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Self-image is a personal view or mental picture that we have of ourselves. Some steps to develop a positive self-image are as follows:

• Making a list of one’s positive qualities 
• Asking others to describe one’s positive qualities 
• Defining achievable personal goals and objectives 
• Trying to overcome illogical and irrational thinking 
• Avoiding comparing oneself to others
• Developing one’s strengths 
• Learning to love oneself 
• Giving positive affirmations 
• Remembering one’s own uniqueness 
• Remembering how one dealt with problems

(i) False

Outcome expectancies represent skills required to complete the goal while efficacy expectancies refer to a person’s analysis about whether he has those skills.

(ii) True 

Self-concept is our total image of ourselves. A person who has a healthy and positive image of himself tends to be capable.

(iii) False 

Ideal self represents our dynamic ambitions and goals

(iv) False 

A person who has high self-worth can cope with challenges in life and also tolerates failure and sadness effectively.

• Rentsch and Heffner conducted research on the dimensions of selfconcept. 
• When they asked 20 questions to 200 university students, they found eight categories by which the participants defined themselves. 
• Some of the categories were concerned with personal attributes, such as interpersonal characteristics (e.g. I am a student), interest (e.g. I like dancing), personal beliefs (e.g. I am against child abuse), and self-awareness (e.g. I don’t get angry without a valid reason). 
• Others referred to the social environments such as ascribed characteristics (e.g. I am a citizen of India) or social differentiation (e.g. I am from another country). 
• Although our answers to specific questions related to self-concept can be different, the overall organization of self-concept is common for all.

1. Some ways to regulate self are as follows:

• Being aware of one’s own actions 
• Being able to evaluate the impact of one’s actions 
• Being able to predict others’ reactions

2. e.g. When Aditya realized that his anger outbursts scare his toddler, he felt guilty and decided to stop it. He used anger management techniques to regulate himself during such situations.

• Self-regulation is being able to control our own thoughts, feelings, and actions for our own benefit.
• It involves monitoring one’s own actions and reactions. When one engages in self-regulation, he avoids impulsive reactions.
• It also involves predicting the consequences of our behaviour and avoiding behavioural patterns which can negatively affect ourselves or others in the future.
• Self-regulation also involves focusing on certain parts of life and ignoring some other parts for the time being, e.g. as exams approach, a person will stop spending time on Netflix and focus on studies.
• Higgins’ research on regulatory focus showed that people either have promotion regulatory focus or prevention regulatory focus.
• It means people either focus on achieving positive outcomes or don’t do anything in order to prevent negative outcomes.
• Self-regulation has crucial implications in our life.

• According to Seligman, ‘self-esteem is your overall evaluation of your worth as a person, high or low, based on all positive and negative self-perceptions. It is the respect one has for himself.
• A person may have various levels of self-esteem, e.g. a girl may have high self-esteem about her intelligence but may have low self-esteem about her looks.
• People with high self-esteem are positive, responsible, genuine, and committed to their goals. They have strong internal values and forgiving nature. They continuously seek to improve themselves.
• On the other hand, people with low self-esteem are negative, need externally oriented goals, and are impatient with themselves as well as others. They are unhappy and experience anxiety. They may also have a superiority or inferiority complex.
• Some of the ways to improve one’s self-esteem are as follows:
• Eliminate negative self-talk 
• Recognize your strengths 
• Recognise self-worth 
• Accept mistakes 
• Accept rejection

• Self-awareness is the quality or trait that involves conscious awareness of one’s thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and traits.
• In order to have a proper self-concept, one must have some level of selfawareness, i.e. understanding that a person has a separate identity from others.
• According to Piaget, self-consciousness starts emerging between 15-24 months.
• Self-awareness is necessary before the child becomes aware of being a focus of attention. It enables him to understand what others are feeling. It also enables him to identify what belongs to him and what belongs to others.

• Individuals with high self-efficacy have accurate self-evaluation and are willing to take risks. They are confident and experience a sense of accomplishment. e.g. Emerging entrepreneurs often have high self-efficacy. 
• Individuals with low self-efficacy fear uncertainty and failure. They are afraid to take risks. e.g. After losing five games in a row, players in the football team suffered from low self-efficacy.

(i) (A) eight

(ii) (B) Symonds

(iii) (B) sex chromosome

(iv) (A) four

Some of the ways in which we can achieve congruence between the ideal self and the real self are:

• Recognizing one’s own potential 
• Taking steps to achieve one’s full potential 
• Having trust in one’s own competence 
• Being positive and rational

• Gender role is an acquired attribute of self-concept which is psycho-social by nature. 
• It is determined by the family atmosphere as well as cultural influences where the child learns through observation and imitation.
• e.g. if a girl is assertive and practical, she may be considered to be ‘masculine. This is because these attributes are usually associated with boys.
• However, gender-based roles are diluting in modern times. Society is approving and accepting these changes with an open mind.
• e.g. Pt. Birjoo Maharaj, Sanjeev Kapoor, Vikram Gaikwad are famous in femaledominated areas while Phogat sisters, Kalpana Chawla, Kiran Bedi are successful in male-dominated areas.

For your understanding

• Due to societal expectations, both males and females are expected to behave in certain ways, e.g. men are taught that they should be strong. If they cry, it is considered to be ‘girl’.
• However, now people have begun to realize that there is nothing wrong if a man takes up a feminine role or a woman behaves in a masculine way.

(i) Feeling of superiority

(ii) Self-confidence

(iii) Self-indulgence

(i) True 

Explanation: Congruence between the real self and ideal self leads to a greater sense of selfworth and thereby, indicates good mental health.

(ii) False 

Reason: It is wrong to think that profession should be chosen based on one’s gender. Gender roles are diluting in modern times.

(iii) True 

Explanation: People with high self-esteem may not always succeed. But they have high selfworth even when they encounter failure.

(iv) True 

Explanation: Accepting mistakes enables a person to take steps to correct them in the future and thereby, improve self-esteem.

(v) True 

Explanation: Self-awareness enables a person to have realistic perception of oneself and thereby, helps in the formation of healthy selfconcept.

• I will make Harshad realize that his pimples or spectacles do not define ‘who he is’ or, determine his worth as a person. So, he should not let it impact him in a negative manner. 
• I will also highlight his strengths to make him understand that his ‘selfconcept’ should be based on a broader range of aspects than just a body image. I will also encourage him to engage in diverse social interactions to improve his sense of self-worth.

• I will talk to Sushma that being short is not something she should be ashamed of. Her height is just one aspect of her personality. She should not let it come in the way of her social interactions. 
• I will also motivate Sushma to interact with others so that she can build strong and long-lasting social connections. It will make her feel positive and happy.

• The development of the private self takes place between the age of five to six while objective self-awareness develops during adolescence.
• Private self begins to develop when children learn that they can lie and keep secrets. There is the hidden side of the self which includes thoughts, feelings, and desires which parents are unaware of. On the other hand, objective self-awareness develops when adolescents seek to become the center of attraction and popularity. To achieve this, they accept a group’s mannerisms and behavioural patterns.

I feel few important characteristics to become a star model are confidence, physical fitness, gracefulness, and determination.

I will talk to Grishma about the incongruence between her ‘real self’ (self-image) and ‘ideal self. I will also make her understand that even though she is not extremely good-looking, she can actualize her potential by taking efforts to sharpen her other positive attributes.

• The ideal self is what we want to be while the real self is what we actually are. 
• The ideal self represents our dynamic ambitions and goals. It comprises of some goals which are beyond our reach. On the other hand, the real self is our inner personality. It may not be perfect but it is our real part.

1. Some ways to improve one’s selfesteem are as follows:

• Eliminate negative self-talk 
• Recognize your strengths 
• Recognize self-worth 
• Accept mistakes 
• Accept rejection

2. e.g. When Neha accepted rejection in interviews as a part of life, she started looking at it in a positive way. This improved her self-esteem.

• People with high self-esteem are positive, responsible, genuine, and committed to their goals. On the other hand, people with low self-esteem are negative, need externally oriented goals, and are impatient with themselves as well as others. 
• People with high self-esteem have strong internal values and forgiving nature. They continuously seek to improve themselves. Conversely, those with low self-esteem are unhappy and experience anxiety. They may also have a superiority or inferiority complex.

• Self-esteem is a general evaluation of an individual along a dimension. It is the respect one has for himself. 
• According to Seligman, ‘self-esteem is your overall evaluation of your worth as a person, high or low, based on all positive and negative self-perceptions.

• High congruence between the real self and ideal self leads to the formation of accurate self-concept.
• It also results in a greater sense of selfworth and contributes to a healthy productive life.
• Hence, congruence between the ideal self and the real self is significant to enjoy psychological well-being.

Some characteristics of individuals with high self-esteem are as follows:

• Positive 
• Responsible 
• Committed to goals 
• Strong internal values 
• Genuine and forgiving 
• Desire for self-improvement

(i) b. self-perception of one’s own performance

(ii) a. self-regulation

• Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his ability to accomplish some specific goal or a task. 
• It depends on his trust in his own competency. Competence can vary between different situations, e.g. a person’s self-efficacy may be high in painting but low in cooking.
• Self-efficacy is based on ‘Social cognitive theory. The theory holds that humans actively shape their lives rather than passively reacting to the environment.
• Maddux defined self-efficacy as ‘what I believe I can do with my skills under certain conditions.
• Two factors related to efficacy are outcome expectancies (skills required to complete the goal) and efficacy expectancies (person’s analysis about whether he has those capacities).
• Self-efficacy can be improved by reinforcing oneself, developing one’s own skillset, choosing a role model for a particular activity and following him, seeking constructive feedback from others, and learning techniques to control one’s own emotional arousal.

Heatherton has identified the following psychological components that help us to stay socially connected:

• We must be aware of our actions and evaluate them. 
• We must be able to predict other’s reactions to it. 
• We must detect any kind of threat or rejection from others. 
• We must do something constructive to improve the situation.

• On average, till the age of six months, the child is unaware of himself. As the child grows, he starts making distinctions between his own body and everything else.
• In normal children, face recognition with a mirror occurs at the average age of one and half years. They are capable of pretend play. They also start using personal pronouns, (I, me, mine).
• By the age of two, the child becomes aware of general expectations (what is good/ bad behaviour). They smile when people smile at them and frown when others get angry. They also develop a sense of self by comparing themselves with the standard role model (beginning of self-esteem).
• By the age of three, children start recognizing themselves and others as boys or girls.
• Between the age of three to twelve, the self-concept is defined mainly in terms of sex, age, family, and what the child believes he or she can or can’t do.
• When schooling starts at the age of five-six, a child begins to compare himself to others (beginning of social comparison). Also, the development of the private self-concept takes place during this stage.
• The final unfolding of self-concept during adolescence involves perspective taking, i.e. thinking and understanding other’s point of view. They might even enter into the stage of objective self-awareness.

(i) b. an infant is able to distinguish his body from the rest in his surrounding

(ii) b. self-actualisation

• Gender identity is the perception of oneself as male or female. It is the biological aspect of self-concept.
• Gender role is psycho-social in nature as it is determined by the family atmosphere and cultural influences through which the child learns. It is an acquired attribute of self-concept.

(i) (A) 15-24

(ii) (A) image

(iii) (A) self-efficacy

(iv) (A) preventive

(i) False

Reason: Self-concept is defined as the totality of perceptions each person has of themselves.

(ii) False 

Reason: Between the age of three to twelve, self-concept is defined mainly in terms of sex, age, family, and what the child believes he or she can or can’t do.

(iii) True 

Explanation: Gender identity is a biological aspect of self-concept while gender role is psycho-social in nature

(iv) True 

Explanation: Gender roles are acquired through imitation and observation of family atmosphere as well as cultural influences.

(v) False 

Reason: Body image is a part of self-image.

• Till six months: A child is unaware of himself.
• As the child grows, he develops a distinction between ‘me’ and ‘what is not me’.
• By the age of two: The child becomes aware of general expectations.
• By the age of three: The child starts recognizing himself and others as boys or girls.
• At the age of five-six: The child begins to compare himself to others.
• Between the age of three-twelve: Selfconcept is based on developing talents and skills.
• Adolescence: It involves perspective taking, i.e. understanding other’s points of view.

• Self-image is a personal view or mental picture that we have of ourselves. It is a collection of an individual’s assets (strengths) and liabilities (weaknesses). 
• Body image, i.e. how we think, feel, and react to our physical attributes, is also a part of self-image.

• Self-concept is our total image of us, i.e. it is our total picture of our abilities and traits. 
• It is basically a cognitive construct that determines how we feel about ourselves and guides our actions. 
• According to Symonds, self-concept is the way an individual reacts to himself. 
• There are four aspects of self-concept, viz. How does a person perceive himself? What does he think about himself? How he values himself? and How he enhances or defends himself? 
• Our self-concept develops rapidly during early childhood and adolescence. It continues to form and change throughout our life span as we change.

• Self-concept is defined as the totality of perceptions each person has of themselves.
• It is also defined as ‘the totality of the complex, organized and dynamic system of learned beliefs, attitudes, and opinions that each person holds to be true about his or her personal existence’.

(i) (A) Real

(ii) (A) similar

(iii) (A) Self-actualisation

• Self-image is a personal view or mental picture that we have of ourselves. It is an internal dictionary that describes an individual as being intelligent, funny, kind, etc. It is a collection of an individual’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Self-image is dynamic and changing. We can take steps to develop a healthier and accurate view of ourselves.
• A healthy self-image starts with learning to accept and love ourselves. It also includes being accepted and loved by others. 
• Body image is a part of self-image. It goes beyond what we look like or how others see us. It also refers to how do we think, feel, and react to our physical attributes.
• Body image development is affected by cultural images and the influence of family, peers, and others. 
• A positive body image contributes to enhanced psychological adjustment while a negative body image leads to maladjustment.