Understanding the Self Reviewer
Self-Concept
 The term self-concept is a general term used
to refer to how someone thinks about,
evaluates or perceives themselves. To be
aware of oneself is to have a concept of
oneself.
 Baumeister (1999) provides the following
self-concept definition: "The individual's
belief about himself or herself, including the
person's attributes and who and what the
self is".
 Self-concept is an overarching idea we have
about who we are—physically, emotionally,
socially, spiritually, and in terms of any other
aspects that make up who we are (Neill,
2005). We form our self-concept as we grow,
based on the knowledge we have about
ourselves.
 Self-concept is multidimensional.
Self-Concept vs. Self-Esteem
• Self-concept is not self-esteem, although self-
esteem may be a part of self-concept. Self-
concept is the perception that we have of
ourselves, our answer when we ask ourselves
the question “Who am I?” It is knowing about
one’s own tendencies, thoughts, preferences
and habits, hobbies, skills, and areas of
weakness.
• Self-esteem: Self-esteem refers to a person’s
overall sense of his or her value or worth. It can
be considered a sort of measure of how much
a person “values, approves of, appreciates,
prizes, or likes him or herself” (Adler & Stewart,
2004).
• According to self-esteem expert Morris
Rosenberg, self-esteem is quite simply one’s
attitude toward oneself (1965). He described
it as a “favourable or unfavourable attitude
toward the self”.
Self-Concept vs. Self-Image
• Self-image is related to self-concept, but is
generally less broad. Self-image is how an
individual sees him- or herself, and it does not
necessarily have to align with reality!
• A person’s self-image is based only on how they
see themselves, while self-concept is a more
comprehensive evaluation of the self-based on
how a person sees herself, values herself,
thinks about herself, and feels about herself.
• Carl Rogers posited that self-image is a
component of self-concept, along with self-
esteem or self-worth and one’s “ideal self”
(McLeod, 2008).
The Meaning of Self-Concept Theory
There are many theories about what exactly self-
concept is and how it develops, but generally,
theorists agree on these points:
• On the broadest level, self-concept is the overall
idea we have about who we are and includes
cognitive and affective judgments about
ourselves.
• Self-concept is multi-dimensional, incorporating
our views of ourselves in terms of several
different aspects (e.g., social, religious, spiritual,
physical, emotional).
• It is learned, not inherent.
• It is influenced by biological and environmental
factors, but social interaction plays a big role as
well.
• Self-concept develops through childhood and
early adulthood when it is more easily changed
or updated.
• It can be changed in later years, but it is more of
an uphill battle since people have established
ideas about who they are.
• Self-concept does not always align with reality.
When it does, our self-concept is “congruent.”
When it doesn’t, our self-concept is
“incongruent.” (Cherry, 2018B; Gecas, 1982).
Nature vs. Nurture
• The nature vs. nurture debate within psychology
is concerned with the extent to which particular
aspects of behavior are a product of either
inherited (i.e., genetic) or acquired (i.e., learned)
characteristics.
• Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is
influenced by genetic inheritance and other
biological factors. Nurture is generally taken as
the influence of external factors after
conception, e.g., the product of exposure,
experience and learning on an individual.
Nature Nurture Debate in Psychology
• It has long been known that certain physical
characteristics are biologically determined by
genetic inheritance. Color of eyes, straight or
curly hair, pigmentation of the skin and certain
diseases are all a function of the genes we
inherit. Other physical characteristics, if not
determined, appear to be at least strongly
influenced by the genetic make-up of our
biological parents.
• Height, weight, hair loss (in men), life
expectancy and vulnerability to specific
illnesses (e.g., breast cancer in women) are
positively correlated between genetically
related individuals. These facts have led many
to speculate as to whether psychological
characteristics such as behavioral tendencies,
personality attributes, and mental abilities are
also “wired in” before we are even born.
What Is Nature vs. Nurture?
The nature versus nurture debate is one of the
oldest philosophical issues within psychology. So
what exactly is it all about?
• Nature refers to all of the genes and
hereditary factors that influence who we
 are—from our physical appearance to
our personality characteristics.
• Nurture refers to all the environmental
variables that impact who we are, including
our early childhood experiences, how we
were raised, our social relationships, and our
surrounding culture.
• Advocates of this point of view believe that all
of our characteristics and behaviors are the
result of evolution. Genetic traits handed
down from parents influence the individual
differences that make each person unique.
Nature or nurture?
• Other well-known thinkers such as John Locke
believed in what is known as tabula rasa,
which suggests that the mind begins as
a blank slate. According to this notion,
everything that we are and all of our
knowledge is determined by our experience.
Nature or nurture?
Examples of Nature vs. Nurture
• For example, when a person achieves
tremendous academic success, did they do so
because they are genetically predisposed to
be successful or is it a result of an enriched
environment? If a man abuses his wife and
kids, is it because he was born with violent
tendencies or is it something he learned by
observing his own parent's behavior?
• A few examples of biologically determined
characteristics (nature) include certain
genetic diseases, eye color, hair color, and
skin color. Other things like life expectancy
and height have a strong biological
component, but they are also influenced by
environmental factors and lifestyle.
• Some characteristics are tied to
environmental influences. How a person
behaves can be linked to influences such
as parenting styles and learned experiences. successful breastfeeding.
For example, a child might learn through  Maturation – biological growth
observation and reinforcement to say 'please' processes that enable orderly changes in
and 'thank you.' Another child might learn to behavior
behave aggressively by observing older  Motor development – the sequence of
children engage in violent behavior on the motor development is universal. Nature
playground. may influence motor development but
GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY genes play a major role too
Human Development  Infants learn more complex physical
1. Neonatal skills such as sitting, standing, walking
2. Infancy (12 mos-2yrs)  cognitive development - all mental
3. Early childhood (3-8) activities associated with thinking
4. Middle childhood(9-11) knowing and remembering
5. Adolescence (12-18) Jean Piaget
6. Adulthood 1. Cognitive development
Developmental Psychology 2. Cognitive stages of development
Developmental Psychology - a branch of  Born in Switzerland on August 9, 1896
psychology that studies, physical, cognitive, and  Died in Geneva on September 16, 1980
social change throughout the life span.  Studied the natural sciences and
1. Prenatal development changes received his Ph.D. in Zoology from
University of Neuchâtel in 1918
Zygote Embryo Fetus
Piaget's Theory: Discovering the Roots of
Knowledge
Conception – 2 weeks – 8 9 weeks – to  Piaget identified himself as a genetic
2 weeks weeks birth epistemologist
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) – physical  Genetics is the scientific study of where
and cognitive abnormalities in children that are things come from (their origins)
caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking.  Epistemology is a branch of philosophy
2. Neonatal – newborn infants are that is concerned with the origin, nature,
equipped with sight and sound when extent and limits of human knowledge
they were born that facilitates social Piaget's Theory Differs From Others In Several
responses. Ways:
 the rooting reflex - A reflex that is seen
in normal newborn  It is concerned with children, rather than
babies, who automatically turn the face toward all learners
the stimulus  It focuses on development
and make sucking (rooting) motions with the  It proposes discrete stages of
mouth when the development
cheek or lip is touched. The rooting reflex helps
to ensure
Cognitive Development Developmental Description Developmental the average child would reach
 To Piaget, cognitive development was a stage of stage phenomena each stage.
progressive reorganization of mental Sensorimotor Experiencing • Object Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
processes as a result of biological Stage the world permanence Development
maturation and environmental Birth – 2 yrs old through • Differentiates
experience. motor and self from
Three Basic Components To Piaget's Cognitive actions; objects Key words:
Theory looking, • Stranger’s  Strangers anxiety – fear
1. Schemas touching, anxiety of strangers commonly displayed
2. Assimilation and Accommodation mouthing beginning about 8 months of age
3. Stages of Development: Preoperational Representing • Egocentrism  Attachment – an
 sensorimotor, Stage things with • Language emotional tie with another
 preoperational, 2 – 7 yrs words and development person shown in young children
 concrete operational, images by seeking closeness to the
 Formal operational. Concrete Thinking • Mathematical caregiver and showing distress
1. Schemas Operational logically, transformations on separation
• Schemas are the basic building blocks of Stage performing • Major turning  Egocentrism – inability
such cognitive models, and enable us to 7 – 11 yrs old arithmetical point in child’s of the child to take another’s
form a mental representation of the operations, cognitive point of view
world. children can development Effects of attachment
• ‘Index cards' filed in the brain, each one work things  Securely attached
telling an individual how to react to out children approach life with a
incoming stimuli or information internally in sense of basic trust. A sense that
(Wadsworth, 2004). their head the world is predictable and
• A schema can be defined as a set of Formal Abstract • Potential for reliable. Infants with sensitive
linked mental representations of the Operational reasoning mature moral loving care givers form a life
world, which we use both to understand Stage reasoning attitude of trust rather than fear
and to respond to situations. 11 yrs & over  Deprivation of
• The assumption is that we store these not work, and needs to be changed to attachment – babies reared in
mental representations and apply them deal with a new object or situation. institutions without attention of a
when needed. 3. Stages of Development regular caregiver, or locked away at
• For example, babies have a sucking  Piaget believed that children go through home under condition of abused or
reflex and grasping reflex 4 universal stages of cognitive extreme neglect are withdrawn,
2. Assimilation and Accommodation development. frightened or even speechless
 Assimilation – which is using an existing  Development is biologically based and  Young children terrorized through sexual
schema to deal with a new object or changes as the child matures. or physical abuse, being beaten,
situation.  Piaget did not claim that a particular witnessing torture and living constantly
 Accommodation - This happens when stage was reached at a certain age - in fear may suffer other scars often
the existing schema (knowledge) does although descriptions of the stages often nightmares, depression and troubles
include an indication of the age at which
 adolescence involving drug abuse or
aggressions
Deep and long standing attachments
seldom break quickly; detaching is a
process, not an event.
3. Adolescence – a brief interlude between
the dependence of childhood and the
responsibilities of adulthood
Puberty – period of sexual maturation,
during which one first becomes capable of
reproducing
Primary sex characteristics – are the body
structures (ovaries, testes and external
genetalla) that make sexual reproduction
possible
Secondary sex characteristics – the non-
reproductive sexual characteristics; female
breasts and hips, male voice quality and
body hair
Menarche – is the 1st menstrual period.
Mixture of feelings – of a woman – pride,
excitement, embarrassment, and
apprehension
 Developing morality – a crucial task for
children and adolescents is learning right
from wrong and developing character.
 To be a moral person is to think morally
and to act accordingly. It is a delightful
harmony when doing and saying go
together.
 Moral reasoning - is a thinking process
with the objective of determining
whether an idea is right or wrong.
“To put one’s thought into action is the most
difficult thing.”
 Self-identity – awareness of and
identification with oneself
 Erik Erikson – developmental
psychologist who believed that the
formation of identity was one of the
most important parts of a person's life.  He was interested in how children socialize and
Identity is something that shifts and how this affects their sense of self.
grows throughout life as people confront  The formation of identity was one of the most
new challenges and tackle different important parts of a person's life.
experiences.  Identity is something that shifts and grows
Erik Erikson throughout life as people confront new
1. Brief history challenges and tackle different experiences.
2. Psychosocial development Psychosocial Stages
3. Psychosocial stages  Erikson assumes that a crisis occurs at each
 Born June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt, stage of development.
Germany  According to the theory, successful completion
 Died May 12, 1994 of each stage results in a healthy personality
 It is interesting to note that Erikson and the acquisition of basic virtues.
never received a formal degree in  Failure to successfully complete a stage can
medicine or psychology result in a reduced ability to complete further
 Received two certificates from the stages and therefore a more unhealthy
Montessori teachers association and personality and sense of self.
from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute  These stages, however, can be resolved
 His ideas were greatly influenced by successfully at a later time.
Freud Erikson’s stages of Psychosocial
• Was offered a teaching position at Development
Harvard Medical School
• Later, he held teaching positions at the
University of California at Berkeley, Yale,
the San Francisco Psychoanalytic
Institute, Austen Riggs Center, and the
Center for Advanced Studies of the
Behavioral Sciences.
Psychosocial Development
 Erikson proposed a lifespan model of
development, taking in five stages up to
the age of 18 years and three further
stages beyond, well into adulthood.
 Erikson suggests that there is still plenty
of room for continued growth and
development throughout one’s life.
 Erikson puts a great deal of emphasis on the
adolescent period, feeling it was a crucial stage
for developing a person’s identity.
 Young adulthood (20’s to early 40’s)
 Intimacy vs. isolation
 Young adults form close relationships
and to gain the capacity for intimate
love, or they feel socially isolated
 Middle adulthood (40’s to 60’s)
 Generativity vs. stagnation
 The middle age discover a sense of
contributing to the world, usually
through family and work, or they may
feel a lack of purpose
 Late adulthood (late 60’s and up)
 Integrity vs. despair
 When reflecting on his life, the older
adult may feel a sense of satisfaction or
failure
4. Adulthood
• Health – the body’s disease fighting
immune system weakens, making
the elderly more susceptible to life
threatening ailments such as cancer
• Aging and memory – forgetfulness
Perception
 The process of organizing and
interpreting sensory data by combining
them with the result of previous
experience
 Perception is a complex process
involving not only the past as well as the
present, but an external stimulus as well
as internal response
 Perception depends on feelings,
prejudices, desires, attitudes, and goals
 Individual’s family background, general
social milieu, and experiences contribute
to his interpretation of social data
received
 Two people in the same situation may
perceive very different things, and yet
both may be accurate e.g. SUN
 What each perceives is a function of his
own learning and experience
Perception and Sensation
 Sensation is the act of receiving sense
impressions
 While perception is the act of
interpreting sense impressions
Attention
 A basic factor in perception. One
perceives only what he “pays attention
to.”
 When we pay attention to something we
bring it to the focus of our
consciousness.
 One characteristic of attention is that it
fluctuates or shifts
 One characteristic of attention is that it
fluctuates or shifts
 Looking at the figure on the right we
see? And then our attention shifts to a?
Attention
 Attention can be voluntary, involuntary,
or habitual
Voluntary Attention
 Requires effort. When one concentrates
on a required task, he directs his
energies to the completion of the task.
 Prolonged voluntary attention,
however, may ultimately result in
boredom or fatigue
Involuntary Attention
 Field of advertising, commercials by
arousing attention by manipulation of
motives and needs
Habitual Attention
 Is the result of practice
 Voluntary attention that is related to
many daily routines becomes habitual
attention
Visual Perception
 Affects our perception, some of the
psychological cues are:
1. Aerial perspective – concerned with the
clearness or vagueness of objects we
see. As a rule, near objects appear clear
and distinct, while far objects appear
blurred and hazy
2. Superposition – an object partially
covering another is perceived as nearer
the observer than the object it covers
3. Apparent magnitude – a figure that
appears relatively smaller than another
in the same picture is perceived as being
farther from the observer than the
bigger figure
4. Illusions – our perception can be
erroneous. A false or distorted
perception is called illusion.
5. An optical illusion is a deceptive
appearance, it is misleading or unreal
image presented to the vision
Eyes move less often and with ease vertically
than horizontally
Perception of Time – one can perceive the
shortness of time when he is deeply
engrossed in something. On the other hand,
time seems to be very slow and dragging
when an activity is boring and uninteresting.
Time seems to be very long when one is in
suspense or pain
Perception and Emotion – feelings and
emotion influence one’s capacity to perceive
accurately
Perception and Suggestion – suggestions
can form preconceived ideas that can alter
the interpretation of sense impressions
MOTIVATION
 The term motivation refers to the
general arousal in human beings of an
inner urge to reaction
 This human urge is so strong that once
aroused, it impels the individual toward
some kind of activity
 Can also be called need, drive, or motive
 Need – is felt when there is lack or
absence of anything desired
 Drive – an internal stimulus condition
which moves one to act
 Motive - the tendency to activity
 Literally, to motivate is to move, to
activate
 Anything that arouses and sustains
activity is a motive
Physiological Needs – arise from the needs
of the body; hunger, thirst, sex, elimination
of bodily waste.
 The more adequately the bodily needs
are satisfied, the more satisfying is the
effect of the motivation
Social Motives – desire for recognition,
security, status, affiliation and conformity
Different Theories of Motivation
 Mechanism of Behavior by Robert
Woodworth – a mechanism once
started, can furnish its own drive or it
needs something to start it. He believes
that habits have their own motivating
power
e.g. a child who had been persuaded to learn
dancing will be carried along by his interest
which grew out of his own dancing
 Alfred Adler – the most important
motive is the desire for power and
superiority. Man struggles for power as
a reaction to feelings of inferiority
Different Theories of Motivation
 Unconscious Motives by Sigmund Freud
– Eros and Thanatos
1. Eros – is the drive of life, love, creativity,
and sexuality, self-satisfaction, and self
preservation.
The man’s desire for survival makes him
meet his psychological needs (eros)
2. Thanatos - from the Greek word for
"death" is the drive of aggression,
sadism, destruction, violence, and
death.
After people experience a traumatic
event (such as war), they often reenact the
experience. In Freud’s view, self-destructive
behavior is an expression of the energy
created by the death instincts. When this
energy is directed outward onto others, it is
expressed as aggression and violence.
(thanatos)
Conscious and Unconscious
 Conscious – Everything above the water
represents conscious awareness consists
of everything inside of our awareness.
This is the aspect of our mental
processing that we can think and talk
about in a rational way.
 Unconscious - everything below the
water represents the unconscious.
A pool of unwanted or unacceptable
ideas, wishes or desires, memories, and
emotions. These unwanted things are
pushed down into the unconscious so that
we do not have to deal with them and so
they do not interfere or cause problems in
our daily lives.
e.g. Freud believed that people often
have horrifically sexual fantasies that are so
difficult to accept and deal with (and
considered wrong within the boundaries of a
moral society) that they are hidden away in
the unconscious so that we don't think about
them and feel bad every day.
The things that are hidden from awareness,
he believed, exerted the greatest influence
over our personalities and behaviors.
Motives and Incentives
 In school, such incentives as high grades,
awards, medals, and prizes motivates a
student to study hard
 Learning is greatly influenced by
motives. However, motives by
themselves are not enough for learning.
They must be reinforced by incentives
 In business, incentives like a raise in
salary, promotion, bonus, and praise
motivates the workers to do their best
PSYCHOANALYSIS
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
• Brief history
• Theory of Infantile Sexuality
• Psychosexual Stages
• The Theory of the Unconscious
• Tripartite Theory
• Defense Mechanisms
• Dream Analysis
• Psychoanalysis as a
Therapy/Psychoanalytic Treatment
• Free-association and Dream Analysis
• The Coherence of the Theory
Life
 was born in the Czech Republic, on May
6, 1856
 regarded as one of the most influential -
and controversial - minds of the 20th
century
 He collaborated with Josef Breuer in
treating hysteria by the recall of painful
experiences under hypnosis
 Freud experimented with hypnosis but
found that its beneficial effects did not
last
 an Austrian neurologist and the founder
of psychoanalysis, who created an
entirely new approach to the
understanding of the human personality
 developed psychoanalysis, a method
through which an analyst unpacks
unconscious conflicts based on the free
associations, dreams and fantasies of
the patient
Life and Works
The treatment was to enable the patient to
recall the experience to consciousness, to
confront it in a deep way both intellectually
and emotionally, and in thus discharging it,
to remove the underlying psychological
causes of the neurotic symptoms
 The Interpretation of Dreams, which is
generally regarded as his greatest work
(1900), Oedipus complex
 The Ego and the Id (1923)
Neurosis
• a class of functional mental disorders
involving distress but
neither delusions nor hallucinations
• Neurosis may also be
called psychoneurosis or neurotic
disorder
Delusion - a belief that is clearly false and
that indicates an abnormality in the affected
person's content of thought
Example:
 A belief that aliens have removed the
affected person's brain.
 A belief that the affected person
mistakenly believes that he or she is
under constant police surveillance.
 Believes that he or she has special
talents or abilities, or is a famous person
Hallucination - a false perception occurring
without any identifiable external stimulus
and indicates an abnormality in perception.
A hallucination essentially is seeing, hearing,
tasting, feeling, or smelling something that is
not there
Theory of Infantile Sexuality/Freud’s Five
Basic Stages of Psychosexual Development
1. oral stage – birth to 1 yr 6 mos To be psychologically healthy, we must
2. anal stage – 1 yr 6 mos to 3 yrs successfully complete each stage. Mental
3. phallic stage – 3 yrs to 5 yrs abnormality can occur if a stage is not
4. latency stage – 5 yrs to 12 yrs completed successfully and the person
5. genital stage – 12 yrs to adulthood becomes ‘fixated’ in a particular stage.
 Oedipus complex – develops a deep
sexual attraction for the parent of the
opposite sex, and a hatred of the parent
of the same sex
 Electra complex
The developmental process, then, is for the
child essentially a movement through a
series of conflicts, the successful resolution
of which is crucial to adult mental health.e.g.
Homosexuality is seen by some Freudians as
resulting from a failure to resolve the The Theory of the Unconscious
conflicts of the Oedipus complex, particularly The conscious, pre-conscious and
a failure to identify with the parent of the unconscious
same sex 1. On the surface is consciousness, which
Psychosexual Stages consists of those thoughts that are the
Freud believed that children are born with a focus of our attention now, and this is
libido – a sexual (pleasure) urge. There are a seen as the tip of the iceberg
number of stages of childhood, during which 2. The pre-conscious contains thoughts
the child seeks pleasure from a different and feelings that a person is not
‘object’ currently aware of, but which can easily
be brought to consciousness
3. The third and most significant region is
the unconscious. Here lie the processes
that are the real cause of most
behaviour. Like an iceberg, the most
 important part of the mind is the part
you cannot see
4. Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to
describe the three levels of the mind
The Unconscious
 The unconscious mind acts as a
repository, of primitive wishes and
impulse kept at bay and mediated by the
preconscious area.
 some events and desires were often too
frightening or painful for his patients to
acknowledge, and believed such
information was locked away in the
unconscious mind
 attributed to slips of the tongue,
obsessive behavior and dreams
 This happens through the process
of repression
 However, the repressed instinctual
drive, as an energy-form, is not and
cannot be destroyed when it
repressed–it continues to exist intact in
the unconscious (dreams and slips of the
tongue possess such a strong symbolic
significance)
 Repression – the act of not allowing a
memory, feeling, or desire to be
expressed
Tripartite Theory
Similar with the account of the mind offered
by Plato (rational, emotional, irrational)
1. id - part of the mind in which are situated
the instinctual sexual drives which require
satisfaction; comprises two kinds of
biological instincts (or drives):
i. Eros, or life instinct, helps the individual
to survive; it directs life-sustaining
activities such as respiration, eating and
sex. The energy created by the life
instincts is known as libido.
ii. In contrast, Thanatos or death instinct,
is viewed as a set of destructive forces
present in all human beings
When this energy is directed outward
onto others, it is expressed as aggression and
violence
Freud believed that Eros is stronger
than Thanatos, thus enabling people to
survive rather than self-destruct
 the contents of the id belong
permanently to the unconscious mind
Hypothetical conceptualizations of
important mental functions
2. ego - develops from the id during
infancy. The egos goal is to satisfy the
demands of the id in a safe a socially
acceptable way
In contrast to the id the ego follows the
reality principle as it operates in both the
is conscious and unconscious mind.
 all objects of consciousness reside in
the ego
3. super-ego - develops during early
childhood (when the child identifies with
the same sex parent)
responsible for ensuring moral
standards are followed
The superego operates on the morality
principle and motivates us to behave in a
socially responsible and acceptable manner
 an unconscious screening-mechanism
which seeks to limit the blind pleasure-
seeking drives of the id by the imposition
of restrictive rules
 Repression is one of the central defense
mechanisms by which the ego seeks to
avoid internal conflict and pain, and to
reconcile reality with the demands of
both id and super-ego. As such it is
completely normal and an integral part
of the developmental process through
which every child must pass on the way
to adulthood
 However, the repressed instinctual
drive, as an energy-form, is not and
cannot be destroyed when it is
repressed–it continues to exist intact in
the unconscious (dreams and slips of the
tongue possess such a strong symbolic
significance)
Defense Mechanisms
Dream Analysis
 Freud considered dreams to be the royal
road to the unconscious
 Dreams are distinguished into two:
1. manifest content of a dream (what the
dreamer remembers)
2. latent content, the symbolic meaning of
the dream (i.e. the underlying wish)
 dream-work - The purpose of dream
work is to transform the forbidden wish
into a non-threatening form
To reduce anxiety and allowing us to
continuing sleeping
 Dream work involves the
process of condensation, displacement,
and secondary elaboration
1. condensation is the joining of two or
more ideas/images into one
i.e. A dream about a house might be the
condensation of worries about security as well as
worries about one's appearance to the rest of
the world
2. Displacement takes place when we
transform the person or object we are
really concerned about to someone else
3. Secondary elaboration occurs when the
unconscious mind strings together wish-
fulfilling images in a logical order of
events
According to Freud this is why the
manifest content of dreams can be in the form of
believable events
However, Freud was cautious about symbols and
stated that general symbols are personal rather
than universal. A person cannot interpret what
the manifest content of a dream symbolized
without knowing about the person’s
circumstances.
Psychoanalysis as a Therapy
 Sigmund Freud emphasized the
importance of the unconscious mind
 and a primary assumption of Freudian
theory is that the unconscious mind
governs behavior to a greater degree
than people suspect
 the goal of psychoanalysis is to make the
unconscious conscious
 Freud’s account of the sexual genesis
and nature of neuroses led him naturally
to develop a clinical treatment for
treating such disorders
 when people speak of psychoanalysis
they frequently refer exclusively to the
clinical treatment; however, the term
properly designates both the clinical
treatment and the theory which
underlies it
 The aim of the method may be stated
simply in general terms–to re-establish a
harmonious relationship between the
three elements which constitute the
mind by excavating and resolving
unconscious repressed conflicts
 "talking cure“ - he got his patients to
relax in a position in which they were
deprived of strong sensory stimulation,
and even keen awareness of the
presence of the analyst
 - hence the famous use of the
couch, with the analyst virtually silent
and out of sight
 - and then encouraged them to
speak freely and uninhibitedly,
preferably without forethought, in the
belief that he could thereby discern the
unconscious forces lying behind what
was said (free-association)
Free-association and Dream Analysis
 similar to that involved in the analysis of
dreams—in both cases the super-ego is
to some degree disarmed, its efficiency
as a screening mechanism is moderated,
and material is allowed to filter through
to the conscious ego which would
otherwise be completely repressed
 the process is necessarily a difficult and
protracted one, and it is therefore one of
the primary tasks of the analyst to help
the patient recognize, and overcome, his
own natural resistances
 Freud always took the occurrence of
resistance as a sign that he was on the
right track in his assessment of the
underlying unconscious causes of the
patient’s condition
Psychoanalytic Treatment
 the object of psychoanalytic treatment
may be said to be a form of self-
understanding
 once this is acquired it is largely up to
the patient, in consultation with the
analyst, to determine how he shall
handle this newly-acquired
understanding of the unconscious forces
which motivate him
 One possibility, mentioned above, is the
channeling of sexual energy into the
achievement of social, artistic or
scientific goals–this is sublimation,
which Freud saw as the motivating force
behind most great cultural
achievements
The Coherence of the Theory intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far
too limited.
 The difficulty with Freud’s theory is that
it offers us entities which are said to be • The theory may help us figure out how
the unobservable causes of certain to succeed in learning and life. All people
forms of behavior But there have varying levels of aptitude in each of
are no correspondence rules for these the multiple intelligences. Which is your
alleged causes–they cannot be
dominating intelligence?
identified except by reference to the
behavior which they are said to cause • The theory of multiple intelligences,
 the analyst does not demonstratively developed by Dr. Howard Gardner
assert: "This is the unconscious cause, suggests that the traditional idea of
and that is its behavioral effect;" rather intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far
he asserts: "This is the behavior, too limited.
therefore its unconscious
• The theory may help us figure out how
cause must exist"
to succeed in learning and life. All people
Intelligence have varying levels of aptitude in each of
the multiple intelligences. Which is your
• A general capacity of an individual
consciously to adjust his thinking to new dominating intelligence?
requirements; it is a general mental
adaptability to new problems
• Intelligence has been defined in many
different ways such as in terms of one's
capacity for logic, abstract thought,
understanding, self-awareness,
communication, learning and emotional
knowledge, memory, planning,
creativity and problem solving
• It can also be more generally described
as the ability to perceive
information and retain it as knowledge
for applying to itself or other instances
of knowledge or information
• The theory of multiple intelligences,
developed by Dr. Howard Gardner
suggests that the traditional idea of
The Nine Intelligences – identified by
Howard Gardner
1. Linguistic intelligence : You learn best
through reading, writing, listening, and
speaking. You probably enjoy writing
poetry and stories. You're good at
identifying grammar errors and you may
have a talent for learning foreign
languages. This is traditionally one of the
most highly-prized intelligences in
education systems worldwide, meaning
it's likely that you've been successful in
your scholarly pursuits.
To cultivate Verbal-Linguistic
intelligence: Write in a journal, play word
games (like Scrabble and crossword
puzzles), read more books, and debate
issues more often
Verbal-Linguistic careers: Writers,
public speakers, lawyers
2. Logical – mathematical intelligence :
Calculating, classifying, and finding
patterns are all your strong suits. You
like to experiment, solve puzzles, and
identify relationships.
To cultivate Logical-Reasoning
intelligence: Play logic and pattern games
like Sudoku, organize a collection,
develop and prove a hypothesis, find the
pattern in a poem
Logical-Reasoning careers: Scientists,
computer programmers, inventors
3. Musical intelligence (Music Smart) : You
understand and appreciate the art of
music. You do well at listening,
composing and performing music. You
use rhythms and patterns to understand
things. You can probably remember and
even replicate a sound or listening
passage you've only heard once.
Auditory-Musical careers: Composer, DJ,
Band Director, Singer
To cultivate Auditory-Musical
intelligence: Listen to music while
studying, connect music to a lesson,
write a short song
4. Interpersonal intelligence (People
Smart) : You enjoy socializing, sharing,
conducting interviews and cooperating.
People may considered you extroverted
and/or empathetic to others. You're an
excellent group leader and team player.
Interpersonal careers: Politician,
teacher, social worker, counselor
To cultivate Interpersonal intelligence:
Engage in group activities, volunteer for
community service, teach a class or a
friend something
5. Intrapersonal intelligence (Self Smart):
Intrapersonal-intelligent people are highly skilled
at understanding themselves. You are
introspective, independent, and self-motivated.
You learn best by working alone and setting
individual goals.
Interpersonal careers: Psychologist, poet,
therapist
To cultivate Intrapersonal intelligence: Keep a
daily journal, read self-help books, imagine
yourself in other people's shoes
6. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (Body
Smart) : You learn best through touch
and movement. You process information
through the body and may have fine-
tuned motor skills. People probably say
that you're "well-coordinated" and
"athletic". You usually need to do
something to remember it and you may
have a hard time working at a desk all
day.
Bodily-Kinesthetic careers: Dancer,
actor, construction worker, sculptor
To cultivate Bodily-Kinesthetic
intelligence: Physical activities,
manipulate objects, using fine and gross
motor skills, build things
7. Visual-spatial intelligence (Picture
Smart) : You have an excellent ability to
draw, visualize, and design. You benefit
greatly from having access to pictures,
diagrams, and other visual aids. You
enjoy puzzles and mazes and you can
visualize and manipulate objects with
your mind's eye.
Visual-Spatial careers: Architect,
computer scientist,designer
To cultivate Visual-Spatial intelligence:
Take a photography or drawing class,
draw mind maps of your plans or ideas,
do puzzles and mazes for fun
8. Naturalistic (Nature Smart): Naturalistic • A process that helps identifies not just Normal distribution of intelligence levels
learners feel a connection to the earth. weaknesses of a person, but also their
You learn by working with nature. strengths IQ Descripti % of
9. People may say you have a green thumb on Population
• Psychological testing is not a single test
or that you're an animal whisperer. In or even a single type of test; 0-19 Idiot 1
school, you always loved having class
outside and you may have engaged in • Some tests are used to determine IQ, 20-49 Imbecile 1
hobbies such as bird watching or rock others are used for personality, and still
others for something else 50-69 Moron 2
collecting.
• Psychological assessment is something 70-79 Inferior 6
Naturalistic careers: Zookeeper, that’s typically done in a formal manner 80-89 Dull 15
veterinarian, conservationist
Psychological testing is divided into four 90-109 Average 46
primary types:
To cultivate Naturalistic intelligence: 110-119 Bright 18
Keep a nature journal, start a small 1. Clinical Interview - an information-
garden, go outside for everyday gathering session for the professional’s 120-129 Superior 8
activities, take care of a pet benefit
130-139 Very 3
10. Existential (Spirit smart) : It is the ability 2. Assessment of Intellectual Functioning superior
to deal with the big questions of human (IQ) - Raven's Progressive
existence and metaphysics. People may Matrices (Raven's matrices); Are non- 140-179 Gifted 1
say you have a "sixth sense", a "strong verbal multiple choice measures of the 180- and up Genius 1
aura," or an "old soul". No matter your general intelligence, in each test item,
age, you give off a feeling of inner peace the subject is asked to identify the Mental Retardation
and wisdom. missing element that completes a
Spirit smart careers: Shaman, yogi, • a condition diagnosed before age 18,
pattern The best and most popular
clergyman, psychic, philosopher usually in infancy or prior to birth, that
intelligence test of all time according to
includes below-average general
Wikipedia, The gold standard in
To cultivate existential intelligence: intellectual function and,
intelligence tests according to CNN
practice meditation, write down some • a lack of the skills necessary for daily
"big" questions and write down the 3. Personality Assessment - designed to
living
answers that come to you help a professional better understand an
individual’s personality; Thematic • or the ability to adapt to the demands of
Psychological testing Apperception Test (TAT) normal life is impaired
• The foundation of how psychologists 4. Behavioral Assessment – methods used • Education, job training, support from
better understand a person and their in psychology family, and individual characteristics
behavior such as motivation and personality can
all contribute to the ability of individuals
with MR to adapt
 Symptoms
• Failure to meet intellectual
developmental markers
• Persistence of infantile behavior
• Lack of curiosity
• Decreased learning ability
• Inability to meet educational demands
of school
Mild retardation may be associated with
a lack of curiosity and quiet behavior. Severe
mental retardation is associated with
infantile behavior throughout life.
Idiots savants
• Mentally defective individuals, usually
moderately retarded, who have special
talents in one or more fields such as
mathematics, memory, literature,
music. Idiots-savants are rare
• They are imbeciles who for unknown
reasons have normal development of a
certain trait or talent (Rain Man, film)
Child prodigies
• a person under the age of ten who
produces meaningful output in some
domain to the level of an adult expert
performer
• excel in mathematics, music and arts
• Their working memory involves the
ability to hold information in memory
while being able to manipulate and
process other incoming information
• the prodigy phenomenon is the result of
a lucky “coincidence” of factors; healthy
social/emotional development, family
aspects, education and preparation,
access to training resources, material
support from family members
Example:
 Think of the kid who is immediately
attracted to structure of classical music
and spends hours and hours practicing
the violin without anyone telling him to
do so
 the young girl who finds numbers
beautiful and spends many hours playing
with numbers in her head, discovering
new patterns and the structure of
mathematics
These children find these activities and rule
structures inherently rewarding
Genius
The word genius is used in two closely
related but somewhat different senses:
1. In the first sense, it refers to great
intellectual ability as measured by
performance on a standardized
intelligence test.
2. In the second and more popular sense, it
designates creative ability of an
exceptionally high order as
demonstrated by actual achievement
• Genius is distinguished from talent, both
quantitatively and qualitatively
• Genius involves originality, creativity,
and the ability to think and work in areas
not previously explored—thus giving the
world something of value that would not
otherwise exist
Emotion
• Love and sympathy are pleasant
emotions, thus should be cultivated
• Some emotions make us suffer; we
should avoid them
• Some are childish and simple; we should
adjust them
The component of emotions
1. Subjective (personal) feelings
2. Physiological (body) responses, and
3. Expressive behavior
Subjective (personal) feelings - refers to the way
each individual person experiences feelings
• this component is the most difficult to
describe or measure
• the person experiencing the emotion must
describe it to others, and each person's
description and interpretation of a feeling
may be slightly different
o Physiological (body) responses - the
easiest part of emotion to measure
o People have very similar internal
responses to the same emotion - a
pounding heart, sweating, blood
rushing to the face in response to a
situation that creates intense emotion
o "fight or flight" reaction – pertains to
how we react to stressors, we either
stay and deal with a threat or to run
away to safety
o Expressive behavior - is the outward
sign that an emotion is being
experienced, or other body language
o Emotions reinforce or inhibit
responses, for example, when one is
scared, he can run faster
o When one is gloomy, he moves very
slowly
Emotional States
1. Mild states – pleasantness and
unpleasantness that accompany the
preference for one object to another
2. Example we may find it pleasant to touch
silk and unpleasant to touch a piece of
sand paper
3. Overpowering states – violent, intense
experiences, grief, rage
Facial Expression and Emotion
Psychological research has classified six facial
expressions which correspond to distinct
universal emotions
1. Happiness
2. Sadness
3. Surprise
4. Fear
5. Disgust
6. Anger
Which among these universal emotions you
feel most often?
FACIAL EXPRESSION & EMOTION
Facial expressions are a universal language of
emotion, instantly conveying happiness,
sadness, anger, fear, and much more.
Reading these expressions is essential to
compassion and empathy.
Answer: Anger
You see these muscle movements—in the
lips, around the eyes, and in the brow—when
people are feeling aggressive, threatened, or
frustrated. Researchers think we make this
expression when we're angry because it could
protect the face in a physical conflict—for
example, the furrowed eyebrows could
protect the eyes.
People often confuse anger and disgust, but
disgust involves a raised upper lip and a
wrinkle in the nose that you don’t see here.
Answer: Embarrassment
When people are embarrassed, they avert
their gaze, which means they move their head
down and to the side, exposing their neck.
And the embarrassed smile is different from
other smiles: The lips press together tightly,
reflecting feelings of restraint or inhibition.
Embarrassment can look like shame, but
when we're ashamed, our head moves
straight down, not to the side, and we don't
smile.
Answer: Surprise
Surprise is often confused with fear. But
when we’re afraid, our lower eyelids tighten
and our eyebrows look flat and tense; with
surprise, our upper eyelids rise up and our
eyebrows arch. Also, our jaws drop when
we’re surprised, but our lip corners go
sideways when we’re afraid, making the
mouth look tighter.
Some experts believe our eyes open wide like
this because when we’re confronted with
something surprising—a long-lost friend, an
unexpected award—we try to absorb as
much of this new information as possible.
Answer: Disgust
When we feel disgust, the muscles above the
upper lip pull up, raising the upper lip,
wrinkling the nose, and narrowing the eyes.
People often confuse disgust and anger. But
anger tightens the mouth and lowers the
eyebrows more significantly, and raises the
upper eyelid. With disgust, the mouth opens
and the tongue comes out, just in case you
need to throw up.
 Answer: Shame
Shame is a very simple display but a powerful
one. It simply involves gaze aversion, with the
head moving down so that the chin tucks into
the neck. It's the opposite of pride: Whereas
with pride our head tilts back and our chin
goes up, shame often constricts our posture
as a sign of submissiveness.
This expression is frequently confused with
sadness. But shame doesn't involve the
muscle movements of the sad face—the
eyebrows pulled in and partly up, with the lip
corners moving down.
Like facial expressions, behavioral responses do
not accurately reveal a person’s emotions, it is
often difficult to recognize an individual's
emotion through his external expressions of
behavior because such acts are learned
Control of Emotion
• Emotions should not be suppressed, but
should be controlled
Example :
• A man who gets angry with another may
get a feeling of relief by hurting the
offending person so that the dynamic
force within him can have an outlet.
(fight response)
• If he suppresses his anger, it would
harmfully affect him. (freeze response)
• So it would be better for him to go
somewhere where he can blow off
steam. (flight response)
Emotion and Health
• Psychosomatic medicine – branch of
medical science and applied psychology;
emotional conflict is a factor in many
functional disorders
Influence of Emotion
• Emotions make life colorful
• Every noble deed that has brought relief
and promoted human welfare, and
• Every masterpiece of art or literature
was influenced by emotion
• It is a reinforcing agent which motivates
man to action during emergency
• But good as it is, emotion should be our
slave, never our master
• Excessive emotion affects perception,
reasoning, and judgement
Related Learning Experience:
Every masterpiece of art and literature was
influenced by emotion. Present an original piece
that is reinforced by your emotion.
Learning, acquisition of Knowledge and
Thinking
Phases of Learning and acquiring Knowledge
1. Observe proper behavior
2. Sit properly yet comfortably
3. Be attentive; listen
4. Share inputs
5. Do not let the lecture finish without any
understanding on the subject matter
and,
6. Relax.
Learning
• It is common to think of learning as
something that takes place in school, but
• Much of human learning occurs outside
the classroom, and
• People continue to learn throughout
their lives
Nature of Learning
• Learning is an intelligent adaptation to
changing conditions
• Learning is an on-going process
occurring within the individual
• Learning has a change in an individual
caused by experience
• Most psychologists and educators tend
to agree that learning is a process by
which behavior is either modified or
changed through experience or training.
• In this sense, learning refers not only to
an outcome that is manifestly
observable, but also to attitudes,
feelings, and intellectual processes that
may not be so obvious.
Theories of learning
1. Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Theory
stimulus generalization – a conditioned
response transfers to other stimuli that are
similar to the original stimulus (assimilation)
generalization – transfer of a response
to a situation other than which the original
learning occurred
extinction – process by which
conditioned responses are lost through time
2. B.F. Skinner Operant Conditioning
Theory
Reinforcement – defined as any
behavioral consequence that strengthens or
increases the frequency of behavior
Positive reinforcement – involves the
addition of something of value of the individual
(such as praise, attention, money, or food) as a
consequence of certain behavior
Negative reinforcement - are escapes
from unpleasant situations or ways of preventing
something unpleasant to happen (a student will
no longer wash dishes if homework is
completed)
Punishment – an aversive stimulus is
added after the behavior to decrease the
frequency of behavior
3. Social Learning Theory by Albert
Bandura
according to Bandura, people can learn
new information and behaviors by watching
other people known as Observational Learning
or Modeling
4. Constructivist Learning Theory
Constructivism emphasizes the building
(constructing) that occurs in people’s mind when
they learn.
The emphasis is on the learner as an
active “maker of meanings”
Constructivist Learning Theory
The role of the teacher is to enter into a dialogue
with the learner, trying to help the learner
understand the meaning of the material to be
learned, and to help the learner refine his
understanding until it corresponds with the
teacher
Constructivist Teaching and Learning Principles
1. Learners have their ideas
2. Learners need first-hand experiences –
learners need to use and test ideas,
skills, etc. through relevant activities
3. Learners like their ideas – but are
reluctant to give up their favored ideas
4. Learners see what they want to see – an
image is meaningless without a
preconceived notion about it
5. Students need to know how to learn
Thinking
The term thinking includes problem-solving,
reasoning, imagination or creative thinking, and
dreaming
 Problem-solving – a problem arises
whenever a desired goal is not
immediately attainable, thinking then
occurs and continues until a solution is
reached
Reasoning
 Thinking which follows an orderly logical
sequence
 One of the most important mental
activities used in problem-solving
Imagination or Creative Thinking
 Imagination means creative thinking or
invention. This kind of thinking may be
productive, constructive, or artistic.
 It transforms past associations and
experiences into new combinations, and
gives rise to creations, discoveries,
inventions, and artistic works.
Four stages of creative thinking
1. Preparation – this period includes recall
of past experiences, gathering of facts
and observation, examination of the
problem, and everything else that must
be learned
2. Incubation – the individual may be idle
during this stage. This period may enable
him to find the solution which he could
not think of when his mind was fatigued
3. Inspiration – an invention, a discovery, a
creation, or an artistic work comes into
being. This comes as a sudden spurt of
feeling and thinking
 4. Verification – this is the stage of
evaluating the outcome of creative
thinking. If necessary, revisions are
made
Dreaming
• Cognitive theories of dreaming state
that dreams come about as normal
cognitive process, independent of an
individual’s psychological needs
• For example, dreams become more
complex as our cognitive abilities mature
The Continuity Theory
• States that the continuity exists between
our waking life experiences, or issues,
and our dreams
• Many researchers agree that there is
continuity between our dreams and
waking life preoccupations
• For example, people who have had limbs
amputated still dream as if they had
their missing limbs
The Self-Organization Theory
• The dream is created as individual
memories, thoughts, and feelings self-
organize without direction
• Since there is no central control, the
dream comes together with little regard
to logic
• This undirected process provides the
dreamer with unexpected experiences
Threat Simulation Theory
• Dreams have evolved to prepare for
life’s challenges by serving to simulate
the threatening events in waking life
• Being exposed to, and dealing with these
threats when asleep help prepare the
dreamer for similar situations when
awake
• The theory argues that current dreams
of threatening events are evolutionary
carryovers from threats our ancestors
encountered everyday, such as being
chased by large animals, fleeing from
enemies, and dealing with natural
disasters
What Dreaming Does for Us…
• The benefits of dreaming are currently
explored
• There is some research that shows
dream content contributes to improved
performance on learning task
• Research has also shown that sleep
enhances the consolidation of
memories, creativity, and problem
solving, and helps with the learning of
new material, including the ability to
solve problems such as finding solution
to current problems
• Improved memory consolidation and
emotion regulation, we sleep both to
remember and to forget
• Other research emphasizes the ability of
dreams to help heal emotional wounds
such as trauma or divorce of loss of
loved ones
• Furthermore, dreams may help find
resolutions to difficult issues by making
connections while asleep in a safe
environment
Dreaming
• All of us dream. Some of us remember
most of our dreams including the details.
Some of us forget everything, so that we
may say we have never dreamed. Most
of us, however, remember only a part of
our dreams.
• Some of our dreams delight us. Some of
our dreams terrify us. But most of our
dreams are just like our activities during
our waking hours.
• They are sometimes pleasant,
sometimes unpleasant, and sometimes a
combination of the two.
• Sometimes our dreams reflect what we
thought, felt, and did during the day.
• The most widely known theory about
dreams is that of Sigmund Freud. To him,
dreams are repressed desires or conflicts
which we have been relegated to the
unconscious.
• Dreams result from physiological causes
such as sleeping in unusual positions or
smelling or hearing something that
disturbs the sleep of the individual.
• A carry-over from a person’s daily
activities.
 • Dreams are as turning over unresolved
problems or anticipating new ones.
Experiments on Dreams
Findings:
 People have at least three dreams each
night, and may even have as many as
nine dreams
 Before dreaming, people turned and
twisted in bed and moved their arms
and legs;
 But during the dream these bodily
movements stopped.
 Only the eyes moved and the fingers
twitched
Why people dream?
 With the help of scientific equipment,
they prevented subjects from dreaming
for about 4 to 5 successive nights
 Then every day after each night of
dreamless sleep the subjects were
interviewed and observed
 The results of all cases were identical.
The subjects became unduly resentful,
increasingly tense and anxious. They had
occasional lapses of memory and found
difficulty in concentrating
Why people dream?
 To verify the findings, a second
experiment was conducted. This time
the subjects were allowed (not
interrupted) to dream
 The results showed that the subjects
behaved normally after having been
permitted to dream with no
interruptions
 The doctors noted that loss of dreams
affected the physical and mental health
of the subjects
Conclusion of the experiment :
dreaming is nature’s way of allowing
people to “let-off/blow-off steam.”
Spiritual Self
– Spiritual self is the most intimate, inner
subjective part of self.
– It is the most intimate version of the self
because of the satisfaction experienced
when thinking of one’s ability to argue
and discriminate, of one’s moral
sensibility and conscience, and of our
unconquerable will.
Recall
– When was the first time you realized
that there is a higher being than
yourself? How old were you then? What
made you believe that there is a higher
being?
Finding and Creating Meaning of Life
– Dr. Viktor E. Frankl was born on March
26, 1905 in Vienna, Austria.
– He is a survivor of the Holocaust.
– Dr. Frankl published a book about
Logotherapy and was revised as The
Doctor and The Soul: An Introduction to
Logotherapy. His book, Man’s Search for
Meaning, has been used as textbook in
high school and college courses.
Logotherapy
– Is a psychotherapy introduced by Dr.
Viktor Frankl, who is considered as the
father of Logotherapy.
– The main belief of logotherapy is that
“man’s primary motivational force is
search for meaning.”
– Logotherapy aids individuals to find
personal meaning of life, whatever the
situation may be.
– In logotherapy, meaning can be
discovered by creating a work or doing a
deed, experiencing something or
encountering someone and the attitude
toward unavoidable suffering.
– Logotherapy uses the philosophy of
optimism in the face of tragedy, where
people are capable of “turning suffering
into human achievement and
accomplishment; deriving from guilt the
opportunity to change oneself for the
better; and deriving from life’s
transitoriness an incentive to take
responsible action.”
Basic concepts of Franklian Psychology
– Life has meaning under all
circumstances.
– Main motivation for living is our will to
find meaning in life.
– Freedom to find meaning
 Furthermore, Franklian Psychology aims
to : (1) become aware of spiritual resources,
(2) make conscious spiritual resources, and
(3) use “defiant power of the human spirit”
and stand up against adversity.
Logotherapy Assumptions
1. The human being is an entity consisting
of body, mind, and spirit.
2. Life has a meaning under all
circumstances, even the most miserable.
The “ultimate meaning”. It is difficult to
grasp but is something everyone
experiences and it represents an order in
a world with laws that go beyond human
laws.
3. People have a will to meaning. The third
assumption is seen as our main
motivation for living and acting. When
we see meaning, we are ready for any
type of suffering.
4. People have freedom under all
circumstances to activate the will to find
meaning. This deals with change of
attitudes about unavoidable fate.
5. Life has a demand quality to which
people must respond if decisions are to
be meaningful.
6. The individual is unique.
Frankl’s Sources of Meaning
1. Purposeful work. To find the meaning of
life starts with holding a future goal.
Each individual has each own future goal
to achieve or a task to perform. That task
or goal to fulfill becomes the meaning of
their life. Therefore, meaning of life is
unique to every individual.
2. Courage in the face of difficulty. A
meaningful life is a life with suffering.
Suffering is inevitable part of life. To find
meaning of life is to recognize suffering,
pain, and death as part of life and to
have the courage to face these life
difficulties.
3. Love. The ultimate secret on the spiritual
foundation of life is that love is salvation
and joy eternity. The ultimate factor to
find meaning of life is love.
Existentialism
– A philosophy that emphasizes individual
existence, freedom and choice. It is the
view that humans define their own
meaning in life, and try to make rational
decisions despite existing in an irrational
universe.
– “I'm afraid we're losing the real virtues of
living life passionately.. The sense of
taking responsibility of who you are.. The
ability of making something of yourself
and feeling good about
life. Existentialism is often discussed as a
philosophy of despair.. But I think the
truth is just the opposite.” - •
Waking Life Film (2001)
– Latin word existeres (to stand out or to
merge). It insist that “existence precedes
essence”.
– Existential therapy is grounded on the
assumption that we are free and
therefore responsible for our choices
and actions. We are the authors of our
lives, and we design the pathway we
follow.
– Is to help promote understanding of the
self and one’s mode of being in the
world. Humans have to be aware of
ourselves, be responsible for ourselves
and become ourselves.
– People are the authors of their lives for
better or worse;
– They have the freedom to choose and
are responsible for their choices;
– Constant searching for meaning
through discarding meaningless actions
and values and embracing new and
meaningful thoughts and behaviors,
although;
– Search for meaning may cause tension
and anxiety.
– Problems causes Anxiety.
Existential Anxiety:
• Existential therapist view
anxiety as providing potentially
instructive signals that can assist
individuals to live more
authentically
Existential anxiety is the
unavoidable product of being
confronted with the givens of
existence: death, freedom,
isolation, and meaninglessness
(Vontress, 2008; Yalom, 1980).
• From the existential viewpoint,
anxiety is an invitation to
 freedom and not just a symptom
to be eliminated or “cured”
• For new dimensions of us to emerge, Old
parts of ourselves must die. The
knowledge that in order to grow, we
must exchange familiar and secure ways
for new and unknown ones is in itself a
source of anxiety. Although we may not
welcome this anxiety, it is the price we
must pay for engaging in the process of
becoming what we are capable of
becoming. Anxiety as a catalyst for
growth by encouraging us to take action
for change. Anxiety serves as a signal
that our activities are growing and
unexciting that we are ready for
movement and change.
SELF-AWARENESS:
• The capacity for self-awareness
separates us from other animals
and enables us to make free
choices
• “The greater our awareness, the
greater our possibilities for
freedom.”
Structured Learning Experience
– Kamao sa Ilong (Tao A at Tao B)
– Tableau (Love for work, love for family,
love for animals, love for spouse, love for
self)