Take a moment and ask yourself: Who am I?
How do you answer such a complex question? It’s tough and one that psychologists have consistently sought to help us with.
‘Self-concept’ might not be a term you’re generally familiar with, but it’s one that’s well worth knowing about. It essentially refers to the way we think about ourselves, evaluate our appearance, thoughts, and behaviors, and perceive ourselves both as individuals and in comparison to others. It’s also linked to concepts of self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-image.
The term self-concept has grown in popularity owing to the way it encompasses a more robust idea of self, rather than individual terms.
Before you read on, we thought you might like to download our three Self-Compassion Exercises for free. These detailed, science-based exercises will not only help you increase the compassion and kindness you show yourself but will also give you the tools to help your clients, students or employees show more compassion to themselves.
A popular definition is provided by Baumeister (1999):
The individual’s belief about himself or herself, including the person’s attributes and who and what the self is.
Rogers (1959) suggested that self-concept has three core aspects:
Lewis (1990) also theorized that the development of individual self-concept has two key components:
The Personal Self-Concept Questionnaire (PSQ) was developed by Goñi, Madariaga, Axpe & Goñi (2011) in response to the plethora of self-concept tools available. The researchers wanted to create a shorter measurement that provided an accurate representation of self-concept overall.
The questionnaire is made up of 22 statements, divided into four subcategories:
Example statements from the questionnaire include:
Participants use a scale of one to five to respond to the statements, with one being ‘Totally Disagree’ and five being ‘Totally Agree.’
These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you to help others create a kinder and more nurturing relationship with themselves.
Download PDF
By filling out your name and email address below.
Initially developed by Saraswat (1984), the Self Concept Questionnaire is one of the more popular questionnaires when it comes to measuring self-concept.
The questionnaire itself contains 48 statements that aim to measure self-concept across six different aspects:
Example statements include:
Participants rate their answers to the statements on a scale from 1 to 5, with one being ‘very unlike me’ and five being ‘very true of me.’ A higher score indicates a high sense of self-concept, with a lower score indicating a lower sense of self-concept.
Although the PSQ and SCQ are the two most commonly used questionnaires to measure and map self-concept, there are several other questionnaires and tools that aim to explore self-belief too.
Below are three I’ve come across in my research that might be of interest to you:
The Academic Self-Concept Scale for Adolescents (Minchekar, 2019) was developed in response to the idea that many self-concept questionnaires and measures are quite broad. The researchers wanted to narrow this down and focused only on measuring self-concept concerning academic skills and performance.
The scale is broken down into eight distinct sub-categories that it measures:
The scale contains 57 statements that ask participants to rate themselves from one to five, with one being ‘Never’ and five being ‘Always.’ Higher scores indicate a higher level of Academic Self-Concept, and participants with a higher score were found to be more confident in their academic capabilities.
The ASCS is still a relatively new tool, and you can read more about its development.
The Harrill Self-Esteem Inventory was developed by Counselor, Susan Harrill, as a measurement for self-esteem within self-concept. It is made up of 25 statements that participants are required to respond to.
Example statements from the inventory include:
Participants respond with a score between zero and four as follows:
0 = I never think, feel, or behave this way.
1 = I do less than half the time.
2 = I do 50% of the time.
3 = I do more than half the time.
4 = I always think, feel, or behave this way.
After responding to all statements, participants tally their total score, with a higher score indicating a higher level of self-esteem.
The Twenty Statements Test (Kuhn & McPartland, 1954) was developed to specifically measure self-image as a part of self-concept, although it covers other areas of self-concept too.
The twenty questions probe participants to respond to the question ‘Who am I’ with ‘I am …’ answers. The questions are broken down into five subcategories:
Kuhn (1960) states that the majority of responses to the questions could be divided into three groups:
The Positive Psychology Toolkit© is a groundbreaking practitioner resource containing over 500 science-based exercises, activities, interventions, questionnaires, and assessments created by experts using the latest positive psychology research.
Updated monthly. 100% Science-based.
“The best positive psychology resource out there!”
— Emiliya Zhivotovskaya, Flourishing Center CEO
Exploring self-concept can be a great learning and growth experience for individuals of all ages. Below are three easy to do activities for individuals or groups of any age to help learn more about self-concept.
This is a wonderful introductory exercise that can be used with individuals or groups. The premise is straightforward to replicate, and participants can take as long as they need to complete the initial statements, with plenty of encouragement for discussion.
To encourage participants to think more deeply about the ideas and labels they have about themselves.
Provide each participant with a list of statements – suggested amount 15-20 – that ask them to think about who they are. Some example statements include:
Encourage participants to answer all statements. Ask them to reflect on the answers they choose and why these are important to them. Remind them there are no wrong or right answers, just the opportunity to engage with their sense of self-concept.
This exercise is great to encourage participants to start thinking about their self-concept of their strengths in critical areas of life. Again, it is very easy to set up and will enable some great conversations with individuals or groups.
To encourage participants to reflect on their strengths in different key areas.
Provide participants with pen and paper and ask them to divide their paper into four sections with the following headings:
Next, read out some statements that could relate to each of the sections and ask participants to write down the ones they feel most relate to them. Aim for 5-6 statements for each of the four categories. Example statements include:
Once participants get the idea, encourage them to reflect further on the four areas, and write down some of their unique strengths.
This exercise is great for any individual who struggles with self-concept, and who has low self-esteem or low self-image in particular. Similar to many journal exercises; it is easy to implement and consistency is key to its success.
To increase ideas of self-concept – in particular, self-esteem and self-image.
Participants are required to spend 5-10 minutes a day reflecting on three compliments they would give themselves about how they behaved, interacted, engaged, or looked during the day. The compliments can focus on anything they like. The idea is to reflect on the positives about themselves they might otherwise dismiss.
Example compliments could include things like:
Ask participants to repeat this exercise daily, for as long as they need to. Remind them it’s okay if they forget some days and it might be challenging to think of three things at first, but it will get easier over time.
