What Influences The Self Concept

Self and identity are intertwined as each plays an important role in shaping the individual. In this case, the individual represents the whole, while one half holds the self and the other half identifies. Self is the aspect of an individual's personality or personality; on the other hand, identity is the social construction of the individual, consisting of social relations, environment, values, culture, etc… For me, I consider my self-identity that I am a Human Biology major (eye doctor) I should be able to study very well, volunteer in health care, go to medical school.

For me to get good knowledge about my major I should study very well. Studying will help me to collect all the knowledge I need to gather to be able to transfer to the second level. The reason for that is being a doctor is not a joke. Being a doctor is the responsibility of your shoulders to help people. It is my job to keep memorizing all the knowledge that I am being taught in all my classes. For example, if I don’t care about my classes and do the homework as whatever that will not help me a bit. I should be doing homework and understanding every single step and learn how to do it correctly. Especially if I am wanting to be a doctor I need to be attentive to my biology and chemistry classes a lot because these classes will provide me with the information I need.

The second example will be volunteering in different health care which I am doing recently helps that major I am in. Volunteering in an eye clinic is one of responsibility because if I want to be a doctor I should exercise and do it by hand. If I just study it will only help to know the information. If I volunteer that helps to get deep in feeling and the feeling of helping others and checking their eyes which I think is great to keep someone’s eyes in good health. That’s why I believe volunteering is one of my self-identity and it is one of the most important ones to me.

For instance, the article “17 Excellent Reasons to Volunteer in 2020” by Lauren Melnick, states that it “makes you more innovative, creative and gives you a range of useful skills. It’s not just us that believe this, recruiters do too!” In other words, Volunteering is one of the best things to help you improve your skills in something and if someone has the opportunity to do it, they should then. That’s why I believe volunteering is one of the responsibilities that shows my real self-identity and how hard I’m working to reach my goal.

Medical school is one of the things that help me improve this self-identity responsibility and it will be the final step until I achieve my goal. I believe medical school is a very important place that I need to be attending and my attendance there should be unlimited until I figure out what I can handle a patient by myself. The medical school helps to teach me how to deal with the patient and what to give if the eyes are doing good, etc… It is a very exciting and hard responsibility at the same time. Besides, the article “Why Going to Medical School Is Still Worth It” By “PreMedLife” states that A career in medicine is one relatively sure way to find that purpose, particularly for individuals already passionate about blending science with care for humanity.” Which in other meaning is to explain how important medical school is for the ones who want to be a doctor like me. That is one of the traditions that doctors shall do in the United States so they can get their degree and work to help others. This is why I mentioned it in my self-identity. All of that I am doing is because of my friend how needs to do surgery for his eyes and can’t provide it. I chose this career just because of my self-identity in social relations. This friend means a lot to me and I want to help him as being an eye doctor which is my job.

Although self-identity is often influenced by social norms of what a person might want others to think about themselves, the true manifestation of a person's characteristics lies in faith and self-confidence beyond the existing cultural or social norms. Positive encouragement from peers and parents can help strengthen self-belief, and proper orientation towards a career choice that matches its natural abilities will help in the successful establishment of a self-identity according to the authentic nature of an individual.