Question 2 Essay

I'm exploring the statement that our self concept relies heavily on the feedback we receive from others. self-concept is a combination of the way we feel about and see ourselves, and a big part of boosting our self-concept is getting compliments from others. For example, if somebody changed their hairstyle and it received compliments from friends they would feel confident about themselves, whereas if it got negative feedback the person would most likely regret the decision depending on how high their self concept already is. if we receive negative feedback for showing our core self, the gap between our core and public self will increase and there is more chance we will adapt our public self to make us more appealing to others.

Dimbleby and Burton have a theory that we rely on the actions of, compare ourselves to, and identify with others. This ties in with the statement as we value other people highly and the reactions we receive from others can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when we are told something so much that we start to believe it and act it out. When this happens it means other people have influenced the way we act and this shows that we rely heavily on other people's opinions. As well as this, Cooley's Looking Glass Theory (1992) states that other people validate our behaviour and how we feel about ourselves depends entirely on the reactions of others. This is a similar theory to Dimbleby and Burton as both of theories support the idea that the opinions of others are important to us. A good example of this is that teenagers generally tend to dress similarly to the way their friends dress or copy popular styles and this suggests that they are doing this to fit in and be liked, rather than because they just like the style.

The Johari window is a model of identity, and shows the different versions of ourself and who sees them. There are 4 sections: open, blind, hidden and unknown, and these are all either known or unknown by us and others. Our open self is seen by everybody and our hidden self is aspects of our personality that we hide from others. This means we change the way we are depending on who we're with as we all have things that we want to keep private and we want to show ourselves in a good light when with others so we only reveal certain parts of our personality. For example, I change the way I act with different people as I want people to like me and accept me into their groups. This theory is good evidence that we rely on others opinions as we make changes to our identity to gain acceptance.

Another theory which supports this idea is the dissonance theory. It states that we have to try and protect ourselves from the opinions of others so we don't damage our self-concept. This is direct evidence that people affect what we think about ourselves. We disclose different amounts of information to different people and adapt the things we say in order to get approval from them. When I talk to people who are interested in pop music I would discuss the pop music I liked as I know it will get good feedback, whereas if I was talking to someone who liked rock music I would disclose different information and only discuss the rock music I liked.

When we receive negative feedback it affects our self-concept so we adopt different methods to prevent this. These are called "self-maintenance strategies" and these were discovered by Gergen and Gergen. We use methods such as commenting on our appearance in order to provoke a positive response and changing our behaviour to conform to the norms of society. This shows that we highly value what others think of us and will do certain actions to fit in with groups and be valued.

Body Modifications

Body modification is all to do with altering our bodies to get closer to reaching our ideal self. People of all ages have an idea of what they aspire to be and what their ideal self looks like, meaning that we all go through various procedures to reach our goal of being our version of 'perfect'. It is especially important to teenagers and young adults as this seems to be the time when most people get a clear idea of who they want to be and what they are willing to go through. I think with younger people body modifications (such as makeup for girls) are a way for them to try and be in control of ourselves. This is because at a young age we abide by our parents beliefs so once we have reached the age where we develop our own we want to break away from our parents and show independence. Each person has their own ideologies but as teenagers there are usually more generalised groups that we want to fit in to and theses all have specific styles. There are aspects of independence associated with body modifications as well as aspects of fitting in and being accepted.
I think a lot of teenagers modify their bodies for themselves to raise their self-esteem and make them feel more confident within themselves, but the ideal self they have created usually stems from our subconscious need to fit in with others. I personally tell myself the way my style is all for personal reasons and I'm doing it for myself not others, but there is also an aspect of society giving me ideas about how 'perfect' women should be which influences my choices subconsciously. I take a lot of my inspiration about how I want to look from people around me and the opinions of my peers rather than media. For me personally, I value my figure as one of the things that I want to become 'perfect' so working on reaching my ideal body is one my more important forms of body modification.
For others piercings and tattoos are a more obvious form of body modification. It is generally suggested, especially by older people, that people only get these as a sign of rebellion but I think it is more personal to each person rather than a way of rebelling. Teenagers can form groups because of these modifications as there are some subcultures that are more likely to get tattoos or piercings, but nowadays they're more popular with everybody so I think it is a personal decision. I personally would like to get tattoos as they are a way of representing different aspects of myself and showing off my identity, but someone like my mum hates them and doesn't see the reason people would get them so I think it all comes down to personal choice. I don't want to get tattoos to rebel against my mum's beliefs so the idea that they're all for rebellion is wrong in my opinion. I think they are more about representation as tattoos are specific to each person who gets them and they usually have meaning behind them.

Response to Quote

"Perhaps I'm getting too old to understand but it seems to me that most young people today go out of their way to look ridiculous. Perhaps they just don't like themselves. How else can you explain the tattoos and body piercings? Why else would they dress in the style of convicts, hardened criminals or extras from a horror film? As for music, the most popular types seem to celebrate negative or anti-social behaviour: violence, drug abuse, suicide, self harm and anti-materialism. Is it all the fault of the older generation for bringing up youths who just reject society's values"

This quote is showing a negative approach towards youth culture and the subcultures which have become popular. I'd assume the writer of this comment is an adult as they are talking about how they don't understand the trends that 'young people' follow which would suggest that they're older. They state that people go out of their way to look ridiculous which shows a negative view towards the culture but I think this statement can be true for any style, not just youth culture. For example there were a range of subcultures around in previous decades that aren't present now and all of these had styles that could be considered ridiculous so it isn't just youth culture that is responsible for this. They begin to question why teenagers

Coursework Planning

My Cyber Narrative: Who I am online:

Ideas: Social Networks I have - Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram

-I am more confident online because it's easier to hide behind a screen when conveying opinions

-I have my own persona for each different social site: e.g. I can be very outgoing and opinionated on twitter but rarely post on facebook. Most of the people who follow me on twitter don't know me in person so I feel more comfortable giving my opinions

-Facebook is the social network where I am more aware of what I post as it is a site where all my family and friends can see what I'm doing so I don't tend to post on there

-Twitter is the site where I can be myself most as I don't know most of my followers and is the site most teenagers use nowadays so I usually have followers who agree with my opinions and I can talk to

-I find it easier to make new friends over twitter as it's less personal and most people I follow I don't know but share interests with so we have subjects to talk about, I know everyone on my facebook so it's not somewhere I go to speak to new people

Theories:

Johari Window: Disclose different parts of my identity to people online depending on the context

Eric Berne (1968): Have different states depending on the social network I'm using



A hidden curriculum: What School Taught me to be:

Ideas:

-School has had positive/negative effects on different parts of my personality

-gives good guidance on learning manners and learning how to stick to and follow rules but doesn't do much for students on the originality/identity side of things as students are given rules to act a certain way and given a uniform until they get to college which prevents them from self-expression

-Taught to act differently around teachers and students, e.g show teachers respect and speak more formally

-School teaches people to hate education as conventional lessons involve all sitting around listening to one person speak and making notes which students believe is boring which gives learning negative connotations
-learning new things should be a positive and exciting experience for students but is made boring

-Act differently in school than out of school as you can express yourself and show your full personality/style, there are too many rules & regulations in schools to be able to be yourself fully

Theories:

Erving Goffman: Have different persona in school - different location/props/costumes

Eric Berne: Different ego states depending on which lesson we're in etc

Johari Window: Disclose different amounts of information to teachers and students about my personality

My Favourite Musicians

In comms today we had a look at using Windows Movie Maker to create short videos about things which we enjoy or our favourite music/books/films etc. I chose to make my video about my favourite band: Alt-J and this is my final outcome:

Who Am I

I am my family who support me in everything I do
I am my friend who loves cats more than she loves people
I am the things that make me happy
and the things that don't
I am the teacher who told me I have my head in the clouds
I am the spontaneous days that become my favourite memories
I am the music I listen to every day
I am my favourite films and books
I am the secrets I keep from people closest to me
and the stories I share with the world

I am who I am because of everyone.

Identity And The Self

"I am who I am because of the time and the place I was born and the culture I was raised in. My family gave me a set of values and so have my town, my religion, my community and my country. Add all these up and that’s who I am – me."

"I have got an identity – at least my friends seem to think so, but I am not really sure who I am. I know that I’m more like some people than others, but this changes as I try out new identities. I don’t really want to take on an identity if it means that I can’t be different when I want to be."

I believe the second paragraph to be the most accurate for me as although our families and communities may have influenced parts of our identity as we were growing up, ultimately it’s up to us to choose what our personality is and what our beliefs are which are all part of our identity. As we grow up we are exposed to a wider range of opinions and beliefs which will change our personalities therefore also changing our identities, and we go through lots of different phases in our lives which all add up to who we are. As a child we may have gotten our identity from our parents/religions/communities etc because that’s what we were raised with but as we get older we will decide for ourselves what we want our identities to be and that will constantly change. Most people can’t give a specific definition of what their identity is so I believe the second paragraph is the most accurate.

 Who am I

I am a daughter

I am a sister

I am a student

I am friendly

I am content

I am a grandchild

I am a niece

I am lazy

I am confident around my friends

I am good with advice

I am a friend

Holiday Inn Advert – Real/Ideal Self

In this advert the man is fairly chubby but his ideal self is slim and toned with a defined face, portraying how he would ideally like to look. In the clip of him in the cafe he is drinking alone whereas in his ideal self he is surrounded by friends, showing his lack of popularity in real life and his wish to become popular. In the next section of the video he’s reading a magazine and his ideal self is reading War and Peace, suggesting he would ideally like to become more intelligent. He shows his lack of sports skills and clumsiness in the clip but his ideal self is playing tennis well, this gives the impression that he would like to become fitter and be more impressive when playing sports. In the final clip he is dancing badly alone and his ideal self is impressing his friends with his dance moves. This is another example of the idea that he wants to improve his social life.

Ideal Male/Female according to the media?
 I think the ideal male/female in the media is mainly about being attractive rather than being a good role model. The ideal female usually has the media’s idea of a ‘perfect’ figure – being really slim – and the ideal male is portrayed as a man who is lean and muscly. They would have clear skin and healthy hair as well as having good posture and presenting themselves well. The ideal male/female would also have good style. In terms of other aspects, looking wealthy and confident plays a big part in being an ideal person in the media.

 Ideal Self 
I think having an ideal self is healthy as it gives you something to aim for in terms of your ideal figure or personality, but can be unhealthy if you think too much about it. Personally I have my own idea of my ideal self as there are lots of things I would change about my looks and personality, but I try not to dwell on changing those things and aim more on being happy with the way I am now. People will have most of the aspects they don’t like about themselves for their whole lives so it’s better to focus on accepting them, but when it comes to things such as losing weight it can be good to have an ideal self as the image of who you want to be can help motivate you to change and will make you happier when you reach that ideal weight.

 Who do you think is a positive or negative role model? What makes a positive or negative role model? Who are the role models in your life? To what extent do they represent your ideal self?

 In my opinion a good role model is someone who is positive, does good things for people and is confident in everything they’re doing. People who promote positive attitudes and good deeds set good standards for people who look up to them whereas people who are negative and do bad things won’t set a good example and will encourage people to follow in their footsteps. I don’t have a specific role model, I am influenced by different aspects of people I know and celebrities but there isn't one person who inspires me to be the way I am in all parts of my identity. There are people I look up to but they’re not the same as my role models. For example I look up to my mum but I don’t see her as a specific role model for me in terms of my personality. When looking through the search results for ‘good role models’, people such as Jessie J and Miley Cyrus came up. Both share the same level of confidence in what they’re doing, but I consider Jessie J a role model and not Miley. Jessie J is confident to share her stories of bullying, as well as being confident by her actions such as shaving her hair off for charity which makes her a positive role model for people. Miley on the other hand, despite there being rumours that she also donated her hair to a cancer charity, has turned herself into a negative role model recently by using her confidence to act provocatively on TV and dress in minimal clothing to get attention.