There are many reasons why individuals choose to change. Many believe the number one reason for change and growth is the quest for happiness. Yet there are many theories out there that say permanent happiness is impossible, that happiness is cyclical with happy and unhappy periods following each other (Boniwell, 2006, p.34). Do you think it’s true? How happy do you feel right now? Are you happy because you choose to be happy or because you place your happiness on the significant other in your life?
Perhaps Abraham Maslow’s
model of self-actualizing is more on target than one might think. We are social beings and many of our relationships are affected by relationships with others – our own self-esteem affects how we present ourselves to the world and in consequence affects who we attract into our world. If a person does decide to place their happiness in the hands of a significant other than self-esteem is rather important.
Here is Maslow’s model:
6). Spirituality
5) Need for self-actualization
4) Esteem needs
3) Love needs
2) Safety needs
1) Physical and survival needs
Remember for Maslow, a person moved from the # 1 position to the # 5 position. If a person’s physical/survival needs were not being met (for example a homeless person will have a more difficult time meeting their physical and survival needs) than it would be difficult for that person to address safety or love. Again, if we place our happiness on others and it is dependent on our self-esteem…What is the level of self-esteem without love? If we have no self-esteem do we have goals that we want actualized? Fuel for thought as you read the chapter.
In general the human race is constantly striving for growth. It is easy to see this on a global level – now let’s try to look at this on a personal level. Here are three items that if all human beings followed we would have world peace! The B C and J’s of life to always avoid: Blaming others; Complaining about others; and Judging others. If we follow the BC and J’s golden rule we show respect, acceptance, care, value and joy in others – with these in affect happiness naturally occurs. This does not mean happiness is a permanent fixture. It means how we view life and how we treat others will affect how we perceive and accept happiness into our lives.
Please review the Take Time to Reflect section of the book on pages 19-20. This is for your self reflection – you are not required to share your thoughts on this section. I believe it will help you on your path of personal growth. You will have a good idea of the path perhaps you should walk first.
We will cover in more detail love and relationships as we move further into the book! Now let’s look at learning styles.
Have you ever wondered why you prefer listening to a lecture rather than viewing power-point slides? Or perhaps you find that you really enjoy the classes that include a lab or another type of hands-on participatory aspect. Have you taken a test to discover for yourself your learning style? Here are the four learning styles that all of us fall into in our own particular fashion:
Auditory
Visual
Kinesthetic
Emotional
Generally, you will find yourself having a little bit of each learning style with one or two being more predominant. You can test your learning style preference by going to this web link: Learning Styles
Open the link and click on Questionnaire. This is a link that will bring you to the test. Click in the box that best answer’s your learning preferences and than submit your answers. You will see your result immediately.
You will see that I have different modes of delivering information to you; power point slides, video lectures, and type written lecture notes. All three are used to address everyone’s learning styles!
And finally, I invite all of you to test your visual perception. This is a FUN test – that will only take 2 minutes. No cheating! Read and follow the directions just as they are given and click on the link that will open the short video. To get started click on this link: Visual Perception
If you want to share with the class your thoughts on either of these websites please do! You will find a Discussion Thread labeled Web Links under the Learning Module for Week 2.
Assignments: Please remember to complete the Threaded Discussion assignments for this week and the quiz for Chapter 1. Both assignments can be located within the Learning Module for Week 2.
Reference:
Boniwell, I. (2006). Positive Psychology in a Nutshell. PWBC: London
