Theories and Concepts- Physical Self Concept in Adventure

Self-esteem can be described as the value a person makes on their own personal judgement of their own personal worthiness (Oslen, 2008). The key aspect of self-esteem steams from the basis that it concerns people as individuals and our own personal sense of value and the development of this stems from the experiences in persons life both positive and negative (Oslen, 2008).

From my own personal experience with running programs with an eclectic cliental I endorse the concept of various outdoor adventurous experiences contributing to a change in esteem both positive and negative, a view supported Stiehl and Parker (2007) enhanced self concept is commonly attributed to adventure education.

More recent studies of self-concept however have shown that self-esteem is placed at the top of a hierarchical model with global physical self-concept in the middle and more specific physical self-concepts at the base (Marsch, 1985).  O’Connell found an increase in physical self-concept resulting from such adventure course as that of outward bound. From my own experience I have found this was very relevant with regards to adventures activities as physical self-concept is directly related to how an individual views himself or herself concerning their own physicality (Fox and Corbin, 1989).  Due to the nature of adventures activities the potential for clients to assess and views themselves in such specific areas as strength, endurance and competence and make judgments about their own ability is a more often occurrence. 

Figure 1.  Marsh et al (1994)- Hierarchical model displaying the relationship among self-esteem, global physical self-concept and specific components directly relating to self-concept 

In a study by Swalm (2010) on students views on physical self-concept in adventure education showed various implications within adventures activities that affected both students physical self-concept and self esteem, such an example was a student who expressed that being overweight while performing climbing tasks made it difficult to succeed and lead to embarrassment in front of their peers.

Such experience can detrimentally affect an individual and even put them off participating in such adventurous activities, as the potential for embarrassment that is highlighted by that student regarding their physical appearance supports another key feature of the Marsh et al. (1994) model; of which shows that even in the medium of adventure input from significant others such as friends, family and classmates contributes to ones physical self-concept.

Figure 2. Another successful adventure challenge program completed with a Turangua school group in NZ with possible gain in self esteem within both staff and students?   

In conclusion there is evidence to show that adventure as a medium can both influence physical self concept and self esteem both negatively and positively, in my own opinion and experience it is the role of the facilitator to judge and create a setting where the outcomes are that of positive experiences by pitching activities at an achievable level.            

References 

Olsen, J.M., Breckler, S.J., &Wiggins, E.C. (2008). Social Psychology Alive(1st ed.) Canada:Nelson.

Stiehl, J., & Parker, M. (2007). Individual outcomes of participating in adventure. In D. Prouty, J. Panicucci, & R. Collinson (Eds.), Adventure education: Theory and applications (pp. 63–76). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Marsh, H.W., & Shavelson, R. (1985). Self-concept: Its multifaceted, hierarchical structure. Educational Psychologist, 20(3), 107–123.

Fox, K.R., & Corbin, C.B. (1989). The Physical Self-Perception Profile: Development and preliminary evaluation. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 11, 408–430.

O’Connell, T. S. (2001). Self-concept: A study of outdoor adventure education with ado- lescents. Dissertations Abstracts International, 62