Assignment 4.

1
Maintaining Self-Respect

By affirming and developing a positive image of ourselves, we are aided in making

positive life choices, including ones about drinking and drug use.

Using this informal survey, assess the condition of your self-respect by indicating 1, 2, or
3 after each of the following.

Positives: Rarely Sometimes Often

1 2 3

1. I am proud of my accomplishments. 2
2. I welcome success. 3
3. I accept my mistakes and work towards fixing them. 3
4. I feel people will gain from friendship with me. 3
5. I accept the way I look. 3
6. I feel I can choose my future rather than react to it. 3
7. I trust myself and try to protect myself. 2
8. I take responsibility for my actions no matter what. 3
9. I like myself. 3

Negatives:

1. I think that most people I meet won’t like me. 1

2. I isolate myself. 2
3. I don’t listen to others. 1
4. I dislike how I look. 2
5. I overreact to criticism. 2
6. I have trouble working persistently for a goal. 2
7. I lose myself in obsessive activities such as studying, working, food, alcohol, or
even drugs. 2
8. I often try to please others rather than myself. 2
9. I find it difficult to face up to my mistakes. 2

If your score is well over 36, you probably have a healthy self-respect. If it is well under
36, you probably could do some work to help you feel better about yourself. Post a
response to the survey on the discussion board by writing a one-page paper on the
following:

1. Reflect on your personal level of self-respect.

2. Let us assume that your score is very low and you need to work on increasing
your self-respect. Brainstorm 5 different things you could do that might increase
developing a positive image of yourself.
 Honestly, my self-respect score is very high. However, it has not always been that

way. In my younger days, I dwelled on how I looked, if people liked me, and trying to

impress and prove that I am worthy of anything to everyone that I met. I am a dark

skinned African American girl, so people (any age) would make fun of how dark I am. I

used to get called all types of names. It got to a point where I started using skin

correcting cream that I found around the house and rubbing it all over me, thinking that it

would make me lighter. That being said, I changed certain things about me that helped

improve my self-image. Now when I say change, I don’t mean physically altering my

appearance. (1) I changed the way I thought about myself. I started off saying things

like, “Girl, your melanin is popping!” (2) I changed the way I thought other thought

about me. I had to learn that everybody was not against me. In all actuality, I get more

compliments of people saying how pretty I and my skin is than them saying that I was

ugly and “too black.” (3) I started drinking more water. Yes, water. Water not only

gave me energy, but it caused me to be more positive. I used to drink a ton of cokes and

energy drinks a day. Drinking the sugar filled drinks caused me to crash often, which did

not help oncoming depression. (4) I started exercising more often. I did not exercise for

the physical, but more so for the mental aspect. Exercising eased my mind as well as

strengthened it. (5) Lastly, I started stretching, doing yoga, and practicing breathing

techniques. It calmed me. As I was doing these practices, I would think of anything

positive I felt about myself. I smiled more, laughed more, and was more proactive in my

self-health and self-image.