The Self is really both a complex and at the same time, very simple concept. In essence it is what makes you, you. It is the idea and sense that each person has of him or herself including their mind, body, thoughts, emotions, and physical, emotional and mental characteristics. The reason why this concept is difficult to define is because there are so many aspects of the “self” that cannot be seen or felt tangibly; therefore the topic becomes more complex with each individual person’s experience of what their own self is, how it is manifested outwardly and how it affects their actions, behavior and interpersonal relationships.
In a way, a person’s self is who they believe they are. While it’s debatable whether the actual “self” can change, most people seem to feel that
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What this really means is that we tend to deceive ourselves by ways of thinking called self-serving biases. Self-serving biases are thought strategies that allow people to spare themselves from the blame of anything that goes wrong so that they can continue to see themselves in a positive way. For example, one very common self-serving bias is when people do well at something, they automatically assume that they did well because of their own talents and skill and they are happy to take the credit personally. However, if they do something that does not turn out well, they automatically attribute the failure or bad result to some exterior circumstance or other reason other than themselves for why they did poorly. When this is explained so clearly is sounds kind of silly and almost childish, but I was surprised to realize how often I do this (usually without even noticing it), and how most people I know do the same thing. I think it’s a pretty natural reaction to try to make a person feel good about him/herself in any circumstance, even if it means employing some