Personal Reflections Essay Example for Free

Personal Reflections Essay The concept of self in the social world has been the subject of psychology studies for decades. Self-concept is defined as â€Å"a person’s answers to the question, â€Å"Who am I?† (Myers, 2010). Several factors, both internal and external, create each individual’s sense of self. Self-concept, self-esteem, self-knowledge, and social self all help create the sense of self. Self-schemas are an important component of one’s self-concept. A schema is simply defined as â€Å"mental templates by which we organize our worlds† (Myers, 2010). Self-schemas are the beliefs one holds, which define who we are. Self-concept The development of our self-concept has numerous influences, which include roles played, social identities formed, comparisons made, personal success and failure, judgments, and cultural surroundings (Myers, 2010). Roleplaying can include what we are in our professional life, as children in school, and into adulthood. The roles we assume may not feel like second-nature in the beginning, however, as we evolve within our roles, we become a more self-confident role player. Social comparison shapes an individual’s self-concept through academics, finances, and looks. The impact the comparison has is dependent who we are comparing ourselves to. Personal success and failure occur on a daily basis at work, school, and home. Judgments made by our peers strongly influence our own perception of self. Positive feedback will result in a positive view of one’s self, as a negative feedback will result in a negative self-concept. Our cultural surroundings impact our self-concept also. Westernized cultures tend to be more self-absorbed than an Eastern culture. â€Å"In many Western cultures, there is a faith in the inherent separateness of distinct persons† (OMalley, 2002). Individualism and collectivism are two concepts describing how  individuals view their importance within their culture. Individualism is mainly seen in a Western culture, where an individual places personal goals and gains over a group’s goals and gains. Collectivism considers a group’s goal as a priority over an individual’s goal. â€Å"Most cultures native to Asia, Africa, and Central and South America place greater value on collectivism† (Myers, 2010). The interdependent self is defined as the â€Å"view of the self and the relationship between the self and others† (OMalley, 2002) within a group. Self-esteem Self-esteem is â€Å"a person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth† (Myers, 2010). People have both low self-esteem and high self-esteem, depending on the variance of difficulties in their life. Poverty, drugs, and abuse can all be considered a factor in a person’s low self-esteem. High self-esteem can also be portrayed a negative trait, especially when the individual is viewed as narcissistic. Narcissism is defined as â€Å"having an inflated sense of self† (Myers, 2010). Self-efficacy Self-efficacy is defined as â€Å"the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations† (Cherry, What is Self-Efficacy?, 2014). Self-efficacy is not the same as self-esteem, which is how valuable an individual perceives themselves to be. An individual’s self-efficacy is the belief they are capable of accomplishing a task, even when the task is challenging. Studies of the Self Various studies of the self in psychology have offered an insight into what is believed to be the center of self-concept. Carl Rogers believed self-image, self-esteem, and ideal self are the three components of self-concept. Self-image is â€Å"how you see yourself† (Cherry, What is Self-concept?, 2014). A person’s self-image can include positive and negative aspects, which may or may not be realistically true. Self-esteem is the how valuable a person believes they are. Comparison between a person’s own successes and another’s can impact their self-esteem in a negative or positive manner. Ideal self is how a person would like to see their self. Ideal self is not necessarily how an individual actually perceives their  self, rather the idealistic version that person dreams of being. Who I am Amanda’s Self-concept By asking myself â€Å"who am I†, I am able to define my self-concept. I am a mother and I love my children. I am a full-time employee at ESCO Corporation. I am a college student at the University of Phoenix, studying Environmental Science. I am not an easy person to get along with, and I tend to take criticism personally. Amanda’s Self-esteem I have low self-esteem. My low self-esteem has been an ongoing issue from childhood. I struggle with my weight, which was not a real issue until I was out of high school. I thought I was overweight as a teen, when in reality I was at a healthy weight. After I had my first daughter at the age of 18, depression slowly took over my carefree and happy personality. I began to eat more in an attempt to feel better about myself. I remember one incident as a Senior which really made an impact on my self-esteem. While changing classes, I waited at my locker for a classroom to finish letting students out. One of the disabled girls from that classroom kept looking at my mid-section. She finally asked me â€Å"are you pregnant or something†. I was not pregnant anymore, and had given birth two months before. Hearing another person say I looked like I was pregnant still brought my feeling of self-worth to the lowest point at that time. Amanda’s Self-efficacy My self-efficacy can be compared to a roller coaster. I do challenge myself to excel at work and school. I believe I can accomplish anything I put my mind to. Over the past decade, I have improved my self-efficacy, with a tremendous improvement over the last five years. The individuals I have chosen to surround myself with, as opposed to in the past, have helped me accomplish my dreams. My fiancà © encouraged me to stand up for myself, especially with my parents. My parents had been involved in raising my children to the point I was not able to make a decision without calling for their opinion first. The feeling of dread would overcome me due to the fact I knew my parents would not approve of my decisions if I did not talk to them first. I finally realized I was holding myself back, and I could make important family decisions without their approval. I signed up for the  University of Phoenix for the reasons I believed were important. I did tell my parents I was going back to school after I had signed up, and I saw the disappointment they felt over not being able to control me with the decision. My fiancà © has been encouraging throughout my studies, and continues to give me the push I need to finish my last five classes. References Cherry, K. (2014). What is Self-concept? Retrieved January 20, 2014, from About Psychology: http://psychology.about.com/od/sindex/f/self-concept.htm Cherry, K. (2014). What is Self-Efficacy? Retrieved January 21, 2014, from About Psychology: http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/self_efficacy.htm Myers, D. G. (2010). Social Psychology (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. OMalley, M. (2002). Hazel Rose Marcus and Shinobu Kitayama, Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation. Retrieved January 21, 2014, from Honors 130: Conceptions of the Self: http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/honors130/culture.html

educating the global citizen :: essays research papers

Educating the Global Citizen Quote: â€Å"Washing one’s hands in conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.† Paulo Friere who was a Brazilian educator and a human right activist wrote this quote. He was born in 1922 and died in 1997. The quote means that that if you don’t to anything to change the issue of the powerless then the powerful people are the ones that succeed. All the powerful need is for no one to stand in the way. If you grant them this then you truly helping them. If you side with the powerless then you are trying to help them and you are not being neutral which means doing nothing at all.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An example is when the Europeans used African Americans as there slaves. The Europeans were the powerful and the African Americans were the powerless. Before the Underground Railroad people were being neutral about the situation. When they started this network of freeing slaves, the sided with the powerless, so that they could be free in Canada.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This quote is trying to make us make a difference in the world, instead of doing nothing at all. By helping someone in need you are making a big difference in our global village. To make a difference it not only takes the government but also us citizens. People all around the world are connected in someway or another. One issue can affect the whole world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One way that we can apply this quote to the present is how the world has allowed Iraq and Afghanistan to be attacked. Many innocent people, including children have been harmed because no one protested. The world helped the powerful and defeated the powerless. An issue that we are helping is the tsunami that happened in parts of Indonesia, Thailand and India.

New Burger King Seven Incher Ad Report Essay

Advertising has a big effect on selling products or propagandizes. That’s why; companies and organizations start to increase their advertising expenses. A research made in 1985 indicates that in 1983, companies worldwide spent $19,837,800,000 on advertising. In 1984, $23,429,700,000 was spent and in 1991, about $52 billion was spent on advertising by companies. This shows us that companies understood that advertising is the best way of selling. All of these companies want to make their advertisements effective and memorable, but what makes an advertisement memorable? An illustration, a headline and a copy can make an advertisement incredibly memorable. The first feature, which makes advertisements effective, is an illustration. An illustration has a great effect on advertisements. They can easily make them memorable. First, the size of the illustration is very important for effectiveness of the illustration. The size of the illustration should be between 1/4 and 2/3 of the page such as 66% of top-scoring advertisements. So you can put headline and copy on the blank side of the page. For example, inad, advertisers used 2/3 of the page as an illustration. Secondly, the subject of the illustration is very important to capture customers. Most (36%) of the top scoring ads uses the technique of borrowed interest. For instance,   uses borrowed interest. In headline it says, †, that’s why, advertisers used a woman, which look like a surprised. To conclude, an illustration may make an advertisement such as, very effective with its size and subject, but there are more can make an ad memorable. The second feature that makes an ad memorable is a headline. A headline has a great effect on stopping power. It makes people stop and read the rest of the ad. So people may buy the product. First, the size of the headline is very important to make a headline memorable. It should not be very small or very big. The top scoring ads use commonly half inch or in rare cases less than half-inch headlines. For example, in ad, advertisers used a headline, which is 2. 5 inches. First row of the headline is written bigger than the second row, because advertisers wanted to make both rows in the same width. Second, the length of the headline is as important as the size. If the length of the headline is too long, people may easily forget it or don’t want to read it because it is long. 36% of the top scoring ads uses a headline between 1 and 6 words. So it can be memorable. For instance, advertisers used 5 words in the headline of   It is a basic phrase, which people use in their normal life. So, it is easy to remember. In conclusion, a headline is a basic way to make people remember the ad, but still there is one more thing to talk about. The last feature, which makes an advertisement effective and memorable, is a copy. Actually, copies haven’t a big effect on effectiveness, but after people stops because of the headline and the illustration, the copy becomes important. First property, which makes a copy effective, is its length. About 70% of top scoring ads have copy, which has words between 26 and 100. So people can read it easily and it will not bore them. For example, and has a copy made by 47 words. So it is easy to read and understand. Secondly, the message of the copy is a big effect on ad. Every copy has its own message. Some copies give people information about the technical specifications of the product. Some explains how to use it and some tells how the product will make you happy. The major (33%) part of the top scoring ads’ copies includes information about the usefulness of the product. So the advertisers can easily fool the customers. For instance,   ad’ copy is about effects of the hamburger on the potential consumers. To conclude, even though the copy is not very important at the beginning, it becomes very effective with its length and message. In other words, most of the top scoring ads such as   uses illustrations, which do not fill all of the page and includes the subject of borrowed interest; headlines, which are about half inch and less than 7 words and copies, the lengths are between 26 and 100 words and explains how do the products helps you, to improve their sales. However I am sure all these would change in the future such as entire page illustrations and copies less than 50 words.

Child Development Case Study - 1946 Words

Introduction The Campbell Child and Family Center (CCFC)is a high-quality early childhood education program in Durango, Colorado. The CCFC uses the Creative Curriculum for Early Childhood, which incorporates Jean Piaget’s work on cognitive development to establish developmentally appropriate learning programs for preschool children. I observed N for approximately 20 hours at the CCFC where he has been a student since November 2012. N is almost four years old and lives with his mom, dad, and older brother. N attends the Lightning Bugs structured preschool program with 14 other students. The adult-child ratio of the Lightning Bugs room is 1:8. Literature Review During early childhood or the preschool years, cognitive skills develop rapidly,†¦show more content†¦According to Piaget’s (1964) theory of cognitive development, N was asking questions in order to both assimilate the new information with his already existing schemes and to accommodate or modify his existing schemes in order to incorporate new information obtained from the book. Another example of N’s ability to use and comprehend language effectively occurred while N was getting ready to play outside. The teacher went up to N and said, â€Å"Do you need help putting on your gloves?† N replied, â€Å"Gloves have fingers, I don’t†. The teacher replied, â€Å"Yes, you have mittens†. This example shows N effectively uses language to communicate and demonstrates N understood the difference between two items in the same class (gloves and mittens). Attention and Concentration Another rapid advance in cognition during the preoperational stage is the continued development of attentional and concentration skills including the ability to understand and follow three or four commands with few or no prompts (Nelson Warner, 2007). N demonstrated his ability to understand and follow multiple commands one morning after breakfast. The class was instructed to put their plates in the garbage, brush their teeth, and line up for morning gathering time. N got up from the table, put his plate in the garbage, brushed his teeth (with one prompt) and got in line with the rest of the class. An example of N’s ability to follow multiple commands withShow MoreRelated Child Development Case Study1973 Words   |  8 Pagesthey have observed on their journey. 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