Pick one of the outcome areas of AT research
and link them to research in one or more of the following areas: Abnormal,
Behavioral Neuroscience, Cognitive, Developmental,
Learning, and Social
What does self-concept even mean? According to this website, self concept is how we think about and evaluate ourselves. Our awareness of ourselves allows us to create a concept of who we are. If you need to hear it first hand from some adorable children, all you have to do is click here. If you resisted the urge to click the link (you're missing out they really are cute) the big take away for our purposes is that middle school aged kids describe themselves in less concrete terms and start describing themselves in group membership. As a child develops into a young person, the begin to continuous compare and contrast their behavior with that of their peers and begin to develop a sense of who they are based on feedback they are receiving (Gass, Gillis, & Russell, 2012).
Now I bet your wondering, where aspect of psychology could I relate this too? Good thing you asked. Self-concept draws parallels to learning psychology. Learning psychology can be seen as creating permanent behavioral change or a potential for creating behavioral change. As learning takes place, you can alter the way you perceive your environment, the way you interpret incoming stimuli and therefore the way you interact and behave. That’s the potential for a lot of change.
Low levels of self-concept are associated with the continuation of self-destructive behavior in adolescents. People with this state of mind are often poor judges leading to a multitude of different problems we see in youth today. But how can we stop these problems? Adventure Therapy to the rescue! Early studies showed that AT programs enhance the self-concept of adolescents by presenting challenges which are developmentally appropriate because they are concrete, attainable, and increase in challenge as the intervention progresses (Gass, Gillis, & Russell, 2012). This can also be seen in the reinforcement aspect of learning psychology. The term reinforce, as associated with psychology refers to a stimulus which increases the probability for a specific response. Healthcare professionals working in AT can use these reinforcements to achieve desired results in their area of work, whether it’s back-country or the front-country. Now that’s coming full circle.
Learning, and Social
What does self-concept even mean? According to this website, self concept is how we think about and evaluate ourselves. Our awareness of ourselves allows us to create a concept of who we are. If you need to hear it first hand from some adorable children, all you have to do is click here. If you resisted the urge to click the link (you're missing out they really are cute) the big take away for our purposes is that middle school aged kids describe themselves in less concrete terms and start describing themselves in group membership. As a child develops into a young person, the begin to continuous compare and contrast their behavior with that of their peers and begin to develop a sense of who they are based on feedback they are receiving (Gass, Gillis, & Russell, 2012).
Now I bet your wondering, where aspect of psychology could I relate this too? Good thing you asked. Self-concept draws parallels to learning psychology. Learning psychology can be seen as creating permanent behavioral change or a potential for creating behavioral change. As learning takes place, you can alter the way you perceive your environment, the way you interpret incoming stimuli and therefore the way you interact and behave. That’s the potential for a lot of change.
Low levels of self-concept are associated with the continuation of self-destructive behavior in adolescents. People with this state of mind are often poor judges leading to a multitude of different problems we see in youth today. But how can we stop these problems? Adventure Therapy to the rescue! Early studies showed that AT programs enhance the self-concept of adolescents by presenting challenges which are developmentally appropriate because they are concrete, attainable, and increase in challenge as the intervention progresses (Gass, Gillis, & Russell, 2012). This can also be seen in the reinforcement aspect of learning psychology. The term reinforce, as associated with psychology refers to a stimulus which increases the probability for a specific response. Healthcare professionals working in AT can use these reinforcements to achieve desired results in their area of work, whether it’s back-country or the front-country. Now that’s coming full circle.
Questions I’m left with though is what types
of reinforcement should be used primarily, positive, negative, extinction or
punishment? Is it even helpful to
generalize in that sense or should everything be taken by a case by case
situation? Should some be used more or less? Here is a link with a definition for these terms so you can help me answer them!
Citation:
Heffner, C. (2004, March 24). Psychology 101. Retrieved from http://allpsych.com/psychology101/learning.html
Heffner, C. (2011, November 29). Chapter 4: Learning theory and behavioral psychology. Retrieved from http://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement.html
McLeod, S. A. (2008) . Self Concept. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/self-concept.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/self-concept.html
Gass, Michael A., Lee Gillis, and Keith C. Russell. (2012). Adventure Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. New York: Routledge
Note: Youtube video is not cited below because it is from the self concept website, it is just linked as a youtube video for your viewing comfort.
Hey Christine! Your post seemed similar to what we talked about in class with Kelli's blog and how it relates to psychology of learning. I didn't really think about psych of learning while I was reading or thinking about AT in my blog, but I think a large aspect of it comes from learning. The whole idea of reinforcement is huge, and I think AT and back-country therapy has something that other types of therapy lack, and that is bringing the patients out of their natural environment. I think as you question goes, technically extinction will often be present in AT because of the novel environment! But other than that I think for each patient it would probably be a different case. Interesting thoughts!!
ReplyDeleteInteresting blog! I found particularly interesting the part about the self-concept that can be diminished in adolescents which can lead to problems with the youth. I was wondering though how the self concept compares to self-esteem and whether the process is just made worse by cycle of self-esteem problems leading to self-concept problems which lead to undesirable behavior and then through the cycle again. The reinforcement therapy in AT that you mentioned in your blog reminded me of our discussion about the pros and cons of token therapy. I feel the token in adventure therapy are more personal like small achievements and the like. Would you agree? Great Blog!
ReplyDeleteSelf-concept is definitely very interesting. It makes sense that low levels of self-concept perpetuate destructive behavior. It one cannot create a concept of one's self, if one has limited ability and simply does not know how, destruction will happen. The thing is they may not see it as destructive until someone tells them. I see two ways to approach such adolescents. One way is to answer their destruction with more destruction. This looks like yelling, ridiculing, and ignoring. The other way is to answer their destruction with concern- kind-hearted, loving concern. This i obviously not condoning the destruction, no, that would be called praising. Concern lets the adolescent know that her thoughts, feeling, and/or behaviors were/are not healthy but they can learn to adapt them to become healthy. This creates an avenue for conversation, thought, and ultimately greater awareness of one's self, which creates a high level of self-concept. Isn't that what we're going for? Or are we? I wonder what the negatives are in being highly aware of one's self. I could argue that this is just as detrimental as having very low self-concept. Talk about full circle!
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