Four Concepts Involving Self-Concept From Interplay: Communication And The Self Essay Samples

The text examines many concepts that focus on self-concept, identity, the ways people perceive themselves in society, and the ways people present themselves want to be perceived by others. Self-Concept is the subjective, relatively stable set of self-constructed ideas, beliefs and perceptions a person has about themselves. It is formed and shaped by the self perceptions of peers and the rest of society. In society there are many identities that people assume, and their self-concept is closely related. Often, a student will get poor grades in math class. Their parents might tell the student that they too were hopeless in math class. As a result, they believe they are just “bad at math” from an early age. They self-label themselves, become discouraged and stop trying very hard to excel. Then their grades deteriorate even more. If they tried harder, they might earn B’s, but they get D and F’s. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy - the cause and effect outcome of an individual basing their prospects and consequent behavior based on pre-determined expectations that make the result more likely to occur than might otherwise have been true. If you tell a young child they are bad, their identity becomes a “bad boy” and are more likely to become criminals. If a student’s self-concept it that of a scholar with straight A’s, they are more like to work hard to maintain that identity, ensuring high grades.
Identity management is the different methods an individual, business or groups to manage, shape and control the ways other people judge or perceive them. It is a intercultural communication theory developed in the 1990’s by Cupach and Todd (1993). The theory examines the different ways a person can present themselves in society and can be broken down into intercultural and intercultural communication. Often, cultures have different identity management norms and techniques. Today, social media like Facebook, Twitter and personal blogs are good examples of how individuals use identity management, often presenting themselves in an unrealistically positive manner. Basically, everyone wants to look good most of the time. People also present different versions of themselves depending on the platform and audience. This involves a lot of facework, which is the they ways people present and maintain a specific desired identity or present their “face” to others. Personally, I have seen people want to appear wealthy, fun and wild, and post compromising photos of themselves on social media, without thinking about the long-term identity management consequences. They want to influence their followers to believe they are “cool” or envy their lifestyle or accomplishments, I have also seen individuals inflate their resumes on sites such as Linkedin, attempting to seem more professional or qualified than they really are. There are many example of how identity management is used in everyday life. For example, a person may present themselves in the way they talk, dress and act at work one way, and then at home around friends they may behave much differently. People from different backgrounds behave differently around each other and present themselves in a specific way. When these same people are around peers from the same background, they act differently. A person who grows up in a lower socioeconomic community may go to university and become an attorney. Their business identity at the office or in the courtroom would probably be much different than the “version” of themselves they would present to their old friends from high school.
When managing identity, an individual may present their “presenting self,” or the image or identity a person show others, which may or may not be similar their “perceived self” which is the identity a person believes about themselves (Adler). n my experience, I have noticed that excellent students will often present themselves as scholarly, serious and over-achieving. However, they perceive themselves as weak students or socially inept. They see themselves negatively. Other people seem to be “fake” or have two different personalities. For example, a person may be an elementary school teacher who plays drums in a rock and roll band. They may offer a very conservative and responsible “presenting self” to the school community, such as parents, students and other teachers. On the weekends, they may let their outrageous, wild and hard partying “perceived self” loose, the person they really believe they are. Presenting self involves some facework and identity management, while perceived self involves some self-perception and self-esteem. A salesman may present themselves as a friendly and outgoing extrovert to sell professionally. At home, they may be shy and introverted.
In professional settings and on social media, privacy management is an issue. Privacy management is the choices people make about which information about themselves they make public, reveal to others, or hide completely. A person using identity management to present a face to others will usually only reveal private information that makes the person look favorable. In a social media platform like twitter, people may conceal that they lost their job, or include or not include private information about their relationships and significant others (who play a huge role in identity formation and maintenance). I have seen this in the biographies of business people. They often will leave out information about bankruptcies or failed business ventures and only focus on positive experiences. The construction, maintenance and idealization of identity involves many of these complex phenomena that focus on self and our relations to others in society,

Works Cited

Adler, Ronald B. Interplay. the Process of Interpersonal Communication. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 2015. Print.
Cupach, William R., and T. Todd Imahori. "Identity management theory: Communication competence in intercultural episodes and relationships."Intercultural
communication competence 112 (1993): 131.