5 Factors that MAY influence your self-concept and self-

motivation

Self-Concept

our perception or image of our abilities and our

uniqueness.

Self Motivation

Motivated to achieve something due to one's own

interest

Family•The influence of your family is the

first and probably the strongest influence on your self-concept.

•How your family sees you and values you will have a great

influence on how you see and value others

You will have a positive self-concept and self motivation if your family:

• spend time with you• Listen to you• help you to achieve your goals• take an interest in and support your efforts• encourage you to explore things that interest you• make you feel needed and appreciated

It helps to be able to trust that your family will always support you both physically and emotionally

If your family does not do some of these, what is stopping YOU from implementing it

CULTURE

RELIGION

These generally work hand in hand with each other

WHY? How do they influence you?

Culture is where a particular group of people share the same attitudes, values and actions. This is generally learnt from your family. What they believe in, what food to eat, what clothes to wear, what language you speak

Religion is linked very closely when it comes to culture and what you have learnt growing up with your family.

As with “Family Influence” if you are surrounded by positive people whose opinions you value in your culture and religion, your self-concept and self motivation will be positive

HAVE A PURPOSE, a REASON FOR LIVING

Your ENVIRONMENT is the area in which you live. Your neighbourhood is your environment and the people who live in your neighbourhood are your COMMUNITY

You will have relationships with many different members of your community, teachers at school, sports coaches at sports clubs, health works such as doctors and nurses, people who work in shops, your neighbours and people in community organisations.

If the members of your community like and believe in you and your goals, you will like yourself too and trust you can achieve what you set out to achieve.

And PEERS

Your peers are people your own age. As you become less dependent on your family and start making your own decisions, your relationships with your friends and peers may become more important than those with your family. It becomes important for you to fit in and be accepted as part of your peer group. These changes in your peer group relationships are likely to be very important influences on the way you behave, your self-concept and your self-motivation.

You may be worried about how you look and whether you are popular or not. These feelings, together with the way your friends and peers treat you and what you believe your peers and friends think of you, will influence how you feel about yourself and whether you believe you can achieve your goals or not. If you feel excluded and bullied by your peers, you are likely to have a poor self-concept and lack self-motivation. If you feel included and admired by your friends and peers, you will probably have a good self-concept and self-motivation.

BE YOURSEL

F

The media are the means of communication that reach large numbers of people. Examples of the media are radio, television, movies, newspapers, magazines, advertisements and the Internet. The media can have a great influence on your self-concept formation and self-motivation. Many of the images shown by the media tend to be stereotypes of what is considered attractive. These ‘ideal’ images in the media show girls and women who are young, beautiful and slim with small waists and hips, large breasts and perfect skin, teeth and hair; and boys and men who are young, tall, good-looking and lean with muscular arms and chests, flat stomachs and perfect skin, teeth and hair.

As a teenager your body is changing and developing. These changes can make you feel self-conscious and extremely sensitive about your body. If you compare yourself to the images you see in the media, you may feel that you are too fat, too thin, too short, or too tall. However, you need to remember that the images you see in the media are “perfect”. In the media, skin can be air-brushed to smooth it out and remove any spots. Hair, muscles and teeth can be digitally enhanced to look shinier, clearer and brighter. Images can be manipulated to make people or parts of their bodies look thinner, bigger, smaller or taller.

It is important to look critically at the images and ideas you see in the media and question what you being shown. In

Israel, there is a law that forces the media to clearly label photographs that have been manipulated. This is to stop

the unrealistic images that can negatively affect the self-concept of ordinary people and make them feel short, fat, ugly and unhappy, when in reality they are just normal. You need

to remember that bodies come in many different sizes and shapes – all of them normal and beautiful in their own way.