Self Concept Vs Perceived Self

According to the text, our personality is composed of the real self and our perceived self. Our real self is who you actually are, while your perceived self is the person you want to be. The perceived self is an idealized version of yourself meaning that it is something that is created out of what you have learned from life experiences, from the demands of society, and the one that is that most true to me is from what I admire in my role models. While in direct contrast to that your real self is what you really are. We are not born with a self-concept however. Our self-concept comes from interaction with the environment and one’s reflection of that interaction. This has more to do with our attributes, our characteristics and our personality

Some people want to better their real self, and some want to fix what they currently are. For example I wish that I were more of a relaxed person. I picture myself as being this ideal person that has it all together. I know I tend to be a workaholic. I think that we all will always have these idealized versions of ourselves. As long as we know and accept our real self and be aware of our imperfection, I think that’s what’s important. People look at images and celebrities as well as other people in our lives as role models for our selves but I think that is just not a healthy thing to do. Our culture has a very strong hold on people, especially with regards to how society would act towards them if they were not in line with the quota. Society has really played an influence in my life because looking at it I am shown celebrities with perfect skin and perfect hair matched with the perfect clothes. I think that we need to be more realistic with ourselves and the expectations that we put on ourselves. I have also always considered the imagination an important part of the self but I only thought of it as a creative tool. In order to have goals and attempt to plot out the future we have to imagine what we want and how to get it. Part of this new understanding was seeing how we have to use our imaginations to envision our goals. They feel the real self has to in some parts match the ideal self. There is both good and bad in the world, there can be failures as well as success. The world is not just black and white a little grey has to be