Consider a typical day. You might interact with family members, friends on social media, have a meeting with a boss or co-worker, and talk to someone you’re interested in dating. All of these moments, and how we feel about ourselves during them, make up our social self. Show Social self refers to how we perceive ourselves in relation to others. It involves relationship building, empathizing, and communicating. A healthy, or not so healthy, social self will also impact your overall mental wellbeing and ability to meet life goals. That’s because much of our world is social and involves interactions with others. Social self is one of the subcategories measured in the Mental Health Million MHQ (Mental Health Quotient). Here’s a look at some things a person with a positive social self might experience:
Consider the many areas of life these skills can help with. If you feel more confident, you’re more likely to initiate a relationship, interview for a job, or take on a new life goal. Feeling comfortable with emotional connections and intimacy can improve relationships and decrease stress and feelings of insecurity. This confidence may also help you set boundaries, stand up for yourself, and ask for help when your needs are not met. See related post: Understanding Mood & Outlook. What About My Score?A higher social self score on the MHQ reflects higher contentment with ourselves and our ability to thrive in the world. Those with high scores can stay the course, being attentive to themselves and others, and continuing to make their social self a priority. To maintain or boost a moderate social self score, continue to learn about healthy connections and practice reaching out to others. While opportunities may be limited due to social distancing, there are still chances to communicate face to face with others via tools like Zoom. Many local services have adjusted to live virtual events. There are more and more creative opportunities to interact with peers. You can also make use of self-help materials, classes, and free resources online. Those with moderate or lower scores in social self may struggle with some of the areas above, and have difficulty with work, family, and other relationships. Counseling may help you identify the areas where you struggle, gain a better insight into yourself and learn ways to improve your social self. For example, cognitive therapies can help you identify the source of thoughts that are interfering with your social functioning, and develop new ways of thinking and interacting. Small changes can make a big difference. Negative scores in this category of the MHQ could indicate more dangerous issues, such as threatening, destructive or violent behaviors, or thoughts of self harm and suicide. If this is the case, you should seek help right away. Contact your local doctor, a therapist, and visit the Suicide Prevention Lifeline for support. See related post: A negative MHQ is a signal to seek medical help. Social Media: Helpful or Harmful?Many people wonder if social media has impacted our self perceptions. Given the circumstances, is social media better than the alternative, that may involve further limiting your interactions with others? Anecdotally, clients in therapy often discuss stress related to social media, particularly in younger age groups. However, they also report that they would have difficulty staying in touch with peers if they were not active on social media networks. Research on this topic, conducted prior to the pandemic, is mixed and still very much up for debate. One analysis of 100+ studies found that overall, social networking sites seem to average a negative impact on self esteem. However, it’s possible that those who already have negative self esteem use social networking as a substitute, according to the authors of the study. Some people may have an easier time interacting online than in person. We also don’t know yet how the impact of social media may change due to social distancing measures. The good news is that your self perception and way of interacting in the world are not set in stone. Through understanding yourself and others better, challenging your thoughts and behaviors, and seeking help if needed, you can protect and improve your social self, allowing you to thrive in our socially complex world. The many and varied thoughts that we have about ourselves are stored in the variety of self-schemas that make up the cognitive part of the self—the self-concept. The self-concept is the most complex of all our schemas because it includes all of the images, desires, beliefs, feelings, and hopes that we have for and about ourselves. The self-concept can be measured by simply asking people to list the things that come to mind when they think about themselves or by using other techniques such as asking people to remember information related to the self. Research has found that some people have more complex and consistent selves than others do, and that having a variety of self-schemas is useful because the various aspects of the self help to improve our responses to the events that we experience. The self-concept can vary in its current accessibility. When the self-concept is highly accessible and therefore becomes the focus of our attention, the outcome is known as self-awareness or self-consciousness. Private self-consciousness occurs when we are introspective about our inner thoughts and feelings, whereas public self-consciousness occurs when we focus on our public image. It is important to be aware of variation in the accessibility of the aspects of the self-concept because the changes in our thoughts about the self have an important influence on our behavior. Increased self-awareness, for instance, can lead to increased perceptions of self-discrepancy, which occurs when we see our current self as not matching our ideal self. Self-esteem refers to the positive (high self-esteem) or negative (low self-esteem) evaluations that we make of ourselves. When we feel that we are viewed positively and held in esteem by others, we say that we have high social status. Having high social status creates positive self-esteem. The desire to see ourselves positively leads us to seek out, process, and remember information in a way that allows us to see ourselves even more positively. However, although the desire to self-enhance is a powerful motive, it is not the same in all cultures, and increases in self-esteem do not necessarily make us better or more effective people. An effective life involves an appropriate balance between the feeling and the cognitive parts of the self: we must always consider not only the positivity of our self-views but also the accuracy of our self-characterizations and the strength of our relationships with others. Although we learn about ourselves in part by examining our own behaviors, the self-concept and self-esteem are also determined through our interactions with others. The looking-glass self reflects how others’ views of us feed into the way we see ourselves. Social comparison occurs when we learn about our abilities and skills, about the appropriateness and validity of our opinions, and about our relative social status by comparing our own attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those of others. We use downward social comparison to create a positive image of ourselves through favorable comparisons with others who are worse off than we are. Through upward social comparison, we compare ourselves with others who are better off than we are. In some cases, we can bask in the reflected glory of others that we care about, but in other cases, upward comparison makes us feel inadequate. An important aspect of the self-concept that is derived from our social experiences is our social identity, which is turn is derived from our membership in social groups and our attachments to those groups. The tendency to attempt to present a positive image to others and thereby attempt to increase our social status is known as self-presentation, and it is a basic and natural part of everyday life. In the longer term, our concern to present ourselves in particular ways can become a more ongoing reputation management project, and we may end up building different reputations with different audiences. Some people are high self-monitors, more able and willing to self-present than are other people, and will shift their behavior across situations and audiences more often than low self-monitors, who try to act more consistently with their internal values. What are the component of the self?Rogers' Three Parts of Self-Concept. Ideal self: The ideal self is the person you want to be. ... . Self-image: Self-image refers to how you see yourself at this moment in time. ... . Self-esteem: How much you like, accept, and value yourself all contribute to your self-concept.. What are the 3 components of the self system?The self-system consists of three fundamental components: the individual self, the rela- tional self, and the collective self. All selves are important and meaningful and all are associated with psychological and physical health benefits. However, the selves are not equally important and meaningful.
How our interactions with others affect our sense of self?Socializing forces like family, culture, and media affect our self-perception because they give us feedback on who we are. This feedback can be evaluated positively or negatively and can lead to positive or negative patterns that influence our self-perception and then our communication.
What are the social component of self?The Social Self is a multifaceted analysis of the self concept based on the social nature of the self. The emphasis is on self-esteem along with self-centrality, self-complexity, social interest, identification, power, marginality, openness, and majority identification.
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