Definition And The Key Components Of Self Concept And It's Role In Decision Making

Self-concept can be defined as a self-constructed idea that an individual has, based on his beliefs about himself and the reactions of others towards him. It refers to how a person thinks about, perceives, and evaluates himself. The basic aspect of self-concept is a sense of being distinct from others. So basically, self-concept answers the question, “Who am I?” and “How self-aware am I?”.

The process of self-concept involves categorization, identification, and comparison. An individual categorizes himself into various groups based on physical appearance, age, sex, education, etc.

Identification means an individual accepts the fact that he belongs to a particular category and starts behaving accordingly. After identifying the group, an individual starts comparing himself with others and seeks familiar relations while competes with separate groups. This process tells an individual about self-awareness by defining three components of self-concept, which are: self-image, self-esteem, and ideal self.

Self-image is how an individual sees himself or believes himself to be. This belief may or may not coincide with reality.

Get quality help now

Writer Lyla

Verified writer

Proficient in: Decision Making

5 (876)

“ Have been using her for a while and please believe when I tell you, she never fail. Thanks Writer Lyla you are indeed awesome ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Self-esteem is how much an individual values himself. Depending upon how a person compares himself with others, self-esteem may be positive or negative.

The ideal self is how an individual wants himself to be in the future.

Being in the knowledge of these components a person becomes aware of his personality and can make decisions on how to behave socially when working in an organization in different situations.

Decision-making is the process of deciding and coming to a sensible conclusion. It may be an individual decision or a decision made by a group or an organization.

In an organization, the decision-making process is considered as a check and balance system that helps the organization to grow.

The decision-making process involves the selection of a proper course of action from all the available alternatives. This course of action includes 7 steps: (1) Identify the decision to be made, (2) Gather relevant information, (3) Identify the options, (4) Evaluate the evidence, (5) Choose among alternatives, (6) Implement the chosen alternative and (7) Analyse the results.

Decision-making depends highly on an individual.

• Emotions: If he has a positive mood, he is more likely to make sound decisions, while a negative mood lowers problem-solving skills.
• Perceive: Every decision requires an individual to interpret and evaluate information. But the quality of decision is largely influenced by the way a person perceives this information.
• Personality traits: Individual personality influences decision-making. Dutiful people are more inclined to do what they see as best for the organization whereas achievement-oriented people are more susceptible to hindsight bias.
• Gender: Gender difference also hinders decision-making. In a stressful situation, men become risk-takers while diction making improves in women.
• Mental Ability: Intelligent people tend to learn quickly and avoid errors in decision-making.
• Cultural differences: Indians don’t necessarily make decisions the same way as Australians do.

So, it can be observed that self-identity has a major role in decision making and hence the more an individual is self-aware the better are the chances for him to take a correct decision.