Psychology Case

Over the course of this semester, I, through attending class and doing the readings, have obtained a greater knowledge of social psychology, and how people interact on a global scale. I have learned about my different aspects, including conformity, affiliation, prosocial behavior, and discrimination. However, when doing many of the readings, and when going to the class lectures, I quickly realized that I was not only learning about the people around me and the people in different parts of the world. In fact, I was also learning about myself. All of the topics of social psychology also apply to me. This raises many questions, such as who is the real me? How do I fit into the social world? How do I act in certain groups as opposed to other groups, and how do these multiple identities nourish my self-esteem? The answers to these questions, even when only applied to myself, are very complex.

The first question is, who is the real me? There are many aspects to my self-concept, which is "a mental representation capturing our views and beliefs about ourselves (Kenrick, Neuberg, Cialdini, 2007)." However, my self-concept has three different aspects; there is the "regular" self, there is the "ideal" self, and there is also the "down and out" self. If I were to describe my "regular" self, I would say that I am a Christian, that I consider myself to be religious, and that I believe in God. I also have a high sense of self-esteem, or a high attitude towards myself. I also like to think that I am smart. I am also a nice person, who is also respectful, reserved, and generally quiet, while still being capable of making an important contribution in a social conversation amongst others.

When I am my "ideal" self, I have many of the aforementioned qualities, except that I am more outgoing, helpful, articulate, outspoken, and I am always doing the best that I can. Things that help me achieve my "ideal self" are usually simple things, such as getting an adequate amount of sleep, hearing some good news, or being around good friends. For instance, when I was younger, I used to play on a basketball team. I was about to play in a game the next morning, and my mother took me to the shoe store. She bought me a brand new pair of basketball shoes. They were not very expensive, but they were brand new shoes, and in a way, it made me feel like I was a new person. I was very happy, and I feel that it helped me achieve my ideal self, because when I played in that game the next morning, it was the best game that I had played in that whole entire year. Different things help me achieve my "ideal self."

However, when I reach low points, it can be described as my "down and out" self. When I am "down and out," I tend to have low self-esteem and I am very tired. I am also very quiet, or I act rudely to others. For example, there was a period of time when I was being stressed out by a lot of things, and I began to fall short of my expectations, which in turn lowered my self-esteem. I began to act differently to my friends and family, and I treated them with less respect. I let a lot of people down during that period because I wasn't being the ideal person that I could be for them. I treated a lot of friends badly; looking back, I should not have acted that way. Luckily, my friends still loved me, and they continued to be friends with me.

Also, I feel less of a connection to God and my religious beliefs when I am down and out. For example, there was a time when I got into a car accident; my car got hit by an 18-wheeler, and I felt like I could have died that night. However, even though the car was severely damaged, I didn't die, nor did I have any scratches, broken bones or injuries of any kind. But instead of being thankful for the life that I still had after that night, I felt angry with God. I was mad at him because I felt like I didn't deserve to have my car messed up, and because I felt that God allowed me to be put into harm's way. I felt that I was a good person, and that I did not deserve that kind of misfortune to come into my life, because I had no money to repair the car. It took me a long time to realize that perhaps God was in fact protecting me the whole time, even though he was not necessarily protecting the car. There are times such as these when I am my "down and out" self, and it takes a long time for me to return to my regular self. I believe that I should always strive to "look at the bright side" if I want to maintain my "regular" self or achieve my "ideal" self.

The next question is how do I fit into the social world? Actually, I feel that it is hard for me to fit in very well in many groups, and that it takes me a long time before I actually establish relationships. I tend to observe situations more often than I interact in them. Most of the time during classes, I just sit back and listen to what everybody else says, while I just try to learn as much as I can from my observations. Also, I do not fit in very well when I am in a group. My ideal self tends to come out whenever I am dealing with interpersonal situations, such as when I am interacting with one, two, or three people. I tend to avoid large parties or social gatherings at school, unless I go with good friends.

There are also other ways I fit into the social world. From a religious perspective, I fit into the Christian social sphere. From an academic perspective, I am a college student at California State University, Long Beach, where I study engineering. From an ethnic perspective, I am half black and half Caucasian, which means I belong to two social spheres from that perspective. Sometimes my affiliation with one group creates conflict in other groups. For example, since I have been in college, I have