Self-Perception and Self-Esteem

Self-perception is a fundamental concept when studying any aspect of human psychology. Especially in sport, it is obvious how one's self-perception can affect his or her performance. In a Psychology of Sport class in grad school, we were asked to list all of the characteristics we possessed that make up our own personal identities. I wrote down a lot of adjectives that would be considered traits athletes would share: hard worker, self-critical, high standards- but I did not include "athlete" among my list of roles. I have studied various definitions of what constitutes an athlete. According to Brad Hatfield, it is "one who engages in a social comparison process (competition) involving physical prowess and/or psychomotor skill in an institutional setting involving public evaluation of the outcome". Per this definition, I am no longer an athlete since my competition is no longer shared with the public, but kept to myself. My own personal definition of "athlete" differs. In my opinion, someone who participates in her skill, every day setting new goals for herself and striving to achieve them, is an athlete. I define an athlete as someone who engages in physical activity consistently, constantly reaching new heights and accomplishing new feats. There is definitely a love of the sport, or of sport in general, which helps maintain this devotion to it. If that is my own perception of what an athlete is, then I should consider myself an athlete. I run religiously and am constantly setting new goals for myself in terms of distance and time. I base a lot of my lifestyle around my dedication to running: I get up earlier to run before I start my day, I eat my meals in accordance with when I will be running to provide optimal energy and replenishment. My motivation comes from the fact that I achieve these goals regularly, and I love running because I feel good when I do it. I am always in the process of striving to meet a goal. I push myself until I can't go anymore, then I go one more minute just to prove that I can. I am usually proud of my accomplishments.

Obviously, I am aware of my progress and my achievements as a runner, but it was no mistake that I omitted "athlete" from my list of characteristics. In order to enhance and improve our own self-esteem, we develop a self-serving bias that permits us to ignore or forget negative information in order to protect our egos. This is why the name-calling era of our middle school years does not usually affect us in our adult lives. We get over it. Like most people who suffer from low self-esteem, instead of rejecting these negative thoughts and discounting the importance of activities where I lack in achievement or skill, the opposite occurs. While the average person may try to ice skate and fail, then announce that ice skating is a stupid sport anyway, I would try to ice skate and fail, then decide that I'm stupid because I couldn't do it.

The correlation between self-esteem and self-perception is obvious. The lower an individual's self-esteem, the less credit he gives himself, and the more lacking his self-perception is. The worse an individual's self-perception, the worse that person's performance will be in anything, including sports. Concentrating on a single mistake or lack of ability in one aspect of a sport can take the focus away from the game itself. If in the first two minutes of a volleyball game in high school I served the ball into the net, the next few minutes of the game would be spent feeling like I let the team down and questioning my abilities as a player, instead of concentrating on the ongoing game. After making the same mistake, someone with greater self-esteem would realized that they served poorly, realize where the mistake was made, resolve to do better next time, shake it off and resume focus on the game. They can look past this single mistake because they are aware and confident of their skills and abilities and they know they are capable of serving the ball over the net. Those who lack confidence feel the need to convince themselves and others of their abilities and feel that they failed to do so with that bad serve. The may shrink away from trying again so as not to embarrass themselves further. More confidence leads to taking more chances, which can be seen as making more of an effort. Confidence also leaves more time to focus on the sport and not dwell so much on the flaws in each individual performance.

Sports can reverse this process. Achievements in sports can actually increase self-esteem. From creating a more pleasing and athletic body image to feeling a sense of accomplishment, being more active can make a person feel a greater sense of self-worth. Being part of a team and contributing to victories can do wonders for a person's self-perception.

I am beginning to realize that if I don't improve my self-esteem and open my mind to the possibility that I can, in athletic terms, be something great, then I will never reach my full potential. I feel that in order for me to consider myself an athlete, by my own terms, I need not to improve my physical ability as much as my perception of self.