Social Relationships

As defined in our text, Self- concept is defined as the set of attributes, abilities, attitudes, and values that an individual believes defines who he or she is" (Berk, 2009). Also as mentioned in an example in the book, a child can describe himself as a very vocal individual and then when around his parents, be quite introverted. This can be perceived to be fake in regards to the child from the peers' point of view, when in actuality the parents remain quite uninterested, thus causing the child to not bother with speaking much. Often times our self- concepts can conflict with peers or friends; it happens well into adulthood, I feel. I recall most of my younger life being that of the perception that I was such a happy person all the time. In reality, I knew I was a terribly depressed child, with so much going on at home, I wished someone would reach out to realize well enough my cover up was smiles versus my inner repressed feelings. As I grew older enough where I could leave home and make more independent decision making my thoughts had left me to being in quite pensive moods. My focus on reflection often left me to walking around with a pensive look on my face....this then led many to believe that I was now a mean ("stank" as some put it ), grumpy person. Although I was often not smiling as I reflected in times by myself, I really was getting genuinely happier and still an easily approachable person in which would always be willing to help even a stranger or offer a kind gesture. This as mentioned became a situation of which once people got to know me, they would say "wow you are definitely a ball of fun energy-not what I thought you would be like!" I know, I still find myself to every once in a while fall victim to those thoughts as we are human but try each and every time to be more open and think of my own experiences with others.

The lack of control of emotions can greatly affect children's friendships. The inability to verbalize what a child is feeling or how to appropriately go about it can be a tricky task especially if the child is used to not express their emotions even in the comfort of their own home. This can later affect the child in that at any moment an explosion of emotions could surface if they are unhappy with something minute around their friends. This could be very misunderstood by the friends and thence tarnishes the friendship.

Berk, Laura. (2009). Child Development. Pearson Publishing: Boston, MA.