Fall Semester

Introduction to Behavioral Sciences

• Dr.Mohamed Elmasry
 Course Outline:

Chapter (1) : Foundations Of Business Psychology

Chapter (2) : Understanding Yourself

Chapter (3) : Emotions and Moods

Chapter (4) : Problem Solving and Creativity

Chapter (5) : Personality and values

Chapter (6) : Perceptions and Decision Making

Chapter (7) : Managing Conflict &Anger

Chapter 2

Understanding Yourself
In this chapter:

• In this chapter

Developing The nature &

Your Self Enhancing
Self consequences
Concept Self-Esteem
Awareness of self-esteem
Introduction
• Self-understanding is important because before you can understand other people
well, you must first understand yourself.
• A distinction is sometimes made between the self a person projects to the outside
world and inner self.
Review Question

The privateself is a person’ssecretfantasy aboutwhat heorshewould like tobe

a. True

b. False
Review Question

In comparisontothepublic self, theprivate self is ……………….

a. happier.
b. sadder
c. less accurate.
d. more accurate.
Understanding Yourself
I. Developing Self Awareness

• Toachieve self understanding, you need to gather accurate information about

yourself.
• An additional benefit of self understanding is that it appears to be related to high
performance.
• We have 4 methods of gathering information for self understanding and
developing self awareness.
Review Question

Theconceptof theself referstoa person’sindividuality.

a. True

b. False
1- General Information About Human Behavior

• Since you need to know or listen to facts and to systematically observe people in
general, you must also gain knowledge about yourself.
• To enhance your understanding of perception, you need to relate this information
to yourself.
2- Feedback From Self Assessment Devices

• Psychological testing to determine an individual's competencies, personality, and

interests is standard practice in professional centers in schools and large commercial
companies.
• The most important way to achieve a self-understanding of psychological tests is to
see a professional in mental measurement who can interpret the results for you.
3- Feedback From People On And Off The Job

• people who regularly interact and think with you are a valuable source of
information for self awareness.
• Coworkers are another source of useful feedback.

• Peer evaluation is an important practice in many organizations. It is simply the

contribution of co-workers in evaluating a worker's job performance.

• People who know you in personal life can also be a source of feedback for self
understanding.
Review Question

A peer evaluation system provides a systematic way of obtaining feedback from

coworkers about your job performance.
a. True

b. False
Review Question

A key feature of peer evaluations on the job is that coworkers

a. contribute to an evaluation of a worker’s performance.
b. comment on the manager’s evaluation of your performance.
c. get together in a group to evaluate your weak points.
d. get together in a group to evaluate your strengths.
Review Question

A developmental opportunity in a peer evaluation system indicates an outstanding

strength the person being evaluated is encouraged to develop further.
a. True

b. False
Review Question

In a peer evaluation system, a developmental opportunity is a(n)

a. new position open to the person being evaluated.
b. punishment the person will receive if he or she does not improve.
c. outstanding strength of the person being evaluated.
d. specific area in which the person needs to improve.
4- Insights Gathered In Career Counseling And Psychotherapy

• The counselors obtain their information from interviews, tests and questionnaires.
• A valuable service they provide is to collect information that you have reveled
about you self and gathered it into meaningful whole.
• Many also seek self- understanding through discussions with a psychotherapist.
II. Your Self-Concept: What You Think Of You
• self concept is what you think of you and who you think you are.
• We will describe three aspects of Self Concept:

The Self-Concept Group The Challenge

and Self- Identification and of Positive
Confidence the Self-Concept Illusions
1- Self Concept & Self Confidence

• Your self-concept is composed of two main elements: self-image and self-esteem.

• Self-concept and self-confidence are closely related.
• A strong self-concept leads to self confidence.
Review Question

Self-concept and self-confidence are closely related.

a. True

b. False
Self image

• Your self-image is how you view yourself, how you describe yourself to others.
• It includes your physical characteristics—your eye color, hair length, height, and so
forth. It also includes your knowledge, experience, and so on.
2- Group Identification & Self-Concept:

• People join small groups to achieve some degree of individuality and identity.
• People develop much of their self-concept by comparing their own group to
others.
3- The Challenge Of Positive Illusion:

• The majority of people over evaluate their capabilities in comparison to others.

• The source of Positive illusions is not an attempt to compliment ourselves but a

natural reaction to appreciating ourselves highly.

• The antidote to the challenge of positive illusions is to obtain feedback on your

traits and capabilities.
Review Question

According to the challenge of positive illusions, we tend to have an inflated opinion

of our capabilities in comparison to others.

a. True

b. False
Review Question

You have encountered the self-awareness trap when you a

a. begin to think that other people are inferior to you.
b. reflect so much on yourself that highlight shortcomings.
c. go shopping for compliments frequently.
d. use yourself as a standard of perfection.
III. The Nature & Consequence Of Self- Esteem

Self-Esteem:
• It refers to appreciating self-worth and importance, being accountable for your
own behaviors, and acting responsibly toward others.
• People with positive self-esteem have a deep-down, inside the self feeling of their
own worth. Consequently they develop a positive self-concept.
Review Question

Self-esteem refers generally to:

a. the sense of feeling worthwhile.
b. being assertive and in control.
c. the self-concept.
d. the total of early-life experiences.
III. The Nature & Consequence Of Self- Esteem

Self-Esteem:
• Self-esteem has two interrelated components:

Self – Self-respect
Efficacy
Review Question

The two components of self-esteem are

a. self-efficacy and self-respect.
b. self-discipline and self-confidence.
c. self-disclosure and self-knowledge.
d. self-awareness and self-love.
 Review Question

A developmental psychologist is likely to believe that self-esteem comes about from:

a. positive self-talk about being wonderful.
b. genuine accomplishment followed by praise and recognition.
c. receiving lavish praise even if you have not accomplished much.
d. enjoying noncompetitive activities.
Self Efficacy:
• Is confidence in your ability to carry out a specific task in contrast to generalized
self-confidence.
Review Question

Self-efficacy refers to the idea that a person feels self-confident to carry out a wide
variety of tasks.

a. True

b. False
Self-Respect:

• The second component of self-esteem refers to how you think and feel about yourself.
• Tohave self respect is to like yourself without worrying about comparisons to others.
• Instead they believe that self-esteem results from accomplishing worthwhile activities
and then feeling proud of these accomplishments.
• Psychologist Martin Seligman argues that self esteem is caused by a variety of
success and failure.
• To develop self-esteem people need to improve their skills for dealing with the world.
2- The Consequence Of Self-Esteem:

• One of the major consequences of high self-esteem is good mental health.

• Few negative comments from others are likely to bother you when your self-esteem
is high.
2- The Consequence Of Self-Esteem:

High self esteem

self credit Positive expectation

success high effort

IV. Enhancing Self-Esteem

• Improving self-esteem is a lifelong process because self esteem is related to the

success of your activities and interactions with people.
• We have 5 approaches to enhancing self-esteem that relates to self-esteem
develop.

1. Accomplishing Worthwhile Activities

2. Engaging Self-Disclosure
3. Developing Awareness Of Strengths
4. Minimize Situations That Detract From Your Feeling Of Competence
5. Dealing With People Who Boost Your Self-Esteem
1. Accomplishing Worthwhile Activities:

• Toemphasize again, accomplishing worthwhile activities is a major contributor to

self-esteem.
Review Question

An important contribution of high self-esteem to good mental health is that fewer

situations will be stressful for the individual.

a. True

b. False
2- Engaging Self-Disclosure:

• One method of increasing your self-esteem is to engage in the right amount of

self-disclosure; the process of revealing your inner self to others.
• Self disclosure aids in self acceptance because revealing more of oneself allows
more for othersto accept.
Review Question

Self-disclosure leads to increased self-acceptance, which in turn leads To more self-

esteem.

a. True

b. False
Review Question

Increased self-disclosure will lead to increased self-esteem because self-disclosure

reflects:
a. Self-acceptance and self-esteem.
b. Self-confidence and self-esteem.
c. Self-awareness and self-esteem.
d. Self-confidence and self-esteem.
Review Question

A recommended approach to strengthening your self-concept and self-confidence at

the same time is to:
a. get other people to tell you how great you are.
b. achieve a series of successes.
c. get rid of as many negative thoughts as possible.
d. simplify your life.
3- Developing AwarenessOf Strengths:

• Developing a group exercise to help you build self-esteem through knowledge of

your strengths.
4- Minimize Situations That Detract From Your Feeling Of Competence

• Avoid all situations in which you feel less competent might prevent you from
acquiring needed skills.
 5- Dealing With People Who Boost Your Self-Esteem:

• They are the people with high self-esteem are those who give honest feedback
because they respect others and themselves.
• Weak people will not give you the honest feedback.
Review Question

People who can raise your self-esteem are usually those with high self-esteem
themselves.

a. True

b. False
Review Question

People with high self-esteem are more likely to give you honest feed back because the
respect others and themselves.

a. True

b. False
 Review Question

A recommended technique for boosting your self-esteem is to think about all your
weaknesses and problems. In this way you will believe that things can only get better,
thus boosting your self-esteem.

a. True

b. False
Review Question

A person’slevel of self-confidence appears to be related to the number of successes he

or she has experienced.

a. True

b. False
49

Review Question

From a business point of view, an additional benefit of self understanding is

that it appears to be related to ______.
a. High sociability
b. Low sociability
c. High performance
d. Low performance
49

Review Question

A valuable service counsellors provide is to collect information that you

have revealed about your self and gather it into meaningful whole.
a. True
b. False
49

Review Question

Few negative comments from others are likely to bother you when your
self-esteem is high.
a. True
b. False
49

Review Question

All of the following can be used for Enhancing Self-Esteem, except:

a. Accomplishing Worthwhile Activities
b. Engaging Self-Disclosure
c. Developing Awareness Of Strengths
d. Maximize Situations That Detract From Your Feeling Of Competence
Dr. Mohamed Elmasry
Email: malmasry@eelu.edu.eg