1.

Concept of the Self

Concepts Related to the Self

Carl Rogers, a psychologist, was the proponent of the self theory. This theory is regarded as humanistic and
is a move towards recognizing human potential for psychological growth. The self is made up of many self-
perceptions, abilities, and personality characteristics that are organized and consistent with one another.
Rogers (1953) contends that self-concept plays an important role in personality because it influences human
behaviors, feelings, and thoughts.

Self-concept

It refers to how people see or describe themselves (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjan, 2014). It is the subjective
perception of who people are and what they are like, or “the person I think I am or the person I wish to
be”(Rogers, 1953).

People with a positive self-concept tend to act, feel, and think constructively and optimiscally. Overall, they
think of themselves in a good light. People who have a negative self-concept will behave, think, and act with
pessimism. They do not believe in their ability to do things or carry out certain tasks.

The person who knows you best- your abilities, talents, personality, and characteristics- is you. You know
your positive or high points as well as your negative or low points. Make sure to maintain or sustain your
strengths. Likewise, strive to improve and change your weaknesses or negative points into something
positive.

Self-esteem

Personality and social development refers to how a person’s sense of self or self-identity, relationships with
others, and skills necessary for social interactions evolve. Personal or self-identity explains how people
describe themselves in terms of values, goals, traits, and perceptions unique to them. It is closely related to
self-esteem or how much people value themselves and their worth as persons.

Self-Actualization

Humans possess an inner drive to grow, improve, and use their potential to the fullest (Plotnik, 2014). The
final stage in completed growth is known as self-actualization or self-fulfilment, a major tenet in humanistic
psychology.

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is the way a person perceives his own abilities and competence in dealing with a problem or
challenge.

It is defined as people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that
exercise influence over events that affect their lives.

Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave.
 2. Responsible Self

Gardner’s Theory of multiple Intelligences

These intelligences are:

 Linguistic intelligence ("word smart")

 Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
 Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
 Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
 Musical intelligence ("music smart")
 Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
 Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
 Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")
 Existentialist

VISUAL/SPATIAL - children who learn best visually and organizing things spatially. They like to see what
you are talking about in order to understand. They enjoy charts, graphs, maps, tables, illustrations, art,
puzzles, costumes - anything eye catching.

VERBAL/LINGUISTIC - children who demonstrate strength in the language arts: speaking, writing,
reading, listening. These students have always been successful in traditional classrooms because their
intelligence lends itself to traditional teaching.

MATHEMATICAL/LOGICAL - children who display an aptitude for numbers, reasoning and problem
solving. This is the other half of the children who typically do well in traditional classrooms where teaching is
logically sequenced and students are asked to conform.

BODILY/KINESTHETIC - children who experience learning best through activity: games, movement,
hands-on tasks, building. These children were often labeled "overly active" in traditional classrooms where
they were told to sit and be still!

MUSICAL/RHYTHMIC - children who learn well through songs, patterns, rhythms, instruments and
musical expression. It is easy to overlook children with this intelligence in traditional education.

INTRAPERSONAL - children who are especially in touch with their own feelings, values and ideas. They
may tend to be more reserved, but they are actually quite intuitive about what they learn and how it relates
to themselves.

INTERPERSONAL - children who are noticeably people oriented and outgoing, and do their learning
cooperatively in groups or with a partner. These children may have typically been identified as "talkative" or
" too concerned about being social" in a traditional setting.

NATURALIST - children who love the outdoors, animals, field trips. More than this, though, these students
love to pick up on subtle differences in meanings. The traditional classroom has not been accommodating to
these children.
EXISTENTIALIST - children who learn in the context of where humankind stands in the "big picture" of
existence. They ask "Why are we here?" and "What is our role in the world?" This intelligence is seen in the
discipline of philosophy.

Charles Spearman (1904) believed that intelligence consists of a general mental ability or intelligence
quotient (IQ, also called g factor) and domain-specific abilities. IQ is a standardized measure that represents
a person’s reasoning skills.

Contributors to Intelligence

Two factors

1. Heredity- refers to the genes one inherits from his/her parents, which provide the upper and lower
limits of his/her intelligence quotient. This is the raw biological material of intelligence.
2. Environment- involves the experiences and the psychological and physical exposure of the individual
to the various influences around him/her. The home, school, and community as well as the things
happening therein are examples of one’s environment.

3. Assessing for self-improvement

Assessment

Assessment is a process that determines the presence or absence, as well as the extent or level, of a
characteristic or behaviour in a person. With an assessment, one gets a better view or understanding in a
person. With an assessment, one gets a better view or understanding of people’s behaviour.

Assessment takes place as early as the beginning of life in the womb. Using some tests, the doctors are able
to determine how “normal” the unborn baby is and if the baby has genetic or chromosomal defects. As a
result of the assessment, the doctors may suggest interventions to correct the defects or mitigate their
effects.

In doing an assessment, tools are used. They are also called measures or data-gathering tools. Tests are a
type of tools. The data or information derived from a tool provides the basis for knowing or determining the
presence or absence of a behaviour or characteristic. It should be noted, however, that a tool measures only
a sample of the behaviour or characteristics being studied. Thus, it is important that can be exercised in
interpreting the data or information gathered from these tools. Hence, for example, if one wants to study
and determine students’ attitudes toward schooling, then a tool that measures this attitude should be used,
and not one that measures another characteristic such as, for example, self-concept.

Measurement deals only with the administration of the tool and determining the numerical values of the
data gathered from a tool. An example of this is assigning scores to test papers after checking the answers
and classifying them according to some set of criteria. Assessment, in contrast, includes the processes of
measurement, analyzing and interpreting the scores or the numerical values of the data, and deducing
meanings out of the data gathered data. In some cases, interventions may even be recommended if
necessary. Assessment gives a broader picture of the behaviour or characteristic of an individual under
study.

Psychological assessment reflects to the use of specified testing procedures to evaluate the abilities,
behaviors, and personal qualities of people (Bernstein et al., 1991). It describes the extent to which a
person is similar to or different from others. Examples include how many more test questions they can
answer correctly than other people of the same age; or if they are more anxious than others; or whether
their performance is similar to that of a scientist or a pianist. Results from psychological assessments
contribute to a better understanding of a person.

Kinds of Assessment

1. Achievement test. This test measures what has been learned within a specific period of time. Hence,
if a teacher gives students a mathematics test at the end of the semester, it means that he/she
wants to know how much the students learned for one semester.
2. Mental ability test. It measures one’s level of mental ability. Such tests are also known as IQ tests.
3. Aptitude test. This test measures the inclination of individuals towards specific areas. It determines
what particular field or work an individual would most possibly be successful at. If a person wants to
know if he/she will be successful in a job requiring high scientific knowledge and ability, then he/she
can take an aptitude test in science.
4. Personality test. It measures facets of personality, some of which are attitudes, perceptions,
interests, psychological aberrations, personality disorders, and the like. If a person wants to know,
for example, the extent to which he/she regards or views education, then he/she can take a
personality test of attitude. Comparatively, tests of personality measures a much broader range of
characteristics of behaviors.

General Methods of Assessment

Formal Assessments are standardized and generally carried out in professional settings by experts in the
behaviour or characteristics being measured. Formal assessment utilizes statistics in the interpretation of
data and ultimately come up with a conclusion. The bases for the assessment of a person are his/her
responses or scores on a test.

Informal assessments are everyday assessments people make about themselves or about others. These
assessments do not have to observe formal processes. The bases for assessing a person are unstructured or
simple observations of his/her behaviors in informal settings and occasions. For example, if a mother
observes that her son in high school studies his lessons only once in a while, she may state that he will not
be successful in college. Or if a teacher observes that his/her pupils make a lot of noise and do not attend to
the lessons inside the classroom, he/she may immediately claim or conclude that the students are attention-
deficit. Informal assessments give a clue to what might be happening with the behaviour or characteristic
being studied or described.
4. Stress Management

Stress

¢is the way human beings react both physically and mentally to changes, events, and situations in their
lives.

¢People experience stress in different ways and for different reasons.

¢The reaction is based on your perception of an event or situation.

¢If you view a situation negatively, you will likely feel distressed—overwhelmed, oppressed, or out of
control.

Stressors

A stressor is a stimulus with the potential for triggering the fight or flight response. The stressors for which
our bodies were evolutionarily trained were threats to our safety (Greenberg, 2010).

¢environmental

 toxins, heat, cold

¢ psychological

 threats to self-esteem, depression

¢sociological

 unemployment, death of a loved one

¢philosophical

 use of time, purpose in life

GENERAL STRESS SYNDROME COMPONENTS

1. The alarm stage

It represents a mobilization of the body’s defensive forces. The body is preparing for the “flight or flight”
syndrome.

This involves a number of hormone and chemical excreted at high levels, as well as an increase in heart
rate, blood pressure, perspiration, and perspiration rate, among others.

2. The stage of resistance

The body becomes adaptive to the challenge and even begins to resist it. The length of this stage of
resistance is dependent upon the body’s innate and stored adaptation energy reserves and upon the
intensity of the stressor.
Just as any machine wears out even if it has been properly maintained, the same thing happens with living
organisms- sooner or later they become the victim of this constant wear and tear process.

3. The exhaustion stage

The body dies because it has used up its resources of adaptation energy. Thankfully, few people ever
experience this last stage.

RELAXATION TECHNIQUES

1. Take a deep breath

2. Tense-Release

3. Mindfulness

4. Guided Imagery

5. Nutrition

6. Massage

7. Laugh

8. Gardening

9. Getting a haircut

10. Exercise

11. Sleep

5. MOTIVATION

 Factors that help explain why people behave, think, and fell the way they do
 Motives/Motivated behavior

–Specific forces that energize and direct behavior toward solving a problem or achieving a goal

 Motivation connects observable behavior to internal states

 Motivation accounts for variability in behavior
 Motivation explains perseverance despite adversity
 Motives relate biology to behavior

Malow’s Hierarchy of Needs

  Hierarchy of Needs suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to
other advanced needs.
 This hierarchy is most often displayed as pyramid.
 The lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex
needs are located at the top of the pyramid.

1. Physiological needs - these are biological requirements for human survival, e.g. air, food, drink,
shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, sleep.

If these needs are not satisfied the human body cannot function optimally. Maslow considered physiological
needs the most important as all the other needs become secondary until these needs are met.

2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear.

3. Love and belongingness needs - after physiological and safety needs have been fulfilled, the third
level of human needs is social and involves feelings of belongingness. The need for interpersonal
relationships motivates behavior

Examples include friendship, intimacy, trust, and acceptance, receiving and giving affection and love.
Affiliating, being part of a group (family, friends, work).

4. Esteem needs - which Maslow classified into two categories: (i) esteem for oneself (dignity,
achievement, mastery, independence) and (ii) the desire for reputation or respect from others (e.g., status,
prestige).

Maslow indicated that the need for respect or reputation is most important for children and adolescents and
precedes real self-esteem or dignity.

5. Self-actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and
peak experiences. A desire “to become everything one is capable of becoming”(Maslow, 1987, p. 64).