ABSTRACT
The spread of Freudian ideas drew attention away from the study of the self-concept in its own right and this decline of interest was further reinforced by the upsurge of behaviourism initiated by Watson. The self-concept, then, is a relatively stable internal abstraction consisting of all that individuals see as 'theirs': physical, social and emotional aspects, characteristic actions and competencies, together with important material possessions. A review of the contributions from writers on the self-concept makes clear that four main theoretical perspectives have contributed to our under-standing. They are the psychoanalytic, the humanistic, the phenomenological and the behavioural. The effect of adult comment upon the young child is considered to be potentially formative and the differences between children with different levels of self-esteem in their acceptance of positive self-referent information was emphasised. The self-concept may be conceived as containing both conscious and unconscious elements.
