HOW SELF-CONCEPT, SELF-ESTEEM AND SELF-EFFICACY CHANGE YOUR SELF-CONFIDENCE

Compiled By: Mbeyune Hanani

Early childhood is a season of developing an initial sense of self.

Self-concept is our self-description according to various categories, such as our external and internal qualities.

In contrast, self- esteem is an evaluative judgment about who we are.

Self-concept

If I asked you to tell me who you are, your response would be clues as to how you see yourself. In other situations, personal characteristics, such as our abilities, personality, and other distinguishing features. Our self-concept is also formed through our interactions with others, their reactions to us as well as comparisons to other people.

Self-Esteem

Self-esteem refers to the judgments and evaluations we make about our self- concept. While self-concept is a broad description of the self, self-esteem is a more specifically an evaluation of the self. How we judge ourselves affects our communication and our behaviours.

Positive self-esteem for youths is important as it allows them to try new things, take healthy risks and solve problems.

Characteristics of Low Self-Esteem

Individuals with low self-esteem tend to have:

• Feelings of unhappiness and anxiety: Their sense of satisfaction and contentment with life is usually derived from how we feel about ourselves. They also tend to experience anxiety, especially social anxiety.

• Feelings of inferiority or superiority: due to the belief that they don't measure up to some standard that others meet although some may present with superiority which may be a way of covering how they truly feel about themselves.

• Externally oriented goals: They often determine goals based upon what others might want or need as they often feel that their needs or desires are unimportant.

• Negativity: This negativity may not always be externally observed but internal self-talk is usually negative such as criticizing oneself to others and excessively apologizing.

Characteristics of High Self-Esteem

Individuals with high self-esteem demonstrate:

1. Responsibility: because they are able to take responsibility for themselves and the consequences of their actions.

2. Goal commitment: they tend to have a strong sense of purpose and commitment to goals in life.

3. Genuineness: they are genuine with themselves and others both emotionally and intellectually as they aren't fearful of others truly knowing them.

4. Forgiving: High self-esteem tends to correspond with tolerance and acceptance of limitations.

5. Positivity: People with high self-esteem are positive with an appreciative and grateful attitude towards life as they tend to look for the positive aspects of life.

How to Improve Ones Self-Esteem

1) Eliminate negative self-talk. Eliminating negative self-talk means being careful about how you talk to yourself and to not be self-destructive.

2) Recognize strengths. It is important to pay attention to strengths and to appreciate the strengths no matter how small they may seem.

3) Recognize self-worth. It is important to recognize that you are a unique human being with worth. You need to frequently reinforce this idea by continuing to focus on your self-worth.

4) Accept mistakes and rejection. Recognize that mistakes are part of the human condition. The more actively you are involved in life, the more mistakes you will make and the more you can believe that everyone doesn't have to like you, the less you need to feel bad or be ashamed of your imperfections.

Self-Efficacy

Self-Efficacy refers to the judgments people make about their ability to perform a task within a specific context.

Self-efficacy is the strength of your belief in your ability to achieve goals. A lack of self-efficacy can lead to a pattern of dark, hidden, normalizing behaviours, and therefore to the abandonment of the pursuit of desired goals. If you have low self-efficacy, you just don't believe that you can achieve your dreams.

Characteristics of Low Self-Efficacy among Youths

People with low self-efficacy are characterized by the following:

1. Fear of risks: because they are often unwilling to try new things because they are convinced that the result will be failure.

2. Fear of uncertainty: due to self-doubt and uncertainty.

3. Feelings of failure: because they try to avoid or not try new things.

4. Impression management: Impression management is the attempt to control how others might perceive you in order to be seen more positively.

Characteristics of High Self-Efficacy among Youths

Individuals with high self-efficacy have:

1. Self-confidence: This value approaches tasks with a sense of their ability to be successful.

2. Accurate self-evaluation: because they are neither overly-critical nor overly positive but are able to examine themselves realistically.

3. Willingness to take risks: they understand that taking calculated risks increases the chances of success and are not fearful of failure or mistakes.

How to Improve Self-Efficacy

1) Develop skill set. The most important way to improve self-efficacy is to develop the skill set you need to be effective thus developing competence.

2) Modelling. One way to learn the necessary skills is through observation. When you observe others being rewarded, you are more likely to be able to model yourself after their behaviour. 4) Reinforcement. The more behaviour is reinforced, the more likely it will continue. If you want to improve your self-efficacy focus on what you do well and reinforce it.

Conclusion

The relationship between Self-Efficacy, Self-Esteem, and Self-Concept is that judgments about our self- efficacy influence our self-esteem, which influences our self-concept.

Compiled By: Mbeyune Hanani