Self-perception is what you believe about yourself. It’s the way you think about yourself, which will influence how you feel about yourself, your self-esteem, and that in turn drives behavior.
Self-perception or self-concept is linked to two other theories:
Looking-glass self
Charles Horton Cooley came up with a social-psychological theory about how our believe about ourselves will affect our behavior and the outcomes in our life.
Looking-Glass Self is based on 3 progressive steps:
- How we think we appear to others and;
- What we think are other people’s opinions and thoughts about us;
- Would affect our thoughts about ourselves and influence the way we behave
This theory describes how our self-concept is developed based on how we view ourselves. We imagine how other people judge our behavior, appearance and abilities, to decide if we like ourselves. Also how people behave and react towards us gives us feedback that is used to build our self-identity. Hence, how we think about ourselves is dependent on how we perceive other people are thinking about us.
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Self-fulfilling prophecy is a belief or expectation about another person or yourself that becomes true in the end, even though it wasn’t true in the beginning. This can happen both with negative believes or positive believes. For example, if you believe that you are useless and can never do anything right, chances are, unconsciously you will stop working hard and end up as you believe.
Self-believe is one of the most powerful motivators for success. When you put your mind to a believe and decide that’s what you want, working on that goal will become easier. Sometimes, bad self-fulfilling prophecies happen because other people label you in a negative way and it’s hard to shake off those words that get stuck in your head about yourself.
One way to beat these thoughts is to have a personal vision about the person that you are and will become. Work towards being that person, reinvent yourself and it will change how other people see you.
