ABSTRACT
It is commonly thought in psychology that our concepts of ourselves are delivered to us on the basis of our relation to the environment. Self-conceptions are regarded as a kind of reflection of reality — as a repository of our past interactions with the physical and social world. In fact, there are at least two highly specific ways of talking about the development of self-conceptions, or personalities, or dispositions — one of these based in self perception theory, the other based in symbolic interactionism. They share the implicit premise that individuals are responsive to their own experiences and accomplishments, and especially to social feedback, in arriving at particular views of the self. To the degree that one has behaved competently in the past, one presumably concludes, “I am competent.” Or, if the social milieu takes a look at someone and begins to react as though that person is performing as a capable and useful member of society, that person’s cognizance of the social milieu’s reactions will lead to the development of socially-mediated self-conceptions.
