their lack of formation.
• The emotional component is the attitude of the individual towards himself and various manifestations of his own personality. that we feel for ourselves are very contradictory: approval and disapproval, self-esteem or lack of it,.

The differences between these two components are purely theoretical, in real life they coexist in an inseparable unity - our knowledge of our qualities is always emotionally colored.

Factors affecting the formation of self-esteem

Inadequate self-esteem is always bad, it creates discomfort and problems for both the person himself and his environment. But can the individual be blamed for a misconception of himself? What influences self-esteem?

Social factors

The foundations of self-esteem are laid in childhood, from the moment when the baby is aware of his "I" and begins to compare himself with other children and adults. But in preschool, and even at primary school age, children still cannot adequately analyze their qualities and their behavior, so the evaluation sphere is formed completely under the influence of adults. Remember how V. Mayakovsky: “The baby son came to his father, and the baby asked: - What is good? And what is bad?

People with a sensitive psyche are more worried about their failures and because of the assessments of others than less emotional ones.

• A person who is dominated by the features of a melancholic tends to get upset even because of a slight accidental remark and remember it for a long time.
• The phlegmatic may not even pay attention to the remark.
• Closed, unsociable, because of the assessments of others, they experience less than sociable extroverts. On the other hand, due to their propensity for demonstrative behavior, they often suffer from inflated self-esteem. But people who avoid people, who prefer loneliness, often consider themselves superior to others, despise those around them who are unworthy of communicating with them.

That is, the individual characteristics of the individual, of course, affect the formation of self-esteem, but the vector of it is set primarily by the social environment. There is another important factor associated with a person's assessment of his own "I".

Claim level

We all strive for something in life, set goals for ourselves. And these goals are different: someone wants to earn money for a new apartment, someone wants to create their own prosperous company, and for someone a trip to the sea is the ultimate dream. The degree of complexity, the difficulty of the goal or task that a person defines for himself, is the level of his claims.

As well as self-esteem, the level of claims can be adequate or inadequate. Adequate is one where the goals correspond to the capabilities of a person. If a school graduate with poor knowledge and low grades in the Unified State Exam decides to apply to a prestigious university in the capital, then he has a clearly inadequate, overestimated level of claims. And when a good student refuses to enter a higher educational institution because he is afraid of failing, then his level of aspirations is too low. Both of these are bad.

The level of claims is formed under the influence of successes and failures that accompany a person on the path of life, and, in turn, affects the formation of self-esteem. After all, an athlete, constantly setting himself a bar over which he will not be able to jump, will very quickly be disappointed in his abilities and in the opportunity to succeed. Yes, and an underestimated level of claims does not contribute to the development of self-esteem and self-confidence.

But psychologists still believe that a low level is worse than a high one and has a bad effect on the formation of a personality and its position in society. It makes a person a socially passive loser, not striving for success.

Self-Esteem Correction

The possibility of changing their self-esteem towards a more adequate one excites many people. This is especially true for mature and seemingly accomplished individuals, when a person realizes that an incorrect assessment of his strengths and capabilities prevents him from achieving success and has a bad effect on relationships with others.

Self-esteem can be corrected even on its own, although in especially neglected cases, the help of a psychotherapist or a counseling psychologist is required. But it’s easier to increase self-esteem than to reduce an inadequately high one. More precisely, there are conditions under which self-esteem decreases, but most often they are unpleasant and even.

If the individual realized that he had an inadequately high self-esteem, then he was able to look at himself critically, and therefore, he did not have such an overestimated self-esteem. In any case, he is already on the right track.

There are many tips for boosting self-esteem. But first you need to figure out in which area you underestimate yourself. What do you no longer like about yourself or what do you lack to increase your self-esteem? Write out on a separate sheet in a column the main areas in which a person is realized:

• relationships with people;
• professional activity (or choice of profession);
• appearance;
• knowledge level, ;
• hobbies;
• family.

You can add something important for you. Now rate your success in these areas on a 10-point scale. If the scores are slightly higher than 5 points, then your self-esteem is within the normal range, but you can increase it. And if it is significantly lower than 5, then special attention should be paid to this area.

Think about why you think you are not successful in this area? And what do you lack to feel more confident, start to respect yourself and even admire? Write down on a separate sheet what you need. And start working on eliminating these shortcomings.

As you can see, nothing complicated. And if you would like a “magic pill” or a ready-made recipe, there are none. People are all different, our problems are also different. But there are some general tips to improve self-esteem:

• Stop comparing yourself to others. Remember, each person is unique, not better or worse, just different. And your advantage is that you are different from others.
• Look around and try to see all the best and brightest. Stop, fix this feeling in your head and try not to allow any more negative thoughts - they attract failure.
• Starting any business, focus on success, defeat comes to those who are waiting for it.
• Smile. A smile is a powerful tool that sets our state to positive. But it is no less important that it sets the people around us to a higher appreciation of us.
• Write down all your virtues on a piece of paper and re-read them often, especially when you feel insecure and fear of failure.
• Be more open. Feel free to reach out to people for help and support.

To increase self-esteem, the approval and praise of others is very important. Therefore, find yourself a hobby or hobbies in which you can succeed, and do not hesitate to demonstrate these successes. Draw, knit, cross-stitch, collect pictures from plastic corks or photograph unusual clouds. And share your successes, seek praise. Now with the development of communication in social networks, this is not difficult to do.

1 lesson. Self-esteem and level of claims

The choice of a profession is the same eternal theme as love. And the consequences of a professional choice for each person are no less significant than the choice of a life partner. It is unlikely that programs will ever be created that allow in both cases to make an unmistakable choice. And this is good. Because a decision made for a person, imposed, prompted, even with the best intentions, and not suffered, will cause rejection, unless the person is completely devoid of will and is able to answer for his actions. Is there a chance to make such a choice that “it would not hurt for the aimless years lived”? There is. To do this, you need to have the original data. How to solve the problem without them? The data that must be taken into account when choosing a profession and planning a professional career are, first of all, the psychological characteristics of a person. Both the inner life of a person and its external manifestations are built according to certain laws, which are studied and described by psychology. Ignorance of these laws does not exempt us from punishment, which sometimes seems too severe: a person who hates his work is able to poison life not only for himself, but also for those around him.

The Psychology and Career Choice program will help you understand yourself, realize your strengths and weaknesses, learn the pros and cons of various professions. The result of our work will be the preparation of a personal professional plan and the defense of the project "My Future Profession".

In each lesson, you will learn something new about yourself or about professions through special tasks and exercises. The information obtained through psychological tests is confidential, that is, secret. Thus, the first condition of our work isconfidentiality.Another important condition is sincerity in answering questions. If you knowingly give false answers to questions about your behavior in various situations, then the test results will be unreliable.

At the end of each lesson there is a control task consisting of five questions. For five correct answers, you get an “excellent” mark, for four - “good”, and so on. Some tasks you will complete in class, others at home.

• Most of the tests are based on self-assessment. To accurately assess your capabilities, it is not enough to have at your disposal specially selected and proven methods. We need to know the scale by which we evaluate ourselves. And she's different for everyone. The ancients believed that man is the measure of all things. So, how many people - so many measuring instruments?

Task number 1. "Who am I?"

Within 5 minutes, answer the question “Who am I?” ten times in different ways. Write down the answers as they come to your mind.

Are you familiar with the word "presentation"? It means a public performance, the opening of something or someone - a new song, a book, a restaurant. At the presentation, they try to show the product with its face - to emphasize its advantages and hide its shortcomings.

self-presentationis the presentation or discovery of oneself to other people. We imagine ourselves when we show up at a new company, go to college, get a job. The purpose of the presentation is to give people a favorable impression of themselves. Psychologists believe that the impression of a person is formed in the first minute of communication with him. And it almost always turns out to be true. It is easy to spoil a good impression: for this you need to be regularly late for important meetings, violate agreements, dress tastelessly, speak out of place, etc. Correcting a bad impression is much more difficult.

Answering the question "Who am I?", you designate the place that you occupy in this world, construct the image of your "I". If you were able to come up with no more than 5 characteristics for yourself, you probably either don’t want to open up even to yourself, or you rarely think about yourself, using only the most obvious characteristics (“I am a person, a student”, etc.) Perhaps you enough. But if you are so restrained in a real presentation, your interlocutor will have to “finish” your image himself.

Let's analyze the content of the answers. Are there critical comments among them? Perhaps in life you tend to exaggerate your shortcomings, stick them out. Follow the advice of André Maurois: “Never talk bad about yourself. Your friends will do it for you."

Most often there are role and biographical characteristics (“boy”, “girl”, “son”, “daughter”). Pay attention to how many of these characteristics are in your self-portrait. If they are in the majority, perhaps you present yourself in life as the bearer of formal characteristics that millions of people can subscribe to. Where is your individuality? Have you forgotten about her or is she gone?

It happens that different answers revolve around the same topic - their hobbies, relationships with other people, plans for the future. Sometimes this is how problems appear that unconsciously determine your actions.

What tense are the verbs in your answers - present, future or past? Or are they out of time? If most of the answers refer to the past ("I was a promising athlete"), you may still cling to it, sorting through yesterday's successes like old photographs.

It happens that a person does not live, but prepares for life. “When I grow up… When I graduate… When I get married… When I buy a car… When I build a house…” and so on ad infinitum. Planning is good and even necessary. However, it happens that life turns into a long exhausting race with intermediate finishes. When you place all your hopes on the future, what are you leaving for today and for yourself today?

Don't worry about the Future - it hasn't been born yet.
Bury the past - it's dead.
Live the present!
Only in it the soul works together with God!

Henry Longfellow

If your answers include the past, present and future, then you have a full sense of your life.

The test you just completed is based on your self-assessment.

Self-esteem is the ability to evaluate oneself. This is a measuring device that is always with you. Most of the techniques you will come across in this book are also based on self-assessment. That is why it is so important that the device is accurate. Otherwise, the information received will be unreliable and lead to an incorrect decision.

Task number 2. "What am I?"

Task number 3. "The best".

Each student receives a piece of paper on which he must write the names of those girls and boys from the class whom he considers to be the first in the nominations “the smartest”, “the kindest” and “the most beautiful”. The teacher collects the papers and reads the names. Three or four surnames that occur most often are written on the board. Winners can be awarded symbolic prizes, certificates, distinctions. This exercise makes you think about how your own assessment matches the assessment of other people.

• About how dangerous negative self-esteem, we are warned by the story of the brilliant physicist Ehrenfest. Many now famous scientists asked his advice. His help was invaluable. Others benefited from his discoveries. Ehrenfest's tragedy was low self-esteem. He always doubted his innocence. Once he considered himself absolutely incapable and committed suicide. Therefore, few people know about him.
• However, fame did not make happy the great actress Greta Garbo, who also had low self-esteem. She had millions of fans, but almost no friends. She was so shy and insecure that she couldn't film in front of people. An exception was made only for stage partners and the cameraman. She celebrated the holidays alone in her huge castle.
• These completely different people with such different destinies were incredibly talented and successful in their professional activities. The reason for their misfortune was low self-esteem, that is, the inability to accept and love themselves, to recognize their possible imperfection.

American psychologist William James developed a self-esteem formula, sometimes called the happiness formula:

SELF-ASSESSMENT = SUCCESS / LEVEL OF CLAIMS

The level of claims of the individualis the desire to achievegoals the degree of complexity that a person considers himself capable of.

People who haverealistic level of claims, are distinguished by confidence, perseverance in achieving their goals, greater productivity compared to people whose level of claims is inadequate to their abilities and capabilities.

The discrepancy between the claims and the real possibilities of a person leads to the fact that he begins to evaluate himself incorrectly, his behavior becomes inadequate, there areemotional breakdowns, increasedanxiety . From this it follows that the level of claims is closely related to the self-esteem of the individual and the motivation to achieve success in various activities.

There are only two ways to increase self-esteem:

1) achieve success in any activity;

2) reduce the level of claims.

Only great people manage to achieve both at the same time.

• Einstein was amazed to discover one day that he was one of the most famous people in the world. To people, he seemed as strange as his theory of relativity. By the way, he himself explained his theory like this: a man sits with a pretty girl - and the hours fly by unnoticed. But if he had to sit on a red-hot stove, the minute would drag on endlessly. This is relativity.
• Once the captain of a transatlantic liner offered him to choose any cabin. Einstein said that he was absolutely indifferent to the conditions, he. ready to travel even on the steering wheel. He despised fame, money and titles. Happiness for him consisted of work, playing the violin and sailing. (D. Carnegie, Little-known facts about well-known people, M., 1993).

If your goal is to live in harmony with yourself and the world, it is necessary that the level of claims correspond to success. The problem is that everyone understands success in their own way.

What do you mean by "success"?

Task number 4. "Success is..."

Within 3 minutes, answer the question in different ways: “What is success?” Write down the answers as they come to your mind.

So, you have got acquainted with the most important concepts of psychology - "self-image", "self-perception", "self-presentation", "self-esteem", "level of claims".

Answer the questions of task number 4 on your own, marking the option that you think is correct.

Task number 5.

Questions for understanding the topic of the lesson.

1. The ability to evaluate yourself is called:

a) self-employment, b) self-esteem , c) self-presentation, c) self-perception.

2. Self-esteem is primarily affected by:

but) level of claims, b) attractiveness; c) diligence, d) health.

3. The most important principle of psychodiagnostics is called:

a) congruence, b)confidentiality, c) tolerance, d) loyalty.

4. "Formula of happiness" brought:

a) Pavlov; b) Selye; in) James, d) Hippocrates.

5. The reliability of test results is affected by your:

a) sincerity , b) criticality, c) sociability, d) independence.

As the main conditions for the development of self-esteem, psychologists put forward such factors as communication with others and the child's own activities. In communication, forms, types and criteria of assessments are assimilated, in individual experience they are tested, filled with personal meanings. From the assessments of himself by those around him, the child gradually singles out the criteria and methods for evaluating the other and transfers them to himself. "Overlay" on each other evaluation criteria and methods of evaluation and generates the activity of self-evaluation.

According to L.I. Bozhovich, the correct formation of self-esteem is one of the most important factors in the development of a child's personality.

The formation of self-esteem and self-esteem is influenced by many factors that operate already in early childhood - the attitude of parents, position among peers, the attitude of teachers. Comparing the opinions of the people around him about himself, a person forms a self-esteem of himself, and it is curious that a person first learns to evaluate others, and then evaluate himself. And only by the age of 14-15, a teenager masters the ability of introspection, self-observation and reflection, analyzes his own results and thereby evaluates himself (“If I didn’t save in a difficult situation, then I’m not a coward”, “If I could master a difficult task, then , I am capable”, etc.).

There are three areas in relationships with parents that are particularly significant as sources of feedback that affect the formation of self-esteem in children:

Parents' knowledge of the child's friends;

Parents' interest in the child's learning outcomes;

The interaction of parents with the child in a general conversation at the table.

Relationships in these three areas can serve as an indicator of interest in the well-being and development of the child.

In early school and adolescence, the emotional life of a child is largely determined by the circle of his friends, who can act as the main extension of himself. Therefore, the reaction of parents to the friends of their son or daughter is an indirect indicator of their interest in the child. The apparent indifference of parents contributes to the formation of low self-esteem in the child.

Interest in the results of the child's learning is an important indicator of the general interest of parents in the child. One way to judge how the child is doing at school is the school diary. Therefore, the reaction of parents to the current entries in the diary characterizes their attitude to the child's education as a whole, to his abilities and personal qualities.

Initially, the position of the child among peers is determined by the teacher. The child learns and is brought up not face to face with a teacher, but in a team in which there is a constant comparison of children among themselves, reinforced by the teacher's assessments. Therefore, the underachieving child, like all other children, is constantly exposed, as it were, to social “review”, finds himself in an evaluative situation. Since teacher grades (especially in the lower grades) are a measure accepted by all children, this situation turns out to be very unfavorable for a poor student. He immediately, in terms of his social position - the position of a student - turns out to be a rank lower than others.

A special variant of self-esteem in adolescence. An adolescent's assessment of his qualities (even such as physical strength, and those associated with sexual development) occurs from the point of view of the degree of adulthood. The teenager, as it were, singles out the "standard of adulthood", evaluates himself and looks at himself through this standard.

N. Gekas, studying the situational variability of self-esteem in adolescents, proved the influence of social contexts. It turned out that the support of parents significantly affects the self-esteem of adolescents, but only in the presence of adults, while in situations of communication with peers, this dependence is not observed. The most important was the context of communication - peers, and the least significant - the school. The variability of self-esteem is manifested in the feeling of one's ability to influence circumstances. At the same time, the feeling of one's own value remains quite stable and by the end of adolescence is less and less influenced by the environment. .

outlook

Self-esteem of a person as the most important component of his "I-concept"

Snezhana Ivanova

A person as a social being constantly receives an assessment of his actions and actions as from the people around him ...

In the course of his life, a person as a social being constantly receives an assessment of his actions and actions both from the people around him, who occupy an important place in his life, and from society as a whole. On the basis of such assessments, during the life path of each person, the formation of self-esteem takes place, which has a significant impact on the functioning of such mental components of a person’s mental activity as self-discipline and self-control. A person's self-esteem is also an essential component of the self-concept of a person, or rather, its evaluative side. The self-concept is the core of the personality and is based on the knowledge that a person has gained during his life about himself and under the direct influence of his self-esteem.

Self-esteem(or a person's assessment of himself, his qualities, capabilities and position among other people), being the core of personality, plays the role of the most important regulator of human behavior and actions. It depends on it whether a person will live in harmony with the outside world and how well he will build relationships with others. Self-esteem affects all spheres of a person’s life, as well as his life position (it has an impact on a person’s relationship with other people and society as a whole, on the level of exactingness and criticality towards himself, on the formation of a person’s attitude to his successes or failures, etc. .d.). Therefore, self-esteem not only affects the effectiveness and success of a person's activities at the moment, but also determines the entire subsequent process of development of the personality itself.

Human self-esteem: definition and features

In psychology, self-esteem is defined as the most important component of the self-concept of a person, as a value and significance that a person endows with both individual aspects of his personality, behavior and activity, and himself as a whole. Self-esteem of a person is most often understood as a subjective assessment of his capabilities (this includes physical, intellectual, emotional-volitional, communication capabilities), moral qualities, his attitude towards himself and others, as well as his place in society.

Although self-esteem contains built-in personal meanings and meanings, as well as systems of relationships and values, it is at the same time a rather complex mental form of the inner world of people, while reflecting the nature of the self-attitude of the individual, the degree of self-esteem, the level of claims and value acceptance of oneself or rejection. Self-esteem performs many functions, among which a special role belongs to the protective and regulatory functions.

In psychology, the first serious attempts to study the nature of self-esteem and the features of its formation were made by the American psychologist and philosopher William James, who devoted many of his works to the development of the problem of "I". W. James believed that a person's self-esteem can be of the following kind:

• complacency which finds its manifestation in pride, arrogance, arrogance and vanity;
• discontent manifested in modesty, embarrassment, shame, insecurity, repentance, despair, humiliation and awareness of one's shame.

The formation of self-esteem, its nature, functions and connection with other mental manifestations of human life were also of interest to many domestic psychologists. So, for example, S.L. Rubinstein saw in self-esteem, which is inextricably linked with the self-consciousness of a person, first of all, the core of personality, which is based both on people's assessment of an individual, and on the assessment by this individual of those around him. According to the psychologist, self-esteem is based on values ​​(which a person accepts) that determine the mechanisms of self-regulation and self-control by a person of his behavior and activities at the intrapersonal level.

Known in the last century in scientific circles, Aida Zakharova (she studied the genesis of self-esteem) saw in a person's self-esteem a nuclear formation of a personality. Through this formation, in her opinion, there is a refraction and subsequent mediation of all lines of mental development and the formation of personality. In this context, the statements of A.N. Leontiev, who believed that self-esteem is an essential condition that provides an opportunity for an individual to become a personality.

In the psychological literature, self-esteem is associated with the level of a person's claims, and this approach originates in the works of Kurt Lewin, one of the representatives of Gestalt psychology. The level of claims in psychology is understood as a certain desire of a person to achieve a goal, which, in his opinion, is characterized by the level of complexity with which he is able to cope. Thus, the level of claims is seen as the level of difficulties of those goals and objectives that a person chooses for himself, and they are formed primarily due to the influence of past successes or failures in activities. That is why successes in past activities (more specifically, the experience by the subject of activity and his achievements as successful or unsuccessful) contribute to an increase in the level of aspiration and, accordingly, cause an increase in a person's self-esteem.

In principle, all theoretical approaches to the study of self-esteem can be conditionally grouped into three main groups according to the aspect or function that was given priority (they are described in the table).

Theoretical ideas about human self-esteem

An analysis of the main theoretical approaches to the problem of human self-esteem allows scientists to highlight the main points that help in understanding the essence of this psychological category. The following features of self-assessment should be highlighted:

• self-esteem, being one of the components of the "I-concept" of the individual (self-consciousness) and is in close connection with its other components (self-attitude, self-knowledge and self-regulation);
• understanding of self-esteem is based on assessments and emotions;
• self-esteem is inseparable from the motives of the individual, his goals, beliefs, ideals, values ​​and value orientations;
• self-esteem is also a mechanism for self-regulation of human behavior and activities;
• self-esteem can be studied both as a process and as an outcome;
• analysis of self-esteem as a process presupposes the existence of an internal basis and comparison with the norms of society, the standards adopted in it and with other people.

Human self-esteem performs many different functions, namely: regulatory, protective, developmental, prognostic, etc., which are described in more detail in the table.

Self-assessment features

So, a person's self-esteem involves an assessment of himself as a whole and individual components of his personality, namely, his actions and actions, his qualities and relationships, his orientation and beliefs, and much more. An increase in a person's self-esteem depends on many factors, among which the presence of a successful experience, praise and support from others, as well as the temporal characteristics of self-esteem itself are of particular importance. So self-esteem can be stable and retain all its features, regardless of the situation and external stimuli, and unstable, that is, changing depending on external influences and the internal state of the individual. A person's self-esteem is closely related to his level of claims (they also affect the formation of self-esteem), which can have a different level - low, medium and high.

In addition to the fact that self-esteem is associated with a person’s self-awareness and his level of claims, its formation is influenced by: the need for self-affirmation and self-development, the general orientation of the personality, the level of development of cognitive processes and the emotional-volitional sphere, the general state of a person and, of course, society, or rather, opinion and assessments of people around (especially significant ones).

Types and levels of self-esteem of the individual

In psychology, a person's self-esteem is characterized (and, accordingly, divided into certain types) by many parameters, namely:

• depending on the level (or value) of self-esteem, it can be high, medium or low;
• according to its realism, adequate and inadequate self-esteem are distinguished, among which they distinguish underestimated and overestimated;
• depending on the features of the structure of self-esteem, it can be conflict and conflict-free (it can also be called constructive and destructive);
• as for the temporal relationship, then there are prognostic, actual and retrospective self-assessment;
• depending on the stability of self-esteem, it can be stable and unstable.

In addition to those listed, they also distinguish general self-esteem (or global), in which the rewards experienced by a person are reflected or the censure of one's actions, deeds and qualities, and private self-esteem (it refers only to certain external features or qualities of a person).

Most often in the psychological literature there is a division of self-esteem into underestimated, average (or adequate) and overestimated. All these levels of self-esteem are formed under the influence of assessments from the outside, which subsequently develop into self-esteem by a person of himself. The most optimal level of self-esteem for a person is adequate, at which a person correctly (realistically) assesses his capabilities, actions, deeds, character traits and personality traits. A person with this level of self-esteem always objectively evaluates both his successes and his failures, therefore he tries to set achievable goals and, accordingly, achieves good results more often.

It should be noted that in psychology the phrase “optimal self-esteem” is also used, to which most psychologists include the following levels:

• average level of self-esteem;
• above average;
• high level of self-esteem.

All other levels that do not fall into the category of optimal self-esteem are considered suboptimal (they include low and high self-esteem). Low self-esteem indicates a person who underestimates himself and is not confident in his own abilities. Most often, people with such self-esteem do not undertake to start a new business for themselves, do not like to be in the spotlight and try not to take on excessive responsibility. Psychologists say that there are two types of low self-esteem:

• low level of self-esteem and low level of claims (excessively low self-esteem, when a person exaggerates all his shortcomings);
• a low level of self-esteem and a high level of claims (it has another name - the effect of inadequacy, which can indicate an inferiority complex formed in a person and a constant internal feeling of increased anxiety).

Inflated self-esteem suggests that a person often overestimates his abilities and himself. Such people manifest various unreasonable claims to the people around them and the situations that have arisen. People with high self-esteem do not know how to build constructive relationships with other people, so they often contribute to the destruction of interpersonal contacts.

It is necessary for a person to know the level of self-esteem, because this will help him, if necessary, to direct his efforts to its correction. Modern psychological science gives many different tips on how to increase self-esteem and make it adequate.

Formation and development of self-esteem

The formation of a person's self-esteem begins in the preschool period, and parents and surrounding adults have the greatest influence on this process. So parents can unconsciously form low self-esteem in a child if they do not trust him, constantly emphasize his carelessness and irresponsibility (for example, tell the child “do not take a mug, otherwise you will break it, do not touch the phone - you will break it”, etc.). Or vice versa, the development of a child’s self-esteem can go in the direction of its overestimation if parents praise the child excessively, exaggerating his abilities and merits (for example, saying that the child is never to blame for anything, and the blame lies with other children, caregivers, etc.). d.).

A child's self-esteem is formed under the influence of many factors, namely:

• the influence of parents, their assessment and personal example;
• mass media, information technologies;
• social environment;
• educational institutions (preschool, and then secondary, secondary special and higher)
• upbringing;
• personality traits of the child himself, the level of his intellectual development;
• the orientation of the child's personality and the level of his claims.

At primary school age, the development of self-esteem is influenced by the leading type of activity in this period - teaching, which is most implemented at school. It is here, under the influence of the teacher's assessment, his approval or rejection, that the child's self-esteem begins to actively form.

A serious influence on the formation of assessment in adolescence is exerted by the desire of the child to establish himself in the team of classmates and take a significant place in it, as well as the desire to win authority and respect from them. Among the main sources of the formation of value judgments, which will subsequently affect the level of self-esteem of a teenager, the following should be noted:

• family;
• school;
• reference group;
• intimate personal communication

The development of a person's self-esteem occurs due to the internalization of external assessments and social reactions to a particular individual. Here we should recall the representative of the humanistic trend in psychology, Carl Rogers, who said that a person's self-esteem is always formed on the basis of its assessment by the surrounding people. An important role in the process of forming a person's self-esteem is also assigned to the comparison of the images of the "I", namely the real I (who I really am) with the ideal I (what I want to be). Also, one should not underestimate the influence of communication with other people, because it is in the process of interpersonal interaction that a person receives the most assessments in his address.

So, self-esteem is not a constant value, since it is dynamic and changes under the influence of various factors, life circumstances and conditions of the surrounding reality.