Getting Acquainted With Ourselves and Others

Self-discovery: essential to effective helping

is self-knowledge. Self-discovery is the process of getting to know yourself.

Self-disclosure: is the process of deliberately

revealing information about yourself that is significant and that would not normally be known by others.

Evolution of a Relationship

The evolution of a relationship is

based on how much you are willing to

disclose about yourself and how much

the other person is willing to disclose

about themselves to you.

Good Self-Disclosure Skills

facilitate the following processes

Defining yourself

Knowing yourself

Getting acquainted with others

Developing intimacy

These skills are fundamental to relationships for many reasons. The greatest risk of self-disclosure is rejection.

Loneliness

Loneliness is one of the most serious problems in our society today – it is a feeling of longing and emptiness that is caused by the lack of emotional attachments and social ties.

It is most prevalent among teenagers, unmarried young adults, the divorced and the widowed.

It can lead to risk taking behaviors such as drug abuse, suicide, medical problems, sexual promiscuity, mental illness, and negative relationships.

Emotional Attachments

Emotional attachments can be to:

Parents

Relatives

Mates

Friends

Animals

Objects

Shyness

Shyness is universal; it involves feelings, physical reactions and thoughts that create a state of anxiety, discomfort, and inhibitions.

The consequences of shyness can be devastating.

The major difference between a shy and non-shy person is self-evaluation.

Overcoming Shyness

Analyzing your shyness

Building your self-esteem

Improving your social skills

Perceptual Awareness

The perceptual awareness process helps us to understand others more accurately instead of assuming that our first impressions are correct.

Social perception describes the way we perceive, evaluate, categorize and form judgments about the qualities of the people we encounter.

Social Perceptions

First impressions: initial impression

we form when meeting someone for

the first time. First impressions often

have a strong impact on how we will

interact with the individual in the future.

Stereotyping: is a process of making

generalizations by categorizing an

object, person, or situation based on a

pervious experience or learning.

Stereotyping is both the cause and

effect of prejudices.

Attribution

The attribution process allows us to

make sense out of other people’s

actions, figure out their attitudes and

personality traits, and ultimately, gain

some control over subsequent

interactions with them through our

increased ability to predict their

behavior.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Self-fulfilling prophecy is a powerful force in our life, that, not only determines how you see yourself in the present, but can actually influence your future behavior and that of others.

We see what you want to see; we become what others expect of us.