Self Concept in International Students Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Self Concept in International Students - Essay Example In order to understand how the change in self image is engineered we need to analyze the factors that create a persons self identity. The premise can be tested by the how social reforms have been brought which were first initiated by one or more than one philanthropist and then that idea gained currency after a period of tireless struggle. Women were not granted voting rights in past .Many individual women rights activist started an agitation and they achieved their objective. Soon society accepted not only the voting rights of women but also became more acceptable towards the issues of the equality of women. There are many approaches to understanding the society that permeates the environment that is inhabited by the self .One such approach is called the situational approach where the society is viewed as something which is constant mode of evolution. Nothing is permanent and flux is the by word of the world that we inhabit. This perspective gives a very subjective view of society which in turn is governing identity of members of a society. The other point of view with regards to self and society is called the structural approach According to This perspective society is constitutes of certain fixed paradigms that guide members of a society to act in particular fashion. The "patterned regularities that characterize most human action" (Stryker, 1980, p. 65) Individual selves are a microcosm of a society. Each self can be added up to get the whole picture of the society. The members of a society exist within these social structures. The actions of the people are governed by the concepts of who they are and to which social structure they belong. Social identity is the ideas thoughts processes and evaluation of oneself. These deductions are based upon what others think and expect out of us. Cooley Refers to this as "The looking glass self" (Cooley, 1902). The evaluation of the self identity is largely self esteem which has two component one deals with the worthiness and the other deals with the confidence and the acumen of the individual. Identity is governed by what role one is playing in the society .Since each member of society has multiple roles therefore he has multiple identities. The very same person has a different persona when he becomes a spouse a sibling an offspring or a friend. The overlapping social structures like religion race ethnicity geographical region and profession defines the concept of self .The identity are further dependent on the role that an individual is playing and what others expect out of him. It has been researched that strength of an identity is dependent on the number of people connected with that individual. The higher the number of people linked with an individual, more strong are the notions regarding the identity of selves The question arises who are international students .Those individuals who have left their countries of origin to study abroad due to various reasons come in contact with society which is alien to him .The self identity is