Look at yourself positively
Last year, Spanish researchers in the field of developmental and educational psychology developed a program called ‘Look at Yourself Positive’. The purpose of this method was to enable learning self-acceptance and physical improvement self-esteem. Similar initiatives are often carried out among students in secondary and higher education in Spain. Until now, however, the focus has been on physical exercise – an aspect that was an important component of previous programs. In contrast, in this method, participants focus on cognitive aspect – they learn to change their beliefs and perception of reality in such a way as to have a more realistic awareness of their image.
The essence of the problem
One of the developers of the said program is Inge Axpe. 813 students participated in the pilot study. The aim was to check to what extent these impacts would influence the self-esteem of the participants. As an example of the operation of the Axpe program, he cites the problem of eating disorders. The key is to focus on cognitive perspective – a young person suffering from bulimia nervosa she may be attractive and athletic, and at the same time she may have very low self-esteem, especially when it comes to physical appearance. Current school programs focus on encouraging physical activity and following a balanced diet. According to researchers, such recommendations are ineffective. A person suffering from bulimia will not accept the diagnosis, in addition, the arguments regarding a healthy eating regimen will also not be convincing for them. The most important thing is to define the disease – bulimia as a result internal problem. It is on him, and not on the disease, as the researchers recommend, that one should focus on. The most important thing is to get to the root of the difficulty, not to talk about the eating disorder as such.
Getting to the bottom line
But how can this be done? It is not an easy process, because thoughts related to the origins of the disease are deeply rooted in us. Education seems to be important regarding the tendency to interpreting the information received in a very specific way – information that comes to us from other people is important, but how we receive it and how we behave depends on our interpretation. The key is to introduce young people to this dependency and convince them that if they don’t, they will effort to change, no one else will do it for them.
Progress of the program
The program developed by the researchers is divided into several stages: physical activity, healthy habits, external factors etc. The procedure for running each stage is similar. First of all, the idea is to arouse students’ interest by having them read certain texts. The next step is to ask questions to encourage reflection. Thereafter, for example during the physical activity phase, comments are encouraged about the sports they do. A list is displayed for students later in the program inappropriate behavior. Their exhibition aims to build the awareness of a young person by passing on and analyzing simple examples.
Distortions of thinking
The program also focuses on searching distortions of thinking. According to Axpe, the most common case of wrong thinking is a tendency to generalization your defect. For example, a person who thinks their nose is too big makes generalizations by saying it is ugly. In this case, the researchers teach students that they have a choice – you may not be satisfied with your nose, but at the same time you can have beautiful eyes, which is contrary to the original thesis: “I’m ugly”. In conclusion, the program aims to bring about cognitive restructuring and facilitate changes in self-esteem.
The results of the pilot study indicated that students participating in the program experienced signs of improvement in theirsphysical self-esteem. The program has the potential as a tool to build awareness of your self-esteem and show opportunities for change. Researchers believe that it is important to adapt this program to the needs and capabilities of children of all ages.
Based on: scienciedialy.com