Personal Development - Reviewer PDF

Personal development is a lifelong process. It is a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set goals in order to realize and maximize their potential. SELF-CONCEPT - refers to your awareness of yourself. ACTUAL SELF – the one that you actually s...

Personal development is a lifelong process. It is a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set goals in order to realize and maximize their potential. SELF-CONCEPT - refers to your awareness of yourself. ACTUAL SELF – the one that you actually see. It is the self that has characteristics that you were nurtured or, in some cases, born to have. IDEAL SELF – the self that you aspire to be, how we want to be. It is an idealized image that we have developed over time, based on what we have learned and experienced. PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS - means making use of all the personal resources, talents, skills, energy and time, to enable you to achieve life goals. EXPERIENCE - includes knowledge and skills that we acquire in the process of cognitive and practical activities SKILLS - determine whether real actions are performed in accordance with the plan. 1. Determination - allows you to focus only on achieving a specific goal without being distracted by less important things or spontaneous desires. 2. Self-confidence - appears in the process of personal development, as a result of getting aware of yourself, your actions and their consequences. 3. Persistence - makes you keep moving forward regardless of emerging obstacles-problems, laziness, bad emotional state, etc. 4. Managing stress - helps combat stress that arises in daily life from the environment and other people. 5. Problem-solving skills - help cope with the problems encountered with a lack of experience 6. Creativity - allows you to find extraordinary ways to carry out a specific action that no one has tried to use. 7. Generating ideas - helps you achieve goals using new, original unconventional ideas. There are three kinds of people in this world: THE MOVIEGOER - This person watches the movie of their lives, admires some parts and criticizes other. They are the most pathetic, miserable people in the world. THE ACTOR - This person does not only watch the movie of her life. She actually realizes she’s the Actor---and can control a big part of her life. THE SCRIPTWRITER - This person does not only watch, and she doesn’t only act, but she actually creates the entire movie from her mind. She determines what she will say, what she will do, and how the movie will end. She realizes she has enormous control over her life, and sees to it that the movie of her life will turn out beautiful. ASPECTS OF YOUR SELF 1. Physical self – Includes the descriptions of your height, weight, facial appearance, and quality of skin, hair and descriptions of body areas such as your neck, chest, waist, legs. 2. Intellectual Self - Includes an assessment of how well you reason and solve problems, your capacity to learn and create, your general amount of knowledge, your specific areas of knowledge, wisdom, you have acquired, and insights you have. 3. Emotional Self - about typical feelings you have, feelings you seldom have, feelings you tried to avoid, feelings you especially enjoy, feelings from your past and present, and feelings which are associated with each other. 4. Sensual Self – includes how you feel as a sensual person. What sense do you use most – sight, hearing, speaking, smelling, touching? How do you feel about the different ways you take in information – through the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, pores, and skin. In what ways do you let information in and out of your body? 5. Interaction Self - Include descriptions of your strengths and weaknesses in intimate relationships and relationships to friends, family, co-students, and strangers in social settings. Describe the strengths and weaknesses which your friends and family have noticed. Describe what kind of son or daughter, brother or sister you are. 6. Nutritional Self - talks about how you nourish yourself, what foods do you like and dislike, what do you like and dislike about it? 7. Contextual Self - descriptors could be in the areas of maintenance of you living environment: reaction to light, temperature, space, weather, colors, sound and seasons and your impact on the environment. 8. Spiritual Self or Life Force - words or phrases which tell about how you feel in this area. This could include your feelings about yourself and organized religion, reactions about your spiritual connections to others, feelings  about your spiritual development and history, and thought about your metaphysical self. Think about your inner peace and joy. Think about your spiritual regimen or routine. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT - focuses on human growth and changes across the lifespan, including physical, cognitive, social, intellectual, perceptual, personality and emotional growth. The study of human developmental stages is essential to understanding how humans learn, mature and adapt. Throughout their lives, humans go through various stages and development. DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES 1. Pre-natal Period (conception to birth) Conception occurs and development begins. All of the major structures of the body are forming and the health of the mother is of primary concern. Understanding nutrition, teratogens (or environmental factors that can lead to birth defects), and labor and delivery are primary concerns. 2. Infancy (birth to 2 years) Early childhood is also referred to as the preschool years consisting of the years which follow toddlerhood and precede formal schooling. As a three to five-year-old, the child is busy learning language, is gaining a sense of self and greater independence, and is beginning to learn the workings of the physical world. 3. Early Childhood (2 to 6 years) Now the world becomes one of learning and testing new academic skills and by assessing one’s abilities and accomplishments by making comparisons between self and others. Growth rates slow down and children are able to refine their motor skills at this point in life. And children begin to learn about social relationships beyond the family through interaction with friends and fellow students. 4. Late Childhood (6 to 12 years) Adolescence is a period of dramatic physical change marked by an overall physical growth spurt and sexual maturation, known as puberty. It is also a time of cognitive change as the adolescent begins to think of new possibilities and to consider abstract concepts such as love, fear, and freedom. Ironically, adolescents have a sense of invincibility that puts them at greater risk of dying from accidents or contracting sexually transmitted infections that can have lifelong consequences. 5. Adolescence (puberty (13 to 18 years) The twenties and thirties are often thought of as early adulthood. (Students who are in their mid-30s tend to love to hear that they are a young adult!). It is a time when we are at our physiological peak but are most at risk for involvement in violent crimes and substance abuse. It is a time of focusing on the future and putting a lot of energy into making choices that will help one earn the status of a full adult in the eyes of others. Love and work are primary concerns at this stage of life. 6. Early Adulthood (18 to 40 years) This is a period in which aging, that began earlier, becomes more noticeable and a period at which many people are at their peak of productivity in love and work. It may be a period of gaining expertise in certain fields and being able to understand problems and find solutions with greater efficiency than before. 7. Middle Adulthood (40 years to retirement) Late adulthood is sometimes subdivided into two or three categories. The “young old” who are people between 65 and 79 and the “old old” or those who are 80 and older. One of the primary differences between these groups is that the young old are very similar to midlife adults; still working, still relatively healthy, and still interested in being productive and active. The “old old” remain productive and active and the majority continues to live independently, but risks of the diseases of old age such as arteriosclerosis, cancer, and cerebral vascular disease increases substantially for this age group. Issues of housing, healthcare, and extending active life expectancy are only a few of the topics of concern for this age group. Major Challenges faced by adolescents 1. Self-Esteem - It is one’s subjective evaluation of his/her own worth. It is about believing in oneself, having confidence in one’s own value as a person, and seeing oneself in a positive way.  2. Physical Appearance - It is the thing that other people notice about a person. Experts encourage to celebrate physical beauty as one’s own and not dictated by society or the media. Confidence - It is the most attractive quality of an individual. 3. Group belongingness - It is a warm sense of comfort when one can identify with a group of people with similar interests and values. 4. Relationships - It requires a person to be emotionally mature-to be rational in thought and behavior. Romantic relationships These relationships are highly intense and emotional and people do not usually think with reason and objectivity. 5. Sexuality and Sexual Relationships - Responsibility means learning to control and limit one’s sexual expression and being aware of the consequences of his/her sexual behaviors before deciding to engage in any sexual act. 6. Academic Concerns Procrastination - It means internal distraction and one’s worst enemy. Fear of Failure Too much anxiety may hinder a person to do his/her best and too little anxiety also inhibits a person’s performance. Grades They help a person achieve the goals of academic excellence and further studies. 7. Choosing the right course and career path - It may seem like the biggest and most important decision to make at this point in one’s life. 8. Socio-Emotional Challenges Grief - It means deep sadness caused especially by someone’s death. Other socio-emotional struggles - Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorders, trauma, eating disorders, substance abuse and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder Coping with Stress in Middle and Late Adolescence STRESS - The subjective experience of distress in response to perceived environmental problems It is the challenging stimuli or things that happen to people and a person’s response to what happens to him. It is characterized by feelings of tension. frustration, sadness, worry and withdrawal. Sources of Stress and its Effects in Specific adolescent challenges 1. Managing new roles and responsibilities 2. Identifying personal strengths and weaknesses and refining skills to coordinate and succeed in these roles 3. Finding meaning and purpose in the roles acquired 4. Assessing and making necessary life changes and coping with these changes What stresses SHS students? Common sources of stressors from HOME and SCHOOL ✓ Break up with boyfriend/girlfriend ✓ Increased arguments with parents and between parents ✓ Pressure of expectations from self and others ✓ Change in parents’ financial status ✓ Serious illness or injury of a family member ✓ Pressure at school from teachers, coaches, grades and homework ✓ Relationships with family and friends The Positive Side of Stress: Eustress Eustress It is the kind of stress that is helpful in promoting one’s growth and development by providing sufficient challenges that allow one to become more resourceful and show initiative in problem-solving. Distress - It is also known as bad stress and may include negative changes in behavior like “feeling sick”. Coping Strategies and Personal Ways of Coping with Stress Coping or Coping Style - It is the way people try to deal with problems including the problem of handling the typically negative emotions stress produces. Three broad dimensions of coping Problem-focused coping - It means dealing with the actual problems posed by a stressful situation. It is objective and geared toward fixing what is out of order. Emotion-focused coping - It is more subjective as it considers the difficulties challenging the feeling states of individual. It puts immediate importance to reducing distress and re-establishing calmness or peace rather than resolution.  Avoidance coping - It is what happens when one would rather ignore the stressors or fantasize being in a different non-stressful circumstance. Personal Ways of Coping with Stress Stress management - It refers to a set of techniques that people can use to be able to manage their stressors. Some suggestions: Tackle the problem. Create a stress journal or include the topic in your personal journal Develop a stress relief toolbox Understand how you stress. Identify your sources of stress. Learn your stress signals. Recognize how you deal with stress. Find healthy ways to manage stress Take care of yourself Reach out for support 3 MAJOR PARTS OF THE BRAIN Brain stem - connects the spinal cord and the brain. Controls functions that keep people alive such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and food digestion Cerebellum - controls voluntary movement. It translates your will into action. Cerebrum - largest of the three brain sections, accounts for 85% of the brain’s weight and has four lobes. CRITICAL AGE There is a consensus among researchers that brain cells regenerate through out life. It is during the first three years of life, the brain experiences most of its growth and develops most of its potential in learning. DRUG DAMAGE “The question scientists can’t answer now is if the damage is permanent.” INHALANTS Such as glue, paint, gasoline and aerosols, destroys the outer lining of nerve cells and make them unable to communicate with each other. Marijuana hinders memory, learning, judgment and reaction times. Ecstasy destroys neurons that makes serotonin - a chemical crucial in controlling sleep, violence, mood swings and sexual urges. Steroids cause aggressions and violent mood swings. “There’s a lot we won’t know until later. Classic example is cigarettes. We allowed people to smoke for 100 yrs before we knew about all the horrible things that nicotine has. THE LATERALIZATION OF THE BRAIN: THE LEFT AND RIGHT BRAIN THEORY The theory of brain lateralization was developed by Nobel-prize winners Robert Ornstein and Roger Sperry. It states that each side of the brain has different specific functions. While humans use both sides, each one has a dominant side which, according to the theory, explains much about his or her behaviour, interests, personality, and mode of thinking. This led to the coined terms left-brained or right- brained individuals. LEFT-BRAINED - These people are Organized, Logical, Detail-oriented. They prefer sequencing, linear thinking, mathematics, thinking in words. Like to set goals. Can interpret information well. Keep a tidy room. Answer questions spontaneously. Follow directions and read directions. RIGHT-BRAINED - These people are Intuitive, Risk-takers, Creative. They prefer imagination, holistic thinking, rhythm, feelings, visualization, daydreaming, Adventure, Writing Fantasies or expression. THE THEORY’S ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES PRO : (LEARNING) Upon knowing the brain inclination or to which brain a person is ‘affiliated’, he or she could think of ways to boost strengths and compensate for weaknesses. It may lead someone to develop effective ways to learn and study. CON: (STEREOTYPING) Brain dominance may have a negative effect or may even impede learning when this results in a self-fulfilling prophecy.