Experiment Nine

Self-Concept

Date:

Problem: To assess the self-concept of the subject by administering a self-concept test.

Materials:

1. Self-concept scale
2. Writing material

Description of the scale: The self-concept scale contains twenty two trait descriptive adjectives;
they are friendly, happy, kind, brave, honest, likable, trusted, good, proud, lazy, loyal,
cooperative, cheerful, thoughtful, popular, courteous, jealous, obedient, polite, bashful, clean,
and helpful.

Each of these adjectives is prefaced by the phrase “I am…” and is followed by a five point rating
scale. Nineteen of them are considered as positive or socially desirable attributes and the rest
of them are considered negative concepts (except item no 10, 17 and 19, Rest is positive).

Plan: Experiment is conducted by administering self-concept scale and results are to be scored
and interpreted.

Procedure: Seat the subject comfortably and give the self-concept scale to the subject. Instruct
“look at the self-concept scale, there are 22 traits and 5 alternatives. Kindly mark a tick (✔)
before any one of the 5 alternatives given against each trait. Mark only before that alternative
which best fits your feeling of “ I am....”, you have to mark against each trait”. Instruction is
given with examples to the subject to understand clearly.

Precautions:

● Experimenter should explain how to mark a tick before any one of the five alternatives
given against each trait with example.
● Subject should understand instruction properly and then start the experiment.

Analysis of the results:

● Find out how many and give points accordingly

o ‘not at all” (1mark)”,
o “not very often” (2marks)”,
o “sometimes” (3 marks)”,
o “most of the time” (4marks)”, and
o “all the time” (5marks)”.
● Find out the scores for 10, 17 and 19 which should be scored reversely as they are
negative attributes.
o ‘not at all” (5mark)”,
o “not very often” (4marks)”,
o “sometimes” (3 marks)”,
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 o “most of the time” (2marks)”, and
o “all the time” (1marks)”.
● Find out the total scores.
● Calculate the minimum, maximum and range
● Calculate mean and SD for the group results.

Theoretical Note:

● As the age increases it is said that the self-concept of the individual also increases. It
might be due to the day-to-day experience, past experiences and knowledge of the
subject as well as the intellectual capacity of the subject. Hence the high scores indicate
the high self-concept and the low scores indicate the low self-concept. In this scale
maximum possible score is 110 and minimum is 22. Hence 0-36 is interpreted as low
average scores. Scores from 37-75 are interpreted as average self-concept and scores
form 76-110 are interpreted as high average.
o 0-36 low self-concept
o 37—75 Average self-concept
o 76-110 High average self-concept

INTRODUCTION
The self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about, evaluates or
perceives themselves. To be aware of oneself is to have a concept of oneself. Baumeister
defined self-concept as the individual’s belief about himself or herself, including the person’s
attributes and who and what the self is. The self-concept is an important term for both social
and humanistic psychology. Many researchers have made theories based on the self-concept.
The concept of self has three major components; the perceptual, the conceptual and the
attitudinal. Psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow had major influence in popularizing
the idea of self-concept in the west. According to Carl Rogers, the self-concept has three
different components; the view one has of oneself (self-image), how much value one places on
oneself (self-esteem), what one wishes one were really like (ideal self). Fitts states that there
are five aspects of the overall category within the self-concept which are physical self-concept,
personal self-concept, social self-concept, moral self-concept and family self-concept. The main
aim of this experiment is to assess the self-concept of the subject by administering a self-
concept test.

Individual table:

Table I shows the self-concept score and the interpretation of the subject.

Subject Self-Concept Score Interpretation

MR 75 Average

Individual result:

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Table I shows the self-concept score and the interpretation of the subject MR. As seen from the
table, subject MR scores 75 on the self-concept scale which indicates that she has an average
self-concept.

Group Table:

Table II shows the self-concept score and the interpretation of the group.
S. NO. SUBJECT Self-Concept Score Interpretation

101 High average

MRA

MRH 60 Average

AAA 81 High average

MR 75 Average

RW 66 Average

HAA 94 High average

MM 81 High average

SM 84 High average

FF 87 High average

ASN 60 Average

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 MN 86 High average

MSS 73 Average

AD 79 High average

1027
TOTAL

79
MEAN

101
MAXIMUM

60
MINIMUM

41
RANGE

12.24
SD

Group Result:

Table II shows the self-concept score and the interpretation of the group. As seen from the
table, a total of 13 subjects participated in this experiment. The total self-concept score for this
experiment is 1027 with a mean of 79. The highest self-concept score was scored by subject
MRA which is 101 showing that subject MRA has a high average self-concept. The lowest self-
concept score was scored by subject MRH and ASN which is 60 indicating that both the subjects
have an average self-concept. The range of the results is calculated to be 21 with a standard
deviation of 12.24. As seen from the table, 5 subjects scored an average self-concept score and
8 subjects scored a high average self-concept score. No subject scored a low average self-
concept score. Hence, the majority of the group have a high average self-concept.

DISCUSSION

According to the table above, 5 subjects scored an average self-concept score and 8 subjects
scored a high average self-concept score. No subject scored a low average self-concept score.
Hence, the majority of the group have a high average self-concept.

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It is said that as age increases, self-concept also increases due to day-to-day experiences, past
experiences, knowledge as well as intellectual capacity of the subject. Even though, in the
above experiment, age was not considered, the results of the experiment do not follow the
general tendency. As seen from the table, subject MRA has the highest self-concept, however,
he is not the oldest among the subjects and subject SM, who is the oldest among the
participants, scored a lower self-concept score than most of the other subjects, showing that
the results of this experiment are not according to the general tendency. In an experiment,
Kretschmann et al., 2021, examined relative age effects within class on students' academic self-
concept, peer relations, grades, and teachers’ secondary school recommendation. From the
results obtained in this experiment, no considerable age effects favoring older students in the
class were found, however, the youngest in class had higher reading self-concepts than the
oldest in class. Hence, it shows that there is no effect of age on self-concept.

Several researches have shown a relationship between gender differences and self-concept,
however, gender differences were not considered in this experiment. In an experiment
Klomsten et al., (2004), investigated the gender differences in physical self-concept among
elementary and secondary school students. The results indicated significantly higher physical
self-concept in boys than in girls showing that there are gender differences in self-concept. In
another experiment, Wilgenbusch and Merrel (1999), conducted an investigation on gender
differences in self-concept among children and youth. The results of the study shows that there
was a significant gender difference in which boys scored a higher self-concept score for
academic self-concept and girls scored a higher self-concept for musical self-concept. The
studies discussed show that gender differences can affect self-concept. Hence, even though
gender differences were not considered in the current experiment, it might have affected the
results of the study.

To analyze the accuracy of the experiment, standard deviation (SD) can be used. Higher SD
indicates that the values are generally away from the mean making the experiment faulty and a
lower SD indicates that the values are clustered close to the mean making the experiment more
accurate. In the above experiment, the SD of self -concept score is calculated to be 12.24 which
is greater than 0 indicating that the values are scattered away from mean. However, this cannot
be used to explain the reliability of the experiment since the scores were based on the subject’s
personal experiences and their feelings about themselves.

There were few limitations which were noticed during this experiment. Firstly, age and gender
differences were not considered since there was only one male subject and the age of the
subjects were unknown. Secondly, this experiment consists of a small sample size hence the
results cannot be generalized. Thirdly, the questionnaire used in the experiment was made for
kids, hence it does not show the true self-concept of the participants.

Conclusion

According to the results obtained in this experiment, the majority of the participants have a
high self-concept. It is said that as age increases, self-concept also increases due to day-to-day
experiences, past experiences, knowledge as well as intellectual capacity of the subject,
however, the results of the experiment were not in line with the general trend. Individual
differences also were seen from the above experiment. Further, there were few limitations
which can be considered while doing further research.

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