Psychology Degree Essay Help?

[Hannah]

Hi Guys, My title of my essay is.
How does the social world contribute towards a sense of self and identity

Any ideas of what i could include or a logical order my brains just frazzled by other reports i have had to do. Please Help.

[whisperingshop956]

This may help:

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&tbo=d&scl...80&bih=799

[Thomson Thomson]

I would think about these questions:
What is the link between self image and confidence? How does a social conformity affect the way that we make decisions? What is individualism; why do we dress and behave the way that we do? How are our opinions influenced by the opinions of others?

In a logical order, I would open the essay with a brief discussion about the way that we pursue the image of perfection, for example, the "perfect female" image portrayed in magazines and media (aka what is beauty?), or the presentation of the "perfect lover", or "perfect parent", or whatever else. From here, you broaden the discussion into the way that this pursuit of perfection alters our behaviour. You could discuss conditions such as anorexia and anxiety if you wanted to.

Building off of this argument, hopefully by the middle to end of your introductary paragraph, you should get to your line of argument. As I am giving the example of "pursuit of perfection", my line of argument would probably be something along the lines of how the presentation of "perfection" can create feelings of inferiority of insufficiency, with the argument then drifting beyond the limitations of "perfection" and delving into the world of perception and perspective.

Your arguments then envelope the decision making process while investigating the fear of judgement or consequence. Take, for example, a bullying situation in a school. Some students may WANT to stand up for the bully victim, however, for fear of being equally isolated and abused, they do nothing. If there is a particularly strong "bullying mentality" in a class, the members will tend to conform even more strictly in an attempt to avoid being targetted (peer group pressure). We've all heard the stories of kids who are bullied to the point of suicide, and I am personally always left wondering why no one did anything to help.

As an antithesis, you can do whatever, but probably discuss the world in regards to values and such - if we all had different values, society would not function properly, BUT, the slight differences in values allow us to embrace the world and see it from varying perspectives (basically empathy).

Anyway, enough from me, I can't be bothered writing any more than this.