The terms “self-concept” and “self-esteem” (global self-worth) are used in educational literature sometimes distinctively and sometimes as if they were synonymous. When distinctions are made, “self-concept” is viewed as cognitive understanding about one’s ability, while “self-esteem” is viewed as an evaluative judgement reflecting the individual’s sense of worth. These constructs are often interdependent and difficult to assess as separate entitities (Cosden et al 1999). Emler (2001) argues that those with low self-esteem treat themselves badly and may invite bad treatment by others, but that they tend not to treat others badly.
In this study, self-concept is used to describe perceptions of competence in academic and social domains; self-esteem (global self-worth) is used to describe one’s overall sense of worth.
Self-concept is broadly defined as a person’s perception of him or herself.
Individual perceptions are formed through experience with and interpretations of one’s environment. These perceptions are influenced especially by evaluations of significant others, reinforcements and attributions for one’s own behaviour (Shavelson, Hubner & Stanton 1976). People come to value themselves as they are valued by significant others, and the developing self-images of young children are particularly vulnerable (Sullivan 1953).
Acceptance by parents and that of siblings, teachers and peers are crucial for
the formation of a positive self-concept (Coopersmith 1967). Because school represents the first occasion in which children act on their own and measure themselves against others, schooling plays an important role in the formation of self-concept (Hart et al 2004). This will be explored with pupils during their interviews. Several studies, including that of Black (1974), have shown that pupils with learning difficulties have lower self-esteem than those without learning difficulties. See also Chapter 6, where findings from the research are discussed.
The self-concept of pupils with learning disabilities has been the subject of considerable research since the mid-1970s (Chapman 1988). Studies, including that of Bryan (1986), indicate that pupils with learning disabilities and difficulties have problems in social and emotional areas as well as academic performance. Studies show that the fewer areas in which pupils experience mastery, the more negative their self-concept may become.
Furthermore, Mercer (1987) has argued that pupils with learning disabilities have a more negative self-concept than pupils without learning disabilities.
This research evaluates to what extent pupils with learning difficulties have low/high self-concept, since at present there is limited research that indicates the self-concept of Pakistani pupils with learning difficulties and how this differs from white children.
Kloomak and Cosden (1994) argue that pupils with learning disabilities rated
learning disabilities, but not less competent on global self-worth or some of the non-academic domains. The writers looked at factors that contribute to a positive global self-concept in pupils with learning disabilities and they found that most of the pupils in the study have a positive global self-concept.
However, when academic self-concept was examined, the majority of the pupils reported a negative academic self-concept. This has been consistent with findings of Chapman and Boersma (1979) in which children with learning disabilities tend to feel good about themselves in general but less adequate about their scholastic and academic competence. This research explores this issue, particularly looking at the similarity and difference between Pakistani and white children.
It is believed that, by the time pupils with learning difficulties reach adolescence, they will have poor self-concepts (Alley and Deshler 1979) because of their extensive histories of failure and being aware of their learning difficulties and problems in forming good relationships with peers (Bryan 1986). Declines in ability perception occur for most children around ages seven and eight (Eshel and Klein 1981). This is particularly true today, where children as young as seven take part in SATs (Standard Assessment Tests) and are very much aware of the national curriculum level they should be achieving. As failure for pupils with learning difficulties builds, academic self-concepts become more negative. Many studies, including Chapman’s (1988), show that pupils with learning difficulties have lower self-concepts
than those children without learning difficulties. This is particularly true for academic self-concept.
Pupils who have positive self-perceptions usually try harder when faced with difficult or challenging tasks. Pupils who feel worthless tend to reduce their efforts and give up when work is difficult (Bandura 1982). Pupils who experience learning difficulties have been subject to considerable research in terms of self-concept. Deci and Chandler (1986) claim that emotional and motivational variables including self-concept are central to some if not all learning disabilities either as initial causes or as factors that compound the source of the learning problems. Persistent failure is seen as negative and long-lasting, particularly in terms of social-emotional development (Bryan 1986). It has been argued that pupils with learning difficulties have low self-concepts, and negative self-beliefs that are associated with poor achievement, social and emotional behaviour (Mercer 1987). This research explores the self-concept of both the Pakistani and white children and considers differences and similarities.
Academic self-concept is more closely related to school achievement than general self-concept (Byrne 1996). Actual performance in school, therefore, would seem to have a direct bearing on ability perceptions, whereas the more global self-perceptions involving the non-academic, social and physical factors extend beyond the school environment. However, Chapman (1988) found
Poplin (1984) argues that many children with learning difficulties are able to maintain a sense of self-worth in activities such as sports, music and hobbies.
These help the children to have feelings of accomplishment that may help compensate for academic failure and prevent substantial decrements in general self-concept. This research considers whether children with learning difficulties excel in any particular activities such as sports.
Criticism from teachers and parents probably reinforces negative self-beliefs (Brophy 1983). Because academic self-concept is partly a function of feedback from teachers, peers and parents (Bloom 1976), this type of feedback is probably more negative for children with learning difficulties, since these children spend most of their time in school being compared with the more competent class peers. Research from Bandura (1982) indicates that children with learning difficulties consider their learning abilities to be relatively unchangeable, hold lower expectations for future achievement, and give up tasks more easily in the face of difficulty; where successes do occur, they are likely to be attributed to easier tasks and help from others.
Continued failures are viewed as confirmation of known ability and the vicious circle appears to perpetuate itself. For children with learning difficulties who may have the potential to perform at higher levels, negative self- and achievement-related beliefs would impede increases in academic performance (Bandura 1982).
It can be argued that children with special educational needs experience difficulties in identified areas of academic functioning (Cambra and Silvestre 2003). Furthermore, children with special educational needs may also experience difficulties surrounding their social or behaviour skills (Bryan 1986); these children may further encounter peer rejection. Studies by Bear et al (2002) have shown that children with learning difficulties perceived their academic ability less favourably than those without learning difficulties. This research sets out to investigate to what extent this is apparent and explores whether there are any cultural differences and similarities in the ways pupils and significant others (peers, parents, teachers and support staff) perceive SEN.
There is limited research to suggest that children with special educational needs experience feelings of low global worth, or esteem. Global self-worth is the “overall evaluation of one’s worth or value as a person” (Harter 1999). Global self-worth is measured by its own set of items that tap general happiness, satisfaction, and overall affect about oneself. Poor achievement in education, a lack of motivation, and mental health problems, in particular depression, are commonly associated with feelings of low self-worth (Harter 1999). On the one hand, low global self-worth can be predicted for pupils with SEN, based on their self-perceptions for academic, behavioural and social domains, especially since these are the key areas that children with SEN value highly (Clever, Bear and Juvonen 1992). However, Morrison and Cosden
in itself result in poor self-esteem. They argue that academic and non-academic factors can result in high self-esteem such as positive factors of one’s physical appearance. Harter (1999) also argues that there is not necessarily a direct relationship between a child’s academic, behaviour and social ability and his/her global self-worth. Children with learning difficulties may have positive feelings of self-worth, particularly in areas of talent such as sports (Harter 1999). This then suggests that children with learning difficulties may have positive global self-perceptions on the basis of their non-academic skills and strengths. This research investigates cultural similarities and differences in children’s feelings of self-worth in relation to their academic and social domain. Furthermore, the research reviews to what extent a child’s self-worth is protected by social support from parents, teachers and friends;
as Harter (1999) suggests, self-worth can be protected by biased, exaggerated self-perceptions of competency.
Chapman (1988) suggests that children with learning difficulties evaluate themselves lower in the academic domain than those children who do not have learning difficulties. However, caution should be taken when looking at such findings, since popular measures used by Piers (1969) to measure self-concept have been criticised for being inconsistent with modern day theories of self-concept, and especially since its development was based on an outdated model of self-concept. Recent measures of self-concept have been used including the multidimensional self-concept scale (Bracken 1992).
Self-concept is built in our own perception of how we perceive ourselves and are valued by significant persons in our environment. Self-concept is constructed from social experiences in the family and at school. The study of self-concept requires information not only on what the individual thinks about him/herself, but also about the variables related to identity, the persons close to him/her and the effects of group membership on the construction of social identity (Kelly and Norwich 2002). For this reason, the views of significant others are sought.
Hamachek (1991) argues that self-concept involves at least four separate but interrelated components; a physical self-concept, a social self-concept, an emotional self-concept and an intellectual self-concept. Hamachek argues that each self-concept has a uniqueness of its own, but that they are also interrelated and influence an individual’s self-concept in other areas. For example, an individual’s physical self-concept may be low and this may inhibit the risks that the individual is willing to take with his or her social self. This low self-concept may stand in the way of the individual’s emotional self. On the other hand, if the individual has a positive self-concept, it may help him or her to feel more confident about social self and it may enable him or her to express emotional self more frequently. This research takes into account the various domains of self-concept through the use of a self-concept scale, which establishes a child’s academic, social and personal self-concept. The researcher is aware that pupils may have high self-concept and may
that low self-concept is related to learning difficulties. The researcher is also aware that the various domains of the self that contribute to the overall feelings that individuals have are protected from each other; for example, what is felt in one area filters over to some extent to other areas.
Hamachek (1991) draws a distinction between self-concept and self-esteem.
He argues that the former is purely a descriptive aspect of an individual’s self-perceptions. For example, an individual might say “I have many friends”; this descriptive statement can be verified. On the other hand, Hamachek (1991) argues that self-esteem is the evaluative component of self-perceptions and is reflected in statements such as “I am an excellent student”. Self-esteem is then constructed out of our evaluations of the things we do, of who we are and what we achieve in terms of our assessments of the goodness, worthiness or significance of those things.
Burns (1982) argues that there are two elements that form the basic parts of an individual’s self-concept. First is the descriptive element, which is often termed as the self-picture or self-image. The second is the evaluation element; this is frequently referred to as self-esteem or self-worth. Self-concept then comprises all the beliefs and evaluations an individual has about him or herself. These beliefs (self-images) and evaluations (self-esteem) actually determine not only who individuals are, but also what they think of themselves, what they can do, and what they think they can become. For example, if a child does not see him or herself as academically able, he or she
may come to evaluate his/her academic ability in a negative way (self-esteem), and may more easily be swayed into doing something about his/her educational ability, or in extreme cases he/she may withdraw and do nothing to improve the situation.
Furthermore, Burns (1982) argues that a child views him or herself in a certain way and this determines how he or she is going to develop his/her expectations and consequently how he or she will perform and behave. Every individual carries with him/her a set of expectations, which determine how an individual is going to act. If the expectations are about good experiences, the individual will act in certain ways, which brings them about. If expectations are about bad experiences, the individual will act in ways that make these expectations come true, and then the individual will say to him/herself “See, I was right.” Although definitions of self-concept/self-esteem remain contentious, there is gathering acceptance that self-concept refers to an overarching view of the self and self-esteem refers to an individual’s evaluative assessment of him/herself (Butler and Gasson 2005). Various self-concept/self-esteem scales are considered below.