Self-Concept

What does healthy self-concept mean? Healthy self-concept is the ability to know yourself and recognize your strengths, weaknesses, talents, and potential. Building a healthy self-concept requires the ability to be honest with yourself and establish who you are and what you value. You will also need to take responsibility for your actions and choices.  

It's important to remember that being self-aware is not having total control over your emotions and circumstances. There will still be ups and downs to deal with, but having a healthy self-concept will allow you to reflect and react with more clarity. Before you can move forward with having a healthy self-concept, you must first take some time to see where you stand now. If you notice that you are constantly beating yourself up or feeling down, take a moment to write down why you are feeling that way, find trusted friends or adults to talk to, and make a plan to develop a healthy self-concept. 

Consider your self-concept and add in any judgments or opinions you have of yourself. You are now examining your self-esteem. Self-esteem, or the thoughts and feelings you have about yourself, is something that everyone has to work on everyday. Having a healthy self-esteem means being able to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses. 

People with poor self-esteem often rely on what they are currently doing to determine how they feel about themselves. Characteristics of low self-esteem include being extremely critical of yourself, ignoring your strengths and positive qualities, using negative words to describe yourself, and not believing someone when they compliment you. This can be caused by childhood experiences that involve being harshly criticized, abused, or being expected to be perfect all of the time. Having low self-esteem can result in anxiety, loneliness, depression, and increased vulnerability to other unhealthy choices.

• What is a healthy self-concept?

  • A healthy self-concept is the ability to know yourself and acknowledge your strengths, weaknesses, talents and potential.

• What is the difference between self-concept and self-esteem?

  • Self-concept is the opinions you have of yourself.

  • Self-esteem is the thoughts and feelings you have of yourself.

• What are characteristics of people with poor self-esteem?

  • Those with low self-esteem are highly critical of themselves, ignore their positive aspects, describe themselves negatively, and blame themselves when a situation goes wrong.

• What are characteristics of people with healthy self-esteem?

  • Those with a healthy self-esteem acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses. They will see the situation as it is; they will not blame themselves when a situation goes wrong. They see themselves for who they are.

• What might cause poor self-esteem?

  • Causes of low self-esteem are: unhappy childhood with critical/abusive parents, bad academics, chronic health issues that cause pain and disability, and mental illness.

• What advice would you give someone who is struggling with their self-esteem?

  • Use positive self-talk and challenge negative self-talk. Don’t compare yourself to others and acknowledge your good and bad traits.