The role of self-esteem in personality development article on psychology on the topic

The role of self-esteem in personality development article on psychology on the topic

The role of self-esteem in personality formation.

In life, we constantly express our attitude towards our surroundings: like or dislike, beautiful or ugly, cheap or expensive, etc. This is an assessment - determining the value, establishing the quality, degree, level, value of something or someone. The assessment is based on comparison with some sample or example. Have you ever assessed yourself? Your qualities, advantages and disadvantages? Did your assessment of yourself match that of others?

Let's look at a criterion that may be the most decisive in the development of a child's personality, a criterion that determines his self-confidence, his effectiveness in demonstrating independence, but is not always correct (objective) - this is the assessment of you by those around you. Your own selves are nothing more than transformed (converted) ideas, opinions of the people around you. And God forbid, if these opinions are negative, evil, you yourself can become evil. This is how such transformations occurred with Lermontov’s “hero of our time” Pechorin:

“Yes, this has been my lot since childhood! Everyone read on my face signs of bad qualities that were not there; but they were anticipated - and they were born. I was modest - I was accused of guile: I became secretive. I felt good and evil deeply; no one caressed me, everyone insulted me: I became vindictive; I was gloomy - other children were cheerful and talkative; I felt superior to them; they put me below. I became envious. I was ready to love the whole world - no one understood me: and I learned to hate.”

Evaluating yourself, your qualities, your strengths and weaknesses is called self-esteem. However, it is formed under the influence of various factors, including the assessment of others...

Self-esteem is the value that an individual attributes to himself or to his individual qualities. The main evaluation criterion is the individual’s system of personal meanings. The main functions performed by self-esteem are regulatory, on the basis of which problems of personal choice are solved, and protective, ensuring relative stability and independence of the individual.

It is known that self-esteem acts as the most important means of self-regulation. Formed in the process of activity, self-esteem is addressed to its different stages. Self-esteem, reflecting the stage of orientation in one’s capabilities in upcoming activities, is aimed at the future and is called prognostic. Self-esteem, which manifests itself in the course of activity and is aimed at its correction, is called corrective. Self-assessment at the final stage of activity, the content of which is the assessment of performance results, is called retrospective. It may be complete or incomplete, objective or inadequate.

In our theoretical material, we consider self-esteem as an integrative quality of the individual, formed in the process of activity and manifested in the individual’s critical attitude towards himself, his capabilities, his personal qualities and his place among other people. It should be assumed that the development of self-esteem is based on the process of establishing connections in a person’s mind between his behavior and personality traits.

1) In adults, all types of self-esteem can be found: adequate, stable, overestimated, stable, unstable towards inadequate overestimation or underestimation.

2) The child’s self-esteem is dynamic and at the same time tends to be stable; it later transforms into the internal position of the individual and becomes a motive for behavior.

3) A huge role in the formation of a student’s self-esteem is played by the teacher’s assessment of his educational activities, as well as the correlation of his own successes with the successes of his classmates.

The child's psyche is a kind of piece of paper. And if the quality of this “paper” is determined by heredity, then the text that will be written on it depends entirely on the child’s environment.

Parents, relatives, friends and acquaintances, educators and teachers leave their “autographs” on his psyche. Many years will pass before the child learns to distinguish which external influences need to be accepted and which need to be resisted. But by that time, the “sheet of paper” was already covered with all sorts of notes and the feeling of guilt that you are not as good as Vasya and Petya was firmly lodged in the subconscious. The result is low self-esteem, a feeling of hostility from the outside world and surrounding people, and a feeling of loneliness. There is another manifestation of uncertainty and inadequate self-esteem - inflated self-esteem. People with this kind of self-esteem are no slouches. On the contrary, their posture is fine. An arrogant look and a contemptuous grin (or a completely inscrutable face) complement their appearance. They managed to adapt to this world without ever solving their internal problems, but simply believing in the formula: to be loved, you need to be the best, or at least seem so. The life of the “adapted” is an eternal pursuit of the best, fashionable, prestigious and expensive: from clothes to positions, from cars to life partners. Truly, nothing is impossible for them. Except, perhaps, one thing. Happiness is unknown to them, psychological comfort is unattainable.

A child's and an adult's assessment of himself is part of his self-concept. It represents a person's internal, sometimes unconscious judgment about his own worth. Only the presence of a positive assessment creates in people the experience of emotional well-being, which is a necessary condition for the normal formation of personality.

The formation of correct self-esteem of an individual should be one of the goals of managing upbringing and self-education. With inadequate self-esteem, this cohabitation with society becomes not only difficult, but also unbearable for the child, and then for the adult. The fate of the child in this case will directly depend on a number of random circumstances: neighbors, friends, external environment, acquaintances, etc. As a result, social adaptation, the formation of self-esteem, behavioral skills and demands on oneself and others will be determined by random reasons.

Primary school age The quality of a student’s academic work, as well as all of his behavior, is assessed by the school, and this assessment affects the nature of his relationships with others - teachers, parents, friends. A child who is careless about his studies, skips classes, or does not want to study will naturally be treated differently by others than a schoolchild who diligently fulfills his duties. Along with new responsibilities, the student also receives new rights. It is also very important for a junior schoolchild that, receiving good grades for his academic work, he can expect not only praise from others, but also respect. Encouragement and reward play a special role.

The main prerequisite for the formation of personality at this age is the transition to a new position of the child in society, which obliges him to responsible, socially controlled, purposeful activities, fosters a sense of duty and responsibility to others, the ability to act consciously and in an organized manner, and develops strong-willed qualities in the child.

The child’s new position fills his life with deep content, which affects the general orientation of his personality, experiences, and ideas. At primary school age, the child’s system of relationships with the surrounding reality changes, and therefore his emotional sphere changes and deepens, giving the impression that younger schoolchildren are less emotional than preschoolers. This is explained by the fact that the older the child, the better he knows how to manage his emotions. In this sense, the answers of third grade students are indicative: I want to be calm, not to be nervous. True, such answers are more typical of girls, since at this age it is more difficult for them to restrain their emotions than for boys, whose social development situation from childhood obliged them not to show certain emotions (“don’t cry, you’re a boy!”, etc.). At primary school age, not only new emotions appear, but also those that existed before school change their character and content. In this regard, studies of children's fears are very revealing. In children, fear is most often caused by something that can directly threaten the child. In younger schoolchildren, in relation to circumstances of this kind, there even appears a certain flaunting of fearlessness, since the ability to overcome fear raises the student, both in the eyes of his comrades and in his own eyes. Boys' responses often included desires to be brave. The behavior of the boys in this case, their desire to become bold, courageous, etc. determined by gender stereotype. Other forms of fear appear, arising from different sources, for example, fear of appearing funny, ugly, fear of being ridiculed, etc.

Answers related to appearance occupy a large place: I don’t want to be fat, have narrow eyes, short arms, etc. It is worth noting that during this period of development, a particularly intensive formation of the child’s moral feelings occurs, which at the same time means the formation of the moral side of his personality.

The life of a collective cannot proceed in an organized manner if it is not governed by certain rules of social behavior. Such a classroom organization practically confronts a child entering school with the need to learn the norms and rules of social behavior and public morality.

Those rules and requirements that the collective sets for the child then appear for him not as something alien to his own life and activity, but as a necessary element of his life in the collective of the class, school, as a necessary condition for his existence. For third grade students, answers like: I want to be kind, good-natured, sympathetic, I don’t want to be evil, etc. were typical.

Due to the fact that the student’s new position imposes new responsibilities on him, ideas about work arise in his mind. To fulfill responsibilities (and younger schoolchildren have many of them, both at school and at home), you need to make some effort. Children feel this and reflect this feeling in their answers: I want to clean often, I don’t want to be lazy, I want to be hardworking. Studying at school places fundamental demands on the child. Firstly, it requires the child to consciously set a special goal - to learn. Secondly, it requires subordinating your mental processes to this goal. At the beginning of school, children do not yet know how to actively memorize educational material or be constantly attentive. This is clearly demonstrated by the large number of answers: I want to retell well, I want to have a good memory, I want to be attentive. The thinking of a junior schoolchild is concrete. In our case, when asked specifically what psychological qualities you would like to add or decrease in yourself, the child sometimes answers very specifically: I don’t like the length of my hair, the fact that I have narrow eyes, etc., I want to retell it well , don’t get bad grades... A junior schoolchild rarely abstracts himself from reality, and this prevents him from distinguishing between non-psychological and actually psychological qualities.

Adolescence

When a child enters adolescence (7th grade), a very important shift occurs in the development of his self-awareness. It is associated with the emergence of a sense of adulthood. This feeling expresses a completely new attitude towards the world and oneself.

Comparing himself with adults, the teenager comes to the conclusion that there is no difference between him and the adult. He begins to demand from those around him not to consider him small, the child understands that he also has rights. A new development of this age - a child puts himself on an equal footing with adults, but he does not yet have a sense of true belonging to adulthood, but there is a great desire to be recognized among adults.

At this age, the discovery of one’s “I”, awareness of one’s individuality is characteristic; one looks for and finds flaws in oneself. Some people become dissatisfied with themselves. Teenagers strive to occupy a respected position among their peers, so it is the peer who becomes the role model. Some people see their own shortcomings, while others have inflated self-esteem, but it’s much worse when it’s the other way around, because the teenager is very worried if he finds himself worse than others.

In our case, boys need wit and confidence, but girls need calmness and modesty.

But what’s interesting is that boys would like to reduce laziness and selfishness, and girls would like to reduce laziness and irritability. But we should not forget that at this age puberty occurs and the feelings of adolescents are somewhat heightened. And in this period there is a negative phase, which is caused by increased irritability, whims, etc. Dissatisfaction with oneself is often expressed as “melancholy” or aggressive behavior.

There may be contradictions in the answers. Let's say they want to add modesty, then subtract it - this is explained by the formation of individuality. Self-confidence turns into shyness, cheerfulness gives way to isolation. Thus, only after a crisis of self-awareness does a teenager acquire a “sense of individuality.” The period of self-education, where the boy seeks and strives for the ideal of a “real man”, and the girl of a “real woman”. It is clear why these phenomena are expressed especially intensely in adolescents; these experiences are associated with a whole complex of features characteristic of this particular age: with the intensive development of self-esteem, the level of aspirations, the presence of a desire for self-affirmation; and these are the components that give rise to affective conflict and the affect of inadequacy that we described. The importance and role of self-esteem in adolescence is further enhanced by the fact that acute affective experiences have a decisive influence on the formation of character. Research has found that children with affective experiences that arise from a conflict between the child's self-esteem and his aspirations, at the same time, have corresponding affective forms of behavior.

They are prone to exaggerated and inadequate reactions, they are touchy, aggressive, distrustful, suspicious, stubborn, etc. This spoils their relationships with others, making them difficult to live with and difficult to tolerate in a team. Long-term preservation of this kind of behavior and such relationships with people leads to the fact that these affective forms of behavior are consolidated and can become stable character traits. Consequently, negative traits arise in a child reactively as a form of his defense against difficult experiences, and the beginning of the formation of such traits often dates back to adolescence. The emergence of stable self-esteem, as well as stable ideals that embody schoolchildren’s aspirations regarding the moral sphere and qualities of their personality, become the most important factors in their development by the end of adolescence. This means that during this period, internal factors of development begin to become more and more important, defining a new type of relationship between the child and the environment: the teenager is already becoming capable of independent development through self-education and self-improvement. The establishment of this type of development prepares the adolescent for the transition to a new age level, to high school age, where internal development factors become dominant.

In accordance with a person’s habitual holistic perception of the unity of his feelings, mind and will, manifestations of self-esteem can be presented in emotional, cognitive and volitional forms. At the socio-psychological level, the behavioral form of self-esteem is distinguished. At the same time, self-esteem as part of self-awareness allows you to carry out not only the function of self-regulation of behavior, but also two others: psychological protection and cognitive (cognitive) function. The formation of optimal self-esteem depends heavily on the fairness of the assessment of all these people. Adequate assessment of oneself in a situation of interaction with other people is one of the main indicators of socio-psychological adaptation. If self-esteem is deformed, then this is already a sufficient condition for social maladjustment. Adolescence is the final stage of primary socialization. The main institutions of socialization are primarily the family and the school, respectively, parents, peers and teachers. The leading motive during the formation of self-esteem is the desire to establish oneself in a group of peers, to gain authority, respect and the attention of comrades. It is typical for a young person to strive to maintain a status in the group that supports his increased self-esteem. Under the influence of the assessment of others, the individual gradually develops his own attitude towards himself and self-esteem of his personality, as well as certain forms of his activity: communication, behavior, activity, experiences.

In practice, there are two types of low self-esteem: low self-esteem combined with a low level of aspiration (totally low self-esteem) and a combination of low self-esteem with a high level of aspiration. In the first case, a person tends to exaggerate his shortcomings, and, accordingly, regard achievements as the merit of other people or attribute them to simple luck. The second case, called the “affect of inadequacy,” may indicate the development of an inferiority complex and internal anxiety of the individual. Such people strive to be the first in everything, so any situation testing their competence is assessed by them as threatening and often turns out to be very difficult emotionally. A person with the second type of low self-esteem is usually characterized by a low assessment of others.

Knowing a person’s self-esteem is very important for establishing relationships with him, for normal communication, in which people, as social beings, inevitably engage.

The four main sources of value judgments that can have a significant impact on self-esteem are family, school, reference group and intimate-personal communication.

The role of self-esteem in the self-education of older schoolchildren

1. Personality orientation in high school students.
2. Formation of self-esteem.
3. Self-awareness: “discovery of the Self.”
4. Self-education of high school students.
5. Relationships with significant adults - parents.
6. Relationships with significant adults - teachers.
7. Relationships with peers.

High school students show a certain caution in self-assessment. They are more willing to talk about their shortcomings than their strengths. Both girls and boys call it “temper,” “rudeness,” and “selfishness.” Among the positive traits, the most common self-assessments are: “loyal in friendship”, “I don’t let my friends down”, “I will help in trouble”, that is, those qualities that are important for establishing contacts with peers, or those that interfere with this, come to the fore (temper, rudeness, selfishness, etc.)

Inflated self-esteem is noticeably revealed in the exaggeration of one's mental abilities. This manifests itself in different ways: those who find it easy to study believe that in any mental work they will be at the top of their game; those who excel in a particular subject are willing to believe in their special talent; even low-achieving students usually point to some other achievement they have.

Self-esteem is the awareness of one's own identity, regardless of changing environmental conditions. The basis of self-esteem is self-awareness, since at a certain stage of development self-awareness becomes self-esteem. Self-awareness is knowledge about oneself, an attitude towards this knowledge and, as a result, an attitude towards oneself and it manifests itself in the form of self-esteem.

The formation of personality also includes the formation of a relatively stable image of “I”, that is, a holistic idea of ​​oneself. The image of “I” (sometimes also called the “concept of “I” or “I - concept”) is a complex psychological phenomenon that cannot be reduced to a simple awareness of one’s qualities or a set of self-esteem. The question “Who am I?” implies not so much self-description as self-determination: “Who can and should I become, what are my capabilities and prospects, what have I done and can still do in life?” The high level of development of self-awareness of a senior schoolchild, in turn, leads to self-education. As research shows, even junior schoolchildren can characterize their actions, but they are not able to establish connections between their actions and the characteristics of their personality. They explain their behavior only by external circumstances. To the question: “Why do you constantly violate discipline in class?”, they can answer like this: “Petya showed me his horns, so I laughed, and then began to tell how we went to the forest.” A teenager who establishes a connection between personality traits and his actions looks somewhat different in this regard. The following type of motivation is typical: “I’m afraid of the dark, I try to jump over the “horse” because I have a weak will.” However, the teenager does not yet have a generalized and stable opinion about himself. He cannot yet separate the essential from the non-essential in his behavior and character. The self-education of a teenager does not take on an independent character and remains situational.

The need for self-determination encourages a senior student to systematize and generalize his knowledge about himself.

However, the self-education of older schoolchildren faces great difficulties, since this age is characterized by serious contradictions. The most typical of them:

1. The desire to show strong-willed efforts in self-education and at the same time not always a positive attitude towards specific methods of self-education that adults recommend;

2. Sensitivity, receptivity to the moral assessment of one’s personality on the part of the team and the desire to show indifference to this assessment, to act in one’s own way (“Just think, they give advice, I myself know how to live”);

3. Striving for ideals and adherence to principles in large, responsible matters and unprincipledness in small, insignificant matters;

4. The desire to develop perseverance, endurance, self-control and at the same time the manifestation of childish spontaneity, impulsiveness in behavior, speech, a tendency to exaggerate one’s own grief, and minor troubles.

Teaching is the leading activity of a high school student. But the motives for learning change with age. For a high school student, studying and acquiring knowledge now becomes primarily a means of preparing for future activities. But not everyone does. High school students define school more functionally, as “an educational institution where they give knowledge and educate us into cultured people.” The range of interests and communication of high school students increasingly extends beyond the boundaries of school, making it only a part, but an essential part, of their surrounding world. In the middle classes, there are relatively few students whose main interests are focused outside of school, and such facts are perceived as an alarming signal. In the ninth and tenth grades this is already a statistically normal phenomenon. School life is seen as temporary and of limited value. Although high school students still belong to school, the reference groups with which they mentally correlate their behavior are increasingly located outside it. In adolescence, attitudes towards teachers and with teachers become significantly more complex and differentiated. Like parents, the teacher has several “persons” in the child’s mind, corresponding to the functions performed by the teacher:

• replacement of parents;
• power that administers punishments and rewards;
• an authoritative source of knowledge in a particular area;
• senior comrade and friend.

In principle, a high school student is ready to be satisfied with more or less specialized relationships of an intellectual order. A teacher who knows and teaches his subject well is respected, even if he does not have emotional intimacy with the students. At the same time, the high school student really wants to meet a true friend in the person of the teacher, and the level of his requirements for such friendship is always high. Attachment to a beloved teacher often has the character of passion and unconditional devotion. But there cannot be many such attachments. Most high school students have a close emotional connection with one or two teachers, and with age this relationship becomes more and more selective. Adolescence is not a phase of “preparation for life,” but an extremely important stage of life’s journey that has independent, absolute value. Whether the teenage years will be happy and creative, or whether they will remain in the memory of a high school student as filled with petty conflicts, dull cramming and boredom, largely depends on the atmosphere prevailing at school, on his relationships with teachers. But this is one of the aspects through which self-esteem is formed. The other is the young man’s peer group, which plays a special role at this age. The desire to have loyal and devoted friends invariably opens the list of the most important life values ​​of 15-17 year olds, often ahead of even love among them. At the heart of youth’s desire for friendship is a passionate need to understand others, understand oneself to others, and self-disclosure.

The study of schoolchildren’s self-esteem is carried out according to the following parameters:

• the degree of awareness and integrity of perception of one’s cognitive and communicative capabilities;
• the presence of a range and degree of objectivity of the rating scale;
• level of regulation of cognitive activity;
• behavior in a situation of choice;
• expression of emotions in situations of success and failure;
• the degree and form of expression of criticism of oneself and one’s actions;
• attitude towards evaluation of one’s activities by others; level of social aspirations;
• the degree of consistency of the individual’s internal requirements for himself with external conditions; level of personal and situational anxiety.

The process of forming self-esteem

The beginning of self-awareness as an individual begins in childhood. The child learns to understand the essence of comparisons, and self-esteem develops. Parents should be careful when speaking about their children's progress; telling them that others are doing better is not motivating.

A teenager should not think that his loved ones love him only if he surpasses his peers. He needs support and faith. But praising does not help to form adequate self-esteem. If adults raised a child on praise, then after puberty he will not develop and eradicate shortcomings.

Excessive amounts of compliments and flattery contribute to the fact that in adulthood a person will be unsociable. This behavior is the result of a combination of parental actions and harsh reality.

Problems with self-esteem arise under the influence of the environment, financial situation, and education. The development of low confidence occurs in school. If in adolescence a person was bullied in an educational institution, he will struggle with complexes and phobias all his life.

Self-doubt is aggravated by comparing your financial situation with successful people. But self-esteem is an indicator that does not remain for life, but is constantly changing.