Introduction

An individual’s self-definition takes place in his relations with others and for the benefit of others. It is important to free oneself from egocentrism (the attitude of centering everything on oneself) in order to move towards a sociocentric attitude. To achieve this, educators are advised to encourage young people to take part in social activities.  Social activities help young people to plan, regulate and modify their social behavior and develop their interpersonal and social skills. It is a good idea to involve young people in play clubs, non-profit youth associations and arts and cultural groups.

When choosing a lifestyle or profession, the individual is looking for a way to realize the image he or she has chosen. The construction of identity is a gradual process of self-definition in relation to oneself, others, society and values. Three elements come into play in the process of self-definition: self-perception, self-experience and the ideal of the self. What do each of these elements consist of?

Self-perception

Also known as the self-concept, this is what an individual has gradually learned to think and feel about themselves. In other words, the way in which they imagine and see themselves, and perceive themselves in relation to themselves and to others, to their environment and to life in general. It is also what young people perceive of their own reality and how they perceive their own being. Self-perception raises awareness of the various aspects of personality: physical and psychological traits, moral qualities, needs, skills and resources, abilities and limitations, strengths and weaknesses, etc.

Self-experience

This is what the individual lives and experiences. Do their behaviors, actions, feelings and results reflect what a human being and their self-image look like?

The self-ideal

This is what every human being wants to become, the self-image projected into the future. It is also the set of characteristics that man would like to have of his personal description of himself by others. It is also the young person’s ability to imagine a future. This is where the life project and projection into the future come in.

Conclusion

To acquire an existential vision of their own life, young people need to make a sustained effort to obtain adequate information about themselves, their environment and their own possibilities, and to continually formulate hypotheses about this (most satisfactory) virtual self-image in all respects. In this respect, there are self-training tasks and educational objectives that young people should set themselves:

• Have sufficient capacity for self-perception so as to live with and objectively experience the self (unconditional self-acceptance)
• Decide to construct a self-ideal based on objective self-perception and knowledge of the existing situation,
• Learn to have positive ideas in your head and hope for the future,
• Develop a sense of humour, smile and laughter,
• Develop a greater awareness of the self-ideal, so that you can gradually take on the responsibilities and roles associated with it.