Discuss The Factors Which May Affect The Development Of Self Esteem

In this essay, I am going to discuss the factors which may affect the development of self esteem. (P1) I am going to continue my essay and compare two theories of self-esteem. (M1)

Nature and development of self-concept:

The looking glass self is how our self-image is shaped by society. Charles Cooley was born in 1864 he was a sociologist. Charles served as the president of the American sociological Association in 1918; he was known for his famous theory of the looking glass self. His concept of the looking glass self, is that a persons self grows out of persons social interaction with others. The view of ourselves comes from the thought of personal qualities and impressions of how others see us. Cooley stated the degree of personal insecurity

People in close environment serve as the mirrors that reflect images of us, according to Cooley this process as three stages. These are first we imagine how we appear to another person, at times this imagination is correct, but could also be incorrect since it is only based on our assumptions. Second, we imagine what judgements people make of us according to our appearance. Lastly, we imagine how the person thinks about us, based on the judgements made of us. The result is that we often change our behaviour based on how we feel people perceive us. Using the 'social mirror' as a measurement of ourselves can create a positive reaction from someone who creates a positive self-concept, or can create a negative reaction as a result creating negative-self concept. Charles Cooley states that that this is process that will never end. As people are always meeting, new people and re-evaluating themselves based upon the impressions of what people think of

In 1979, Tajfel suggested that groups such as family, social class, football teams etc were a vital source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give people a sense of social identity. Tajfel proposed that stereotyping is based on a normal cognitive process: the propensity to group things together. We tend to label people in the same way. We recognize the group that we belong to the in-group as being different from others the out-group, and members of the same group as being more similar than they are. Social labeling is prejudicing attitudes i.e. them and us mentality this leads to the in-groups and the