Self-Esteem and Self-Concept :: Self Image Self Perception Essays

In nows age and the growing trend in American smart set of whats hot and whats non, is having a huge tinct on young fryrens self-concept and conceit. Self-concept refers to the beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and ideas people choose about themselves, whereas self-esteem is a personal judgment of worthiness that indicates the extent to which the individual believes himself to be capable, significant, successful, and worthy (392).My interest on this subject was peaked after expending the evening with my five year-old cousin, Sami, last week. We were sitting and eating dinner when she said, Cali, I am fat and ugly. Well, I almost fell out of my chair. At the age of five, she was already cutting herself down. Research shows that physical appearance is the strongest check of global self-worth in childhood and adolescence (398).However, our textbook explains that children around my cousins age have a hard time defining their star of self. They tend to describe their physical chara cteristics, atomic number 18as of interest, family life, etc (394). Nowhere in the text does it offer that a child her age should be viewing herself in foothold of physical attractiveness. Adolescence and lofty school students are more apt to train judgments of themselves, not children in kindergarten.I feel that tv, magazines, books and the internet make our youth have a lower self-esteem because they feel they are not as good looking as the characters on their favorite television show. My cousin watches Nickelodeon and even on childrens shows it seems there are no ugly or fat children. The actresses look older than I do because of all the make-up and their choice of clothing. What does that say to our youth? more or less American girls receive consistent and clear messages that beauty is defined in terms of being slim and trim (398).In the classroom, self-concept and self-esteem have a huge impact on how well a child does in school. When I was in elementary school and espe cially high school, I would classify myself as being a good address arts student, but a poor Math and Science student. In elementary school there isnt as much opposition between students, therefore I didnt feel the need to definition on my strengths and weaknesses. Like the author says, and older students self-concept whitethorn be further broken down according to success in individual subject areas, such as reading, mathematics, or science (394). In elementary school, all of the subjects could be incorporated into one lesson, while in high school the students switch classes and concentrate on a certain(p) subject per period.