UNIT III

Managing and
Caring for Self
CONTENTS

I. Sources of Stress in Troubled Teens

II. Tips for Coping with Teen Stress
III. Sigmund Freud's Ego Defense
Mechanism
IV. Albert Bandura’s Self-efficacy
V. Carol Dweck’s Mindset theory
-Fixed vs. Growth mindset (Dweck)
VI. Principles of Proper Goal Setting
VII. Why Observe Self Care?
“The interpretation of
stressful events is
more important than
the events
themselves.”

-Lazarus
I. Sources of Stress in Troubled Teens
The term “stress”, as it is
currently used was coined by Hans
Selye in 1936, who defined it as “the
non-specific response of the body to
any demand for change”. Stress is a
natural human response to pressure
when faced with challenging and
sometimes dangerous situations. That
pressure is not only about what’s
happening around us, but often also
about demands we place on ourselves.
 I. Sources of Stress in Troubled Teens

Warnings of stress overload in

teens can include headaches or frequent
sickness, withdrawal from friends and
activities, changes in sleeping and eating,
anger, irritability, and hopelessness. The
biggest risk from overload and mental
illness in young adults is suicide, the
third leading cause of deaths in young
adults.
Common stressors
in teens include:

 Social Stress
 Isolation
 Traumatic
Events
 Drug use
Some other major
sources of stress
are:

 Bullying
 Overly high
expectations
 Demands of
school or work
 Negative
thoughts and
self-doubt
 Obesity, Chronic
illness, Lack of
sleep
 Unsafe living
conditions/
Unstable home
environment
 Expectation and
pressure to do
well at school
from parents
and family
 Their social
relationship with
friends and
boyfriend/girlfrien
d and the issue of
sex
 Life challenges,
such as leaving
school or getting
into tertiary
studies or
employment
 Lack of time
 II. TIPS FOR COPING WITH TEEN
STRESS

The adolescent brain is more

sensitive to stress hormones and can
suffer damage from stress that lasts
into adulthood. On the other hand,
because the adolescent brain is
developing so rapidly, good habits for
coping with stress also can last to
adulthood.
 Tips:
 Don’t ignore
symptoms of
depression or
anxiety. Talk with
someone.
 Exercise regularly,
don’t skip meals,
and get enough
sleep.
 Avoid high-caffeine
drinks, drugs,
tobacco and alcohol.
 Replace negative
self-talk with
positive self-
talk.
 Surround
yourself with
supportive
friends and
healthy
activities.
 Avoid pressure
from high
expectations.
 III. Sigmund Freud’s Ego Defense
Mechanism

Defense Mechanism are

psychological strategies that are
unconsciously used to protect a person
from anxiety arising from unacceptable
thoughts or feelings. We use defense
mechanism to protect ourselves from
feelings of anxiety of guilt, which arise
because we feel threatened.
 III. Sigmund Freud’s Ego Defense
Mechanism

 Compensation – is the process of

masking perceived negative self-
concepts by developing positive self-
concepts to make up for and to cover
perceive negative self-concepts.
 Denial – the subconscious process of
blinding yourself to negative self-
concepts that you believe exist in you,
but that you do not want to deal with or
face.
 III. Sigmund Freud’s Ego Defense
Mechanism

 Displacement – is when you express

your feelings to a substitute subject,
because you are unwilling to express
them to the real target.
 Identification – as a defense
mechanism is the identification of
yourself with causes, groups, heroes,
leaders, movie stars, organizations,
religions, sport stars, or what ever
you perceive as being good self-
concepts or self image.
 III. Sigmund Freud’s Ego Defense
Mechanism

 Introjection – is the acceptance of the

standards of others to avoid being rated
as negative self concepts by their
standards.
 Projection – is the attribution to others
of your own negative self-concepts.
 Rationalization – is the process of
explaining why this time, you do not
have to be judge as negative self-
concepts because your behaviors or
intentions.
 III. Sigmund Freud’s Ego Defense
Mechanism

 Reaction Formation- is the process of

developing conscious positive self-
concepts in order to cover and hide
opposite negative self-concepts.
 Regression – is the returning to an
earlier time in your life when you were
not so threatened with becoming
negative self-concepts.
 III. Sigmund Freud’s Ego Defense
Mechanism
 Repression – is the unconscious and
seemingly involuntary removal from
awareness of the negative self-
concepts that your ego finds too
painful to tolerate.
 Ritual and undoing - as a defense
mechanism is the process of trying
to undo negative self-concepts
ratings of yourself by performing
rituals or behaviors design to offset
the behaviors that the negative
ratings of you were based on.
 III. Sigmund Freud’s Ego Defense
Mechanism

 Sublimation – is the process of

diverting your feelings about the
negative self-concepts that you have
of yourself or others in to more
socially acceptable activities.
 Less well known
Defense Mechanism:

 Altruism
 Avoidance
 Fantasy
 Humor
 Humility
 Intellectualization
IV. ALBERT BANDURA’S SELF-EFFICACY

Self Efficacy - is a sense that one is

competent and effective .
 Bandura’s sources
of efficacy beliefs
 Mastery
Experiences
 Vicarious
experiences
 Verbal
persuasion
 Emotional &
Physiological
States
 Imaginal
Experiences
V. CAROL DWECK’S MINDSET THEORY
- FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET

Mindset Theory states the effects of

the beliefs that individual hold for the
nature of intelligence.

Mindset refers to implicit theories that

individuals hold regarding the nature of
intelligent behavior to the degree that
individuals attribute intelligence to
fixed traits or growth mindset.
2 Types of Mindset

 Fixed Mindset

 Growth Mindset
 VI. Principles of Proper Goal Setting

1. Set Clear Goals

2. Set Challenging
Goals
3. Commit to
your goals
4. Get Feedback
 “What you get by achieving
your goals is not as important as
what you become by achieving
your goals.”

- Henry David Thoreau

 1. Set Clear Goals

Sometimes people set clear goals such

as, “I’m going to start losing weight” or “I
am going to be more active.” These goals are
very difficult to achieve because they are
near-impossible to measure. These
immeasurable goals aren’t nearly as
motivating; plus, one may not even realize it
when they have been achieved.
Clear goals would be more along the
line of, “I am going to lose 3 pounds per
week, for 3 months” or “I will start running
a mile every morning.”
 One way to help you set clearer
goals is to use the popular smart goal
mnemonic:
 Specific – goals should be written
simplistically and clearly defined what
exactly you are to do (what, why,
and how).
 Measurable – you should be able to
measure your goals in one way or
another; provide yourself with tangible
evidence that you’ve completed your
goal you can even set yourself smaller
mini-accomplishment within a goal if
the goal is quite large.
 Achievable – goals should be
challenging enough to stretch, and
push you, that not too challenging
to where it is impossible (these
goals can be demotivating) you must
know that you have it within you to
achieve the goal. Establish a
reasonable time frame to reach your
goal; too much stress is never fun.
 Results-focused – goals should be
measured by outcomes, not
activities.
 Time-bound – goals should be set
within a certain time frame. A time
frame will create a sense of urgency
and help to energize you to
complete it with out this sense of
urgency the goal will never get done.
However, Also make sure that you
give yourself a reasonable amount of
time to complete the task.
 2. Set Challenging Goals
Here are the tips of setting challenging
(but not too challenging) goals;

> Develop self discipline and a sense of

persistence so that you can work
through any struggles that may arise
in achieving your goal.
> If this is a group goal, create a bit
of friendly, competition among the
members of the group; competition
is wildly encouraging.
 3. Commit to your Goals

Make sure this goal is something

you are beyond willing to commit to.
Write it down, post it up, or perhaps
even tell a trusted friend your goal in
order to seal the commitment.
 4. Get Feedback

Feedback helps to gauge your

progress; If you are moving along well,
this can be very motivating/ If you are
not this realization can also be very
motivating.
 VII. Why Observe Self Care?

> Self Care prevents “overload

burnout”
> Self care helps you refocus taking a
break basically is the epitome of self
care and helps you perform better
after mind relaxation.
 Care for Yourself: Taking care of all aspects of
you will increase the likelihood that you stay well.

 Live Healthy
 Practice Good Hygiene
 Build your sense of belonging
 Try to do something you enjoy everyday
 Find ways to relax
 Strengthen Your Connections

Spending time with positive,

loving people you care about and trust
can ease stress, help your mood and
improve the way you feel overall.
 Strengthen Your Connections

Connection happens when you get:

 Concrete help, such as having a
friend to help you with a task.
 Emotional support.
 Advice.
 Validation, like learning that other
folks love watching drama series too.
 Strengthen Your Connections

Connect With Yourself

 It is important that you check in
with yourself periodically, If you do
not then you may not realize that
things are changing or getting out of
control.
 Making a list of accomplishments
that you have achieve is a good
resource to turn back to when you
are feeling low.
-THE END-