Essay on Reflected Appraisals

Reflected appraisals mostly come from what people say about an individual. For instance, the case of Tarzan, he believed he was brought up by apes and by default he became one because he had no life experience as a human. Therefore, reflected appraisal is a term that refers to a process where people imagine how people think of them. The moment one has positively reflected appraisal, then that means they have an excellent self-concept, and if it is negative, the self-concept will suffer greatly. Self-concept, therefore, means the image they have of themselves. This picture influences the development in some ways through interactions with significant people in our lives (Alberts & Martin, 2015).

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Generalized Others

The society affects the secondary perspective of self-concept where I grew up, and the views shared as a social community. It refers to the concept where behaviors and interactions of individuals react with what others expect of them, orienting themselves to values and rules of their particular communities or group. The idea of the generalized others gives the account of self-consciousness while retaining their personal functions. I take as a very special case of role taking where I respond to social gestures, adjust to prevailing attitudes and takes up. By role taking, I adapt and adjust in exchanges based on action consequences on social gesture-response. Self-consciousness is made up through work in the social domain completed in personal reflection. Both abstract and historically embedded interpretation of the Generalized Others to reveal both social and personal evolvement that brings up change. Generalized others are, therefore, a concept of continuing usefulness to psychologists development.

Particular Others

Significant others are the other name for particular others. It refers to the perspectives that affect people right from birth. They involve key people that matter most in life such as my parents, siblings, and guardians. In other families, particular others include extended relatives such as aunts, uncles living within the same household. Within this social perspective, parents become the biggest influences of self-concept. Even though most parents become strict with disciplines and education, they nurtured us well and in a right manner (Dutton, Roberts & Bednar, 2010).

The Social Construction of Identity

The term social construction of identity refers to that theory where the way we present ourselves to other people partly is shaped by our interactions with them and as well as through life experiences. It, therefore, means that my perception of identity is colored by my personal background and belief. In other words, the way I behave do not fully depend on my actual identity but also on the subjective interpretations of my character (Klein & Nichols, 2012). For instance, a teenager identified as deviant might begin to act like one.

Primary Identity Categories

I have three primary identity categories in my life. They are my family members, my fiancee, and the church choir group. Through the family that I have gotten attached to, I have found it easier to understand myself better as they complement regularly and always available for me. In my love relationships, I have shared some intimate time with my partner who is very influential in my life by making me adapt into new characters that were originally not part of us. And from church choir, where I have been a member, I have personally benefited a lot in identifying with my real talent; my vocal strength has improved significantly

In Conclusion, how we define everyday situations depends on our particular experiences and backgrounds. The wealthy individual has learned that through interactions with others that spending money on one's pets is a no expenditure. His identity lies on pride. The poor worker has learned that through his minimum-wage and with the interactions he has with others who spend that a lot of money on a pet is appropriately a negative thing, therefore, his perception of the circumstance becomes entirely different (Dinesen, 2013).

References

Alberts, J. K., Nakayama, T. K., & Martin, J. N. (2015). Human communication in society.

Dinesen, P. T. (2013). Where you come from or where you live? Examining the cultural and institutional explanation of generalized trust using migration as a natural experiment. European sociological review, 29(1), 114-128.

Dutton, J. E., Roberts, L. M., & Bednar, J. (2010). Pathways for positive identity construction at work: Four types of positive identity and the building of social resources. Academy of Management Review, 35(2), 265-293.

Klein, S. B., & Nichols, S. (2012). Memory and the sense of personal identity. Mind, fzs080.