Unit One: Subject Matter of Psychology: 1.1. Meaning and Goals of Psychology 1.1.1 The Meaning of Psychology
Unit One: Subject Matter of Psychology: 1.1. Meaning and Goals of Psychology 1.1.1 The Meaning of Psychology
Unit One: Subject Matter of Psychology: 1.1. Meaning and Goals of Psychology 1.1.1 The Meaning of Psychology
Originally, the word psychology was derived from two Greek two words (1) Psyche- meaning
"mind" or "soul/life/spirit", and (2) Logos or Logy meaning study/knowledge/discourse.
Therefore, literally the term 'psychology' simply refers to the study of the mind, or soul or
spirit or life.
Most social scientists contend that human beings are social animals. Their justification is that
human beings always socialize through interaction and learning. What makes, however, human
beings different from other animals is their intelligence, imagination, critical and logical
thinking. As a result, we are better than other animals in capacity of memory, habits, duties
and responsibilities, customs, morals, values and so on. Thus, human beings are curious to
understand why people do what they do. In the course of their interaction, they want to know
how and why other people act, the way they act. They attempt to predict and sometimes
monitor or control what a person is doing now or will do next. Besides, we humans are not
only concerned with others but also about themselves as an individual. We often ask questions
like:
Throughout the history of psychology, there have been a lot of controversies among
psychologists concerning its definition, its very nature and about its focus as a science.
However, currently psychology is defined as: an academic and applied discipline involving
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the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. The above broader definition consists
of three important issues about psychology:
3. Psychology studies about mental process: These involve covert characteristics such as
sensation, perception, thinking, remembering, forgetting, motivation, emotion,
imagination, and etc that are conscious and unconscious mental states.
Psychologists often conduct scientific research on animal behavior which might sometimes
be related and applied to the behavior of human beings. In addition, putting human being in a
laboratory setup and using them as experimental subjects is very difficult and even
sometimes unethical. Thus, psychologists study animal behavior in the laboratory and use
their findings to generalize to human behaviors. However, this approach is criticized for its
external validity is in question.
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1.1.2 General Purposes/Goals of psychology
One of the reasons that make ·psychology a science is its goal/purpose. Thus, psychology as a
science has the following five basic goals:
1. Describing behavior: It refers to reporting the clear picture of the existing behavior. The
first goal is to observe and defining the behavior of individuals.
3. Predicting behavior: Once we know what happens, and why it happens, we can begin to
speculate what will happen in the future and what the future will bring about. As an old
saying states: "the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior."
4. Controlling behavior: Once we know what happens, why it happens and what is likely
to happen in the future, we can excerpt control over phenomena, events, characteristics,
etc. Not only do psychologists attempt to control behavior, they want to do so in a
positive manner, they want to improve a person's life so as to help him/her to enjoy quality
life, not make it worse.
5. Modifying abnormal behavior: We have said that psychology is positive science &
helping profession, thus psychologists are involved in managing and changing negative
or anti-social aspects of behaviors and maladjustment problems through psychological
approaches/therapies (e.g. psychotherapy and/or counseling) using specific techniques
such as free association, interpretation, flooding, systematic desensitization, catharsis,
disputation, cognitive restructuring, shaping, and etc.
The philosophical roots of psychology dates back to the period of ancient Greece
philosophers. Most notably, Socrates and his followers, Plato (428-347 B.C) and Aristotle
(384-322 B.C), were especially interested in the origin of knowledge.
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How do we acquire knowledge? Does information come to us through our senses and our
experiences with the environment, or is it born? Many others also theorized about whether
human traits are innate or product of experience. They probed a variety of psychological
questions like: Are people inherently good? How can people attain happiness? What motives
or drives do people have? However, these did not rely heavily on empirical evidence, but
they were based simply on anecdotes or descriptions of individual cases.
While some of the early thinkers thought that mental illness resulted from supernatural
causes, Socrates and Plato believed that psychological forces. For example; madness results
when a person‘s irrational mind (animal like mind) overwhelms the intellectual (rational
psyche).
Hippocrates, the Greek physician, on his part viewed mental disorders as stemming from
natural causes and he developed the first classification system for mental disorders.
In 1600 Rene Descartes, a French Mathematicians and philosopher, theorized the body and
mind are separate entities. Later on he developed a position known as dualism which
assumes that the behavior of the body is determined by mechanistic laws and can be
measured in a scientific manner. But the mind, which transcends the material world, cannot
similarly be studied. However, most psychologists like Tomas Hobbes and John Locke
disagreed and rejected the idea of Descartes and argued that all human experiences including
sensation, images, thoughts and feelings are physical processes occurring within brain and
the nervous system.
Of course, most of the great thinkers of history raised questions that today would be called
psychological. Although such speculations fueled a great deal of intellectual passion, they
didn't yield much in the way of concrete answers. Psychology was first coined in the 16 th
century as the study of "soul" or "spirit". But credit for the establishment of psychology as a
science of behavior and mental process usually goes to Wilhelm Wundt, who formally founded
the first laboratory of psychology in 1879, in Leipzig, Germany. Wundt's focus was on
understanding mental processes, focusing on inner sensations, feelings and thoughts.
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About the same time fundamental questions were raised about what should be studied in
psychology: should psychology be the study of the mind or behavior, or both mind and
behavior should be included? From 1920's to 1960's, American psychologists led by J.B.
Watson refined psychology as the science of observable behavior. They focused only on
observable & measurable behavior. After the 1960's, however, psychology is considered to
be concerned both with mental processes & behavior.
Biology is the other important contributor for the development of modern psychology. Darwin's
theory of evolution, physiology and medicine are some of the biological roots. Through
evolutionary process we are not only acquired the physical qualities from our ancestor that
enable us to adapt to a certain environment, but also the social and psychological predispositions
that helped us to survive in a given society.
Moreover, the findings from the works of physiology (e.g. nervous system, endocrine system &
digestive system) and medicine contributed to the development of psychology. While
psychology is the youngest discipline, it borrows methodology (i.e. critical observation and
experimentation) from other sciences that were already emerged.
After the separation of psychology from philosophy and biology, professionals were debating
about the subject matter, method, and focal area of psychology. This argument among
scholars contributes for the emergency of different schools of thought in psychology which
will be presented as follows.
I. STRUCTURALISM
Wundt developed the first widely accepted school of thought known as structuralism.
Structuralists suggest that psychology should focus on identifying the conscious experiences
of the mind (such as sensations and feelings). They analyze the human mind/consciousness in
to its basic parts (structures) as that of the element hydrogen and oxygen in chemistry come
together to form the compound water. They underscored the importance of dealing with the
three levels/elements of the human mind development: the unconscious, the semi-conscious
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and the conscious levels". The main method of investigation was introspection (looking
inward).
II. FUNCTIONALISM
W. James, one of the major founders of functionalism, decided that the task of psychology is
to investigate the function or purpose of consciousness. He focused on how and why the mind
functions than on its structures. Functionalists suggest that psychology should study "the ways
in which the ever-changing stream of conscious experiences help us to adapt with the complex
and challenging world". According to them, our behavior is dynamic because our mind is
changing. So it is important to understand how it functions, and how it helps us to adapt with
a complex world. To understand human behavioral processes, functionalists developed the
technique of longitudinal research consisting of interviewing, testing & observing a person
over a long period of time. This system permits them to observe and record the person's
development and how s/he reacts to different circumstances.
This school of psychology was founded in Germany in the early 20th century by Max
Wertheimer. The German word gestalt refers to form, whole, configuration or pattern.
Accordingly, the Gestalts maintained that the mind should be thought of as resulting from the
whole pattern of sensory activity and the relationships and organizations with in this pattern.
The major idea of Gestalt psychology is that "the whole is different from the sum of its parts.
While a few different schools of thought dominated the early years of psychology, the
number of topics studied by psychologists has grown dramatically since early 1960s.
This perspective states that behavior has biological basis. The behavior of people and
animals should be considered in terms of biological functioning. Basic questions raised and
discussed in these perspectives include: How individuals nerve cells are joined together?
How heredity influence behavior? What are the physiological responses when a baby
confronts to stranger?
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This perspective mainly emphasizes on mental processes: how we direct our attention, how
we perceive, how we remember, and how we think and solve problems. The important
contribution of this perspective has been showing how people's thoughts & explanations
affect their actions, feelings & choices. It explains how information in the memory is
processed at different stages & thinking about the world influences our behavior.
Watson revolutionized psychology by changing psychology's subject matter from the study
of conscious experience to the study of observable behavior and its environmental
determinants. So psychology‘s aim should be to understand, describe, predict and control
behavior.
Watson contended that psychologists should never use the terms consciousness, mental states,
introspection, imaginary and the like. However, followers of behaviorism did not reject the
existence of mind and consciousness, rather they viewed these concepts as impossible to
observe measure and contribute little to a scientific approach of psychology.
This perspective stresses on a person's capability for personal growth and development,
freedom to choose their destiny and positive qualities. It assumes that people are naturally
endowed with the capacity to make decisions about their lives and control their behavior.
Humanistic theorists emphasize the individual's perception of the world, his/her current
relationships, and general state of being. The goal of humanistic psychology was to help
people express themselves creatively and achieve their full potential.
This perspective emphasizes on the unconscious aspects of the mind, conflict between
biological instincts, society's demands, and early family experiences. Freud who pioneered
this perspective believed that the hidden, often he termed as the "unconscious", part of a brain
governs human behavior. The unconscious part of a brain consists of dynamic forces known
as psychic energy or libido within the individual includes strong sexual and aggressive drives.
Free association: helping the client to speak whatever comes to his/her mind be it
nonsense or irrelevant. The psychoanalyst makes association and meanings between
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ideas, words and thoughts.
Dream analysis: to know the hidden motives which are viewed as disguised wish-
fulfillments. Freud said' dreams are the royal road to understand the unconscious part of
mind.
This perspective assumes that culture, ethnicity, and gender are essential to understand
behavior, thought and emotion. Culture is the behavior patterns, beliefs, and other products
of a particular group of people such as values, music, dressing, diet, and ceremonies.
Whereas, ethnicity is based on cultural heritage, nationality, race, religion and language
which involves descendant from common ancestors. The other aspect, gender attitudes and
behaviors determined by a society's culture influence behavior by prescribing what
appropriate behaviors for females and males.
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being and personal development.
Developmental It is the scientific study of changes in human behavior across the life span focusing
psychology on behaviors of infants, children, adolescence and adulthood, older individuals.
Educational This deals with studying educational systems, methods of teaching, curricula, and
psychology other factors influencing the teaching-learning process.
Forensic It deals with the legal aspects of human behavior focusing on deviance, delinquency
psychology and crime. In some literature, it is equated with legal psychology, criminal
psychology and psychology of law.
Health psychology It is a multidimensional approach to health that emphasizes on psychological
factors, life style, and the nature of health care diversity system.
Industrial or Applies psychological concepts and methods to optimize human potential on the
organizational work place. It involves selecting, evaluating and improving effectiveness of
psychology employee. It also concerns about the effect of work environments and management
styles on worker motivation, job-satisfaction productivity.
Personality Concerned with differences in behavior among individuals. It asks whether
psychology personality is determined more by nature or nurture. And the extent that people
behave consistently from one situation to another.
Social psychology It studies the effects of people have on one another, factors affecting interpersonal
attraction, group behavior, social pressure, social influence, decisions making, and
the reasons why people help or harm each other.
However, it is difficult to study covert behaviors by this method because subject's behavior
may be altered by presence of an observer. This method further divided into two as
naturalistic and participant observation.
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natural setting without attempting to influence or control it. Often participants are not
aware that they are being observed. This can be accomplished by means of one-way
mirrors; technique often used to observe children in nursery/special classrooms.
2. Case Study
An in-depth study of a person (few students) typically conducted to gain knowledge about a
particular psychological phenomenon. For e.g. a case study on a man who had multiple
personalities. Different methods can be used to gather data such as direct observation, interviews,
testing, etc and these provide researchers to acquire insight into specific behaviors. However,
lack of controlling important variables; researchers' subjective bias; and poor sampling
techniques often limit generalization of findings to other people.
3. Correlational Method
This focuses on the degree of relationship between two or more mutually occurring variables. It
is used in determining the relationship (correlation) between two or more mutually occurring
characteristics, behaviors by using statistical methods. This method shows the degree and
direction of relationship between variables that can't be clarified by other methods. The degree
and directing of relationship is indicated by a correlation coefficient which is a numerical value
that ranges from + 1.00 (a perfect positive correlation) to -1.00 (a perfect negative correlation)
including 0 (no relationship). For example, the correlation between ESLCE result and college
GPA. However, this method does not show cause-effect relationship since other variables cannot
be controlled, and it is not effective to study qualitative variables like attitudes, beliefs, etc.
4. Survey Method
Survey method is used to collect data about the opinions, beliefs & attitudes of people towards
an event/issue, or personal experiences by using interview and questionnaire. In most cases,
representative samples, which are drawn from the study population, are taken as a source of
information.
For example; attitude of university students' toward cost- sharing. Survey method can provide
accurate information about large number of participants by saving time, money, and other
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resources. But demographic and sex bias, participants' biased responses and a tendency to
provide only limited data about the topic of interest affect the result. Moreover, samples may not
be true representatives of the population and characteristics of the interviewer may influence
responses.
5. Experimental Method
All experimenters set out to test a hypothesis (a tentative solution for a problem to be
investigated). To do so, they examine the relationship between variables that can change. The
variable that the experimenter deliberately manipulates to determine its effects in the other is
called independent variable. The variable that is expected to change (dependent variable)
changes when the independent variable is changed. For example; does the amount of time
students spend have an effect on the grades they receive?
This method shows cause-effect relationship because researchers are allowed to exercise strict
control over confounding/extraneous variable in the experimental setting. But artificial
nature of the laboratory condition may influence subjects' behaviors because their behavior
may be different from the natural setting if they know that they are participating in an
experiment.
As a researcher anticipates conducting a research, s/he should have to follow certain ethical
principles. According to APA, some important ethical concerns in psychological research
include:
Informed consent- is a procedure in which research participants are provided with as much
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information as possible about a research project before deciding to participate in a study.
Confidentiality- ensuring that any information provided by participants should not be exposed
to others.
Ensuring participants' well-being: participants that the study couldn't result physical,
psychological, and social harm on participants.
Debriefing- is procedure at the conclusion of a research session in which participants are given
full information about the results of a study.
In psychology, sensation and perception are fundamental topics. Because our behavior is so
much a reflection of how we react to and interpret stimuli from the world around us. Thus
sensation and perception are the staring points for all other psychological processes. They supply
the data we use for learning, remembering, problem solving, communication, experiencing
emotions, and for being aware of ourselves. Without sensation and perception we would not
form our behaviors, thoughts or feelings
24 hours a day, stimuli from the environment bombard our body. Stimuli, such as light, sound,
odor, taste and temperature, are energies that stimulate our sense organs (ear, eye, skin, nose &
tongue). They are the basic sources of information for the process of sensation and perception.
How do they transported to the brain and transformed into psychological experiences?
In our everyday experiences, sensation and perception blend into one continuous process. They
work together to help us sort out the different stimuli that bombard us from the environment. We
are given sensory systems and designed to detect what are, for us, the important features of our
environment. In order to represent the world around us, we must detect physical energy (stimuli)
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of the environment and encode it as neural signals, a process called sensation. Then, we must
select, organize and interpret our sensations, a process called perception.
Other animals detect the world that lies beyond human experience. For example, birds use
their magic compass and an eagle uses its special microscope. Bats and dolphins locate prey
with sonar and dogs have a powerful nose. On a cloudy day, bees navigate by detecting
polarized light from an invisible (to us) sun. The shades on our sense are open just a crack,
allowing us only a restricted awareness of the vast stimuli. But; why is such a difference in
stimuli detection? What stimuli can we detect? At what intensity of a stimulus can we
detect? How sensitive are we to changing stimulation?
Psychophysics which studies about how the physical energies relate to our psychological
experiences will provide you answer for the above questions. Therefore, to have a better
understanding about sensation and perception, let us define some related basic terms.
3. Sensation: the process of detecting a stimulus and responding to that energy by a sensory
system. It is the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and
represent stimulus energies from our environment. It is the process whereby stimulation of
receptor cells (in the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and surface of the skin) sends nerve impulses to
the brain. After reaching the brain they are registered as a touch, a sound, a taste, and a splash
of color, hence, sensation can be though as an organism's first encounter with sensory stimuli.
6. Absolute threshold: the smallest intensity of a stimulus that must be present for it to be
detected. For a stimulus to be detected by our sense organs it must become strong enough.
The following absolute thresholds are taken from research findings.
Sight: a candle flame can be seen 30 miles away on a dark, clear night.
Hearing: the ticking of a watch can be heard 20 feet away under quiet conditions.
Taste: A teaspoon of sugar can be detected in nine liters of water
Smell: A drop of perfume can be detected when 1 drop is present in a 3-room apartment.
Touch: The falling of a bee's wing from a distance of l cm can be felt on a cheek.
7. Difference threshold (Just Noticeable difference): is the minimum difference between two
stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. Difference threshold is the smallest level of
stimulation required to sense that a change in stimulation has occurred. A noticeable difference
depends on the magnitude of the initial stimulus. For example: When the moon is seen in the
late afternoon, it appears relatively dim. When it is seen in the dark, it seems quite bright.
Weber's law: in psychophysics explains the relationship between changes in the original value
of a stimulus and the degree to which the change will be noticed. It states that "the just
noticeable difference is in constant proportion to the intensity of an initial stimulus". For
example, if 1KG increase to 10KG weight produces a just noticeable difference, it would take a
10KG increase to produce a noticeable difference in a 100KG. In the case of loudness,
noticeable difference becomes larger for sounds that are initially loud than for initially soft
sounds. For e. g., a person in a quiet room is more sensitive to the ringing of a telephone than in
a noisy room. To produce the same amount of sensitivity in a noisy room, the ring has to be very
loud.
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distinct odor, the smell is very noticeable at first, but soon it seems to fade.
B. The nature of our sense organ: Whether the sense organ functioning well or not
influences the reaction of the individual to a given stimulus.
C. Intensity of stimulus: there is a direct relationship between the amount of stimulus and
the response of the organisms.
9. Perception: the process whereby the brain organizes and interprets sensory information,
enabling us to recognizing the stimuli as meaningful objects and events. It takes into account
experiences to red in our memory, the context in which the sensation occurs and our emotions
and motivations. The brain does not interpret all stimuli that bombard our senses, it select
some of them and leave others. It does so through attention and organization processes and
finally interpretation.
A. Context and expectation: The context in which it was seen produced expectation and
induced a particular set. In an experiment, participants were shown sequences either of
letters or of numbers. For example; when perceived with a figure/number 13 that could be
either B or 13, those who had seen the sequence or letters tended to perceive it as B, while
those who had seen the numbers perceived it as 13.
B. Motivation: Studies have shown the effects of motivation upon the way in which things
are perceived. For instance, children aged 4 to 8 were asked to draw pictures of Santa Claus
during the month running up to Christmas. As Christmas approached, Santa Claus became
larger, nearer, more elaborate, a more decorated costume and a bigger bag of presents.
After Christmas, Santa shrank and his present bag all but disappeared.
C. Emotion: In a study, participants were presented with either neutral stimulus such as
table apple chair or "taboo" words. Each of these words was presented very briefly, then for
increasing length of time. At the same time a measure of emotional response (Galvanic
Skin Response) was taken. It was found that the taboo words had a higher recognition
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threshold and were also accompanied by greater GSR.
D. Values, culture and personality: Cultural prejudices have an effect upon perception. A
study conducted on different racial groups of South Africans. Pictures of Europeans,
Africans and Indians were shown to each of their eyes simultaneously. The Afrikaners
exhibited a cultural set in that they saw all the pictures as either Europeans or African
without differentiating Indians and, those of mixed race from the Africans.
10. Attention: We constantly encounter with immense arrays of stimuli in the environment; but
we can consciously experience and use only a few to process. This indicates that our
conscious attention is selective.
Focus - Stimuli that we perceive clearly are at the focus field of experience.
Margin - Stimuli that are perceived dimly, vaguely with less attention are at our margin
field of experience.
B. Size a large is more likely to catch our attention than small object.
C. Duration or repetition: a quickly running stimulus will not catch our attention as easily
as one, which persists or is repeated.
D. Emotional content: a stimulus, which creates emotional feelings, attracts our attention
more than a neutral one.
E. Suddenness or novelty: sudden stimulus is likely to catch our attention more easily than
one we have been expecting.
F. Contrast: contrasting stimulus will attract attention more easily than those, which are
similar to each other.
G. Movement: a stimulus, which moves, is more likely to attract attention than something
stationary.
11. Organization: In the perceptual process, the senses work together to provide us with an
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integrated view and understanding of the world. Perception is a constructive process by which
we go beyond the stimuli that are presented to us. From what we sense in our environment, the
brain constructs a meaningful situation.
The series of principles that describe how we organize bits & pieces of information into meaningful wholes
together are called Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization. According to Gestalt psychologists,
perception of stimuli in our environment is not simply putting together individual elements. It
requires an active constructive process of the brain. We put bits and pieces of information
together into a whole that we can better understand and solve problems.
Example: To introduce a new health package into a community, it is important to see the
culture, economic and consciousness of the people in that community which requires an
integrated approach.
The gestalt laws of organization are principles that describe how we organize and construct
pieces of information into meaningful wholes. Some principles include: closure, proximity,
similarity, simplicity and figure-ground perception.
This principle explains the perceptual relationship between the object of focus (the figure) and
the field (the ground). The figure has form or structure and appears to be in front of the
ground. The ground is seen as extending behind the figure. The relationship can be reversed
by focusing on or attending to the ground rather than the figure (for further explanation see the
Gestalt perspective of learning under the heading theories of learning).
The processing of perception proceeds along two directions. These are top - down processing and
bottom-up processing.
A. Top-down processing
Example: When we read a sentence, we perceive the sentence with the missing words in it. If an
additional word is inserted, we may not notice that it is there. Since we had past experiences, it is
not important to decode the repeated word. For e.g., read the following sentence and identify its
problem.
In this sentence, the repeated word 'the' is often not noticed at all.
Our expectation also plays a role in what we" are reading. If a student, for example, is reading a
text in psychology material, he expects sentences from psychology not lines from a poem. In the
top-down processing, the context in which we perceive object is important. The figure "13", for
example, is perceived as the letter B in a row that consists of the letters A through F. The same
figure can be perceived as the number 13 in a row that contains 10 through 14. Therefore, our
perception of the figure is affected by our expectations about the two sequences.
B. Bottom-up processing
The bottom-up of perception consists of recognizing and processing information about the
individual components of the stimuli. In the above mentioned example it may be difficult to
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recognize the sentence without being able to perceive the individual shapes that make up the
letters. Therefore, partly perception requires the recognition of each separate letters.
To perceiving an object in our environment, starting from individual components such as,
shape, pattern, object or scene and moving to comprehend the overall nature of what we
perceived. Perceptual process moves through two stages:
1. Pre-attentive Stage - focusing on the physical feature of a stimulus such as its size, shape,
color, orientation, or direction of movements.
4. Signal detection theory – we can make mistakes in our attempt to detect a stimulus in two
ways:
Extrasensory perception is a controversial issue that claim perception can occur apart from any
sensory input. Claims of paranormal phenomena include astrological predictions, psychic
healing, and communication with the dead and out-of-body experiences. But the most testable
and most relevant claims are for three varieties of ESP.
Clairvoyance- perceiving remote events without actual presence; for example, sensing that a
friend's house is on fire.
Precognition- perceiving future events, such as a political leader's death or a sporting event's
outcome.
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UNIT THREE: LEARNING
3.1. The Meaning and Approaches of Learning
The capacity to learn is a distinct and important feature of human beings. This capacity
progresses throughout the life span changing and modifying our behavior. Our habits,
traditions, beliefs, values, attitudes, behaviors, skills, knowledge and the like are largely the
result of learning. Though it is difficult and complex to define, the term learning it is defined
as a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of prior practice,
training, and experience. As to most psychologists, learning as change in behavior satisfies
the following three criteria:
1. The person now thinks, perceives, or reacts to the environment in a new way.
2. This change should be the result of one's past experience; i.e. the change should be
attributable to repetition, study, practice, or the observations one has made.
3. The change is relatively permanent. Facts, thoughts, and behaviors that are acquired and
immediately forgotten have not really been learned; also temporary changes attributable to
growth, maturation, substance adaptation, instinct, reflex, fatigue, illness or injury do not
qualify as learned responses.
Formalized learning theory developed the late nineteenth century when proponent of
various approaches attempted to build their own theories to explain human learning. There
are three broad classifications of approaches to learning theories. These are behavioral
learning, social learning and cognitive learning.
Each of this approach gives the following three important learning processes: (1)
Conditioning, (2) Observational learning, and (3) Cognition.
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A. Classical Conditioning (I. Pavlov)
Conditioning is the process whereby individuals, as a result of their experiences establish an
association between two events. Classical conditioning is a form of association learning by
using two stimuli and mainly emphasized on learning involuntary emotional behaviors such
as fear, salivation or sweating. In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus becomes
associated with a meaningful stimulus (UCS), which elicits unconditioned response (UCR),
and acquires to elicit a similar response as the UCR known as conditioned response (CR).
Pavlov developed the theory of classical conditioning by conducting a number of
experiments on a dog to study the relationship between stimulus (food) and response
(salivation). In the long run, the dog salivated at the sight of the food dish, another time at the
sight of the laboratory assistant. Then Pavlov realized the fact that these salivary responses
had been learned. He continued his study in various conditions and come up with his theory
which proposes that most of our emotional behaviors such as fear, likes, dislikes, and others
are learned through classical conditioning principles of learning.
A. Acquisition: is the initial learning of the conditioned response. According to Pavlov, the
order and timing of the stimuli are found to be important factors in forming associations.
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B. Extinction: is the term used to describe the gradual weakening of the conditioned response
by repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus. It is
diminishing of a CR that occurs when an UCS doesn't follow a CR.
Classical conditioning has a great deal of survival value for the individual. For example, we
jerk our hands away before they are burned by fire. Classical conditioning also provides
explanations for many of our phobias (irrational fear). Phobias like fear of animals, insects,
different objects and situations can develop through classical conditioning.
Pleasant emotions toward a certain object or place can also be associated with a particular
neutral stimulus. Moreover, physical complaints such as headaches, ulcers and high blood
pressure tend to correlate with frequent critics of a boss or misbehavior of someone, or treat of
divorce. Generally, principles of classical conditioning can be used in:
1. Developing good habits; for example in children to cleanliness, respect for elders
and punctuality.
2. Breaking bad habits and eliminating conditioned fears (phobias); for example,
anxiety and many phobias can be eliminated by using counter conditioning - a
classical conditioning procedure for weakening a CR (fear) by associating the fear-
provoking stimulus with a new response incompatible with the fear.
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3. Training animals, like dogs, for the purpose of human welfare
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1. Positive reinforcement: is any event that, when added following a response increases the
frequency of that response. Positive reinforcement controls the behavior of both animals and
people powerfully. For people, positive reinforcers can be primary or secondary. Primary
reinforcers include basic items such as food, water, sex, and physical comfort. Secondary
reinforcers can be giving material, money, friendship, love, approval, praise, hug, embrace,
grasp, clasp, hold close, attention and success in one's career.
2. Negative Reinforcement: is any event that, when something unpleasant is stopped or removed
following a response increases the frequency of that response. Thus, negative reinforcement is a method of
strengthening behavior by following it with the removal or omission of an unpleasant stimulus, for example;
dragging on cigarette & parole system. Parole system is letting out a prisoner from prison based on
his/her good behaviors show. Negative reinforcement removes a punishing aversive event; for example,
pushing the snooze button silences an annoying alarm.
B) Punishment: is the process by which an aversive stimulus decreases the likelihood that a behavior will
occur, usually followed by undesirable behavior. Punishment can also take two forms; positive and negative.
While positive punishment is administering an aversive stimulus (E.g. hitting and a parking ticket), negative
punishment is withdrawing a desirable stimulus (E.g. canceling driver‘s license). In punishment, responses
that bring painful or undesirable consequences will be suppressed, but may reappear if reinforcement
contingencies change. For example, penalizing late students by withdrawing privileges should stop their
lateness. Likewise, a driver who gets a speeding ticket is less likely to speed in the future.
Note that reinforcement and punishment are opposites; while reinforcement increases the frequency of a
response, punishment decreases.
C. Shaping: It is the process of teaching behavior by rewarding closer and closer approximation of the
desired behavior. In shaping, first; the behavior that is similar to the expected behavior is reinforced.
Therefore, we establish novel behaviors by reinforcing responses that gradually approach the desired
behaviors.
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Schedules of Reinforcement
A reinforcement schedule is a rule that specifies the timing and frequency of reinforcers. Once an individual
has been conditioned to perform behavior, the performance of the behavior is influenced by its schedule of
reinforcement. There are two major types of reinforcement schedules:
1) Fixed interval schedule (FI): reinforcement is offered after a set of constant time interval.
2) Variable interval schedule (VI): reinforcement is offered after a randomly varied time gap
about a given item value.
3) Fixed ratio schedule (FR): reinforcement is administered after a fixed number of correct
responses. In this schedule, higher rate of response is recorded; start with a low ratio and
gradually increase the ratio. For example; a man is paid after completing certain amount of
work, commission agents receive payment after selling a certain amount of commodity, and a
student learns 25 lines and gets a coffee.
4) Variable ratio schedule (VR): reinforcement is administered around some average varied
ratio of the required correct responses. This schedule is characterized by a steady rate
response without breaks and extremely high rate of response
Operant conditioning can be used at work place, schools, sport, home, social skill, and health
areas. At work, employers give rewards, bonus, or promotion to workers to increase their
productivity and sales. Employers also make employees to participate in company's ownership
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by share profit to increase their motivation, morale, or create cooperative spirit among them.
Observational learning theory states that there are four major phases of learning from models:
II. Retention Phase: Next to attention, the observed behaviors and all the sensory information
should be encoded and stored in memory system. So that observational learning takes place
by contiguity. The two contiguous events that are necessary are: (a) Attention to the model's
performance and (b) The representation of that performance in the learner's memory.
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III. Reproduction Phase: in this phase of learning from models, the verbal or visual codes in
memory guide the actual performance of the newly acquired behavior. Obser vational
learning is most accurate when overt enactment follows mental rehearsal.
Observational learning has both positive and negative effects. It helps to teach new adaptive
behavior, and to increase/decrease the frequency of previously learned behavior or other
similar behavior. However, it can encourage previously forbidden antisocial behaviors. For
instance, people who exemplify nonviolent, helpful, kind, honest or other good behaviors
can prompt similar behavior in others. Conversely, people can involve in violence copycats
behaviors by observing from one's family, neighbor, or friend.
A. Insight learning: it refers to a sudden change in our perception that comes while
encounter and struggle with life challenging problem. Sometimes, when we face a problem
in our day-to-day life, the solution may come to us all of a sudden. This quick change in our
perception is known as insight.
Scientists who studied memory recognize its subjective nature and investigate how people reconstruct their
version of the past. Memory is more than a single process and the corresponding processes are encoding,
storage and retrieval.
I. Memory Encoding
Encoding is the process of converting information into a form that can be stored in memory. Some encoding
processes that require effort include rehearsal of information, deep processing, extensive elaboration, using
mental imagery, and organizing what we need to remember.
Rehearsal is a conscious repetition of information without imparting any meaning that increases the length of
time that information stay in memory. Deep processing is an intense and higher level of information
processing. Elaboration is an extensive processing at any given depth and involves thinking of an event with
some examples, concepts, and self-referent imagination about the situation by adding a distinctive ―memory
code‖. Imagery is storing of information as verbal or as an image code. Organization is an arrangement of
information in some retrievable manner such as alphabetical order, hierarchically, or chunking. Chunking is a
method of grouping letters or digits for easy remembrance. For example; it is possible to chunk the telephone
number, 0475510589 as 04-75-51-05-89.
II. Memory Storage: Storage is the process whereby an encoded memory is held for future use. It is a purely
passive mechanism by which information is maintained or kept in memory system. Memory storage can be
distinguished by different time frames and its content.
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Time Frame Theory of Memory
Information processing model of memory stage assumes that memory has three stages: very short, short and
long. These stages vary in type of information, function, duration and capacity.
Sensory memory briefly holds the tremendous amount of information coming in from the environment.
Unless one focuses his attention on some part of that information, the memory disappears in about one
second.
Short-term memory or working memory holds your current thought. It can contain input from two sources:
a) The contents sensory memory that you are paying attention to may enter short-term memory.
STM is the work place of the mind where sensory information and/or long-term memories can be combined.
It holds the data used for conscious cognitive activities. STM or the working memory is the problem-solving
area of the mind, where you remember, imagine or figure things out. Most of the contents of working memory
are lost after about 30 seconds, but some is converted to long-term memories.
According to research, the capacity of STM is 7±2 bits of information, the number of items that an individual
is able to report back correctly after a single presentation by someone.
LTM holds what we usually think of as our memories encoded information from working memory (STM).
The previously stored material can also be retrieved from LTM in to working memory. Long-term memory is
apparently limitless in capacity and duration. LTM is limited by encoding and retrieval.
Memory‟s contents
Long-term memory‘s contents can be divided in to two types: 1) Declarative memory, and 2) No declarative
memory.
Declarative (also called explicit) memories are memories that can be consciously recalled and described
information such as facts that can be communicated verbally. Declarative memory is further subdivided in to
semantic memory and episodic memory. Semantic memories are a person‘s field of expertise, academic
knowledge about facts, meanings, figures, concepts, places, persons and things. Facts are usually stored
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without information about when and where they were learned. Episodic memories refer to incidents or events
in the past also called biographical details. They usually include personal information about what happened
along with when and where it occurred, such as associating of events with a particular place and time.
Non-declarative (also called implicit or procedural) memories are previous experience memories that can be
accessed without our conscious (or verbal) involvement. Procedural memories tell as how to perform
particular activities and usually do not include where and when the procedure was learned. Moreover, we
usually cannot easily describe the contents of procedural memory in words, hence, they are considered to be
implicit memories.
Retrieval is the process whereby a stored memory is brought in to consciousness through recall. It is the
process of putting the contents of LTM in to working memory. It often depends on retrieval cue, a hint or
prompt that triggers the memory. Thus for memory to work, we have to take information in, represent in some
manner, and retrieve it for some purpose latter. The following are some concepts used to retrieval.
A. Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT): it is a type of ―effortful retrieval‖ that occurs when people are confident
they know something but just cannot quite seem to pull it out of memory. This implies that without
good retrieval cues, information stored in memory is hard to find.
B. Serial position effect: this concerns whether recall is superior for items at first (primacy effect) or at
the last (recency effect) of a list. While the primacy effect refers to superior recall for items presented at
the beginning, the recency effect refers to superior recall for items at the end.
C. Retrieval cues and retrieval tasks: the presence or absence of good cues, and the retrieval task
required are involved in an important memory distinction: recall versus recognition memory. Recall is a
memory measure in which a person must retrieve previously learned information, as in essay test.
Recognition is a memory measure in which a person has to identify (recognize) learned items, as on
multiple-choice items. As most students prefer multiple-choice tests to essay or fill-in-the blank tests,
some people are terrible at remembering names but never forget a face. The implication of such
phenomenon to law enforcement officers is that a witness might be certain she/he previously seen a
face, yet she/he might have a hard time deciding if it was at the scene of a crime.
D. Emotional memories: when remember our life experiences; the memories are often wrapped in
emotions as in flashbulb memories and personal trauma.
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a. Flashbulb memories are memories of emotionally significant events that people often recall with more
accuracy and vivid imagery than every day event.
b. Personal trauma can emerge as a result of exposure to traumatic events such as war, severe abuse, torture,
and accidental disasters and may involve a mental disorder. Mostly, such events are retained accurately and in
detail, possibly forever, but subject to some deterioration or distortion.
4.3 Forgetting
Forgetting is the apparent loss of information stored in LTM. Or it is the inability to retrieve and use
information stored in memory system. We fail to retrieve information stored in LTM due to various reasons.
On the basis studies conducted on forgetting by psychologists, the following are some explanations that have
been given as the cause of forgetting.
1. Theory of Decay: It is a common view that forgetting is the process of fading with the passage of
time. It is believed by many people that forgetting is happened by time factor. According to this view,
impressions created by learning in the cortex fade away as the time passes. This widely held view is
called the theory of disuse or decay.
2. Theory of interference: Psychologists have recognized that our memory is influenced by intervening
activities. The interference may be of two types: A. Retroactive interference, and B. Proactive
interference.
Retroactive interference occurs when a new learned material disrupts the recall of an older one. And
Proactive interference occurs when an older memory interferes with the recall (encoding) of newer one.
In proactive interference the previous learned material disrupts the recall of the present one.
3. Motivated Forgetting (Repression): Memories that would cause unhappiness or suffering if brought
to mind are often forgotten. There may be cases in which we would like to forget so making, such as
a trauma, painful insult, threats to our like, high way collision and other such experiences. Freud used
the term repression to refer the unconscious, but motivated blocking of memories.
4. Retrieval Failure: We experience in our daily life that sometimes we want to recall name of or some
piece of information. We fail to recall that information at that time but when conditions were
different, the name or information comes back more or less spontaneously. This phenomenon is
called tip-of-the-tongue (TOT). TOT shows how non-availability of appropriate events hinders
retention. According to this approach, forgetting is very often a temporary rather than a permanent
phenomenon.
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5. Abnormal or pathological Forgetting: Abnormal or pathological forgetting is called Amnesia. Here
recall is completely blocked as a result of damage of brain part responsible for memory because of
accident, surgery aging. For example; amnesia – a memory deficit beyond repair, takes two forms:
anterograde and retrograde amnesia. While anterograde amnesia is a memory disorder preventing
retention of new information; retrograde amnesia involves memory loss for a segment of the past.
5.1 MOTIVATION
5.1.1 The Meaning and Concepts of Motivation
Behaviour is goal-oriented, purposive, meaningful and functional. A motivated organism will engage in an
activity more vigorously and more efficiently than the unmotivated one. In addition to energizing the
behaviour of an organism, motivation directs behaviour towards a goal. For instance, a person in pain would
try to escape from the painful stimulus.
Motivation is the dynamics of behavior or a force that initiates, energizes, directs and sustains activities of a
person toward a goal. Just as a force moves an object, motivation moves energizes a person. Motivation is a
cycle of three stages: a motivating state within the organisms, behavior aroused and directed by this state, and
an intended goal toward which the behavior is directed. When the goal is achieved, the state, which caused the
behavior, subsides, ending a cycle until the state is aroused in some way.
The first stage, this state has various names; needs and drives. Needs are specific states with the organism
which is based on some deficit and that may elicit behavior. They are inner physiological or psychological
deficits. Many motivated behaviors are thought of as beginning with needs. Drives are internal states with the
organism which pushes the organism into action towards a particular goal. Needs causes a psychological state
called a drive. Drives activate responses designed to attain a goal that will satisfy the need. Incentives are also
concept related to motivation. They are external motivating stimulus such as money, praise, fame or attention.
Unlike drive, incentives pull a person toward a goal.
The second stage of the motivational cycle is the behavior that is activated by the motive. This behavior is
usually instrumental in reducing the motive. For example, hunger motivates and individual to explore for food.
The third stage of the motivational cycle is the reduction or satisfaction of the motives. This is ordinarily
achieved by reaching some goal. In thirst, for example, lack of water in the body is a need motivating the
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individual. This need arouses exploratory behavior to find water. The goal of drinking water when it is found
satisfy the thirst and terminates the motivational cycle until the need for water builds up again.
Primarily, goals depend on the motive that is active. If an individual is motivated by sex drive, his goal is
sexual satisfaction. For the basic physiological motives, goals are relatively fixed and unchangeable. If one is
hungry, for instance, food is the only goal that will do. All motivation, of course, does not have an immediate
physiological basis, and many needs, especially complex social needs can go unsatisfied without resulting in
death.
Motivation can take a form either primary and secondary; or extrinsic and intrinsic.
Primary/Biological Motives:- They are motives based on physiological needs or tissue deficits within the
body. They are regulated within the organism by homeostasis, a basic motivational phenomena underlying
primary drives. Homeostasis is the process by which the body maintain a steady, stable condition of
physiological processes like internal organs, the blood, the hormones, etc. The most important primary motives
are hunger, thirst, sex, pain avoidance, and needs for air, warmth, sleep, and elimination of wastes.
Secondary/Social Motives: These are motives that are learned in the social environment. They are rooted in
physiological motives and emerge out of them gradually with advancing of age. They are also called social
motives because they are learned in social groups usually involving other people. Some of the important social
motives are social approval, affiliation, affection, respect, status, prestige, money, achievement, power, etc.
The most studied social motives are the need for achievement, the need for affiliation and the need for
power.
The Need for Achievement: is to do better, to improve performance, to accomplish tasks, to rival and surpass
others. Individuals with achievement need choose and perform better at challenging tasks, prefer personal
responsibilities, seek and utilizes feedback on performance quality, innovates to improve.
The Need for Affiliation (relatedness): It is to seek and enjoy cooperation with others, to make friends. It is a
concern to establish, maintain, and repair friendly relations with important people in our lives. It is
characterized by making more local calls, visits, seeking approval, liking and agreeing with people, etc.
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The Need for power (power Motivation): It is the motive of a person to produce intended effects on the
behaviour or emotions of another person. The goals of power motivation are to influence, control, persuade,
and charm others to enhance one‘s own reputation in the types of others.
These can also be considered as the sources of motivation. You may study law to get a good job and salary; the
other may enjoy learning law for its own sake as reading the course by itself gives pleasure for him/her. Why
this difference? Such motivation can be described in two broad categories extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.
Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation to engage in an activity as a means to an end, whereas intrinsic
motivation is motivation to engage in an activity for its own sake. Extrinsic motivation is the desire to perform
a task to gain external rewards, such as others‘ approval, praise, grades or money. For example, you might join
your department because you find it interesting (intrinsic motivation) or because it has better job opportunities
and therefore, greater salary (extrinsic motivation). In contrast, intrinsic motivation is the desire to perform a
task for its own sake or within a person. Researchers indicated that we are more apt to persevere, work hard,
and produce work of higher quality when motivation for a task is intrinsic rather than extrinsic.
This theory assumes that motivation is the result of biological or genetic program. Instinct is complex,
inherited (unlearned) pattern of behavior. It is a biologically determined characteristic of species. Instinct is at
work when birds build nests, spiders wave webs, etc.
This theory suggests that motivation is driven by internal biological needs, i.e. drives. Drive: is a motivational
tension that energizes behavior in order to fulfill some end, the restoration of homeostasis. Drive motivates the
individual to reduce the tension. For example, the thirst drive motivates us drinking, and hunger for eating etc.
Arousal approaches seek to explain behavior in which the goal is to maintain or increase excitement. They
suggest that the aim of motivation is to maintain an optimal level of arousal that is pleasurable. If arousal is
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less than the optimal level, we do something to stimulate it; if arousal exceeds the optimal level, we seek to
reduce the stimulation. Emotional feelings are negative at both extremes (lowest and highest) of arousal
continuum, we generally feel better emotionally when our arousal level is somewhere in the middle of the
continuum. A number of things such as fear or anxiety, exposure to a loud noise, driving a car, watching a
violent movie, or taking such drugs as caffeine can increase arousal.
In this view, our motivation is influenced by external goals or stimuli which are known as incentives. In a work
day world, motivation seems to be more a matter of expected incentives like wages, salaries, bonuses, and
vacations, than of drives and their reduction. Incentives are often associated with drives. For example, your
thirst drive motivates you to replenish your body‘s water, but incentives determine what you choose to drink.
You could satisfy your thirst by drinking, say, water, coke, mango juice or Ambo water. Your thirst would
push you to drink, but your favourite flavour would pull you toward a particular beverage.
E. Psychodynamic Theory
As part of S. Freud‘s theory of personality, humans have only two basic drives: Eros and Thanatos, or the Life
and Death drives respectively. Freud believed that everything we think, feel, and do has one of two goals: to
help us survive (Life drive) or prevent our destruction (Death drive). According to him, the Life instinct (Eros)
and Death instinct (Thanatos) unconsciously motivate our behavior.
We are sometimes motivated to reduce cognitive than physiological drives. These theories assume that our
thoughts, expectations, and understanding about the world or ourselves influence our motivation. For example,
the degree to which we are motivated to study for a test will be based jointly on our expectation of how well
our studying will pay off (in terms of a good grade) and the value we place on getting a good grade. If both
expectation and value are high, we will be motivated to study diligently; but if either one is low, our
motivation to study will be relatively lower.
According to this theory, humans are driven to achieve their maximum potential and will always do so unless
obstacles, such as hunger, thirst, lack of finance or safety, are placed in their ways. It assumes that individual‘s
perceptions, responses to internal needs, interpersonal factors, and the drive for ―self-actualisation,‖ affect
motivation. The best way to describe this theory is to use the pyramid developed by Abraham Maslow called
―Hierarchy of Needs‖.
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Maslow‟s Hierarchy of Needs: Ordering Motivational Needs
According to Abraham Maslow, our motivational needs are ordered in a hierarchy of needs based on urgency.
His theory can be conceptualized as a pyramid in which the more basic needs are at the bottom and the higher
– level needs are at the top. In order for a particular need to be activated and there by guide a person‘s
behaviour, the more basic needs in the hierarchy must be met first and then more sophisticated, higher-order
needs can be satisfied. Abraham Maslow said that each person has an innate ―growth potential‖ that energises
and directs his/her own behaviour. The ultimate needs to Maslow are needs for self-actualization (achievement
of all your potentials) and transcendence (Spiritual fulfilment).
1. Self–Actualization Needs:- A state of self–fulfilment in which people realize their highest potential in their
own unique way. Self–actualization and fulfilment is enrichment, adaptive, flexibility, life patterns,
creatively, legacies and transcendence, recreation and leisure.
2. Esteem Needs:- In Maslow‘s thinking, esteem relates to the need to develop a sense of self-worth by
knowing that others are aware of one‘s competence and value. Ego-strength and self-esteem includes
effective coping, intelligence, maintaining autonomy and control, assertiveness, and culture of cohorts.
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3. Love and Belongingness Needs:- These are the needs to obtain and give affection and to be a contributing
member of some group or society, such as communication, relationships (intimates, family, friends, groups,
commonalities), and sexuality.
4. Safety Needs:- Maslow suggests that people need a secure environment in order to function effectively.
Safety includes sensory function, environmental safety, legal and economic protection.
5. Physiological Needs:- are the most basic needs (primary drives) such as needs for water, food, sleep, sex,
and the like. In order to move up the hierarchy, a person must have these basic physiological needs met.
Frustration and conflicts are normal part of daily life. We are now to examine frustration, the conflicts that
often cause it, and the adjustment mechanisms that we sometimes use. In general, frustration is a person's
negative emotion due to actual or imagined:
If motives are frustrated or blocked, emotional feelings and behaviors often result. In general, people are said
to be frustrated when ever any of their goal directed activities are slowed, made difficult, or become
impossible. In our complex society, most people experience many frustrating situations. None of us can always
have what we want whenever we want it.
Sources of Frustration
Example: Certain personal qualities such as unassertiveness, passiveness, aloofness, and laziness, prevent
individuals from being successful and productive in their life. Research has shown that shyness and poor social
skills are also related to frustration.
In addition to the physical environment, frustration may also come from social regulations and bad
bureaucracy. Perhaps you would like to take a particular course, but school regulations forbid it. May be
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you would like to get married now and establish a home of your own, but social pressures and economic
factors prevent you. Or perhaps you would like to travel and have many new experiences, but parents,
school and financial problems keep you at home.
Conflict Induced
Moreover, the major source of frustration is found in motivational conflict in which the expression of one
motive interferes with the expression of other motives. Life is full of conflicts and the frustration arising
from incompatible goals. Whatever goals the person decides to satisfy, there will be frustration, most
likely preceded by doubt and vacillation.
When we are motivated to approach each two equally desirable alternatives, but must choose one, an approach-
approach conflict exists. Such conflicts are usually resolved either by satisfying first one goal and then other -
for example, eating and then going to bed if a person is both hungry and sleepy - or choosing one of the two
goals and stopping the other. For example, refusing marriage and joining a university. The reason is that
although we must choose one alternative now, we can often obtain the other at a later time. However, still
stressful approach-approach conflicts can exists. For example, in choosing between environmental health and
health education (when both are equally important for you), we do nothing for a short time and then make a
decision.
B. Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict:-
When you are presented with two alternatives that are equally unattractive, you are facing avoidance-avoidance
conflict. That is when we are motivated to avoid each of two equally unattractive choices, but must choose one,
an avoidance conflict exists. In this situation, avoiding unpleasant consequences is impossible; the choice is
just a matter often lesser two evils. As the saying goes, "you are between the devil and the deep blue sea",
every way you can't avoid loses. In life, there are things we do not want to, but must do or face even when they
are less desirable alternatives.
C. Approach-Avoidance Conflict:
Here, an individual is attracted and repelled by a single goal object which has both negative and positive
impacts. You would like to approach a particular goal; at the same time, you would like to avoid it. It has both
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positive and negative values for you. You are pulled in opposite directions, liking and disliking at the same
time, i.e. ambivalence. E.g. HIV/AIDS testing, surgery, etc
Approach-avoidance conflict is the most difficult to resolve. When we are far from a goal, we retreat from the
goal. As we retreat, of course, we get to a point where the approach tendency is again the stronger one; we then
approach the goal once more, only to ultimately retreat again.
A more complex conflict is the double approach - avoidance conflict, in which a person is motivated to both
avoid and approach two different goals. Even more complex is multiple approaches - avoidances conflict.
Consider what happens when you are faced with choosing between two universities, both of which have
positive and negative characteristics. You want to attend university 'X' because it is senior, but you hesitate
because it is also expensive. Then, you want to attend university 'Y' because it is less expensive, but you don't
like the fact that it is a new university (i.e., not well organized). What a person does in a multiple - avoidance
conflict will depend on the relative strengths of all the positive and negative valences involved.
There are a number of reactions people can make when frustrated. These reactions are basically three types:
turning against people (Violence and aggression), turning from people (withdrawals) or turning towards people
(depending on people). The accompanying feelings are respectively anger, depression and desperation. People
use different adjustment mechanisms to cope with frustration, for example, letting someone else decide for
you, procrastination, displacement, denying the reality (denial), etc.
5.2. Emotions
5.2.1 The Meaning and Concepts of Emotions
All of us have experienced the strong feelings that accompany both very pleasant and very unpleasant
experiences. Perhaps it was the thrill after getting a sought job, the joy of love, the sorrow over someone‘s
death, or the anguish of inadvertently hurting someone. Moreover, we experience such reactions on a less
intense level throughout our daily lives: the pleasure of a friendship, the enjoyment of a movie, or the
embarrassment of breaking a borrowed item. Emotion is a physical departure from homeostasis that is
subjectively experienced in strong feeling like love, hate, desire, or fear and manifests itself in neuromuscular
respiratory, cardiovascular, hormonal and other bodily changes preparatory to overt act which may or may not
be performed. Though it is easy to recognize an emotion, it is difficult to provide a formal definition. However,
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most psychologists have agreed that emotion consists of three components: Physiological change, subjective
cognitive state (mental state) and expressive behaviour.
Physiological change is internal bodily change accompanied by certain changes that you experience.
Subjective mental states are our beliefs or expectances towards certain things that we feel and label as emotion.
And, expressive behaviour refers to out-ward or overt manifestation of behaviour, by using verbal or non-
verbal channels.
Consider an angry man, his heart might pound (a sign of physiological arousal) and he might feel enraged (an
intense, unpleasant mental experience). Note here that feeling (enraged) is only one component of emotions.
And other components are physiological arousal and expressive behaviour. Hence, in trying to study emotions,
some psychologists prefer to study the biological level (the physiology of emotion), others the mental level
(the experience of emotion).
When you are feeling frustrated or anxious you say, ―My nerves are on edge‖ when you are overjoyed you say,
―I am flying‖. These are your expression what psychologists demonstrated that strong emotions are associated
with physiological arousal.
Since our emotional experiences are private, they cannot be directly observed by other people. Instead,
emotions are inferred from expressive behaviours and are called non-verbal expressions. These include vocal
qualities, body movements (body languages), and facial expressions.
When you speak, both your words and your voice convey emotion. The vocal features of speech, other than the
words themselves, are called prosody. Prosodic features include rate, pitch, and loudness. Thus, the same
statement can sound sincere or sarcastic, depending on its vocal qualities.
Body movements or gestures convey your positive and negative emotional states in dramatic ways. A sad or
depressed person does not move his hands when he speaks. A happy person, on the contrary, shows a splendid
body movement when talking and walking. In the same way, an angry person makes or shows a violent body
movement, and anxious person makes restless body movements, which are disorganized.
Facial expressions are emotions that our faces give away. Look a person‘s face to whom you are speaking; he
can direct his words more easily than his expression. Knowledge of the relationship between facial expressions
and emotion enable us to distinguish honest emotional expressions from fake ones, e.g. the difference between
sincere and false smiles.
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The Experience of Emotion: Emotions as subjective states.
Emotion is not only a physiological arousal but also a subjective, internal or mental experience of different
kinds of feelings. Though we have hundreds of words for such emotional experiences, there seems to be only
few basic emotions, from which all other are derived. These basic emotions are joy, fear, anger, disgust,
sadness, surprise, acceptance and anticipation. More complex emotions (e.g. anxiety, worry, curiosity) arise
from mixtures of these basic ones. Example, anxiety is a combination fear and disgust. Curiosity is a
combination of joy and surprise.
The experience of emotion in general varies both in its intensity and pleasantness. People who tend to
experience intensely pleasant emotions (such as elation) also tend to experience intensely unpleasant emotions
(such as despair). Happiness is the most important thing is life and each person has his or her personal
definition of happiness. But many people would agree that happiness is an enduring, positive emotional state
that includes satisfaction with one‘s life as well as active pleasures and accomplishments.
I. Biological Dimension
Biological theorists suggest that there are specific bodily reactions that cause us to experience a particular
emotion. One of dimension that focuses on the physiological component is arousal. It states that the autonomic
nervous system and its two subsystems called sympathetic and par sympathetic arouses and calms the body
respectively are involved in emotion.
James-Lange theory states that environmental stimuli trigger a psychological state or emotions, which in turn
give rise to physiological responses.
The Cannon-Bard theory states that emotion and physiological reactions occur simultaneously. It claims that
the part of the brain called thalamus plays a key role in experiencing emotion. An emotion is produced when
an event or object is perceived by the thalamus. The processes involved in emotional experience are firstly an
emotion–arousing situation stimuli from the senses are passed to thalamus. Then the thalamus simultaneously
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transmits the information to two parts of the body: upwards to the cerebral cortex resulting emotion and
downwards, by way of the autonomic nervous system, to the body‘s internal organs resulting in physiological
arousal.
Arousal
Environmental stimuli
Emotion
The Schachter–Singer Theory (Two-Factor Theory): it states that emotion is determined by two main
factors: physiological arousal and cognitive labelling. An event first causes physiological arousal, then we
finding reasons for this, and finally we experience emotion and label it.
Physiological arousal
Perceived Emotion
The most interest in behavioural component has focused on facial expression. The Facial–feedback theory
states that facial expressions can influence emotions as well as reflect them. In this view, facial muscles send
signals to the brain, which help individuals, recognize the emotion they are experiencing. A particular facial
expression alters the flow of blood to particular regions of the brain, thereby evoking particular emotional
experiences.
While facial expressions of basic emotions appear to be universal across cultures, display rules for emotions
are not culturally universal. The basic emotions include: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust.
Display rules are sociocultural standards that determine when, where, and how emotions should be expressed.
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UNIT SIX: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PERSONALITY
6.1. Human Development
6.1.1 Concepts and Definition of Human Development
Development is a progressive series of changes that occur in orderly and predictable pattern. It refers to a
comprehensive and functional change of behavior due to the interaction among growth, maturation and
learning. Development describes the growth of humans throughout the lifespan, from conception to death. The
scientific study of human development seeks to understand and explain how and why people change throughout
life. This includes all aspects of human growth, including physical, emotional, intellectual, social, perceptual,
and personality development. Development does not just involve the biological and physical aspects of growth,
but also the cognitive and social aspects associated with development throughout life.
It has order/sequential
B. Maturation: ripening of the growing body to start its proper function. For example:
Cognitive theories
A. Jean Piaget‟s theory of cognitive development
Piaget's theory describes the cognitive (intellectual) development of children. For Piaget, the critical question in
the study of development is how the child adjusts to the world in which s/he lives. Piaget observed that thought
of children is not a miniature version of adult though and he concluded that they were not less intelligent than
adults, rather they simply think differently because they have their own view and perception of the world. It is
qualitatively different in kind. Children‘s thought is not ―illogical‖ instead; they are operating from a different
mental framework or set of rules for interpreting the world.
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In Piaget‘s view, cognitive development involves changes in the underlying cognitive structures known as
schema & these guide people‘s thinking and behavior. He believed that early cognitive development involves
processes based upon actions and later progresses into changes in mental operations. Schemas are cognitive
structures that an individual involves for dealing with a specific kind of situation in the environment. They are
category of knowledge that helps us to interpret & understand the world.
Piaget conceives of the individual and the environment as engaged in an ongoing interaction that generates new
perceptions of the world and new organization of knowledge. A new experience interacts with the existing
cognitive structure (scheme) and alters the structure, thereby making it more adequate. This modified structure
in turn influences the individuals‘ subsequent perceptions. These new perceptions are then incorporated within a
more complex cognitive structure.
In this manner, experience modifies scheme and scheme modifies experiences. As Piaget‘s view, this adjusting
process consists of two basic processes: assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation is the process of taking in new information into our previously existing and interpreting it in such
a fashion that the information conforms to an existing scheme. The process is somewhat subjective, because we
tend to modify experience or information somewhat to fit in with our preexisting beliefs.
Accommodation is the process of changing adjusting the existing scheme in light of new information to make
it a better match to the world of reality consequently; the previous structures become a part of the new
structures. Each stage in cognitive development witnesses the emergence of new organizational components,
and each stage is in turn the starting pint of the next stage.
Equilibration is to strike a balance between assimilation and accommodation. As children progress through the
stages of cognitive development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge
(assimilation) and changing behavior to account for new knowledge (accommodation). Equilibration helps
explain how children are able to move from one stage of thought into the next. In so doing Piaget distinguishes
four stages in the development of cognition.
Stage Characteristics
Sensory motor Reflex actions-vision, hearing, grasping…
(0-2 year) Non symbolic thought
Achievement of object permanence
Preoperational Symbolic thinking-words, phrases and sentences
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(2-6/7) represent
Egocentric and intuitive thought
No operational thought
No principles of conservation
Concrete operation Operation & logical thought only in concrete situation
(7-11/12) Classification of objects
No abstract thinking
Formal operation Abstract and hypothetical reasoning
(12 years and above) Deductive reasoning
Key Concepts
Egocentrism: The difficulty of children to understand the world on another person's perspective, but
perceiving almost always on their own view.
Conservation: Piaget conducted a number of similar experiments on conservation of liquid, number, length,
mass, weight, volume, and quantity. Piaget found that few children showed any understanding of conservation
prior to the age of five.
Logic: Children in the concrete operational stage were fairly good at the use of inductive logic, which involves
going from a specific experience to a general principle. However, they have difficulty using deductive logic,
which involves using a general principle to determine the outcome of a specific event.
Reversibility: The ability to reverse the order of relationships between mental categories or the awareness that
actions can be reversed.
Abstract thought: The ability to consider the possible outcomes and consequences of actions rather than
solely relying on previous experiences.
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According to Kohlberg, a child‘s moral thinking is said to be shaped by the mode of thought that currently
characterizes the child. His theory represents internalizing the elements of one‘s culture such as traditions,
norms, values, beliefs, attitudes, and other systems in shaping individuals behavior. Internalization is the
developmental change in the capacity to reason about rightness or wrongness of various actions or behaviors
across ages that are controlled externally to behaviors that is controlled internally, self-generated standards and
principles. Kohlberg stressed that the reason a person gives to a certain behavior is of greater importance but not
he choice he/she made. Kohlberg outlined that individuals go through three levels of moral development each
consisting two stages. Each of his level reflects a different type of relationship between an individual and the
society‘s rules.
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Psychoanalytic theories
A. Theory of Psychosexual Development (S. Freud)
Freud believed that personality develops through a series of childhood stages during which the pleasure-seeking
energies of the id become focused on certain body parts called erogenous zones. Freud claims that development
is a change in personality because of psychosexual changes through the process of learning to reduce tension
and frustration imposed by the body. He emphasized on the role of hidden, ―unconscious‖ aspects of the mind
and early childhood experiences. Early childhood experiences do shape our personality, especially the first
five years. As to Freud, we now are what we were experiencing in childhood. He posits three basic assumptions
about the development of the newborn.
1. Infants are born with psychic energy (the libido) which consists of two types
2. Infants are born with separate primitive mind, the id, which is governed by libido
3. Infants display instinctual reflex; newborn‘s sucking is driven by the urges to sex pleasure.
Unconscious is a part of personality in which a person is unaware containing instinctive drives, and which is
potential determinant of behavior. Freud‘s principles of psychoanalysis suggest three internal principles: the
dynamic, structural and sequential systems.
1. The dynamic system– psychic energy that directs behavior which is a deeply hidden in the unconscious
part of the brain. It is the antagonistic conflict between irrational desire and rational control. He assumed
that psychic energy, which he termed as libido, is converted into behaviors.
2. The structural system– which complements and channels psychic energy. Freud broke the human
personality down to three components; which consists of the architectures of the mind: id, ego, and
superego. He represented biology by the id (it), society by the superego, and reality by the ego (I).
According to him, our development (personality) is determined by the interactions of these three
components.
Id consists of the unconscious and inherited part of personality, whose sole purpose is to reduce
tension and maximize satisfaction.
Ego is the ―executive‖ part of personality that makes rational decision. It deals with the demands of
reality to compromise between the wishes of the id and the constraints of the superego by using
defense mechanisms. As a result, a person will be able to integrate into the society that he/she lives
in.
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Superego is the moral branch of personality representing the rights and wrongs of a society as
handed down by parents, teachers, elders, and other significant figures.
3. The sequential system– which consists of five maturational stages of psychosexual development: oral
stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency, and genital stage. At each stage; a person experiences pleasure in
one part of the body, known as erogenous zone.
During the oral stage, the infant's primary source of interaction occurs through the mouth, so the rooting and
sucking reflex is especially important. The mouth is vital for eating, and the infant derives pleasure from oral
stimulation through biting, tasting and sucking. Since the infant is entirely dependent upon caretakers (who are
responsible for feeding), he also develops a sense of trust and comfort through this oral stimulation.
The primary conflict at this stage is the weaning process--to become less dependent upon caretakers. If fixation
occurs at this stage, the child would have issues with dependency or aggression. Oral fixation can result in
problems with drinking, eating, smoking or nail biting.
During the anal stage, Freud believed that the primary focus of the libido was on controlling bladder and bowel
movements. The major conflict at this stage is toilet training--the child has to learn to control his or her bodily
needs. Developing this control leads to a sense of accomplishment and independence. According to Freud,
success at this stage is dependent upon the way in which parents approach toilet training. Parents who utilize
praise and rewards for using the toilet at the appropriate time encourage positive outcomes and help children
feel capable and productive.
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According to Freud, positive experiences during this stage served as the basis for people to become competent,
productive and creative adults. In contrast, inappropriate parental responses can result in negative outcomes. If
parents take an approach that is too lenient, Freud suggested that an anal-expulsive personality could develop
in which the individual has a messy, wasteful or destructive personality. However, if parents are too strict or
begin toilet training too early, an anal-retentive personality develops in which the individual is stringent,
orderly, rigid and obsessive.
During the phallic stage, the primary focus of the libido is on the genitals. Children also discover the
differences between males and females. Freud also believed that boys begin to view their fathers as a rival for
the mother‘s affections. The Oedipus complex describes these feelings of wanting to possess the mother and
the desire to replace the father. However, the child also fears that he will be punished by the father for these
feelings, a fear Freud termed castration anxiety. The term Electra complex has been used to describe a similar
set of feelings experienced by young girls. Freud, however, believed that girls instead experience penis envy.
Eventually, the child begins to identify with the same-sex parent as a means of vicariously possessing the other
parent. For girls, however, Freud believed that penis envy was never fully resolved and that all women remain
somewhat fixated on this stage.
This stage begins around the time that children enter into school and become more concerned with peer
relationships, hobbies, & other interests. The latent period is a time of play and exploration in which the sexual
energy is still present, but it is directed into other areas such as intellectual pursuits and social interactions.
This stage is important to develop social and communication skills and self-confidence.
During the final stage of psychosexual development, the individual develops a strong sexual interest outside a
family member of opposite sex. Where in earlier stages the focus was solely on individual needs, interest in the
welfare of others grows during this stage. If the other stages have been completed successfully, the individual
should now be well-balanced, warm and caring in various life areas.
According to Freud, adulthood personality is determined by the way we resolve conflicts between the early
experiences of pleasure and the demands of reality at each stage. If these psychosexual stages are completed
successfully (the conflicts are resolved), the result is a healthy personality. When the conflicts are not resolved, a
person is said to be fixated at a particular stage of development. Fixation is a persistent focus on an earlier
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psychosexual stage. It refers to the defense mechanism that occurs when a person remains locked in an earlier
developmental stage, because needs are under–or over gratified. If certain issues are not resolved at the
appropriate stage, fixation can occur.
Defense mechanisms are behaviors reflecting which were repressed in earlier stages of development. They are
unconscious psychological strategies that people used to avoid or reduce anxiety by concealing the sources of
anxiety from themselves and others.
In Freud‘s view, there is a continuous inner war between the id and superego demands in which the ego control
the conflicts. When the ego fails to manage the ongoing inner fight, the result is anxiety. Anxiety, said Freud,
is the price we pay for civilization. Thus ego protects itself from anxiety with distorting reality. He identified
different ego defence mechanisms some of which are described below:
1. Repression: - The master defence mechanism; the ego pushes unacceptable impulses out of awareness.
Example, a young girl was sexually abused by her uncle. As an adult she can‘t remember anything about the
traumatic experience.
2. Rationalization: - using fallacious and plausible reasons to make things justifiable. Example, A college
student does not get in to fraternity of his choice. He says that if he had tried harder he could have gotten it.
3. Displacement: - The ego shifts feelings toward an unacceptable object to another, more accessible object.
Example, a woman can‘t take her anger out on her boss so she goes home and takes it out on her husband.
4. Sublimation: - The ego replaces an unacceptable impulse with a socially acceptable one. Example, A man
with strong sexual urges becomes an artist who paints nudes.
5. Projection: - The ego attributes personal shortcomings, problems and faults to others. Example, A man
who has strong desire to have an extra marital affair accuses his wife flirting with other men.
6. Reaction Formation: - The ego transforms an unacceptable motive in to it‘s opposite. Example, A woman
who fears her sexual urges becomes a religious person.
Example, a man won‘t acknowledge that he has cancer even though a team of doctors has diagnosed his
cancer
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8. Regression: - The ego seeks the security of an earlier developmental period in the face of stress. Example,
a woman returns home to mother every time she and her husband have a big argument.
Erikson extended Freud‘s work but focusing on ego‘s own development. He argued that the ego already exists
as a functioning organ at birth; therefore, there is no need to assume ego derives its energy from id. According
to him, ego is free of intra psychic conflicts; rather conflicts arise between the individual and the society. As a
result, ago is susceptible in its development to psychosocial rather than psychosexual.
Erikson emphasized that as a person grows and develops; he/she is socialized by and socializes others-parents,
siblings, peers, teachers, and others. He assumes that individuals develop socio emotionally through interactions
and understanding of each other. He also believed that we progress through a series of eight personality stages
over human life span. Each stage represents positive and negative aspects of developmental tasks (crisis) that
necessitate resolution.
6.2. Personality
6.2.1 The meaning of personality
Personality in general is a psychological name that represents who the person is. Personality refers to the unique
and stable pattern of behavior, thoughts, and feelings of individuals.
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Psychologists differ in defining personality because of difference in their theoretical – orientations. No matter
how personality is viewed, there are certain points to be considered in describing what it is. First, there is an
integration, organization or system in the behaviors of an individual. Second, personality is an identity of
individual. As we all observe an individual, we see long-term direction, overall goals and aspiration – patterns
of behavior in which some enduring attributes are subordinate to others. And perhaps, we find a consistent,
unifying, and articulate philosophy of life.
Personality as an identity emphasizes, first, the ways in which we are the same (stable or consistent) over time
and in various circumstances; and second, the ways in which we differ from others, so that our individual
personalities emerge in contrast to other people‘s personalities distinctively.
Definition
While no definition of personality is completely satisfying, Gordon Allport‘s definition will help us understand
its general nature.
Personality is the dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences
his/her cognitions/thoughts, emotions/motivations and behaviors in various situations.
Attributes of personality
Usually when we talk about someone‘s personality, we are talking about what makes that person different from
other people, perhaps even unique. This aspect of personality is called individual difference. For some
theories, it is the central issue. Such theories often spend considerable attention on things like traits and types
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with which we can categorize or compare people: some people are neurotic, others are not; some people are
more introverted, others more extroverted; and so on. However, personality theorists are just as interested in the
commonalities among people. For example; what does a neurotic person and the healthy person have in
common? Or what is the common structure between introvert and extrovert people?
Personality theorists are also interested in the psychological structure of the individual. For example; how are
people ―put together;‖ how do they ―work;‖ how do they ―fall apart‖? Some theorists even go a step further and
say they are looking for the essence of being a person or what it means to be an individual human being? In
general, the field of personality psychology stretches from a fairly simple empirical search for differences
between people to a rather a philosophical search for the meaning of life.
There are several theoretical perspectives on personality, which deal about the relationship between personality
and other psychological constructs, as well as different theories about the way personality develops. Most
theories can be grouped into one of the following classes.
Trait theories
Trait approach place labels on personality and seeks to identify traits necessary to describe personality.
Personality traits are ―prominent aspects of personality that are exhibited in a wide range of important social
and personal contexts.‖
Gordon Allport pored over an unabridged dictionary, separating terms that describe personality and he
suggested three basic categories of traits.
1) Cardinal traits – single characteristics that directs most of a person‘s activities, e.g.,
humanitarian.
2) Central traits – a handful of traits that make up the core of personality such as honesty,
sociability, etc.
3) Secondary traits – characteristics that affect an individual‘s behavior in fewer situations and are
less influential than central traits, e.g., reluctance to eat meat, love of modern art, etc.
Cattell and Eysenck
Cattell and Eysenck centered on a statistical technique known as factor analysis, method of summarizing the
relationship among a large number of variables in to fewer, more general patterns.
Cattell used to lexical criterion to determine traits that make up personality. Lexical criterion is an index of the
importance of a trait from words that refer to it. After many analyses on various data, he suggested that 16 pairs
of source traits represent the basic dimensions of personality.
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Eysenck used factor analysis he came to a very different conclusion. He farmed a theory by relating the four
types of personality identified by Hippocrates and Galen (choleric, melancholic, sanguine and phlegmatic) with
the two types made by Jung and Wundt (introvert and extravert). Finally, he saw two major factors important in
personality: extraversion and emotional stability. The highs and lows of these dimensions then combined to
create more diversity.
Today, the Big-Five factors have the weight of a considerable amount of research. Personality experts of traits
tried to catalogue and condense the many personality traits that had been described over the years in various
dictionaries. They aggregated and reduced into five abstract personality dimensions called the ―Big-Five.‖
Behaviorist theories
Behaviorists explain personality in terms of reactions to external stimuli, for example; theories of learning. As
to this approach, we acquire our personality/behavior through association such as classical and operant
conditioning. Remind the issues examined in learning.
In cognitive theory, personality/behavior is explained as guided by cognition about the world, especially those
about other people. Cognition refers to all mental processes by which sensory input is transformed, reduced,
elaborated, and used. It extends into the realms of memory, thinking, problem solving and the use of language.
Cognitive theorists believe that such mental processes control human behavior. Remind the issues examined in
learning.
Humanistic theories
Humanistic argued that people have free will and that they play an active role in determining their behavior or
personality. This approach emphasize on people‘s basic goodness and their tendency to grow to higher levels of
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functioning. It is this conscious, self-motivated ability to change and improve along with people‘s unique
creative impulses make up the core of personality.
Psychoanalytic theories
Psychoanalysis theories explain personality in terms of interaction between various components of personality.
For example; Sigmund Freud, the founder of this school, proposed that the conversion of psychic energy, which
he termed as libido, into behavior. He the human personality down to three components: the id, ego, and
superego. According to him, personality is shaped by the interactions of these three components.
Freud represented biology by the id (it), society by the superego, and reality by the ego (I). Id and superego
usually have conflicting demands. While the id strives to maximize the satisfaction of our biological needs,
superego opposes and discourages. As a result, a person feels threatened, or overwhelmed, feel as if s/he (ego)
was about to collapse. This feeling is called anxiety, which serves as signal to the ego that its survival, and with
it the survival of the whole organism, is in danger.
Freud mentions three kinds of anxieties: 1) Realistic anxiety, which we would call fear; e.g., fear of snake. 2)
Moral anxiety – the feeling that comes from the threat of internalized social world (superego), not from
physical world, e.g., feeling of shame, guilt, punishment, etc. 3) Neurotic anxiety – the fear of being
overwhelmed by impulse from the id, e.g., feeling of lose control, temper, rationality, mind, etc.
In 1925, a second year medical student named Hans Selye observed that people suffering from a wide variety of
physical disorders all seemed to have the same or similar symptoms, the syndrome of just being sick. In
addition, he found that these symptoms occurred whenever: the human organism needed to adapt to a changing
internal or external environment. This observation and identification eventually lead to the term stress and at
first he defined it as: a non specific response of the body to any demand made up on it. Later, this evolved into
the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), defined as, the physiological processes and results of stress. From the
aforementioned ideas, we get the following modern definition of stress.
Stress is a psychological and physiological response of the body that occurs whenever we must adapt to
changing conditions, whether those conditions be real or perceived. Stress is a normal physical reaction that
occurs when you feel threatened or overwhelmed. The perception of a threat is as stressful as a real threat. You
perceive a situation as threatening or feel overwhelmed because you are dealing with an unusually large number
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of everyday responsibilities. With increasing demands of home and work life, many people are under enormous
stress. Stress in one setting can affect stress levels in the other.
Responses to stress
Medical professionals call the body‘s reaction to stress as General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). Originally
described by Hans Selye in the 1920s, the GAS describes a 3 stage reaction to stress. Stressors in humans
include physical stressors and emotional or mental stressors.
The first stage of the general adaptation stage, the alarm reaction, is the immediate reaction to a stressor. This is
the ―Fight or Flight‖ response that prepares the body for immediate action. The physical or emotional ―fight or
flight‖ response to stress ensues automatically, as a natural defense mechanism, whether or not the threat is real.
Its major characteristics are:
These reactions are a part of human inheritance, giving one the added strength s/he needs in emergencies. If
a real threat were to materialize, one would be prepared to meet it head on. If, on the other hand, the threat is
imagined, or is one that does not require a physical reaction, the pent-up energy is released.
If the stress persists, the body prepares for long-term protection, secreting hormones to increase blood sugar
levels. For example, if the stressor is starvation (possibly due to anorexia), the person might experience a
reduced desire for physical activity to conserve energy, and the absorption of nutrients from food might be
maximized. Behavior indicators include lack of enthusiasm for family, school, work or life in general,
withdrawal, change in eating habits, insomnia, anger, fatigue. Cognitive indicators include poor problem-
solving, confusion, nightmares, and hyper-vigilance. This phase is common and not necessarily harmful, but
must include periods of relaxation and rest to counterbalance the stress response. Fatigue, concentration
lapses, irritability and lethargy result as the stress turns negative.
In chronic stress situations, sufferers enter the exhaustion phase: emotional, physical and mental resources
suffer heavily, the body experiences ‗adrenal exhaustion‘ leading to decreased stress tolerance, progressive
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mental and physical exhaustion, illness and collapse. It means the immune system and the body‘s ability to
resist disease, may be almost totally eliminated. People who experience long-term stress may succumb to
heart attack or severe infection due to their reduced immunity. For example, a person with stressful job may
experience long-term stress that might lead to high blood pressure and an eventual heart attack.
Although stress can cause ill-health or disease, Huethner G. (―The central adaptation syndrome:
Psychosocial stress as a trigger for adaptive modifications of brain structure and brain function‖) suggests
that long-term stress may cause humans to better adapt their environment. Huethner argues that severe,
long-term stress can cause persons to reject long-held assumptions or behaviors, and that stress can actually
help the brain make physical changes that reflect these mental or emotional changes. In short, stress might
allow persons to change the way they think and act for the better.
Types of stress
As we have seen earlier, not all types of stress are bad – in fact many of us do not know that there are
different types of stress. Generally, stress can be either bad, which is termed as distress or good which is
termed as eustress.
A. Distress: stress due to an excess of adaptive demands placed upon us. This results when the demands
upon us are so great that they lead to bodily and mental damage. Excessive stress is pathogenic or disease
producing. Thus, this is the bad stress.
B. Eustress: this is the optimal amount of stress which helps promote health and growth. Unfortunately,
most humans (especially, Americans) are more likely to be in distress. When psychologists speak of
controlling stress, it usually means quantitatively reducing the amount of stress that we experience and
an active attempt to change distress into eustress.
The American Psychological Association also classifies stress into three categories: 1) acute stress, 2) acute
episodic stress, and 3) chronic stress; each with its own characteristics, symptoms, duration, and treatment
approaches.
1. Acute stress: acute stress is the most common form of stress. It comes from demands and pressures
of the recent past and anticipated demands and pressures of the near future. Acute stress is thrilling
and exciting in small dose, but too much is exhausting. A fast run down a challenging ski slope, for
example, is exhilarating early in the day. That same ski run late in the day is taxing and wearing. By
the same token, overdoing on short-term stress can lead to psychological distress. Since acute stress
is short-term, it doesn‘t have enough time to do the extensive damage associated with long-term
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stress. Acute stress can crop up in anyone‘s life, and it is highly treatable and manageable. The most
common symptoms of acute stress include:
Elevation in blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, heart palpitations, dizziness,
migrant headaches, cold hands or feet, shortness of breath, and chest pain.
2. Episodic acute stress: the symptoms of episodic acute stress are the symptoms of extended over
arousal: persistent tension headaches, migraines, hypertension, chest pain, and heart disease.
Treating episodic acute stress requires intervention on a number of levels that may require
professional help and may take many months. Often, lifestyle and personality issues are so ingrained
and habitual with people suffering episodic acute stress that they see nothing wrong with the way
they conduct their lives. They blame their woes on other people and external events. Frequently, they
see their lifestyle, their patterns of interacting with others, and their ways of perceiving the world as
part and parcel of who and what they are. Sufferers can be fiercely resistant to change. Only the
promise of relief from pain and discomfort of their symptoms can keep them in treatment and on
track in their recovery program.
3. Chronic stress: this stress comes when a person never sees a way out of a miserable situation. It is
the stress of unrelenting demands and pressures for seemingly interminable period. With no hope,
the individual gives up searching for situations. Some chronic stress stem from traumatic early
childhood experiences; get internalized and remain forever painful and present. Some experiences
profoundly affect personality. A view of the world, or a belief system, is created that causes
unending stress for the individual. When personality or deep-seated convictions and beliefs must be
reformulated, recovery requires active self-examination, often with professional help. The worst
aspect of chronic stress is that people get used to it. They forget it is there. People are immediately
aware of acute stress because it is new; they ignore chronic stress because it is old, familiar, and
sometimes, almost comfortable. Chronic stress kills through suicide, violence, heart attack, stroke,
and perhaps, even cancer. People wear down to a final, fatal breakdown. Because physical and
mental resources are depleted through long-term attrition, the symptoms of chronic stress are
difficult to treat and may require extended medical as well as behavioral treatment and stress
management. Symptoms of chronic stress include:
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Behavioral symptoms
restlessness poor time management
aggression increased absenteeism
sleep disturbance alcohol/drug abuse
phobia
Emotional symptoms
anxiety anger shame
depression guilt
Cognitive symptoms
I must perform well I must be in control
life should not be unfair it is awful, terrible, horrible
Interpersonal symptoms
passive/aggressive withdrawn gossiping
no friends suspicious
Physical symptoms
tension rapid heart beat
headaches dizziness/feeling faint
pain
Biological symptoms
common cold chronic fatigue/exhaustion
frequent urination epilepsy
high blood pressure
Stress has powerful effect on mental functioning, mental and physical performance, interpersonal
encounters, and physical well-being. In the principle of internal medicine, it was reported that 50-80% of all
physical disorders have psychosomatic or stress related origins.
Psychosomatic illness
Many people assume erroneously that a psychosomatic illness is a fake illness or something that someone is
simply imagining, that is not true. A psychosomatic illness is a condition in which the state of mind (psych)
either causes or mediates a condition of actual, measurable damage in the body. Examples include ulcer,
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asthma, migraine headaches, arthritis, and even cancer. So far we have examined the difference between
distress and eustress, and acute, episodic acute and chronic stresses; but there is also an additional ―type‖ of
stress called psycho-physiological stress which is not a category like the above ones. This stress can be
defined as mental upset that triggers a physiological stress response. Thus, it is stress that leads to
psychosomatic illness. In our culture, psycho-physiological stress is the most common type of stress and is
the major factor in the onset of psychosomatic illness. Since we have been discussing the fact that stress can
lead to illness via the psychosomatic model, we now need to discuss what this model is and what steps are
involved.
The idea behind creating and understanding a model of stress related illness is that by working the steps that
lead to illness, we can intervene at any of these steps to break the cycle and thwart the onset of illness. The
model works like a stage theory: you must progress from one stage to the next in the proper order. The steps
in the model are:
1. Sensory stimulus: This is also referred to as the stressor, which can be any mental or physical demand
put upon our body or our mind. This can be anything from a loud noise to an exam or work load to
physical activity or the in-laws coming into town. For example, if you are stuck in a traffic jam, the
stressor is traffic jam and the stress is mental and physical response to the stressor.
2. Perception: Perception is the active process of bringing an external stimulus to the CNS, especially
the brain, for interpretation. For a stressor to affect a human, it must get into the mind-body system.
3. Cognitive appraisal: This is the processing and analyzing, of information as well as categorizing and
organizing it. In memory process, at the cognitive appraisal level we put labels on things as good/bad,
harmful/harmless, pleasant/unpleasant, etc. Thus, for most situations, it is the label that we give to the
information that determines whether it will be deemed stressful and triggers a physiological response.
In addition, appraisal is influenced by personal history, beliefs, morals, etc. We all make personal
appraisals of situations and it is these labels that determine our stress level and stress response. For
example, you may be annoyed with a traffic jam while I may not have problem with it. So you might
label traffic jam as a very bad and, your words ―irritating‖. I think traffic jam is simply a part of
driving in a city… I can‘t do anything about it, so why label it as a ―bad‖ thing?
5. Mind-body connection: Here the emotional arousal is changed into a bodily change so that you may
adapt to the situation and respond appropriately. Now, the emotional arousal begins to be converted
into that bodily response or change we have addressed. This change can occur at two levels:
A. Nervous system: sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. Short term changes occur and
work on an electrical level. For example, you are afraid and your bodily response is to tremble.
B. Endocrine system produces slower, longer lasting responses using chemicals, hormones, and
glands. Emotional arousal stimulates the hypothalamus which sends messages through the
sympathetic nervous system to the appropriate organ. In addition, the pituitary gland is
stimulated and results in hormone production.
6. Physical arousal: Once the mind-body connection has been made and the bodily changes occur, they
are called physical arousal.
7. Physical effects: Now the internal organs begin to be affected by the physical arousal. For example,
increased heart rate, blood pressure, dilation of pupils, etc., with sound familiar, like the fight-or-flight
response.
8. Disease: If the physical effects continue for a sustained period of time, the imbalance of functioning
can result in disease. One or more organ can become exhausted and work inefficiently or not at all. At
this point, we would say that the person has a psychogenic disease – physical disease that has a change
in mental state as the major cause.
Stress is the emotional and physical strain caused by a person‘s response to pressure from the outside world. It
occurs when there is a mismatch between what the people aspire to do and what they are capable of doing.
Generally speaking, stress results when the pressure to perform a certain task is greater than the resources
available to perform it.
In recent times, there has been increasing interest in distinguishing the effects of physical and psychological
workplace stressors on the aetiology of work related health disorder.
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Generally, people are prone to either internal or external stressors, and both types have physical or
psychological origins. Although we know that almost anything can be a source of stress, the following are
major sources.
Physical external stressors include unpleasant environmental conditions such as pain or hot and
cold temperatures. Physical internal stressors include things like infections or inflammations.
External psychological stressors include:
Physical environment
noise heat confined spaces
Social interaction
rudeness bossiness aggressiveness
Organizational pressure (Expectations or demands that one must behave in a certain way.)
rules regulations deadlines
Major life events
birth/death daily hassles
transfer/promotion marital problem
Internal psychological stress can often be the most harmful because there is frequently no
resolution to the stressful situation. These stressors are anxieties about events that may or may not
happen, and the stress response continues to be active as long as one is worrying about it.
The internal psychological stressors include:
1. Frustration
Stress due to any situation in which the pursuit of some goal is thwarted. Frustration is usually short-lived,
but some frustrations can be source of major stress. Frustration is a person's negative emotion due to actual
or imagined:
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In addition to personal inadequacies (e.g., Lack, failures, losses) environmental (both the physical and social
environment), the major source of frustration is found in motivational conflict in which the expression of
one motive interferes with the expression of other motives. Life is full of conflicts and the frustration arising
from incompatible goals.
Whatever goals the person decides to satisfy, there will be frustration, most likely preceded by doubt and
vacillation.
A. Failures: (Unrealistic expectation) if we set unrealistic goals, or place too much emphasis
on obtaining certain successes, failure can be devastating and might results in stress.
B. Losses: deprivation of something that you once had and considered a ―part‖ of your life can
result in tremendous stress.
2. Conflict of motives
Motivational conflict occurs when two or more incompatible motivations or behavioral impulses compete
for expression. When we faced multiple motivations, or goals, we must choose one and this is where the
conflict arises. Studies have indicated that the more motivational conflict a person experiences, the greater
the likelihood for anxiety, depression and psychological symptoms to occur.
Researchers have described that there are four major types of conflict.
I. Approach-Approach conflict:
This type of conflict occurs when a choice must be made between two equally desirable or attractive
alternatives. You may want both, but only can have one. For example, eating and then going to bed if a
person is both hungry and sleepy; refusing marriage and joining a university - or choosing one of the two
goals and stopping the other. Such conflicts are usually resolved either by satisfying first one goal and then
other because, although we must choose one alternative now, we can often obtain the other at a later time.
Approach-approach conflicts are the least demanding and least damaging. However, still stressful approach-
approach conflicts can exists. For example, in choosing between economics and accounting (if both are
equally important for you), you do nothing for a short time and then make a decision.
This type of conflict occurs when a choice must be made between two equally unattractive alternatives.
When we are motivated to avoid each of two equally unattractive choices, but must choose one, an
avoidance-avoidance conflict exists. In this situation, avoiding unpleasant consequences is impossible; the
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choice is just a matter often lesser two evils. As the saying goes, "you are between the devil and the deep
blue sea", every way you can't avoid loses. In life, there are things we do not want to, but must do or face
even when they are less desirable alternatives. This type of conflict is usually very unpleasant and highly
stressful.
This type of conflict occurs when a choice must be made to pursue a single goal that has both attractive and
unattractive aspects. Here, a person is attracted and repelled by one goal which has both negative and
positive impacts. You would like to approach a particular goal because it has positive value for you; at the
same time, you would like to avoid it because it has negative value for you. You are pulled in opposite
directions, liking and at the same time disliking, i.e. ambivalence. This type of conflict often produces
vacillation, going back and forth for decision making. , For example, to test HIV/AIDS or not, to ask
someone a date or not, etc. Approach-avoidance conflict is the most difficult to resolve. When we are far
from a goal, we retreat from the goal. As we retreat, of course, we get to a point where the approach
tendency is again the stronger one; we then approach the goal once more, only to ultimately retreat again.
A more complex conflict is the double approach-avoidance conflict, in which a person is motivated to both
avoid and approach two different goals. Even more complex is multiple approaches-avoidances conflict.
Consider what happens when you are faced with choosing between two universities, both of which have
positive and negative characteristics. You want to attend university 'X' because it is senior, but you hesitate
because it is also expensive. Then, you want to attend university 'Y' because it is less expensive, but you
don't like the fact that it is a new university (i.e., not well organized). What a person does in a multiple-
avoidance conflict will depend on the relative strengths of all the positive and negative valences involved.
A. Impaired performance: Baumeister (1984) found that stress interferes with attention and
therefore, performance.
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B. Burnout: physical emotional and mental exhaustion due to work-related stress. The cause is not
sudden, but prolonged exposure to jobs/tasks placed upon you. For example, having multiple roles
such as a parent, a student, a worker, etc.
C. Posttraumatic stress disorder: disturbed behavior that is attributed to a major stressful event, but
emerges after the event has ended ―often years later‖.
D. Psychological disorders: usually the result of prolonged stress: insomnia, nightmares, poor
academic performance, sexual dysfunctions, anxiety, schizophrenia, depression, eating disorder
and lots more.
The stress response narrows your ability to think clearly and function effectively. It can disable you
physically and emotionally. It can disable you physically and emotionally.
Stress management and stress reduction techniques help you to cope with stress resulting from events like
exam tension, over working, losing your job, divorce, period of illness, caring for a sick, family death, and
other day-to-day stressors. The goal of stress management is to bring your nervous system back into
balance, giving you a sense of calmness and control in your life. Controlling your life means balancing
various aspects of it - work, relationships and leisure - as well as the physical, intellectual and emotional
parts. People who effectively manage stress consider life a challenge rather than a series of irritations, and
they feel they have control over their lives, even in the face of setbacks.
There are many techniques to reduce stress; however, no ―one size fits all‖ solution to managing stress.
Every individual has a unique response to stress, so experiment with a variety of approaches to manage and
reduce stress to learn what works best for you. The following are few techniques to reduce stress.
Type A behavior includes speaking fast, eating fast, constant competition, ignoring tiredness, setting quotas,
doing two things at once, pretending to listen, over scheduling, and clenching muscles in fits or jaws. You
can systematically slow down your life and your drive.
Adequate exercise, rest, and nutrition are keys to developing your physical resistance to stress. Most
specialists encourage vigorous exercise, including running, brisk walking, jumping rope, swimming, hiking,
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or active sports. A balanced diet including vitamins B and C may be used as supplements in coping with
continuous stress.
Instead of scheduling to do as much as possible, schedule to maximize your enjoyment of life. Allow time to
get places, time to enjoy the trip, time to reflect. Write what you are trying to do now and what price you are
paying in terms of discomfort, stress, and lack of enjoyment of life. Decide what you would find meaningful
and try to plan a schedule that adds meaning.
Practice saying ―No.‖ Avoid stress-producing people and activities by design. Where this is impossible,
reduce the stressful situation to a manageable level or consider a new environment altogether.
2. Look at pros and cons of each option, separately, visualizing every aspect of choosing that
particular alternative; then check out your feeling about choosing that particular option; go
through this process for each alternative.
3. Weigh your feelings about choosing the various alternatives against each other; go with the option
about which you have the most positive feeling. Another approach: ask yourself: What do I want
to do? What should I do? If there is a conflict between the two, ask: What is in my best interest to
do? Make a decision and close the issue.
Discussing your concerns with an empathetic friend or with competent professional helps get emotions out
and provides you with emotional support. Verbalizing a problem with a person often helps you get a more
objective view of your feelings and thoughts and helps you to see solutions more easily.
If you made a mistake in the past, learn from it rather than blaming yourself for it. It is also important to
give up old resentments rather than dwelling on them and making yourself miserable with them.
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7. Remember that growth involves risk
Living does involve risk taking. This statement does not mean or suggest that a person take unnecessary or
dangerous risks. However, to live means to be vulnerable. Consider your risk-taking behavior in the context
of your current stress-related situation. Productive gains are possible only by commitment to a venture.
Change is inevitable, but growth does not come automatically, without effort or without some risk.
Many of us live in very small worlds when other worlds are only a few steps away. Visit a place on campus
or in the community where you have not been recently or at all. Get acquainted by using your senses of
vision, hearing and taste.
Be aware of your thoughts and feelings as you experience the new environment. Examples include visits to
a laboratory, play rehearsal, courtroom, hospital emergency room, chapel, or cattle auction.
Having time by yourself and for yourself can be very helpful in the management of tension. Use the time for
reflection, for single person activity or for just "doing nothing". In other words, at various times, get in
touch with your "you". Experience who you are by thinking, feeling, and being "you" in alone time.
Plan your day's activities. Construct a plan for the week. Although we only have and know the here and
now, scheduling in the present for what we plan to do in the future helps us to stay on top of work and play.
Be knowledgeable of the responsibilities and opportunities before you. Plan ahead with flexibility, but do
plan ahead.
On occasion, variation of our usual daily procedures stimulates and refreshes us. For example, in the
morning get out of bed on the other side. Shower first and brush hair and teeth later. When leaving your
residence, go to class or to your office by a different route. For lunch or dinner, try a "far-out" or at least
different place. Try something you have not done before. Vary your routine; stay out of the habit rut.
Energy is wasted when people make quick spurts. When we maintain a steady pace, the wearing effects of
stress are diminished. If you are under time pressures, if you are a late arriver, or if you attack tasks
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impulsively and at a rapid speed, learning pacing skills will be useful. Plan your pace and develop
consistency in your daily activities.
Periodically, we need to examine our goal priorities. To set and reset goals stimulates us to make more
constructive efforts. A helpful procedure involves listing responsibilities, tasks and opportunities in terms of
the most important to the least important. From this list, attention should be given to doing what is necessary
and valued. Do not postpone or eliminate the high order needs, wants, and desires.
Each person as a unique being has limitations as to what can be accomplished as well as abilities and
characteristics to be developed and used for healthy and productive living. Use available resources to
become aware of your unique talents and potentials.
We develop, grow, and become proficient by hard work and practice. We are assisted in our work and
practice by the use of available resources specifically related to our needs but unlearned skills. For example,
if you are a student and have trouble in studying, consult with your college for assistance. Most colleges
offer tutoring & study skills workshops. Also, look for study skills handouts at the TWU Counseling Center.
Constant introspection and preoccupation with your own thoughts and feelings can be counterproductive.
Get in touch with other people and their life processes. Respond to others' needs.
When you are involved in work, study, or any other type of activity, structure some break times in your
plan. A break from an activity can provide some refreshing results. Nourishing stop periods can be for a few
minutes or for a few hours. Some break times include body stretching, a brief glance at your surroundings, a
snack, or changing to another activity. Rather than doing what we call "resting," usually we are more
relaxed, refreshed and prepared to return to a particular task after we have engaged in vigorous and
unrelated activity.
List the busy work you do which is not really essential to or a real part of your schedule and throw the list
overboard.
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19. Address your strengths
Attend to the positive inner resources in your life. Express thanksgiving for your strengths and give them
notice. Too many times people hide their positive resources more from themselves than they do from others.
Epicteus, a first century A.D. philosopher, said, "People are disturbed not by things but the view which they
take from them." Adherence to a particular system of principles for conducting one's life provides a
stabilizing, functional structure. Psychologists of the rational-emotional approach to therapy emphasize that
we are what we believe ourselves to be. Some helpful rational beliefs have been presented in the strategies
listed thus far.
Hans Salye (1974) presents some similar suggestions which include: "don't waste your time trying to
befriend a mad dog; don't strive for perfection (it doesn't exist); genuine simplicity in life earns much
goodwill and love; keep your mind on the pleasant aspects of life and on actions which can improve your
situation; forget ugly events; when frustrated, take stock of your past successes and rebuild your confidence;
when faced with a very painful task, yet very important, don't procrastinate -- cut right into the abscess to
eliminate the pain instead of prolonging it by gently rubbing the surface; love your neighbor and work hard
to earn your neighbor's love."
With all the strategies presented and the many more not listed here, there are occasions when professional
help is needed. Many opportunities for this assistance are available at TWU. The final decision to use these
resources is your decision, your choic
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