SELF ESTEEM IS AN IMPORTANT HUMAN NEED: By Maslow

Self-esteem is needed in everyone’s life. We all love to feel needed and wanted by the people around us. We grave for that respect from other people, which makes us feel important. People with low self-esteem are usually, not confident about any decisions they make. They also tend to make bad choices based on what they think others may like not what they like or want for themselves, is almost like they live for other people. They grave for attention and a sense of belonging from the people around them; especially the people they respect look up to or want to be like. Even though we don’t like to admit it, we all love attention or some kind of recognition from others. This makes us feel like we are worth something or have self-importance. Self-esteem is really important as part of the human need because of its great impact on our lives every day. Without it, we are not confident neither do we feel worth of anything or anyone. It has caused people to feel less than, therefore living their life as if they are not as human as everyone else. I personally know a lot of females who sleep around with a lot of men just to feel worthy because they do not feel this need within themselves, therefore they try to feel it by doing other things.

introvert and extrovert

I took the same quiz that Tara took regarding being introverted and extroverted and I actually had the same results. I am 60% introverted and 40% extroverted. I feel like these results are pretty true for me personally. The results said, "You're a bit outgoing but also a bit reserved. Like most people, you enjoy being social but you also value the time you have alone. You have struck a good balance!" I definitely enjoy being social and around my friends but there are times i would rather be alone.

I feel like having a combination of both extroverted and introverted traits is best because it gives a person a well-balanced personality. Someone who is 100% extroverted may come off as having an overwhelming personality while someone who is 100% introverted may seem impossible to build a relationship with. I think most people would fall in between the two categories as most students said. This also allows for people to get along well with others who may be opposite of them, because they compliment each other well.

Extra = Type A ?

Although I knew the definitions of each word previously, i never really thought about the true meaning of each word until we discussed it during class. Another term that I wanted to continue further was Type A personality. Are extroverted people always Type A? Are introverted individuals always calm and held back? I wanted to get some answers. Once thinking about it, I consider myself Type A personality, minus a few traits.

"The theory describes a Type A individual as ambitious, aggressive, business-like, controlling, highly competitive, impatient, preoccupied with his or her status, time-conscious, andtightly-wound. People with Type A personalities are often high-achieving "workaholics" who multi-task, push themselves with deadlines, and hate both delays and ambivalence."

So because I am ambitious, aggressive, impatient, etc., does that mean that I am also an extravert?

I have found that more often than not, I am friends with extroverted individuals that also have a Type B personality so that theory was proven wrong before I even had to think about it. While many of my friends are Type B personality, they seem to be more extraverted as well. I also noticed that although I am more about multi tasking and dead lines, my friends are more assertive and seeking external stimulus. I dont even know if this is making sense in words but what I mean to say is that there is no definitive 'type' a person has to be in order to fit the description of extrovert or introvert.

Just another side note, someone I know is very introverted and Type B. He is very quiet, antisocial, relaxed, and easy going. But, if you bring up golf to him, which is his favorite sport, you would never know he is that type of person.

Overall I dont really like this labels for people because they never seem to fit perfectly most of the time.

The Adderall Us

Foer's article on Adderall was very insightful, but I believe the statistics are dated. He mentions at one point that 1 in 5 college students have taken Adderall - in reality it is much higher. Most students I know have taken or depended upon Adderall at some point or another in their studies. When I went to University of Maryland, taking Adderall was about as common as drinking coffee; something to be discussed just as openly as well. In fact, one of my professors held a class one day strictly about the benefits of Adderall, to which practically every student in the room had some type of personal experience to contribute to the discussion.

Personally, I've always had a love-hate relationship with Adderall. I took it for several months in 2009 in order to finish my novel, but the long affair with the drug, combined with my insomnia, turned me into a zombie for the duration. To this day there's still a lot of days I spent 12+ hour Adderall-induced shifts writing that are a total blur to me. I'll reread chapters I wrote, and for the most part the quality is only slightly watered down to where it would be if I had written it sober (a task which only allows for me to write about 2-3 hours a day if I really push myself). However, there's still a lot of the writing that I will read three times over before asking myself, "what was I thinking when I wrote this?"

But that's the idea - you aren't really thinking. Taking Adderall when you do not have ADD/ADHD turns you into a productivity machine, and your individuality suffers. For this reason I believe Adderall to be better used when trying to lay the groundwork for a project - I'm sure Kerouac didn't submit that 120 foot long paragraph to his editors without plenty of sober editing, after all (or at least as sober as Kerouac could manage). The process also seems ideal for anyone stuck in a dead-end 9 to 5 office job. If the CEOs of big business could convince the proper authorities to let them pump Adderall into all of their employees in the aforementioned unfortunate position, they would have themselves an army of endlessly productive super servants. For that reason alone I think it's a blessing that Adderall is a prescription-only drug. That, and the fact that staying up for days on end completely shot out hasn't done any favors for anyone I've ever met.

Extroversion vs. Introversion

Regarding the idea of extroversion vs. introversion, I had found an interesting article talking about how "creative" people are more likely to exhibit both introversion and extroversion in their lives as opposed to anyone else. According to the study, "creative" individuals, consisting of professions such as actors, comedians, and musicians, are prone to display both personality types "simultaneously," while the everyday person is more likely to exhibit either one or the other at one time. This stems from the notion that those considered "creative" display extroversion when on "center-stage" and introversion when behind-the-scenes, both within the same time-frame.

I can personally relate to this article, as I feel that I too exhibit both introversion and extroversion at given moments in my life. The concept of displaying the two "simultaneously" may seem questionable to some, but I believe it makes perfect sense for those whom this refers to. I am comfortable being sociable and full of octane as an extrovert as well as being quiet and deep-thinking as an introvert. I believe that both can be equally important to the functioning of a person, although it does not apply to every single person, nor should it.

Introversion v. Extroversion

A major trait that is described in many human personality theories is the concept of being either an introvert or an extrovert. This whole idea essentially tackles the question as to whether or not a person is either shy or outgoing. Of course I will go on to define each end of the spectrum. Starting with the introverts, these are the shy, less sociable types. It would not be fair to say that if you are an introvert you have no friends necessarily, but it would not be too crazy to say that introverts are expected to have less friends than normal. On the opposite end there are the extroverts; these are the outgoing, friendly types that are not afraid to make their presence known. These are for instance, the popular types who you always see surrounded by a group of people, the ones who seem to have it all. These terms were coined by Carl Jung in his infamous theory.

If any of you are curious, which I of course assume that you could care less, I am clearly an extrovert. I love being outgoing, meeting new people, and playing sports with other people. I think we all (even the extroverts) may experience a phase here and there where we feel the need to be alone from time to time but overall I love being around people. People interests me. They provide great feedback and ideas that you may never have thought of yourself. Plus it never hurts if you have been fortunate enough to surround yourself with a group core group of friends. Quite frankly, I could not imagine myself being an introvert, I would not know how to handle it, but hey if that’s how someone likes to live then more power to them.

Self-esteem

Self-esteem was identified and defined in 1892. Today, the theories of self-esteem evolve around the Domains of Contingency of Self-Worth. A person's self esteem depends on their own perceived successes and failures in areas that are relevant to them individually, The researchers identify seven areas of self-worth for most people. They are; others approval, appearance, competition, academic competence, family support, virtue, and God's love. These are developed through a person's life time and are often influenced by their relationships. Low self esteem comes into play only if the specific domain is important to the individual. A student's esteem fluctuates from high to low only if they care about the grades that they may receive, A student whom puts less value on the grade often has a steady self-esteem. I often see this in myself. I often think I can not do an assignment if I perceive that it's difficult. I struggle to get it started and question myself through it's entirety. My self-esteem is low at that time but often rises to a higher level when I receive my grade.

Introversion and Extroversion

When we talked about introverts and extraverts in class I was wondering if someone can be both introverted and extroverted. In my opinion, a person will be one or the other but in certain situations they may act differently. Just because a person is introverted it doesn’t mean they will never be outgoing in a situation. An introvert may prefer to do less socially active things but doesn’t mean that’s all they want to do. At times they may want to be alone but this doesn’t mean they never want to be around people. In my opinion, introverted people may act more outgoing around certain people because they feel more comfortable around those people and not around others. This also applies to extroverted people. They may be extroverts, but it doesn’t mean that they never want to spend time alone or with a small group of friends. Most of the time they will be with a large group of people and act assertive, and that’s what makes then extroverts.

Personality

Personality can really make you love or dislike a person. In class we went over personality and how it can effect your motivation. We also looked over twins and how they may share personality traits and are related to one another; identical twins more then fraternal twins. I agree with this observation. I have twin best friends who are fraternal twins and they have totally different personalities. The one twin is so driven to do well in school, saves money, and prioritizes very well. The other twin is more emotional, she stresses about everything, and never seems to have her priorities on a good track. You can tell they have different personalities too with there group of friends and who they hang with. The one is in a sorority and the other one just loves to go out and party till the end of time; even with no money. The one who is in a sorority is the one who saves and does very well in school. She fits into the sorority live better then the other twin because the one who parties all the time, doesn't think she could put forth the effort to be in a sorority and she keeps to herself & her click of friends. The one who has her priorities straight, in her eyes anyway, thinks of living for the future more then living now for the present. She wants to achieve to make something of herself and doesn't complain about being in school one bit. The other twin doesn't seem to keen to being an overachiever in school. She just goes with the flow and says ill get to it when I get to it; meaning homework. Both have two totally different personalities and traits that come with it and motivation of both their personalities shows to. Especially with school; where one wants to do all she can and the other has no motivation to occupy herself with homework.

Personality and the Big Five

Personality is such a huge part of each individual. Every personality is different, which is what makes us all unique. I think to understand people, we first need to understand ourselves. It is important to know your personality type so you can make sense of your behavior. I love taking personality tests to see if they match my own opinion about my personality. Here is a great site to test your own personality. http://bigfivepersonalitytest.com/ This site has a great test for determining where you lie in the Big Five Theory. Taking this test is fun and gives you some great insight into your own quirks. I know that I am very high in the Conscientiousness and Agreeableness scale, but lower in the extraversion portion. Knowing these things helps me makes sense of my feelings and behaviors and if I know that, then I can better control my actions. So knowing this, I know that if I am in a large group of people I might be uncomfortable, but I need to open up more and be outgoing sometimes. Personality is a great tool to motivate yourself to grow and get outside your comfort zone every once in a while.

Are you an Introvert or an Extrovert?

In class we were having a discussion about introverted people and extroverted people. Introverted people are very kept to themselves, are not very outgoing, and don't speak up about things and extroverts are more 0utgoing and sociable. I feel that I am kind of in between because I have traits of both. If something is bothering me I do not always speak up. I do keep to myself sometimes, but I also like to meet new people. When I do meet new people I am still kind of quiet. As I have gotten older I noticed I speak my mind a lot more and love to go to sporting events and I am loud and outgoing in those type of situations. I took a test to see if I was an introvert or an extrovert and I was 40% extrovert and 60% introvert. So, I guess a person is not always one or the other. You can be a mix of both. Maybe, someone should come up with personality traits for people who are in between and not just classify a person as one or the other. Here is the link to the test I took for introvert vs. extrovert http://www.blogthings.com/areyouanextrovertorintrovertquiz/

Sensation Seeking in Men

The video we saw in class of the people jumping surprised me as did many others. I know that some people will do crazy things just for the thrill, and we would call them sensation seekers. I think I could be somewhat of a sensation seeker. This past semester when I was in Australia I bungee jumped and cliff jumped from water falls. The adrenaline and feeling I had just for those 3 seconds was amazing. However it is not something I would do all the time. I decided to look for information about sensation seekers and found something very interesting regarding men and how strong of a hand grip they have. Several recent studies have found relationships between hand grip strength (HGS) and particular traits. In one such study by Bernhard Fink and his colleagues, explored the relationship between HGS in men and sensation seeking. They tested the proposition that HGS and sensation seeking are positively correlated with levels of testosterone. They measured the HGS of 117 men, and then had them fill out Zuckerman's sensation-seeking scale. They found that HGS of the right hand was positively correlated with individuals over all SSS score. This is very interesting because it means that the stronger a man's HGS, the more likely he is to engage in high sensation seeking activities.

Extrovert v. Introvert

When we started talking about people being extroverts and introverts in class, it made me wonder, can people be either in different situations? Or is a person always an extrovert (or introvert)? The more I thought about it, the more I thought it possible to be either depending on the situation. Then I thought about myself. I've noticed that when I'm around kids my own age (that I don't know), I'm more of an introvert, but when I'm around older people, even if I don't know them, I'm more of an extrovert. I'm more outgoing, talkative, and actually take the time to talk to them and get to know them, as with kids my own age, I don't make an effort at all. I'm not really sure why I do this, but I have pretty much my entire life, and probably will continue to do so.

Sensation Seekers

On Tuesday in class we learned about sensation seekers. It was interesting to me to learn about the different aspects of this personality trait. According to the slides sensation seeking is, “a personality trait defined by the seeking of varied, novel, complex, and intense sensations and experiences.” People that have this trait are more likely to have different life experiences. The four parts of sensation seeking are, thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking, disinhibition, boredom susceptibility.

One of the questions that was brought up in class was whether males are more likely than females to be sensation seekers. Here is what I was able to find from an article.

“According to University of Delaware psychologist Marvin Zuckerman, a leading authority on "sensation-seeking behavior," women are far less likely than men to risk their necks for the heck of it. You can blame the male thirst for reckless living on chemistry, in part. A quarter-century ago, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health found that an enzyme in the brain called monoamine oxidase, or MAO, controls thrill-seeking behavior. The less MAO in your brain, the more likely you are to crave excitement and new experiences. As it turns out, men are more likely than women to have low levels of MAO.” -http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jan/10/health/he-52490

Youtube Video-Extreme Base Jumping

The Big Five

The Big Five is a form of organization in examining human personality. These five categories include openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Tests are made to determine a person's range in these five categories. While I have heard about the Big Five in other psychology classes, I had never taken the time to actually take one of these tests. So, when I saw the link on the lecture slides, I was immediately intrigued. After answering the statements given on a strongly agree to strongly disagree scale about myself; I feel the results were incredibly accurate. It marked many attributes of my personality, not just giving really vague results as some would expect. I encourage everyone to take this test because, if you're honest, you might find out some things about your own personality. There is a link for one on the slides, or here is another one I found: http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

Sensation Seeking

All I can keep thinking about from the last class was the bungee jumpers who hit the ground when they jumped and this notion of sensation seeking. It got me to thinking what in life thrills me and gives me this intense sensation feeling. Now I don't think I would ever be able to bungee jump especially with hitting the ground, but I also don't think that it has to be something so drastic in order to get a thrill out of it. Over the summer I went on vacation with my family and we took a tour and walked inside a cave. It was one of the most amazing and beautiful experiences I have ever had and it wasn't exactly something dangerous. Things like this are sensation seeking because it is something new and adventerous. After we took the tour in the cave we then went out onto the top of mountain and looked over all of Tennessee. Another thrill seeking adventure was white water rafting because again it was something new and adventerous in my opinion. I think that sensation seeking is something that varies from person to person based on how adventerous the person is and something that I believe is thrill seeking may not be thrill seeking to someone else. I think sensation seeking could also be a good stress reliever to those individuals in high stress positions, like us college kids for example.

Temperament Behavior

Temperament behavior, the genetically inherited characteristics are often shown in dogs. Each breed of dogs has different temperament characteristics that are often defined in dogs that are bred together. An example of temperament characteristics would be the two dogs that I have. My older dog is a jack russell terrier and a miniature collie and he has the temperament of both. He likes to hunt things in the backyard which is a temperament of the jack russell. My dog is also intelligent like a jack russell, and he is very vocal. The temperament he has of a miniature collie is also the intelligence level and his appearance. The intelligence of my dog helps him to be capable of learning things through repetition that my dad teaches him. An example of intelligence is that he responds to the words "Do you want to go for a ride" by barking and running to the door. My other dog is a puppy that I got about a year ago and he is a Chorkie which is a Chihuahua and a Yorkie mix. My puppy has the temperament of a Chihuahua in the sense that he is very protective and he chomps his teeth when he is excited. My puppy is a fun loving, cuddly dog to the family, but he is resistant toward strangers. When it comes to appearance, my puppy has pointy ears that stand straight up which is a trademark of the Chihuahua. The appearance characteristics of the Yorkie is that he is built like a Yorkie, and has the same coloring. Certain things that each dog do are also examples of their temperament and we often find ourselves comparing each thing to the dogs that they are bred with.

Introverts and Extroverts

How a person reacts in a certain situation has a great deal to do with if the person is an introvert or an extrovert.  Extroverts are more outgoing, sociable, and enjoy working with others. Introverts usually like to be by themselves, are less sociable, and usually try to avoid confrontation.
 My friend is an introvert and she has a hard time working in groups, and would prefer to take classes with people she knows.  She does not enjoy meeting new people, and she tries to avoid confrontation and awkward moments at all costs.  She rarely ever complains and doesn't like drawing extra attention to herself.  Unlike my friend, I'm an extrovert and behave very differently than her.  When we are together I'm usually the one to speak up in situations, while she is hushing me in the background.  I also don't  have a problem socializing with people or getting to know new people.  I find it very interesting to see the differences between our personalities, and the way we behave when placed in certain situations.
Below is a test you can take to see whether you are an extrovert or introvert.
http://funtestiq.com/personality/personalitytest39.php

Sensation Seekers

I was very intrigued by the sensation seeker scale and I was curious to see what my results would be. I didn't really consider myself as much of a sensation seeker but I've also never really thought about it before. After the quiz my results told me my total sensation seeking score is 20 out of 40. When it comes to thrill and adventure I scored a 6 out of 10. This means I have some desires about engaging in sports or activities that involve some physical danger like scuba diving and parachute jumping. I scored 5 out of 10 for experience seeking. This describes the desire to seek new experiences through the mind by living a nonconforming life style with unconventional friends and through travel. I scored a 6 out of 10 for disinhibition and a 3 out of 10 for boredom susceptibility. It says that these scores will peak during the late teens and early twenties so it seems my inner sensation seeker is at its peak. It also said that people with similar scores seem to be more romantically compatible with each other. I thought that was pretty interesting so I had my boyfriend complete the scale as well. He scored a 22 out of 40, just 2 points different from my score.
Overall, I enjoyed taking a few minutes to complete the survey and I thought the results were very interesting.

Selfish

Drives and needs refer to internal states that push a person into action to satisfy the drive or need. An interaction between an internal motive and an external incentive determines behavior. Psychological needs are a deficit of some psychological entity, while physiological needs happen when an internal body condition has deviated from a physiological set point. Drives are our internal pushing action of the physiological need.

Most humans are driven to defend ourselves. When we, ourselves, our loved ones, or our possessions are threatened... we are very quick to protect those things. It amazes me how there are people in the world who would not do whatever it takes to defend these things. There are those who sit back, and watch bad things happen all the time. What drives some of us internally to push for that physiological need of protecting others' feelings... and some people only want to protect their own?

Nine times out of ten it’s because of fear, not just the fear of the other persons reaction but the fear of their feelings getting hurt. Some people outweigh their worry of hurting someone else's feeling, and allow their own to be sacrificed. Maybe this is a matter of selfishness. Some people would rather protect their own feelings, than those of others. Selfishness is sign of weakness; It allows the person to protect their own feelings, rather than someone else's. The consequences of both can affect whether or not a person may defend himself or others. The overall problem is fear. Some of us fear a consequence will happen if they defend things they believe. Some people would rather take a personal hit to themselves, in order to protect others. External factors can force humans to alter their drive for protection in various ways. Some may call it selfishness, while others say that it is reality. This video below talks about the differences in the drive to defend yourself, versus defending others.