What is My Self-Concept?
Who Am I, and How Do I Feel About Who I Am?
Self-concept answers two basic questions: who am I, and how do I feel about who I believe myself to be.
It’s an important concept to understand because whoever we believe ourselves to be will be a huge influence on what we do and how we behave. For instance, if I believe myself to be a good and moral human being, then my behavior will reflect what I believe to be good and moral behavior. And I will probably feel good about that, regardless of whether someone else thinks it’s good or not.
The contrary is also true. If I believe that I’m not a really good person, then my behavior will bear that belief out in many respects. So it matters who and what we believe ourselves to be.
For leaders and managers who need to accomplish their goals through others, it helps to understand who people believe they are, so that your interaction with them can be more effective.
The 3 Dimensions of Self-Concept
There are three parts or primary dimensions that make up the self-concept: complexity, consistency, and clarity.
Complexity is determined by the number of roles you assume, or the hats you wear. The more hats you wear, the higher will be the complexity of your self-concept. The more roles you assume in life is good because it gives you greater flexibility throughout life, as opposed to someone who only has one or two roles. For instance, you could be a husband, father, supervisor at work, minister at church, and a historical reader. Your self-concept would be complex because of the varied responsibilities within each of the roles you assume.
Consistency has to do with the values, attitudes and behaviors you use in each of your roles. The more similar the values, attitudes and behaviors are in each role, the more consistent and stable will be your self-concept. A good example would be if you are capable of maintaining the same quality and values on the job as you do if you also wear the hat of a minister. The greater the inconsistency, the less stable will be your self-concept which will likely result in inconsistent behavior.
Clarity is the degree of certainty about your self-knowledge and awareness. This is a major aspect of your overall self-confidence. The greater your clarity about who you are, the more predictable and stable you will be to others. For leaders, this creates safety and comfort in followers because they know for the most part what to expect from you, which allows them to spend more time on performing and making you look good. They don’t have to wonder who you will be today because they already know.
Taken from the Self Mastery Blog