2. The construct of the self-concept
is now considered to be a major
outcome of education, childhood
socialization, and child-rearing
practices as well as influencing
consequent responses to these
influences. There is constant
interplay between all these
variables so that cause and effect
are impossible to untangle.

3. Improvement of an
individual’s self-concept
is becoming valued as an
outcome in its own right.
But even if it were not so
valued, the construct has
potential scientific
importance for
interpreting behavior,
and educational
performance in pupils
and teachers, and for its
relationship to prejudice,
delinquency, anxiety,
teaching style,
expectations and many
other vital issues.

4. Psychologists and
educationalists
are becoming
more aware of
the fact that an
individual’s self-
concept, or his
attitudes to and
the perception of
himself, are
intimately related
to how he learns
and behaves.

5. Evidence suggests that low
performance in school work, poor
motivation, misbehavior and
academic disengagement—so
characteristic of the underachiever,
the early leaver, the disadvantaged
and the delinquent—are due in part
to negative self-attitudes and
perceptions. Many students have
difficulty in school not as result of
low intelligence or physical
impairment, but because they have
come to perceive themselves as
unable to do academic work.

6. Success in school, work, or
life appears to depend as
much on how a person
feels about the qualities
and attributes he possesses
as on those qualities
themselves

7. When a student says, “I will never
understand this material”, he is
saying more about himself than
about the subject matter. It is likely
that a student feeling like this will
not cope, essentially because he
believes he is not competent to
succeed. While nothing succeeds
like success, the expectation of
failure reaps its poor harvest.

8. For personal happiness ,
adjustment and effective
functioning, favourable and
positive self-concept is essential.
Those children who have a
negative self-concept tend to
encounter difficulties in almost
every area. They have a high level
of anxiety, find difficulty in
making friends, adjust less easily
to school and tend to be hampered
in school achievement.

9. It is essential to acknowledge
that highly important part
played by parents in the early
development of the self-
concept before the
significance of teachers’
judgments come to bear.
Teachers can reinforce the
poor opinion a child already
has of himself when he begins
school, but they can also, in
fact, help to reverse this
opinion and to create in the
child a more positive view of
himself and his abilities

10. For every human wants to be
accepted or belong to a group,
initially a family group. Such
acceptance implies that others
regard one as of worth and
competent in some relevant
behaviour has an end or
purpose and the ability to
achieve that and brings with it a
sense of competence.

11. For most pupils, school behavior has its
end in the mastery of subject matter, for
most teachers, school behavior has its
end in the mastery of the science of
controlling and teaching students to a
required standard. Successful
achievement of these aims will
encourage the pupil or teacher to
evaluate himself as competent, a very
necessary element for a positive self-
concept

12. These three basic
elements of belonging,
competence and worth
are learned in a social
environment through
interaction with others.
Parents, teachers and
peers provide much of
the feedback about the
child that tells him he is
wanted, accepted, coping
an succeeding with
necessary tasks, and
generally of worth. This
feedback may concern
such areas as the child’s
physical development, his
social competencies, his
academic achievements
and his emotional
balance.

13. Education is a compulsory
transmission of cultural
experience and knowledge. Part
of that transmission should be
an understanding and
acceptance of each individual’s
inherent value. This emphasis
on the worth of the individual
and on human relationships is
not to be taken as a philosophy
which argues for soft molly-
coddling or radical deschooling
to counter existing cognitive
and control objectives in
education. On the contrary,
affective components of
education have regularly been
stressed by education in past.

14. There is nothing new
in this save that
previous emphases
have tended to be on
negative affective
aspects such as fear of
punishment, failure
and anxiety. Here we
shat try to
concentrate on the
positive aspects of
affective behaviour in
the educational
contest. To emphasize
affective aspects is not
to relegate cognitive
objectives to second
place.

15. Cognitive and affective aspects of
education are complementary.
Individual experiences,
expectancies, responses to
instructional style and
interpretation of educational
context all complement the
cognitive aspects of learning
performance. Education is the
educating of the total person not
just his cognitive dimension.

16. The recognition of the individual and his
intrinsic value, is part of an attempt to defend
and strengthen democracy by facilitating
individual growth and freedom, and by
recognizing the basic rights of individuals.
Those who through parental, educational and
societal practices have developed a positive
self-concept are more able to accept the
worth of others to defend others from
shameless words and deeds, and to possess the
inner strengths that tell them they are
competent, creative, and worth themselves.
Thus they are unwilling to lie down in the
face of tyranny

17. This view of the role of self-concept
development as a help in maintaining
individual rights and people’s
democratic freedom is perhaps an
unusual one. Yet the promotion of
positive self-conception is a necessary
complement to the technological
computer and microchip era which
could so easily lead to a lessening of the
worth of the individual. Education
development has a far more important
responsibility that hitherto.

18. We sometimes find it difficult to understand the child
because we are looking at him from our own perceptual
framework. There is much needless conflict between
adults and children resulting from their differences in
perspective. There is the story of the village moron who,
having found a lost donkey which his more ‘intelligent’
neighbours had been unable to locate, explained his
success by saying that he had tried to think where he
would go if he were a donkey! Clinicians have rarely seen
a parent who deliberately sets out to destroy his child, but
frequently they see parents who accomplish just that –
parents who do vicious things in the firm conviction that
they want the best for their child. People do their best to
be adequate according to their perceptions, no matter
how futile and misguided their behaviour may be to a
person whose phenomenal field is more enlightened. They
simply need to develop a more adequate perspective

19. Definition of Self-Concept and
Educational Psychology

20. There are a variety of ways to think about the
self. The most widely used term is self-
concept and generally refers to the totality of
a complex, organized, and dynamic system of
learned beliefs, attitudes and opinions that
each person holds to be true about his or her
personal existence.
Franken (1994) states that:
“there is a great deal of research which shows
that the self-concept is , perhaps the basis for
all motivated behavior. It is the self-concept
that gives rise to possible selves, and it is
possible selves that create the motivation for
behavior”

21. We develop and maintain our
self-concept through the process
of taking action and then
reflecting on what we have done
and what others tell us about
what we have done. We reflect on
what we have done and can do in
comparison to our expectations
and the expectations of others and
to the characteristics and
accomplishments of others. that is,
self-concept is not innate, but is
developed by the individual
through interaction with the
environment and reflecting on
that interaction

22. There are several different components of self-concept:
Transpersonal
Physical
Academic
Social

23. The physical aspect of self-concept
The physical aspect of self-
concept relates to that which is
concrete:
 what we look like
 our sex, height, weight, etc.;
 what kind of clothes we wear;
 what kind of car we drive;
 what kind of home we live;

24. Academic Self-Concept
Our academic self-concept relates
to how well we do in school or how
well we learn. There are two levels:
a) a general academic self-concept
of how good we are overall
b) and a set of specific content-
related self-concepts that
describe how good we are in
math, science, language arts,
social science, etc.

25. Social Self-Concept
The social self-concept describes
how we relate to other people

26. Transpersonal
self-concept
describes how
we relate to the
sup0ernatural or
unknowns.

28. This dynamic aspect of self-concept (and,
by corollary, self-esteem) is important
because it indicates that it can be modified
or changed.
Franken (1994) states:
“there is a growing body of research which
indicates that it is possible to change the
self-concept. Self-change is not something
that people can will but rather it depends
on the process of self-reflection. Through
self-reflection, people often come to view
themselves in a new, more powerful way,
and it is through this new, more powerful
way of viewing the self that people can
develop possible selves”

29. The relationship of self-concept to
school achievement is very specific.
General self-concept and non-
academic aspects of self-concept
are not related to academic work;
general academic achievement
measures are related moderately to
academic success. Specific
measures of subject-related self-
concepts are highly related to
success is that content area.
If academic achievement leads to
self-concept, but self-concept is a
better predictor of being a low-
track or high-track student, it
would appear that there is some
intervening variable. It’s mean the
intervening variable is personal
expectations.

30. Gage and Berliner (1992), the
research on the relationship between
self-concept and school achievement
suggests that measures of general or
even academic self-concept are not
significantly related to school
achievement. It is at the level of very
specific subjects (e.g., reading,
mathematics, science) that there is a
relationship between self-concept
and academic success. This suggests
that success in a particular subject
area is not really changing one’s self-
concept but rather is impacting one’s
expectation about future success
based on one’s past experience.

31. There is much discussion about
what young people should do in
their childhood and youth to
prepare them for success in
adulthood. Once we have
determined the desired end results
or the prerequisites for success, we
need to determine the means or
the conditions by which those can
be brought about. Education and
schooling are two terms that are
often associated with these
conditions.

33. The development of self-concept is through the
learning process since childhood. A child
surrounding, experiences and the style of
parental upbringing also contribute a significant
influence towards the development of self-
concept. A child evaluate who they are through
the response of their parents in every action that
taken. If a child live in a confused and negative
parental upbringing, as a result this child tend to
develop negative self-concept. Negative parental
upbringing can be shown through beating
without mercy, neglecting, paying less attention,
unfairness, humiliating and unsatisfactory
towards their child’s attitude. When this occurs,
they will assume these as a punishment caused
by their fault or stupid ness. On the contrary, a
positive parental upbringing will develop a
positive self-concept.

34. Self-concept is something very
dynamic that can change from time to
time. Some aspects of self-concept
remain for a long period but others can
turn the opposite way in few seconds.
There are factors that influence the
process of the development of self-
concept. The style of parental
upbringing that has been mentioned
before is a significant factor. Positive
parental upbringing and attitude read
by their children can develop a positive
thinking and self-appreciation to
themselves. Negative parental attitude
create the assumption that a child is
not appreciated and loved by their
parent because of his self-weakness

35. The second factor is continuous
failure in a child life. In this
case, failure can be defined as
unsuccessfully to please their
parent or themselves. A
continuous failure in a child life
making him feels that they are
useless. Gradually, negative
self-concept is developed in this
child. On the other hand, a
positive self-concept is
developed if a child sees failure
is an opportunity for him to
improve himself in every aspect
of decision-making

36. The next factor is
depression. People who
suffer from depression tend
to think and response
negatively towards
everything including
evaluating themselves. They
are wondering whether they
can survive throughout their
life. They can be super
sensitive to what other
people say about them or act
towards them.

37. Last but not least, internal self-
critic is another factor that
influence the process of the
development of self-concept. We
cannot deny that internal self-
critic is needed to evaluate every
action and decision that we take
in our life. Internal self-critic
functioned as a regulator in every
action taken and how we behave
so that we can be accepted by the
society around us an can adapt
well within the society.

38. Developing
A Positive
Self-Concept

39. First, we must behave
objectively in knowing
ourselves. No matter how
small the achievement or
positive experience that we
possess it must be
appreciated. We must try to
enhance our talent and self
potential. As it says, “You
can’t be all things to all
people, you can’t do all
things at once, and just do
the best you could in every
way.”

40. Secondly, we must
know and always
appreciate ourselves.
There is no other
person that can
appreciate us more
that ourselves. People
who know how to
appreciate
themselves are one
that can see all the
good and positive
things within them
and other people. So,
if can appreciate
other people, we also
can appreciate
ourselves.

41. Thirdly, never be an enemy to us.
People tend to blame themselves
when conflicts arises between
ideal expectation and the real self.
When we become the enemy to
ourselves, we can hardly see the
good and positive side of
ourselves. Gradually, they are
mentally exhausted, frustrated and
develop negative self-concept.

42. The final step is to have a positive and
rational thinking. The Buddha says,
“We are what we think. All that we are
arises with our thoughts. With our
thoughts, we make the world.” How
powerful is our mind! The power of
our thoughts depends a lot on how we
think. If we can develop positive and
rational thoughts, we are developing a
positive self-concept. A positive self-
concept person usually is a winner but
a negative self-concept person is
always a loser.