Cultural Psychology and Psychology of Adjustment- 4.1

• Adjustment


  The behavioural process of resolving incompatible demands or needs that are impeded by environmental challenges
• Self-concept


  Distinguished from self-awareness, which is the degree to which one's knowledge of one's own attitudes and dispositions is defined, consistent, and currently applicable
• Spiritual health


  The foundation of one's bodily and mental wellbeing
• Parapsychology


  The study of paranormal or "psychic" events, including alleged mental faculties like telepathy and telekinesis
• Psychological research


  Research conducted by psychologists to analyse the experiences and behaviours of people or groups
• The Adjustment Process


  • It is a continuous process
  • It is a two-way process
  • It involves self-perception
  • It is a developmental process
• Basic Principles of Adjustment

  1. A need or motivation is represented by a potent, enduring stimulus

  2. The obstruction or failure to meet this need

  3. Variety of activities, or exploratory behaviour combined with problem-solving

  4. The reaction that completes the adjustment by eliminating or at the very least reducing the initial stimulus
• Scientific Approach to Adjustment

  • Direct Methods
  • Indirect Methods
  • Compensatory Techniques
  • Aggressive Measures
• Characteristics of Satisfactory Adjustment

  • Self-Awareness
  • Self-Sufficiency
  • Self-Assurance
  • Acceptance
  • Security and Responsibility
  • Objective-Directedness
  • Equilibrium in all Tenses
  • Bodily Health
  • Psychological Comfort
  • Social Acceptance
  • Flexibility in Behaviour
• Self


  Both subject and object. "I" - the self as subject - that is involved when I feel angry or consider the concept of freedom. The other person's perception of the self or "me" is the self as an object.
• Levels of Self


  • The ecological self
  • The interpersonal self
  • The expanded self
  • The conceptual self
• Self-concept


  The way a person views himself, which forms the basis of their self-image
• Aspects of Self-concept


  • Actual Self
  • Ideal Self
• Self-esteem


  A person's perceptions of their own value and worth
• Self-presentation


  People's attempts to manipulate or control how others (the audience) perceive them
• Self-esteem


  Motivates people by influencing how likely it is for them to take care of themselves and reach their full potential
• People with high self-worth


  More driven to take care of themselves and work hard to achieve their personal objectives
• People with low self-esteem


  Frequently put off important tasks and are less tenacious and resilient in the face of challenges
• Self-presentation


  People's attempts to manipulate or control how others perceive them
• Impression management


  A broader range of actions, including self-presentation, involving the controlled display of information about many topics
• Social identity


  The sense of self that a person has, depending on their membership in a community(s)
• Stages of the Social Identity Theory

  1. Categorisation

  2. Identifying with Society

  3. Comparing the Social
• Spirituality


  Faith in and submission to an all-powerful force often referred to as God, who rules the universe and determines the fate of mankind. It entails how people carry out what they see to be the purpose of their existence, a quest for life's meaning, and a sense of kinship with the cosmos
• Mental health


  Absence of mental illness and the presence of a well-adjusted personality that positively impacts communal life
• Essential qualities of mental health

  • Ability to take responsibility for one's own actions
  • Adaptability
  • High threshold for frustration
  • Acceptance of uncertainty
  • Participation in activities of social interest
  • Courage to take risks
  • Serenity to accept the things we cannot change
  • Courage to change the things we can change
  • Wisdom to distinguish between the above
  • Acceptance of impairments
  • Balanced self-control
  • Maintain a satisfying relationship to oneself, others, including Nature and God
• Interpersonal connections might suffer from a lack of spirituality, which can contribute to the development of psychiatric illness
• Religious content might manifest as psychiatric symptoms
• Certain religious feelings and experiences are misdiagnosed as psychiatric disorders
• Bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach


  Approach that has to be promoted in psychiatry
• Incorporating spirituality in psychiatric treatment

  1. Consider the patient's spiritual attitude and religious habits in psychiatric history

  2. Appreciate and encourage religious practices that enable patients to cope better or have no negative effects on their mental health

  3. Question the notions that have a negative impact on mental health

  4. Communicate and have regular orientation programmes to reduce psychiatrists' scepticism towards spirituality
• High-quality evidence-based research is necessary to increase the objectivity and effectiveness of clinical applications in the field of spirituality and mental health
• Brain patterns observed during spiritual experiences


  • Default mode network becomes inactive
  • Activation of the front temporal network, which processes relational bonding, increases
  • Activation of the ventral attention network occurs
  • Inferior parietal lobe, which helps us distinguish between ourselves and others, is less activated
• Parapsychology


  A discipline of study that looks for evidence of supernatural psychological occurrences such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis
• Telepathy


  Thought transference or apparent connection between two minds that does not include the use of well-known sensory channels
• Precognition


  Awareness of future occurrences without being able to draw any reasonable conclusions from them
• Apparition


  A visual appearance that normally occurs just once or very seldom and suggests the presence of a dead person or animal, as well as a living person or animal outside the recipient's sensory range
• Poltergeists


  Phenomena where things can move without using any physical means
• Out-of-Body Experiences and Near-Death Experiences


  Intense experiences in which people believe they left their bodies and entered some other realm, transcending the boundaries of ego and the ordinary confines of time
• Reincarnation


  The belief that the soul of a dead person is reborn into a new body
• A number of genuine occurrences of such phenomena that the researchers were able to see for themselves, up close, have been documented