Human nature is a set of traits, mechanisms, and behavior of people that are typical or are possessed by

everyone in all places, all the time, and proper only to human species not animals. Examples are needs,
instincts, and empathy and sympathy.

Personal development. In general, the term personal development refers to changes in personality that
one experiences as he or she grows. But in this course, it means the intentional task adolescents take
how to know and understand their physiological, cognitive, psychological, social, and spiritual make up
that needs to be developed.

Identity and self-concept. Identity is the unique set of characteristics that can be used to identify a
person as themselves and no one else., it often refers to a person’s sense of self, meaning how they
view themselves as compared to other people. While self-concept on the other hand is an idea of the
self-constructed from the beliefs one holds about oneself and the responses of others.

Temperament and personality. Temperament refers to the consistent or enduring behavioral patterns of
an individual. Temperament is how an individual is their intrapersonal processes, behavioral style and
spontaneous ways of responding to situations or things.

Easy child (positive affect and approach), Difficult child (negative affectivity), slow to warm up child
(effortful control) (neither positive nor negative)

Personality is the external manifestation of temperament. It is the characteristics sets of behaviors,

cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and
which change overtime.

Openness. The tendency to appreciate new art, ideas, values, feelings, and behaviors.

Conscientiousness. The tendency to be careful, on-time for appointments, to follow rules, and to be
hardworking.

Extraversion. The tendency to be talkative, sociable, and to enjoy others; the tendency to have a
dominant style

Agreeableness. To agree and go along with others rather than to assert one’s own opinion and choices.

Neuroticism. To frequently experience negative emotions such as anger, worry, and sadness, as well as
being interpersonally sensitive.

Physiological development. At the onset of puberty, adolescents undergo observable physiological or

anatomical changes brought about by the physical development. These changes occur until they become
more or less fully developed or stable by the time boys and girls reach late adolescence.

Cognitive development. Is the study of childhood neurological and psychological development.

Specifically, cognitive development is assessed based on the level of conception, perception,
information processing, and language as an indicator of brain development.

Psycho-social development. Is just a fancy phrase that refers to how a person’s individual needs (psycho)
mesh with the needs or demands of society (social).

Spiritual-moral development. Is the development of the non-material aspects of life, focusing more on
personal insight, values, meaning, and purpose. Moral development involves supporting students to
make considered choices around their behavior and the values that provide a framework for how they
choose to live.

Middle adolescence is the transitional stage of physical and psychological human development that
spans between 14 to 16 years old for girls, and 15 to 17 years old for boys.

Late adolescence covers between 17 to 19 years old is the final stage of an adolescent’s physical and
emotional growth when passing into adulthood.

Challenges of middle and late adolescence (freedom and independence, academics achievements and
career paths, study/work-life balance, relationships, financial management, maturity and life goals.

Understanding and managing stress:

Stress is a state of mental, emotional, or physical tension as reactions to threatening or demanding

circumstances or events.

Stressors. Arduous situations that produce stress are called stress factors. It can be classified as work-
related, physical, environmental, and socio-emotional factors.

Coping with stress:

Problem focused coping. When a person faces the set-backs head on and identifies the causes and
solutions to solve them.

Emotion focused coping. When a person puts defense mechanism: denying that certain problems exist
or at least rationalizes them, laughing it off or drawing strength from one’s religious faith.

How to cope with and avoid stress: (talk about it, find time for rest and recreation, eat right and exercise
regularly, manage work and schedule well, have a sense of humor and optimism.

Mental health and well-being:

Mental health refers to a person’s positive mental status, the ability to cope, function, or work
productively despite the normal life stressors.

Well-being. A state of being healthy, comfortable or happy that arose from your thoughts, emotions,
actions and experiences.

Psychopathology. The technical and scientific approach to studying the nature od development of
psychological disorders or mental illness.

Psychiatrist are medical doctors, prescribes medication, treats complex and serious mental illness.

Psychologist are not medical doctors, cannot prescribe medication, treats less serious conditions.

Anxiety disorders. Anxiety and fear are effective responses to certain situations and are involved in
anxiety disorders. Anxiety is uneasiness over a foreseen problem or threat while fear is a reaction to
direct danger. When anxiety goes out of proportion or becomes unrealistic, it is called a disorder or a
neurosis.
Anxiety disorders. Panis disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Posttraumatic stress disorder
(PTSD)

Mood disorder refers to disabling disturbances in emotion. They either come in having excessive
sadness and severity of depression to the extreme irritability and ecstasy of obsession or mania. Mania
is like an excessive happiness or feeling of well-being.

Mood disorders. Depression, bipolar disorder (manic-depression)

personality disorders. These are established, persistent, and inflexible inner experiences and patterns of
behavior different from the universal and cultural expectation of people.

Personality disorders. Paranoid personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder.

Psychotic disorders. These are severe mental disorders that impairs one’s thinking and feeling. This is
commonly characterized by profound sadness and unjustified feelings of unworthiness accompanies by
hallucinations or delusions.

Psychotic disorders. Schizophrenia.

Childhood disorders. These are disorders unique to children but may continue into adulthood. Children
or adolescents that behave in ways that are outside the typical behavior of their age are usually
assessed by professionals to determine if there is a disorder.

Childhood disorders: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, dyslexia, conduct disorder.

The human brain is a large pinkish-gray walnut with a size of a grape fruit that is squishy, has many folds
and creases and weighs 3 pounds as an adult. It is a complex organ that controls thought, memory,
emotions, touch, motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature, hunger, and every process that regulates
the body.

Cerebrum. Your cerebrum interprets sights, sounds, and touches. It also regulates emotions, reasoning,
and learning. Your cerebrum makes up about 80% of your brain.

Cerebellum. Your cerebellum maintains your balance, posture, coordination, and fine motor skills. It’s
located at the back of your brain.

Brainstem. It regulates many automatic body functions. You don’t consciously control these functions,
like your heart rate, breathing, sleep, wake cycles, and swallowing. It connects the rest of your brain to
your spinal cord.

Lateralization of the brain is the tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be
specialized to one side of the brain or the other. The median longitudinal fissure separates the human
brain into two distinct cerebral hemispheres, connected by the corpus callosum.

Corpus callosum. A large white matter tract that connects the two hemispheres of the brain. It is an
incredibly important structural and functional part of the brain. It allows us to perceive depth and
enables the two sides of our brain to communicate.
Emotion is a feeling such as happiness, love, fear, anger, or hatred, which can be caused by the situation
that you are in or the people you are with. Emotions are our bodily chemical reactions to, or
interpretations of specific things that trigger’s us.

Paul Ekman is an American Psychologist who was born on February 15, 1934 in Washington D.C. He was
the first person to study human emotions and how it could be related to facial expressions.

Fear is a reaction towards dangerous and threatening situation. Related words are dread, distress,
horrors, fright, and terror (strong fear).

Sadness feeling of loss and apparent helplessness. The feeling of being unhappy, gloomy, or lonely. Its
synonyms are grief, sorrow, desolation, and melancholy.

Anger is a response to being provoked or violated, accompanied by resentment. The feeling of being
mad, irritated, or annoyed. A stronger version is rage or fury.

Joy. The effect of great happiness due to success or achievement. It is synonymous to gladness, delight,
and bliss, elation, and euphoria.

Surprise. Astonishment or wonder over an unexpected event or reaction to another. It may also mean
amazement, disbelief, or shock.

Disgust. Responses to anything that is unpleasant to the five sense and imagination. Stronger forms of
disgust are abhorrence and hatred.

Contempt. To regard someone as worthless, dishonorable, and scornful. It is a strong feeling of lack of
respect for someone or something.

Anticipation. It constitutes looking forward to something good or positive that one believes will happen.
Related words are hope and expectation.

Robert Plutchik. Psychologist Rober Plutchik created the Plutchik Model. It shows there are 8 basic
emotions: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, anticipation, anger, and disgust. Plutchik’s wheel of
emotions organizes these 8 basic emotions based on the physiological purpose of each.

Emotional intelligence is a construct coined by Peter Salovey and John Mayer and later adapted and
popularized more by Daniel Goleman. It is called an intelligence because involves the ability to process
emotional information accurately and efficiently.

Emotional intelligence refers to the capacity to recognize one’s emotions and those of others, to
manage well and emotions and relationships, and to motivate oneself. At the end of the day, when a
person knows how to manage their emotions, they can then build healthy relationships and vice-versa.