In the area of science of the mind and psychology, the definition of self esteem has many technical variations, but there is an umbrella concept that can adequately explain what self esteem and the concept of the self is actually. In laymen terms, self esteem is how a person measure’s his overall worth and this can be attributed to the sum total of his own gifts and abilities versus his perceived failures. When talking with jargon and terms lime ‘worth’, perhaps you may be assuming that there is some mathematics to the soul; and in this case there is – of sorts.

There are established psychological tests and appraisals that allow the psychologist or the therapist to actually measure self esteem. While the numbers will never be accurate there will be scales of measurement and generalities that they can be placed in. About 50 years ago, one social learning theorist named Morris Rosenberg came up with the Rosenberg self esteem scale, which is one of the measuring tools used to assess how much of the potential self esteem in a person is being used as well as how they appraised the ‘self’. Rosenberg believed that worth could be taken on to its literal meaning, that there was some sort of human currency to be measured and this currency, this value, this rate was actually measured by the person himself.

Others argued that self esteem is not something to be placed on a scale, because it was a basic human need, a crucial element in human psychology and the make up of the human personality. Everyone needs self esteem and no one can survive without it. Another camp believes that self esteem is something that is automatic within us, in the sense of the consciousness and the subconscious at work. Of course, when we are talking about self esteem, we understand the processes that lead up to its build up happens in the subconscious, which opens up much more theories of the process of cortical and neural evolution and how it ties in with emotional maturity and processes in the brain that gravitates around personality, character, rationale and confidence.

It is no mystery that all these areas are related, and that the subconscious has a part to play in all of this. To put it simply, the subconscious has always been seen as the director of all human emotions, perceived or not, and self esteem, confidence and assertiveness are large parts of this equation. This is where the idea of the self concept also comes in, as the self concept is how one perceives one self, and this is the neural imprint of their perceived self. This person may be either higher or lower (in image) than the person that is represented in real life. A person with high confidence might project an image of a person that is much better than what they really are, and the confidence makes up for the difference. If you believe you are that good, then others will too.

Time alone can be quite unbearable for some people. They have no sense of inner peace and some will believe they are odd for not being surrounded with friends, not having a boy/girl friend or not involved in some other group activity.

Why would one avoid themself? There can be many reasons but may stem from anxiety and fear of being alone. Depending and expecting others to fulfill one’s life is a unrealistic expectation that nobody can live up to and unfair to others and yourself. Following this belief leads to setting oneself up for disappointment and the continued quest for meaning with more relationships or new friends.

The concept of self is familiar territory for everybody. We all have a image of ourselves in our minds but reality may differ. A healthy self-concept is flexible and forgiving. People change and so that includes you and me from moment to moment. Resistance to change is strong and may include strongly clinging to a past version of ourselves.

Denial of favorable changes in ourselves leads to poor self-esteem and may include self-destructive behaviors and self-fulfilling prophecies. There are two types of self-fulfilling prophecies ;

One -when your own expectations influence your behavior

Two – the expectations of another person(s), govern your actions

Personal growth and self-improvement is a lifetime journey. Dissatisfaction results from expecting too much of yourself and others. Failure is the result of unrealistic expectations.

To overcome a poor self-concept is to get real and accept that we may have a very inaccurate image of ourselves. Our behaviors indicate clearly to others and the saying, ‘Actions speak louder,’ may hold true for you and me. Are you nice or cruel to others?

Record a list of who you are, what you know, what you don’t know, good and bad behaviors. Make changes to the what you don’t know and bad behaviors. Learning new skills and knowledge helps to improve your self worth. A second method to improve self-concepts is to find a positive role model and observe their interactions with others which will help you build your own interpersonal style.

Change can be easy or difficult for people but it is possible. Keeping to a list of desirable qualities and actions will increase your self esteem and image. Take the time to learn who you are and what makes you smile. Once you start discovering your sources of happiness the need to seek others out will subside and fear of being alone will be something of the past.

Self concept encompasses beliefs, perceptions and expectations as the core of your self-identity. Although it differs from self-esteem, it does influence your feelings of self-worth and the way you perceive your relationship to the world. The development of the characteristic is greatly influenced by other people in your life, so living in accordance with your beliefs requires that you take the time to truly know yourself.

Development

A child’s self identity generally focuses on simple characteristics, such as hair color and collection of toys, while an adult’s self-identity includes abstract and multifaceted ideas. We grow through the actions we take through various experiences and through the ideas we form from them.

As you look back on your past experiences and the choices you’ve made throughout your life, you will probably see some conflict between your own thoughts on the matters and the opinions you heard from others. How did these conflicts and experiences shape the expectations you have for yourself and others? Do these expectations match your belief system? How well do you identify with the beliefs and actions of those around you? Self-concept determines whether a person feels he belongs in certain social groups, and a clash of beliefs with expectations can create emotional or social turmoil.

Components

This concept is abstract and covers all areas of a person’s role in the world. Your physical appearance is one component of your identity, which can influence your self-esteem and determine the social groups you feel you belong to. Are you an insider? An outsider? As you join groups or identify with others, your mind forms the social component that influences your thoughts and behaviors. It is your academic achievement, though, that forms many of your personal expectations. The academic component is not necessarily focused on your grades—it’s more of a sense of identity that comes from your areas of interest or expertise. Do you excel in the arts? In math?

The beliefs you form through experience and through interactions with others will also influence your relationship to the many mysteries in life. Do you believe in the supernatural? Do you rely on science for explanations?

Conflicts within Concept

A healthy sense of self and level of self-esteem can improve all areas of your life, as it establishes your code of conduct within relationships and increases your motivation to reach for personal goals. Taking the time to reflect on your experiences and to truly know yourself can help you settle conflict between your personal beliefs and what you hear or perceive from others in your life. Ask yourself if your personal identity stems from your inner workings or from what you’ve been told by others. Remember, though, that the middle ground is quite often the most realistic.

Improvement

The difference between improvement of self-esteem and improvement of your own concept of yourself is that the former is an effect brought about by action taken on the latter. When you doubt your ability to do something, positive affirmations or self-talk can help you find the courage to try; but it’s the concrete accomplishment that shapes your true perception of self. Start small, but challenge yourself! Make time to try things that interest you, and take the time to think about its overall effect on your life.

Listen to the positive inner voice and aim to live in a manner that reflects your true beliefs. As you challenge your own ideas and learn from new experiences, you may find that some of your beliefs have changed or that you’ve inadvertently improved your social relationships. A combination of self concept reflection and self-esteem improvement strategies can help you reach seemingly unattainable goals!

Are you taking the time to think about your self concept? A great majority of us are moving so quickly through life we don’t stop to ask these life changing questions. Your self concept breaks down to the beliefs you have in yourself. I think it’s safe to say “YES” self concept really does matter. Now that we realize its importance, let’s get a little background on what shapes this concept and belief we have in ourselves.

All throughout life we have experiences, some good and some bad. More specifically there are experiences that we have a direct influence on. These are the things we need to pay attention to. When we do a “good job” that creates positive self concept and when we do a “bad job” we develop a negative self concept. Unfortunately, that is the way society looks at things.  In addition to our own thoughts, there are always people in our lives that like to chime in with their thoughts and beliefs…the people who label, manipulate and pin you in a corner. These are the people that give you false information they spin off as fact…but its not. I like to call these negative thoughts, whether it be self inflicted or someone else spewing negativity “mental junk”. It’s time to clean out the junk.

Realize that you have “self concept” in every part of your life. Two of the most common areas of struggle with self concept have to do with image and money. Take money for example, you will only earn what you believe you are worth. Take a moment to repeat that to yourself. Are you willing to accept $10 an hour or do you believe you are worth $200 an hour? Improving your self concept does not mean waking up in the morning and saying, “I’m worth $200 an hour”. It’s about deciding that you are going to create that life for yourself and having the belief that you can and will create that for yourself. The best possible thoughts and beliefs, aka self concept is knowing that you can create anything in life that YOU decide. Amazingly enough, we all have the ability to do exactly that…create in life ANYTHING we desire.

There is something called “Self Limiting Self Concept” or as you may know it “The Comfort Zone”. Ah, ha you say. Well, know this…the comfort zone is your enemy. It is the enemy of all human potential. The reason so many of us like to stay within our comfort zone is because we have made a habit out of feeling comfortable and these habits are the hardest to break. These habits represent the poison that justifies our situation and keeps us from reaching our true potential.

Introduction:

 

            Self concept in the central theme around which a large number of the major aspects of personality are organized.  Cattel referred self concept as the â??Key-Stone of Personality, Lewin (1951) has pointed out that self concept gives the consistency to personality.  Self concept is the bases fro oneâ??s program in oneâ??s life of it is necessary to develop self confidence.  In the process of learning from others experiences one must have self concept.  It helps a person to compete with others.  It makes him accept the failure and success in the same manner because he knows himself well.  To build a general conception about others, self Concept is very much needed.

            Strengthening oneâ??s self concept may lead to perform well in his examination.  A sense of personal worth should be cultivated through good education. 

            In this present scenario of the commercial and competitive world, the investigator tries to investigate the self concept of students in different schools in relation to gender.

 

Self Concept:

            Self concept in a composite of a persons, thoughts and feelings of strivings of hopes and fear and fantasies, his views of what he is what has been.  What he might become and his attitudes becoming to his worth.

Gender:

            Feminist dictionary (1985) refers that â??it is often used as a synonym of the sex i.e biological maleness or femaleness.  However, it is also used particularly by contemporary writers, to refer to the socially imposed dictionary of masculine and feminine role and character traits.

            Encyclopedia of feminism (1986) refers â??Gender to the Socially imposed decision between the sexes, where as sex refers to the historical, anatomical differences between male and female.  Gender refers to the emotional and Psychological attributes which a given culture expects to coincide with physical maleness and femalenessâ?.

 

 

Adolescence:

            â??Psychologically, adolescence is the age when the individual becomes integrated into the society of adults the age when the child no longer feels that he is below the level of his elders but equal, at least in rightsâ?¦..This integration into adult society has many affective aspects, more or less linked with pubertyâ?¦â?¦â?¦..It also includes very profound intellectual changesâ?¦â?¦â?¦â?¦..These intellectual transformations, typical of the adolescents, â??thinkingâ? enable his not only to achieve his integration into the social relationship of adults, which is in fact, the most general characteristic of this period of developmentâ?.

-         Jean Piaget

 

Objectives:

To find out the of self concept among the students of two different schools.
To find out the self concept of students with special reference to gender.

Hypothesis: 

There is no significant difference in the self concept between boys and girls of Government and Matriculation school.
There is no significant difference the self concept between boys and girls Government School.â??
The girls of Government and Matriculation school regarding self concept.
There is no significant difference in the self concept between the boys of Government and Matriculation school.
There is no significant difference in the self concept between the students of Matriculation and Government school.
There is no significant difference in the self concept between boys and girls of Matriculation School

 

Methodology:

            The survey method was used to collect the data.  To study the self concept of students, the investigator constructed a tool which was constructed by the investigator.

 

 

Sample:

            Adolescent students belonging to Matriculation school and Government School in Palani constitute the population.   Care was taken during the distribution of tool to matriculation and Government school adolescent students in Dindigul area from the two schools, data is collected from 115 students by random sampling method.

 

Findings and Interpretations:

            Statistical Procedure â??tâ?? test is used to find out the difference in self concept among boys and girls in two different schools.

 Table : 1

            Difference between the mean and standard deviation of Boys and Girls of Government schools regarding self concept.

 

Groups

N

M

Ï?

Boys of Government School

44

184.95

16.88

Girls of Government School

51

185.22

17.94

 

Table : 2

            Difference between the mean and standard deviation of Boys and Girls of Matriculation schools regarding self concept.

 

Groups

N

M

Ï?

Boys of Matriculation School

18

186.11

11.28

Girls of Matriculation School

21

183.71

16.28

 

Table : 3

            Difference between the mean and standard deviation of Girls of Government schools and Matriculation schools regarding self concept.

 

Groups

N

M

Ï?

Girls of Government School

51

185.22

17.94

Girls of Matriculation School

21

183.71

16.28

 

Table : 4

Difference between the mean and standard deviation of Boys of Government schools and Matriculation Schools regarding self concept.

 

Groups

N

M

Ï?

Boys of Government School

44

184.95

17.94

Boys of Matriculation School

18

186.11

11.25

 

Table : 5

            Difference between the mean and standard deviation of students of Government schools and Matriculation schools regarding self concept.

 

Groups

N

M

Ï?

Students of Government School

95

185.09

17.46

Students of Matriculation School

39

184.85

13.89

 

 

Table : 6

Difference between Boys and Girls of Government schools and Matriculation schools.

 

Groups

N0

Boys of 2 Schools

62

Girls of 2 Schools

72

 

 

 

Self concept of students

Hypotheses:

            There is no significant difference in the self concept between boys and girls of Government and Matriculation school.

 

Table : 7

            Difference between the mean and standard deviation of Boys and Girls of Government schools regarding self concept.

 

Groups

N

M

Ï?

Ï?D

t

Level of Significance

Boys of Government School

44

184.95

16.88

3.5

0.0754

NS

Girls of Government School

51

185.22

17.94

 

            The obtained t value is lower than the table value at 0.05 level.  Hence the hypothesis there is no significant difference in the self concept between the boys and girls of Government and Matriculation school is accepted.

 

Hypotheses : 2

            There is no significant difference in the self concept between the boys and girls of Matriculation school.

Table: 8

Difference between the mean and standard deviation of boys and girls of Matriculation regarding self concept.

 

Groups

N

M

Ï?

Ï?D

t

Level of Significance

Boys of Matriculation

18

186.167

11.28

4.44

0.554

NS

Girls of Matriculation

21

183.71

16.28

 

            From the table value it is inferred that the obtained â??tâ?? value is lower the theoretical value of significance at 0.05 level.  Hence the hypotheses â??There is no significant difference in the self concept between boys and girls of Matriculation school is accepted.

Hypotheses: 3

            The girls of Government and Matriculation school do not difference significantly in their self concept.

 

Table : 9

            Difference between the mean and deviation of girls of Government and Matriculation school regarding self concept.

Groups

N

M

Ï?

Ï?D

t

Level of Significance

Girls of Government

51

185.24

17.94

4.35

0.35

NS

Girls of Matriculation

21

183.71

16.28

 

            From the table value it is inferred that the obtained â??tâ?? value is lower mean the theoretical value at 0.05 level.  Hence the hypothesis â??The girls of Government and matriculation school do not differ significance in their self concept is accepted.

Hypotheses: 4

            There is no significant difference in the self concept between the boys of Government and Matriculation School.

 

Table : 10

            Difference between the mean and standard decision of boys of government and Matriculation school regarding self concept.

 

Groups

N

M

Ï?

Ï?D

t

Level of Significance

Boys of Government

44

184.95

16.85

3.64

0.335

NS

Boys of Matriculation

18

186.17

11.026

 

            From the table value it is inferred that the obtained â??tâ?? value is significant at 0.05 level.  Hence the hypotheses â??The boys of Government and Matriculation school do not difference significantly is their self concept is accepted.

 

Hypotheses: 5

            There is no significant in the self concept between the students of Government and Matriculation school.

Table: 11

 

            Different between the mean and student deviation of students of Government an Matriculation regarding self concept.

 

Groups

N

M

Ï?

Ï?D

t

Level of Significance

Student of government

95

185.09

17.46

2.86

0.084

NS

Student of Matriculation

39

184.85

13.89

 

            The hypothesis â??There is no significant difference in the self concept school in acceplied because the obtained â??tâ?? value is less than the theoretical value of significant  at 0.05 level.

            The boys and girls of Government and Matriculation school do not differ the self concept.

            Thus the researcher want to study the self concept of students at secondary level.  Who are considered as adolescents of only at this stage.  Many concepts are formed in oneâ??s life. 

            During adolescent stage concepts formal are may be due to the treatment of teachers at school and parented behaviour at home of the students in two schools (ie) Government and Matriculation when the students are alive.

 

 

Findings:

There is no difference in the self concept of boys of two schools.
The girls of the two schools do not differ in their self concept.
There is no difference between the students of the 2 schools in their self concept.
There is no difference between the boys and girls of Government school in their self concept.
Boys and girls of Matriculation school do not differ in their self concept.

Recommendations:

      In general, there is no significant difference between boys and girls of secondary

level students in two different schools.

      In order to develop their self concept among girls and boys encouragement,

incentives, rewards should be given to  who participate in the adventurous activities in the school.

      The investigation has first of all helped the investigator to gain more knowledge

regarding self concept of the students.  This will help an investigator to carry such a study on some other sample.  This will help the students to develop their personality as a whole to become worthy citizen of tomorrow.

Reference:

Bell H.M., Edson. K and shaw, M.C.  The self concept of bright under achieving high school students are revealed by an adjective check list person.  Guid J. 1960, 39(3): 193-196.
Bodwin, R.F, and Bruck,M.   The relationship between self concept and the presence and absence of scholarstic achievement J.Clin, Psychol, 1962,18 (2) 181-182.
Cliam 1987 Chiam .H. 1987 change in self concept during adolescence 22, (69-76)
Cattell, R.B.1957, Personality and Motivation structure and Measurement, New York Harcourt, Brace and World.

Gordon stobart, Jannette Elwood and Michael quinaln.  1992 â?? Gender bias in examinations:  British educational Research Journal Vol.18.No.3.

Infertility is a wide spread problem, it affects over 5 million married couples that are of childbearing age in the US alone and most often are caused by hereditary, environmental toxins, unhealthy diet, physical and emotional stress. Today, people spent over millions and millions dollars just try to get pregnant but the success is limited for what ever reasons. If you browse through the key word “how to get get pregnant”. you will greet with million of sites. Some of them are very good but most of are sectional and the information is not completed. You may have to spent a lot of times to get all the information what you need to start an effective self help program.

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Not all the site contains spyware, adware and viruses, but some of them are. I, myself got into one of site and could not get out of it until either I click on the install button or restart my computer. The information which have collected is important and you want to lose it due to one website adware and spyware. By the way, those spyware and adware may post danger to your computer.

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Since there are many causes and types of infertility, it is for your benefit only to buy from one that covers most conditions in details. For each types of condition, there are many possible causes and how the program is going to treat them and what is the expected results and how long it is going to take including egg quality.

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Since most women with infertility also post a high risk of miscarriage, the best self help program must gives you a lengthy detail for what you must do ?and what herbs or nutritional supplements you must take? to strengthen the fetus health.

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