researchnadya

It's important to note that "mind" is not synonymous with brain. Instead, in our definition, the mind consists of mental states such as thoughts, emotions, beliefs, attitudes, and images. The brain is the hardware that allows us to experience these mental states.

Mental states can be fully conscious or unconscious. We can have emotional reactions to situations without being aware of why we are reacting. Each mental state has a physiology associated with it—a positive or negative effect felt in the physical body. For example, the mental state of anxiety causes you to produce stress hormones.

Many mind-body therapies focus on becoming more conscious of mental states and using this increased awareness to guide our mental states in a better, less destructive direction.

My own experience

I have had sex education when I was around 11/12 I believe. It was mainly facts and about how a woman gets pregnant and how it works etc. Also about protection. Then the boys needed to leave the class, and my teacher was talking to the girls about periods. I really believe that schools need to upgrade their sex education as it is important to know about ourselves but also about the other.

Sex education is an essential tool to help learn about a broad range of topics related to biological, psychological and sociocultural perspectives of individual beings as well as a key intervention to prevent and reduce sexual harassment, assault and abuse. It just needs to be delivered in an age-appropriate and engaging way.

Sex ed covers a wide range of issues related to health, sexuality, safety, gender norms, identity, respect, kindness, self-expression and power dynamics which are not just about sex. It teaches us about the variation in human bodies, how our bodies work and the rights that we have over our body.

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When we discuss sexual health, we don't often associate this subject with young people. But teaching them about their sexual health and well-being is much needed in an age-appropriate approach because being minors do not imply that they cannot be abused. They must understand when and how to say 'no' to unwanted and improper touch and here comes sex ed to fill up this information gap regarding consent, body rights and safety. And not to forget, it is important for both male and female children.

We have a social stigma that men/boys cannot be sexually harassed and so they don't need sex ed to learn about body rights and safety. However, the increase in the sexual assault and harassment of male children is urging the importance of providing well-structured sex education to all irrespective of gender.

Perception of others and the self

the theory of the looking-glass self

Our self-views form as a result of our perceptions of other people’s opinions of us. That is, what we learn and know about ourselves comes from others, from the outside world.

This notion is especially applicable to the way children form their self-esteem. For instance, if parents or teachers praise the child for their math skills, s/he will infer that they are good at math, and their confidence will increase.

according to the theory: first, we imagine how others see us,
then, we imagine how they assess us,
and finally, we develop our self-views through these judgements.

But we do hold some power, of course, over how our personalities are shaped. And we do have a say in how we choose to define ourselves, and thus — how much we let outside opinions leak substance into our self-image.

Selecting carefully the people we surround ourselves with and the dimensions we base our confidence on can often make all the difference.

Finally, the main thing to take away from the theory of the looking-glass self is to recognize that our self-esteem doesn’t form only as a result of self-knowledge, or how much we generally like or dislike ourselves, but is also a by-product of our social interactions.

How we perceive others has a direct impact on how we choose to communicate with them. Recalling the six images concept, the first image that comes into play is actually our perception of self. Our self-perception influences how we choose to present ourselves to those around us. If Bev sees herself as confident and interesting, she is more likely to be outgoing and talkative. If Ruth sees herself as uninteresting, she is more likely to be shy and more hesitant to engage others.

Self-Perception is an image we hold about our self and our traits and the judgements we make about those traits. Self-perception includes two, core perceptual processes: our self-concept, or the picture we have in our heads of who we are; and our self-esteem, or how we judge and evaluate those traits.

Self-concept and self-esteem are complex, psychological dynamics with a myriad of influences.

Our self-concept is our perception of the traits we have, a list of the characteristics we see in ourselves. This list is not positive nor negative, but it is just a list of what we believe is true about ourselves. We create our list through self-appraisal and feedback from others. Our self-appraisal is our perception of our traits and behaviors. It is like looking in a mirror and using our own senses to perceive what we are. We must realize, however, that the perceptual processes that influence our interpretation of others applies to us as well. Those influences can lead to a distorted picture. As teenagers, we all went through the acne stage, and at times we became overly focused on a single spot to the point that it was all we could see in the mirror, when others may have barely noticed it. A young man distraught about his family’s history of male-patterned baldness may be hyper-attuned to his hair and any changes, over emphasizing slight variations in thickness. On a more serious note, an individual with anorexia nervosa will perceive herself as "fat" when, in fact, she may be dangerously underweight. As we know about the perception process, we cannot always believe our own eyes, so we need to be kind to ourselves, realizing our perceptions can easily be distorted.

The feedback we get from others is a way we can check and validate our self-appraisal. If Todd sees himself as a very funny person, people laughing at his jokes would validate his self-appraisal. He would see evidence that he is viewed by others the same way he views himself. If Marjorie sees herself as a caring friend, having others seek her out for comfort and support validates that self-appraisal. Marjorie sees evidence that others see her as a caring person.

Sometimes we may see an incongruity between our self-appraisal and feedback from others. For instance, Don may think he is an interesting conversationalist, yet no one seems to want to carry on a conversation with him. When faced with this sort of disparity, Don can either reevaluate his self-appraisal, or he can choose to ignore the feedback. The origin of the feedback makes a difference. Feedback from our reference groups will usually be harder to ignore, while feedback from strangers can be more easily dismissed. While ignoring feedback from trusted individuals may be risky, being overly sensitive to the reactions of others is likewise unhealthy. In our western culture, we tend to emphasize traits we see as negative, so reevaluating our self-appraisal in light of this feedback can be a healthy way to keep our self-image in check.

After we become aware of our traits, we evaluate them; we judge whether we like a specific trait or behavior. For instance, Gabrielle may evaluate her weight as undesirable; thus, her self-esteem in this aspect of her self-concept is lower. However, she may also evaluate her relationship with her partner as a very good and healthy, so she has higher self-esteem in this aspect of her self-concept.

In order to evaluate anything, including our traits and behaviors, we must compare those traits and behaviors to something. We use criteria, standards by which we measure something. If we are interested in buying a certain car, the only way we can evaluate the price is by comparing it to other cars of similar value. We may shop around at various dealers, or perhaps we look up the suggested retail price from Kelley’s Blue Book. That suggested price is a criterion, a measure, by which we can determine if the offered price is appropriate.

Our self-esteem works the same way. Our fields of experience contain standards by which we measure and judge ourselves. For Esther to evaluate her weight, she can compare herself to those in her reference group, to her relatives, to medical height/weight charts, to celebrities, and so on. As the criteria, the thing to which she compares herself, changes, her evaluation will likely change. If weight issues run in her family, in comparison to them she may see her current weight favorably. If she compares her weight to what the medical community deems appropriate for her height, however, that evaluation may be less positive. We all have ideas of what it means for a person to be attractive, and we use those as standards to judge ourselves as well. So if Esther’s sense of attractive body size is the unrealistically thin nature of many models and celebrities, she may judge her weight quite severely.

Self-esteem, then, is a function of the perceived distance between our criteria and our current selves. As we move closer and closer to our goals, our self-esteem strengthens. Too often we assume the only way to improve self-esteem is to change the reality of ourselves, such as losing weight, to be closer to our ideal. However, another avenue is to re-evaluate and re-consider the criteria itself. Often, the standards we hold for ourselves are unrealistic and unattainable. The type of standard we use to evaluate ourselves is crucial in maintaining healthy self-esteem. There are two sources for these criteria: internal standards, and external standards.

are standards we have decided are right and reasonable for us individually. We use these to set goals and direction in our lives. If Khalid has decided that earning a college degree is right for him, that standard helps him have a clear goal; it can give a sense of direction and purpose. Khalid can evaluate his behavior based on how well it aids him in reaching his goal. If Juliana decides that losing 20 pounds is a proper goal for her, she has a concrete, measurable target. She can measure herself by her progress in reaching that goal. These are goals to reach, and they are realistic and attainable.

however, can be dangerous. When we fall prey to standards that are thrust upon us by societal forces, such as family, friends, and media, we are in dangerous territory. Consider the unrealistic standards our entertainment industry sets for physical appearance for both males and females. We see highly manipulated images of attractiveness, and through constant exposure to those images we can begin to feel they embody the criteria we need to reach. The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty (Dove 2013) is an example of an attempt to counter these overwhelming external pressures, and to emphasize the need to measure oneself internally, not on what others say we should be. Focused on young women, the program works to make people aware of those external pressures and, as a result, to reduce the influence of such societal images.

Advertising creates ever-moving standards of beauty, wealth, health, or other such measures. By constantly changing the standards, we keep buying their products to try to meet those false standards. We can always be thinner, have more/better hair, look sexier, or act cooler. Continually setting new standards for dress and appearance drive purchasing.

Although the external pressures to measure up to social standards can be very powerful, as we become aware of those influences, we can combat them. We can use our internal standards to evaluate the external ones, assimilating those we find appropriate for us, but tossing aside those that are not. However, if we are under the influence the external standards, our internal ones often fall by the wayside, buried in the onslaught of external forces.

Perception of self is the same process as perception of others, just turned on oneself. We sense information about ourselves, either through self-appraisal or from the feedback from others. We use this information to create our self-image, a list of our traits and characteristics. And we interpret what that self-image means to us; we measure how much we like those traits, developing our self-esteem.

We see that perception of self is subject to the pressures of variables that can cause distortions in that perception. By recognizing those pressures, we can moderate the effects of those pressures.

Every day, the digital world influences our daily lives here in the real world. The immersive installation, SCREENs, opening tomorrow at The Cell performance art theater, explores the ways in which screens affect ourselves in the natural world.

“SCREENs: The Installation” is a multimedia, immersive art installation making use of “living pictures” that seek to give visitors the space to explore the dissociation between their physical and digital selves. The exhibition establishes the need to unite and create balance between these two selves in order to fully realize our inner dreams. Cause let’s face it, we all know that the perception of ourselves that we exhibit on social media tends to be our perfect/Instagram life-selves and not always 100% sincere.

“the exhibition gives visitors a look into how the “powers that be” attempt to craft our individual identities and retain power through our basic, given consent therefore inhibiting our ability to connect these two selves, which is our right. We, internet users and TV viewers, chose to watch the content that runs through advertisements, talk shows, and pop-up windows.”

The idea for SCREENS came from the personal experience of the artist and her interactions and those of her friends and family consenting to an imbalanced relationship with screens. The exhibit is set to explore our relationship to technology, specifically how we present ourselves online and how that relates to our interactions and identities offline.

We trust that personal identity is indivisible from bodily form. The way we look is obviously not who we are. We are aware of a large gulf between our understanding of ourselves, and the suggestions emitted by our bodies.

Our characters are liable to mould themselves to the personalities implied by our faces, as a result of years of other people assuming that this must be who we are and treating us in the light of our appearance.

'The gentler sides of someone who looks gentle will thereby constantly be invited to the surface by the expectations and encouragement of others.

The bodies and faces of others are very separate from the character of their minds.