Personality, Self-Esteem & Emotions

1. Personality, Self-Esteem & Emotions

2. Personality • Your personality consists of the behaviors, attitudes, feelings & ways of thinking that make you an individual

3. A psychologist studies how people think, feel & behave • Many researchers use 5 central traits to describe how people behave, relate to others, & react to change: • Extroversion • Agreeableness • Conscientiousness • Emotional Stability • Openness to Experiences

4. Extroversion • Describes how much you like being with other people • Are you talkative during class? Would you prefer to keep to yourself?

5. Agreeableness • Your tendency to relate to people in a friendly way • Do you accept apologies? Do you roll your eyes at others?

6. Conscientiousness • Describes how responsible & self-disciplined you are • Do you go home & get your homework done? Are you usually tardy to school?

7. Emotional Stability • Describes someone who is relaxed, calm, and secure even during difficult situations • Could you help someone that is hurt? Or would you scream & panic?

8. Openness to Experiences • People who are open to experiences tend to be curious, imaginative, & creative • Do you enjoy traveling? Do you have to follow the same routine every day?

9. Personality traits are influenced by a combination of heredity & environment

10. Heredity • Early differences in the ways babies act are evidence that people are born with different personalities • Also, identical twins that are raised separately tend to still have the same personalities • Environment • Your family, friends & culture • Experiences you had as a child help to shape your personality • As children develop, they copy the behaviors of others= modeling • Personality traits that are valued in one culture may not be highly valued in another

11. Self-Esteem • Self-esteem refers to how much you respect & like yourself • Many psychologists believe that high self-esteem has a positive effect on health, while low self-esteem has a negative effect on health

12. High Self-Esteem • Benefits: • Accept yourself for who you are • Have a realistic view of strengths & weaknesses • Maintain a positive attitude • Goal setters • Bounce back quickly from setbacks

13. Low Self-Esteem • Risks: • Don’t have respect for yourself • Worry what others think of you • Won’t try new things due to fear of failure • More likely than peers to use drugs, drop out of school, become pregnant & suffer from eating disorders

14. Self-esteem is not constant: it can increase or decrease as people interact with their family, their peers & their community • On average, self-esteem drops in early adolescence, increases gradually during adulthood & decreases again towards the end of life

15. Don’t base your self-esteem solely on other people’s opinions of you!!! • Focus on your accomplishments, your talents, & your contributions to your family & community!

16. Self-Esteem Activity • Make a list of events at school that could increase a person’s self-esteem & a list of events in school that could lower someone’s self-esteem. • Then, choose one event from each list & write a paragraph explaining how these events can affect self-esteem.

17. Expressing Your Emotions • An emotion is a reaction to a situation that involves your mind, body & behavior • Two types: • Primary Emotions • Learned Emotions

18. Primary Emotions • Emotions expressed by people in all cultures • Examples: • Happiness • Sadness • Anger • Fear

19. Learned Emotions • Emotions not expressed the same way by all people, also called social emotions • Examples: • Love (deep feelings of affection & concern) • Guilt (knowing what you did was wrong; guilt can stop you from doing something) • Shame (focuses on the person rather than the action) • Guilt “I did a bad thing” Shame “I am a bad person”

20. Coping Strategies • Ways of dealing with an uncomfortable or unbearable situation • Can be helpful when they improve a situation or allow a person to handle a situation in a better way. • They are harmful when they make a situation worse or a person is less able to handle a situation

21. Defense Mechanisms • Are coping strategies that help protect yourself from difficult feelings • Examples: • Denial- refusing to recognize an emotion or problem • Reaction formation- behaving a way opposite to the way you feel • Projection- putting your own faults onto another person

22. Helpful Ways to Cope • Confront the situation heads-on • Release your energy through exercise or being active • Relax- read a book or take a nap • Talk through your problems

23. Don’t use alcohol or drugs or sex to escape from your feelings!!! • Don’t withdraw from your friends & families!!!