Understanding Self-Concept

• Personal development is rooted in psychology and its theories.

Knowing Oneself - Self-Concept

• Self-concept is defined as a relatively stable set of perceptions one holds to oneself.
• It's essentially how you perceive yourself.

Self vs. Self-Concept

• The self is always adapting and changing.
• The self-concept is only one aspect of "the self".
• Self-concept is highly structured and difficult to change or modify.
• Some self-concepts may not be a part of yourself.
• It symbolizes the aspect of ourselves that we create, our unrealized potential.

Sources of Self-Concept

• Biology and Genetics: Biological traits we inherit from our parents.
• Self-evaluations: Evaluating our own strengths and weaknesses.
• Social Roles: The roles we fulfill in society.
• Social Comparison: Comparing ourselves to different people.
• Feedback from Others: The feedback we receive from other people.
• Cultural: The cultures we grew up in and practice in our daily lives.

Characteristics of Self-Concept

• Inherently Subjective: Depends on the person.
• Multifaceted: Various positions in life might lead to different self-concepts.

Knowing Oneself - Self-Image

• Self-image is the mental picture we have of ourselves, reflecting the type of person we believe ourselves to be.
• It consists of the roles, attitudes, and ideas we use to explain to others who and what we are.
• It's our comprehension of how other people perceive us.

Knowing Oneself - Self-Esteem

• Self-esteem is the significance or worth we attach to our perceived traits.
• It's a reflection of your self-esteem and how much you appreciate and value your emotions, skills, and personality.
• It involves assessing one's own value: love, value, and care for yourself.

Components of Self-Esteem

• Cognitive: Assessing our advantages and disadvantages, real and ideal selves.
• Affective: Self-perception in relation to our strengths and weaknesses.
• Behavioral: Verbal and nonverbal actions.

Low vs. High Self-Esteem

• High Self-Esteem = happiness and satisfaction.
• Low Self-Esteem = depression.

Under-Inflated vs. Over-Inflated Self-Esteem

• Under-Inflated Self-Esteem:
  • Refusal to acknowledge one's worthiness.
  • Can be unhealthy and unrealistic.
• Over-Inflated Self-Esteem.

Imposter Syndrome

• Involves self-doubt about one's own intelligence, abilities, or achievements in comparison to others.

Contexts & Self-Concept

• Culture: Individualist, Collectivist, Co-culture, Media.
• Relationships: Friends & family, Co-workers, Schoolmates, etc.
• Gender: Males vs. Females.
• Individual:
  • Self-fulfilling prophecy.
  • Auto negative thoughts.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• Creating expectations for others.
• Communicating those expectations both orally and nonverbally.
• Others modify their actions to correspond with the expectations.
• The initial belief is strengthened when expectations are confirmed.
• Galatea Effect: "I will do it because I know I can."
• Pygmalion Effect: "I will do it because others think I can."

Guidelines for Enriching the Self

• Acquire and apply knowledge to promote personal growth.
• Make a strong commitment to your own development.
• Establish reasonable and equitable goals.
• Boost your self-confidence.
• When appropriate, self-disclose.

Proportionality of Self-Esteem

• Artificially inflating student grades can lead to negative feelings when they don't achieve the grades they believe they deserve.
• School programs intended to "enhance positive self-perceptions" may not teach respect for others.
• People with high self-esteem can be less liked than those with low self-esteem.
• Bullying cultures can be sparked by unrealistically high self-esteem.

Knowing Oneself - Cyberself

• People express themselves online through social media platforms.

Cyberself & Self-Esteem

• People with poor self-esteem are more inclined to publish unpleasant content and are less likely to get a response.

Cyberself & Self-Disclosure

• Status updates on social media can disclose details about identities, values, emotions, and places.

Cyberself & Self-Comparisons

• People are prone to believe strangers that they see on social media live better lives.
• More prone to women

Benefits of Self-Disclosure

• Enhanced self-awareness.
• Can be therapeutic.
• Offers validation and fresh insights.
• May be morally acceptable.
• Leads to better communication.

Risks of Self-Disclosure

• People might reject or dislike us or not accept what we disclose.
• Information could be used against us.
• Disclosing oneself might cause harm.
• Online disclosures are not secure.

Guidelines for Self-Disclosure

• Is the other person important?
• Is the risk reasonable?
• Is it appropriate?
• Is it reciprocated?
• Will the effect be constructive?

Powers of the Mind

Powers of the Mind - Overview of the Human Nervous System

• The central nervous system (CNS) is located within the skull (brain) and the spine (spinal cord).
• It's where all of the analysis of information takes place.
• The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is outside the CNS and consists of neurons and parts of neurons found outside of the CNS.

Powers of the Mind - Neuron

• Neurons, or nerve cells/brain cells, are the basic functional units of the nervous system.
• They transmit and receive electrical signals.
• During prenatal development, the brain produces 250,000 neurons per minute.
• At birth, there are about 100 billion neurons, each linked to 5,000-1,000 neurons.
• Motor neurons control movement.
• Sensory neurons are activated by sensory input from the environment (5 senses).
• Functions of a Neuron
  • Receive information or signals (sensory neuron).
  • Determine whether to transmit the information (interneuron).
  • Send signals to specific cells, like muscles or other neurons (motor neurons).

Anatomy of a Neuron

• Dendrites take in and transmit signals.
• The cell body (soma) houses the nucleus, produces chemicals, supplies fuel, and makes neurotransmitters. The place where the making of neurotransmitters takes place..
• The axon carries signals away.
• Myelin Sheath is made up of fatty material that insulates an axon and keeps electrical signals from neighboring axons from interfering.
• The terminal button is where neurotransmitters are stored.
• The synapse id the small gap between the terminal button and its adjacent organ, muscle, or cell body (10 nm - 20 nm in size).
• Synaptic vesicles are spherical membrane packages that store neurotransmitter molecules.
• Neurotransmitters are molecules that are released from active neurons, influencing other cells.

Neural Communication

• Via electrical transmission (conduction): Dendrites to Axon.
• The communication of the cell body with its own terminals via the axon (intracellular signaling).
• Involves electrical signals (action potentials) along axons.
• Via chemical transmission: Terminal Button to Synapse (communication between neurons, intercellular signalling).
• Occurs in the synapses by the process of neurotransmission

5 Steps of Chemical Transmission

1. Neurotransmitter Synthesis.
2. Neurotransmitter Packaging.
3. Neurotransmitter Release.
4. Neurotransmitter Binding.
5. Stopping chemical signal degradation of enzyme.

• Lock-and-Key Model: Can only open certain receptors.

Overview of Neuron Growth Cycle

• Synapse formation: 36 weeks-Newborn-3 Months 6 Months-2 years.
• Synapse pruning: 4 years-6 years.

Neurogenesis

• Neurogenesis (Prenatal): Process where the neurons are generated from the neural stem cells and progenitor cells.
• Neurogenesis (Adult): Regeneration of new adult neurons.

Hypothesized Mechanism

• Familiar traits:
  • Can be encoded by mature neurons.
  • Old information is remembered by mature neurons.
• All inputs:
• Can be encoded by young neurons.
• New information is learned by young neurons.
• Axons and dendrites become increasingly acquainted to one another as neurons "fire," which facilitates connection formation.
  • Repetition and practice make it permanent
  • Double connections are created by repetition and practice.
  • Stronger, faster, longer-lasting double connections help us retain what we learn
  • Study by Bengtsson et al. (2005)

Neuroplasticity

• The capacity of the brain to develop and evolve, filled with plasticity
• Techniques to rewire the brain:
  • Mental activity (intention, emotion, or behavior).
  • Formation of neuronal architecture.
  • Mental activity repetition.
  • Increasing the strength of neuronal synapses.
• Learning and Neural Communication
• Learning occurs when two neurons communicate with each other (i.e. neurons have "learned" when one neuron sends a message to another neuron) - (Hannaford, 1995)
• Every time we learn, our neurons (dendrites) make connections The more often we access the neural network, the stronger the connections become
• We learn best by association. Long Term Potentiation (LTP)

Neural Pruning

• "Synapse, axon, and dendrite elimination" improves the effectiveness of neural transmissions between early childhood and puberty.
  • If neurons aren't used at the right moments, they may lose their ability to connect

Apoptosis

• Also referred Neuronal Suicide:
  • A sequence of that results in programmed cell death, necessary for brain development - Extra neurons - Neurons that are functionally incomplete
    • When neurons lose their ability to interact
      • Neurons that are unable to acquire neurotrophic

Necrosis

• Damage from poisons, suffocation, or toxins causes neurons to burst and trigger an inflammatory response

Powers of the Mind - Anatomy of the Brain

• The forebrain is the highest center!
• Perceives sensations, initiates voluntary movement, awareness of emotions, memory, thinking, planning, language abilities and other higher functions
• The midbrain is a reward or pleasure center, with visual and auditory reflexes - Reticular formation (arouses the forebrain so that it is is ande

Powers of the Mind - Lobes of the Cortex:

• Frontal: Emotions, judgements, voluntary movement, guides the degree of complexity and motor capabilities.
• Parietal: Body sensory, spatial reasoning.
• Occipital: Sense of vision.
• Temporal: Sense of hearing.

Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)

• The APA'S DSM-5 refers to it as psychopathy or sociopathy which is violating the rights of others.
• Must be observed at least from 15 on
• *There is evidence of the conduct disorder from the age15
• ** It is not during a manic episode