Download Knowing and Valuing Self

Knowing and Valuing Self
Self- A separate being within an environment.
Self-Concept
 Self-Concept- totality of all your thoughts and
feelings with reference to yourself. It is the
foundation on which almost all your actions are
based.
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Your cognitive awareness of who you are
How accurate are we in our assessment of self?
 Four Developmental Areas of Self
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Physical Self
Mental Self
Emotional Self
Social Self
Spiritual (added)
Development of Self-Concept
 Sources of Self-Concept Development
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Social Interaction (reflections & perception)
Social Information (verbal feedback from others)
Social Comparison (family, peers & culture)
Self-Observation (awareness of our thoughts and
behavior)
How much should we rely on others? Self?
Self-Esteem
 Self-Esteem- the overall value or worth that
we place on ourselves.
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Global- overall self-evaluation
Like Self-Concept it is Based on Internal and
External Sources
Effects of Self-Esteem
Academic Performance
 Emotions and Behavior (depression & drug use)
 Relationships (Closeness)
 Career Success
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Physical Self
 What are the characteristics of “total physical wellness?”
 Three Categories or Approaches to Health
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Health Gamblers
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Health Mechanics
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Take health for granted and assume that there is little they can do about
changing the way they are.
Tend to illness when it strikes but do little to promote wellness.
Health Gardeners
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Mindful of physical and mental health, take steps to prevent illness, and
are active in promoting wellness.
Mental Self
 Your cognitive abilities and capacities for logic & reason. It
includes how you feel about your ability to make decisions.
 Intelligence
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The ability to profit from experience, acquire knowledge, think
abstractly, act purposefully, or adapt to changes in the
environment.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ) (measures school related abilities)
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Multiple Intelligence Theory (Howard Gardner)
 He argued that there is more than one type of intelligence
 Linguistic, Logical, Musical, Bodily-kinesthetic, Spatial, Interpersonal,
Intrapersonal
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Emotional Quotient
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The ability to identify your own and other people’s emotions accurately, express
your emotions clearly, and regulate emotions in yourself and others.
Mental Self (cont)
 Attitude
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Optimist v. Pessimist (optimists get sick less
often and are solution oriented in their approach)
 Thoughts Can Drive Emotions and Actions
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Events-Thoughts-Emotions-Actions
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Consider Assignment 1b.
You are in one way a sum total of all your
thoughts.
Emotional Self
 Emotional Expression
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Socialization Plays a Big Role in Expression
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Culture
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Consider your family’s emotional expression.
What about differences between females and males.
Language (“I feel like..” confuses thoughts and feelings)
Awareness of Emotions
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Takes practice
Healthy expression can go against socialization and culture
Social Self
 Social Status- a position or status held in a social
group
 Examples Include: wife, mother, daughter, sister,
friend, employee, friend, king, peasant, citizen.
 Social Role- behavioral expectations associated
with a particular social status
 Examples Include: lover, nurturer, provider,
decider, doer, listener
Spiritual Self
 Religious Faith is Positively Associated with:
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Not smoking, taking vitamins, walking regularly,
wearing a seatbelt, engaging in exercise,
enjoying sound sleep, & drinking moderately or
not at all.
A number of studies have definitively linked
religious participation to a longer life.
An increase in spirituality can decrease the
progression of disease.
Integrating the Whole Self
 Systems Theory
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Physical, Mental, Emotional, Social, Spiritual
Change in one area of self influences or brings about
changes in other areas of self.
 Again consider the impact of thoughts on all areas listed
above.
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Nature vs Nurture
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What Makes You The Way You Are?
Nature- we are what we are based on our biology
 Nurture- we are what we are based on the manner in
which the environment shapes and molds us.
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Nature vs Nurture (heritability is .50)
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System or Reciprocal Relationship (consider
biological-cellular level).
Personality
Personality- a stable or long enduring pattern of
thinking, feeling, and behaving.
Five Perspectives of Psychology
1) Psychodynamic
2) Learning/Behavioral
3) Humanistic
4) Biological
5) Cultural
Psychodynamic Perspective
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Emphasis on unconscious intrapsychic dynamics
Belief in the importance of early childhood
Belief that development occurs in fixed stages
Focus on fantasies and symbolic meanings of
events (dreams, slips of the tongue)
 Reliance on subjective rather than objective
methods (dreams)
Freud’s View of Personality
 Id: Operates according to the
pleasure principle
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Primitive and unconscious
part of personality
 Ego: Operates according to
the reality principle
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Mediates between id and
superego
 Superego: Moral ideals and
conscience
Defense Mechanisms
 Repression: Threatening idea is blocked from consciousness
 Projection: Unacceptable feelings are attributed to someone else
 Displacement: Directing emotions toward objects or people that
aren’t the real target
 Reaction Formation: A feeling that produces anxiety is
transformed into its opposite.
 Regression: A person reverts to a previous phase of
psychological development.
 Denial: A person refuses to admit that something is unpleasant.
Learning: Behavioral Theory
 Behaviorism (B.F. Skinner): An approach to
psychology that emphasizes the study of observable
behavior and the role of the environment as a
determinant of behavior.
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Operant Conditioning: The process by which a response
becomes more likely to occur or less so, depending on its
consequences.
Reinforcer: A stimulus or event that strengthens or
increases the probability of the response it follows.
Punisher: A stimulus or event that weakens or decreases
the probability of the response it follows.
Learning: Social Cognitive Theory
 Social Cognitive theory (Albert Bandura): A theory
that emphasizes how behavior is learned and
maintained through the interaction between
individuals and their environment, an interaction
strongly influenced by such cognitive processes as
observations, expectations, perceptions, and
motivating beliefs.
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Expectancies-predictions about the outcome of behaviors
Biological Perspective
 Heredity and Temperament
 Heritability: A statistical estimate of the proportion of the
total variance in some trait that is attributable to genetic
differences among individuals within a group.
 Temperaments: Physiological dispositions to respond to
the environment in certain ways; they are present in
infancy and are assumed to be innate.
 Heredity and Traits
Biological Trait Perspective:
(Five Central Factors)
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Extroversion versus Introversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Conscientiousness
Openness to Experience
Cultural Perspective
 Culture: A program of shared rules that
govern the behavior of members of a
community or society, and a set of values,
beliefs, and attitudes shared by most
members of that community
 Socialization: a process of learning how to
behave according to the requirements of our
society
 Socializers- parents, teachers, friends
Culture (cont)
 Individualist Culture: The self is regarded as
autonomous, and individual goals and
wishes are prized above duty and relations
with others.
 Collectivist Culture: The self is regarded as
embedded in relationships, and harmony
with one’s group is prized above individual
goals and wishes.
Values and Stress
Where Do Values Originate?
How Do They Develop?
 Develop Over Time
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Not born with values. They are learned through socialization.
Socializers include: Family, Peers, School, Religion,
Government, & Media
 Transmitted Through
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Moralizing- Direct, although sometimes subtle transmission
of the adult’s values to young people
Laissez-faire- Opposite means of value transmission than
moralizing. In laissez-faire the young person is left to
discover values without leadership or guidance.
Altering Influences of Our Values
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Major Life Changes
Mental Unrest
Changes in Wants
Evaluating Your Values
 Characteristics of Healthy Values
 Owned
 Realistic
 Behaviors that promote positive outcomes
 Life Enhancing
Recommendations for Values
Development
 Set a Positive Example
 Do as I say not as I do yields a child who will do
just that, say one thing but do another.
 Encourage the Values You Think are Important
 Positive Reinforcement
 Teach and Guide
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Encourage Thinking for Oneself
Allow Experience to Be a Teacher
 Instill a Value of Self
 Emphasize Universally Acceptable Values
Just Checking in With Self
 Based on Assignment 1a, you should have a
better idea of your self-concept and the
manner in which other’s see you. With this
feedback you have some decisions to make.
 Do you believe what they have told you?
 Do you want to change anything about you?
 What are they?
Defensiveness: The Enemy
 True or Real Self vs Ideal Self
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What do we do when the “Real
Self” and the “Ideal Self” are
not the same
 Cognitive Dissonance:
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A state of tension that occurs
when a person simultaneously
holds two cognitions that are
psychologically inconsistent, or
when a person’s belief is
inconsistent with his or her
behavior.
Coping with Stress
 Benefits of Physical Activity
 Nutrition
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Weight Maintenance
Diet, Cardio, Weight Training
 Adequate Rest
 Thought Control
 Breathing
Mental Health: Stress Management
 Stress- the bodies experience of a perceived
demand to adjust.
 General Adaptation Syndrome (Hans Selye)
Stress Management (cont)
 Distress v. Eustress (both are taxing)
 Sources of Stress
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External and Internal
 Coping with Stress
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Deep Relaxation and Breathing
Cognitive Change (see
Theory of Change I:
Thought Changing
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Change Negative Thought Patterns
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Cognitive Theory
 Event-Thought-Emotion-Action (cycle)
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Punctuate Thought
Thoughts become automatic
Negative thoughts begat negative emotions
Change Your Thoughts
 Cognitive Restructuring- thought changing
 Tune into Self Talk or Metacognition- your thoughts
 Irrational Beliefs- unreasonable and exaggerated thoughts
Thought Changing
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Change Negative Thought Patterns (cont)
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Albert Ellis
 Identify irrational thought
 Determine the truth of the thought and related facts
 Restructure thought Just because ____ doesn’t mean
 End with an affirmation
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Thought Stopping- A cognitive technique in which
you mentally say “stop thinking this way” or just
“stop”
Theory of Change II.
 Behaviorism (B.F. Skinner): An approach to psychology that
emphasizes the study of observable behavior and the role of
the environment as a determinant of behavior.
 Operant Conditioning: The process by which a response
becomes more likely to occur or less so, depending on its
consequences.
 Reinforcer: A stimulus or event that strengthens or
increases the probability of the response it follows.
 Punisher: A stimulus or event that weakens or decreases
the probability of the response it follows.
 If you persist in an unhealthy behavior your self-esteem will
not increase. Make wise decisions.