What Is Your Self View And Why Is It So Important?

What Is Your Self View And Why Is It So Important?

The “self view” is a term created by psychology experts for how you see yourself. Sometimes you will also see this called your “self concept”. Basically your self view is a combination of your opinions, beliefs, attitudes and preferences that form your definition of who you are.

It is all about how you think about yourself. This is really powerful because it will define how you think and the way that you act. Our self view is critical and we really need it to make sense of our world.

The Self has been Studied by Psychologists for a long time

The concept of the self view is easy to understand but it is a very complex psychological area which has had psychologists trying to figure it all out for a very long time. Although everyone has a self view it is not always easy for us to know what is really going on on the inside.

This is because we are all different and our mixture of traits, preferences, personality characteristics and abilities differs wildly to the next person. It doesn’t matter that much that we cannot explain everything about the self view though.

What is important is that we are aware of its existence. People need their self view so that they can form their own perceptions of the world and feel comfortable in their environment. Without it we would always be asking others how we stack up (which a lot of people do anyway but this is usually due to low self esteem rather than not having a self view).

In the very early days of research into the self view, Descartes formed the conclusion that the very existence of an individual was totally dependent on how they perceived the world around them.

The well known psychologist, Simund Freud, believed that the self view comprised of three elements which are:

1. Your ID which is pleasure based
2. Your ego which is a state of balance between your ID and your superego
3. Your superego which is driven by your conscience

Important Aspects about the Self View

There are a lot of different assumptions held about the self view to make sense about it. Here are some of the most important ones:

You Learn your Self View

The assumption here is that you are not born with your self view. You will develop it as you grow and become an adult. In fact your self view can change many times during your life. Many experts believe that you can change your self view if you need to and this is a good thing.

Your Self View has Structure

Over the years you are likely to develop many different views about yourself. The assumption here is that all of these different opinions are organized into a single self view. This structure helps you to instantly challenge anything that doesn’t conform to your self view.

Every day an individual is likely to be subjected to many different messages and a number of these can challenge their self view. Even though these different challenges are about different aspects of a person’s life the reaction is automatic.

Your Self View can Change

It is not easy to change your self view because you have built it up over a long period of time. But you can change it. Sometimes different environmental changes can force you to change your self view. Other times you may want to change it yourself because it is not supporting what you want to do.