Self-esteem grows from our importance
Feeling important is good fuel for raising self-esteem. It is unlikely that anything can compare with it in terms of impact.
Low self-esteem – lack of confidence
The next time it seems to you that you mean nothing in this world, then think about how significance is actually determined. Significance is your assessment of yourself in society. This comes first. Of course, you receive feedback from other people, but assessments of this kind, as a rule, are all different and, not the last question, why do you think that they can be true?
Significance is, in a sense, capital that you can exchange for certain rights.
You are a very significant person in this world. And not because of any of his social merits, but simply by the fact of his birth and existence. As a child, you significantly changed the lives of your parents. Why, as a child, even before birth! Your school friends changed thanks to you - after all, you communicated with them, which means changes were inevitable. When you make purchases, you distribute your funds among a large number of businesses, which, among other things, are converted into salaries of the people around you. By paying taxes, you support the state machine, which, however, often forgets about this. By driving carefully, you make sure that the people you meet at the crossing can return home and not end up in the hospital. If you have children, then it is you who shape their future. And not only them, but the future of your entire family.
About self-doubt
You are a very significant person. And no one can say that this is not so. Because no one knows what “waves” our existence generates for the future and no one can reasonably claim that one person is more valuable than another.
Why am I jealous?
What about, for example, great statesmen like Napoleon, didn’t he accomplish great things? – But this depends on the point of view. If you think about it carefully, people in power are not necessarily more important than you. Because of Napoleon's activities, thousands, tens of thousands of people died. Does that make it more meaningful? In the minds of the mindless crowd, yes, but from another point of view, he is simply a murderer. Just like other notorious figures, well known to history. It is likely that without their direct and sensitive leadership, the peoples would have received much more benefit and humanity would have gotten rid of all diseases a couple of centuries ago. So, in this regard too, you should not belittle the importance of your existence. Your life and benefit simply from being you cannot be measured. That is, there are no scales on which you could weigh your usefulness and the usefulness of other people.
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Development
Strictly speaking, psychology emerged as a separate science only in the 19th century. What happened before this, and why do textbooks count its history from ancient times?
First there was the doctrine of the most important concept of all cultures - the soul. Already in ancient times, philosophers asked questions about this subtle matter. Plato spoke of the soul as a divine essence; the Epicureans, on the contrary, represented it as a physical part of the body. Aristotle was the first to connect the soul directly with the body and believed that it was it that moved a person to action and self-realization. These ancient treatises are considered the prerequisites for the creation of science.
The doctrine of what motivates a person and his actions has changed along with society, its mentality and values. During the Middle Ages, all ideas about human essence were influenced by religion and served to confirm the tenets of faith.
At the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century, the object of study was transformed thanks to Rene Descartes, who thought about the connection between bodily and mental processes and came to the conclusion that the physical body is controlled by the “rational soul” - consciousness. Over the next three centuries, philosophers observed how the individual came to know himself and the universe.
And only 1879 is considered the year of the founding of psychology as a separate discipline. The study of human nature has ceased to be the province of philosophers. Scientists began active experiments, and the first research centers opened. The focus began to gradually shift to human behavior.
At the beginning of the last century, new directions in psychology , making science what we know it now. The second half of the century became the era of its heyday.
In the 21st century, psychology is becoming part of everyday life. Psychological services, private practitioners and a huge amount of popular scientific literature make her achievements accessible to everyone. Scientific research is also ongoing. They use new technologies that make it possible to study mental processes at the neutron and molecular levels.
What creates significance?
Significance has several consequences. Significance is, in a sense, capital that you can exchange for certain rights. Among them are confidence, the right to safety, the right to manage one’s own life. This is also called responsibility.
An insignificant person considers it natural that someone controls him, while a significant person believes that he has sufficient responsibility to be responsible for his life and change it as he considers possible. Of course, without causing harm to other people.
Some rights you may like, some you may not.
Branches of psychology
Modern psychology is a multidisciplinary science. Branches of psychology are relatively independent developing areas. They are conventionally divided into fundamental (general) and applied (special).
The fundamental branches of psychology are of general importance in the study of mental phenomena. This is the basis that unites all branches of psychology and also serves as the basis for their development. Fundamental branches are usually called “general psychology.” The main concepts that general psychology considers are: cognitive processes (sensations, perceptions, attention, ideas, memory, imagination, thinking, speech, emotions, will, reflection), mental properties (abilities, motivation, temperament, character) and mental states . The emergence of general psychology as a fundamental branch is associated with the name of S. L. Rubinstein, who in 1942 created the fundamental work “Fundamentals of General Psychology.”
Applied branches of psychology are those that have practical significance. Such branches include, for example, educational psychology, developmental psychology, differential psychology, social psychology, clinical psychology, legal psychology, sports psychology and many others.
The problems are the same
ColiN00B / Pixabay
Awareness of one's own importance, however, also gives rise to problems. And, first of all, this is the same responsibility. Responsibility for your life.
Responsibility is not the product of our worldview that everyone dreams of. Responsibility creates obligations. Responsibility does not allow people to feel irresponsibility, which corrupts. This means that significance and the high self-esteem it promotes are not suitable for everyone and may not appeal to everyone.
Loneliness as a psychological problem
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Responsibility, as a tool that helps build life according to one’s own principles, helps increase freedom as the ability to choose and act in one way or another. As sociological research shows, for many people freedom is rather a threat, frightening in its obscurity, uncertainty about what to do with it, how to behave and the opportunity to have their own opinion.
In general, there is no reason to believe that we will soon get a society of significant people who respect themselves, are responsible for their lives and are able to change it for the better, which will ultimately contribute to the prosperity of the entire society.
This is only one side of nurturing your own self-esteem, but even it can seriously change your view of your place in this world, giving the necessary energy for the desired changes.
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Andrey Petrakov
Hello! This is a blog on psychology, in which significant attention is paid to the topics of psychological violence - abuse, narcissism, relationships, personal crises, taking responsibility for one's life, increasing self-esteem, existential problems. The cost of consulting a psychologist is 3000 rubles/hour, in person (Moscow, Maryina Roshcha metro station), or via Skype About us/Make an appointment
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Subject of psychology
The subject of psychology is understood differently throughout history and from the perspective of different areas of psychology.
- Soul (all researchers until the beginning of the 18th century)
- Phenomena of consciousness (English empirical associationist psychology - D. Hartley, John Stuart Mill, Alexander Bain, Herbert Spencer)
- Direct experience of the subject (structuralism - Wilhelm Wundt)
- Adaptability (functionalism - William James)
- Origin of mental activities (psychophysiology - Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov)
- Behavior (behaviorism - John Watson)
- The unconscious (depth psychology: psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud, individual psychology - Alfred Adler, analytical psychology - Carl Gustav Jung)
- Processes of image processing and the results of these processes (Gestalt psychology - Max Wertheimer)
- Problems of human existence (humanistic psychology - Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Viktor Frankl, Rollo May)
- Processes of information processing by the information system “brain”, human cognitive abilities (cognitive psychology - George Miller, Herbert Simon, Allen Newell, Noam Chomsky, David Green, John Sweets and others)
The main tasks of science
How did psychology emerge as a science? It all started when thinkers and philosophers began to pay attention to mental processes. This became the main objective of the teaching. Researchers analyzed the features of all processes directly related to the psyche. They believed that this direction reflects reality, that is, all events influence the psycho-emotional state of a person, which prompts him to take one action or another.
The analysis of all phenomena related to the psyche and their development is the second task of science. Then a third, important stage in psychology appeared - the study of all the physiological mechanisms that control mental phenomena.
If we talk about the tasks briefly, we can divide them into several points:
- Psychology should teach us to understand all psychological processes.
- After this, we learn to control them, and then completely manage them.
- We direct all knowledge into the development of psychology, which is closely related to many humanities and natural sciences.
Thanks to the main tasks, fundamental psychology (that is, science for the sake of science) was divided into several branches, which include the study of children's characters, behavior in the work environment, temperament and traits of creative, technical and sports individuals.
O. Kasman
Otto Kasmann played a significant role in psychology, despite the fact that for a long period he was the main pastor and theologian in the German city of Stade. It was this public religious figure who called all psychic phenomena scientific objects. There is practically no information about this founder, since quite a lot of events happened over four centuries. However, Otto Kasmann left us valuable works called Psychologia anthropologica and Angelographia.
The theologian and activist made adjustments to the term “anthropology” and explained that the biological nature of man is directly related to the abstract world. Despite the fact that Kasman made an invaluable contribution to psychology, the pastor himself carefully studied anthropology and tried to draw a parallel between this teaching and philosophy.
