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Self-concept: Lewis and Rogers

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What makes you 'you'? Your self-concept is the set of beliefs you hold about who you are. Lewis (1990) and Rogers (1959) explain how it develops and works.

Lewis (1990): two parts of the self

Existential self: the most basic part. It is the awareness that you are separate and different from other people and that you continue to exist over time. A baby starts to develop this very early, for example realising that its actions make things happen.
Categorical self: once a child knows they exist, they see themselves as an object in the world with features that can be put into categories, such as age, gender, size or skills ('I am a girl', 'I am 4', 'I am good at running'). Young children use concrete categories; older children add personality traits and comparisons with others.

Rogers (1959): self-image, self-esteem and ideal self

Self-image: how you see yourself (including your body and personality).
Self-esteem: how much you value yourself: high or low.
Ideal self: the person you would like to be.
Congruence: when your self-image and ideal self are close. This leads to high self-esteem.
Incongruence: when there is a big gap between your self-image and ideal self. This leads to low self-esteem and unhappiness.
Self-actualisation: reaching your full potential. Rogers said this needs congruence.

Using the ideas

Imagine Sam sees himself as shy and average at sport (self-image), but wishes to be confident and a star footballer (ideal self). The gap is large: incongruence, so his self-esteem may be low.
If Sam's ideal self becomes more realistic, or his self-image improves, the two get closer: congruence.
Worked example

Aisha sees herself as kind and hard-working, and that is exactly who she wants to be. Using Rogers' terms, describe her state and predict her self-esteem.

  1. Her self-image matches her ideal self.
  2. This is congruence, which Rogers linked to high self-esteem.

Answer: Congruence, so she is likely to have high self-esteem.

Key idea

Lewis (1990) said the self has an existential part (I exist, separate from others) and a categorical part (I have features like age and gender). Rogers (1959) described self-image, self-esteem and ideal self; congruence between self-image and ideal self gives high self-esteem and makes self-actualisation possible.

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