The development of the self-concept. the self-concept is developed primarily
through our communication with others. because humans are social, we develop an
understanding of ourselves as a result of our relationships with others. a
significant other is a person whose feedback is especially important to us.
the significant others opinions about us are crucial in our role of developing
our understanding of ourselves and of how others view us. we develop our
opinions about ourselves by observing the way that others respond to and
communicate with us. for example a child's parents are significant others.
their feedback helps the child understand who he or she is. as the child
gets older when older siblings opinions may also be valued. later on, an
influential teacher or an athletic coach may become a significant other. in the
teen years perhaps certain members of the peer group become significant others.
how dependent do you think the people in the photographs are on receiving
valuable feedback from the significant others? in each case the significant
other plays a role in helping the individual develop an understanding of
him or herself. I am a good girl. I do well in reading. I can't hit a curveball,
I guess baseball is not for me. my conductor expects me to be a strong
influence on the rest of the violin section. I think he likes my company. I
must be the love of her life. the influence of significant others
continues as we mature but is not as strong as when we were children or
adolescents. as we become more sure of ourselves we are less influenced by the
criticism or praise of our significant others. the influence will never
completely go away however. even as adults we use the opinions of
significant others informing our understanding of ourselves. my dad thinks
this would be a good career move for me and he finally treats me like a man. my
boss gave me a good way to think about writing this proposal. I'm glad he has
confidence in me in handling this important project it really helps to
talk to my pastor when life seems to be overwhelming me I feel a lot more secure
our culture plays an important role in how we determine what will influence us
we are influenced not only by significant others but by outside forces
such as the media consider our American cultures general stereotype of what is
considered attractive much has been documented about the effect of the ideal
female form on young women's view of their own attractiveness view the
following covers of several popular magazines think about the influence that
these images have on readers as well as on casual observers for example a
twelve-year-old girl who does not read Cosmopolitan magazine but every week at
the grocery store checkout line sees the models that the magazine promotes this
form of media can play a role in shaping people's opinions about what they should
look like what they should be doing and what their sex lives should be like if
such media images have no influence what then must be people's already developed
self concept about sex glamour and relationships if these images do play a
role under the effect self-concept and how people communicate with each other
our self-concept goes through constant evaluation and adjustment throughout our lives.
this completes our learning activity on the development of the self-concept