Managing and Caring for the SELF

1. Learning to be a better student

 involves recognizing the factors and developing strategies that contribute to
learning such as metacognition and self-regulation.
2. Setting Goals for success
 Involves recognizing the factors and developing strategies that students can
do to achieve their goals and reach success.
3. Taking charge of one’s health
 Involves recognizing the factors that cause stress and developing strategies
that students can do to reduce the effect of stress.
Chapter 12: Learning to be a Better Student

What Happens in the Brain During Learning?

Process of Neuroplasticity
• The ability of the brain to change that involves the addition of new
neurons, new interconnections between neurons, and the reorganization
of information processing areas (Feldman, 2010)

Brain change in two ways:

1. Increase in the number of synapses between neurons.
2. Change in the function and structure of the neurons.
Neurons
• basic building blocks of the nervous system that transmit impulses
• Every neuron is made of a cell body (soma), dendrites, and axon
• Vary according to their functions and locations

Neurotransmitters
• Are the electrochemicals that connect and allow the transmission of
impulses from one neuron to another neuron.
• Several neurotransmitters (such as acetycholine, glutamate,
dopamine, and norepinephrine) are associated with memory and
learning.
Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning
Metacognition
• The awareness of one’s thinking and the strategies one is using to
learn.
• “Meta” refers to higher-order cognition and cognition.
• Metacognition is simply defined as cognition about cognition or
thinking about thinking.

2 components of metacognition (John Flavell):

1. Metacognitive knowledge
2. Metacognitive regulation
Self Regulated Learning (SRL)
• Process of taking control of and evaluating one’s own learning and
behavior, (Zimmerman, 2002).
• Self-directed process through which students transform their mental
abilities into academic skills.
• Cyclical process, wherein the student plans for a task, monitors their
performance, and then reflects on the outcome.

3 Essential components of SRL:

planning
Problem solving
Self-evaluation
 How To Develop Metacognitive and Self-
Regulated Learning Behaviors

1. Set your short-term and long term academic goals in your studies.
2. Make a self-help plan to achieve your academic goals.
3. Monitor your academic performance and progress.
4. Reflect on what you have learned and accomplished.
Chapter 13: Setting goals for Success
Goal
• Simply as what the individual is consciously trying to do.
• Motivate people to develop strategies that will enable them to
perform better.
“accomplishing the goal can lead to satisfaction and higher
motivation, or frustration and lower motivation if the goal is not
accomplished.”

2 categories:
1. Short term goals 2. long-term goals
Factors Which May Influence Goals
1. Values
• Are those which the person considers personally important and worthy.
• Basis of what is desirable, correct, and good.
2. Motivation
• Usually aroused by a need or lack of something that may propel a person to
act.
Drive-reduction theory
Humans are motivated to satisfy needs in order to maintain homeostasis or
internal equilibrium (Atkinson, Smith,. Et.al, 2000)

2 classifications of needs:
1. Physiological need
• Innate needs of the body (e.g., food, water, air, sleep, and sex)
2. psychological need
• Arise from relationship with other people (affiliation, achievement, altruism,
esteem, and status).
 Self Actualization

Esteem

Love/belonging

Safety

Physiological

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

 The Motivational Impact of Self Efficacy and
Mindset
Self-efficacy
 People’s belief that they can successfully perform behaviors that will produce
desired effects (Albert Bandura, 2012).
 Entails judgement of personal capacity.
 Plays central role in people’s thoughts, motivations, and actions.

2 Categories of Mindset (Carol Dweck, 2008):

1. Fixed mindset 2. Growth mindset
Goal Setting
• The process of improving work performance of individuals (Locke and Latham,
2006).
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Relevant
T – Time-bounded
The Rules of Goal Setting:
1. Set goals that motivate you
2. Set SMART goals
3. Write your life goals
4. Develop an action for your future
5. Start working for your life goals
Chapter 14: Taking Charge of One’s Health

“ Man needs difficulties;

they are necessary for
health.”
- Carl Jung
Stress
• Events that are perceived as challenging, damaging, or threatening to one’s physical
or psychological well-being.

Stressors: eustress and distress

Eustress occurs when people experience positive events but requires them to adjust.
Distress occurs when people experience negative events and make a great deal of
demands on them.
Factors that causes stress
Major life events (wedding and having a baby)
Losing one’s job or death of a loved one
Catastrophe
Traffic
Small disagreements
 The Physiological and Cognitive Factors of Stress
• General Adaptation Syndrome (Hans Selye)
• Three stages of physiological reactions during stressful events: alarm,
resistance, and exhaustion

Cognitive view of stress: Richard Lazarus (Ciccarelli & White, 2012)

“the way people think about and appraise a stressor is a major
factor in how stressful that particular stressor becomes.”
Sources of Coping and Strengths
1. Problem-focused coping
2. Emotion-focused coping
3. Social support system or (a network of family members and friends)

The Need for Self-care and Compassion:

3 Elements of Compassion
1. Self-kindness
2. Sense of common humanity
3. Mindfulness
Suggestions how to manage stress and practice self-compassion:
 Find a quite place
 Pray
 Read the bible, magazine, book
 Be mindful or your thoughts and feelings
 Keep a diary or journal
 Talk to people
 Develop a good habits, eat the right kind of food
 Develop a sense of humor
 Think positive and find reasons to smile and be happy