Mental
Health
Mental
health is a dynamic process in which
a person’s physical, cognitive, affective, behavioral, and social dimensions
interact functionally with one another and the environment.
Mental health: a state of well-being
Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in
which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the
normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to
make a contribution to her or his community.
The positive dimension of mental health is stressed in
WHO's definition of health as contained in its constitution: "Health is a
state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity."
This fact file highlights the important aspects of
mental health and disorders.
Mental health stands for the “the wholesomeness of the
mind” and it concerned with the health of one’s mind and its functioning as
well as physical functioning.
J.A.
Hadfield (1952): Mental health is the
full and harmonious functioning of the whole personality.
Cutts and
Moslay (1941). Mental health is the
ability which helps us to seek adjustment in the difficult situations of our
life.
K. A.
Menninger (1949). Let us define
mental health as the adjustment of human beings to the world and each other
with a maximum of effectiveness and happiness. It is the ability to maintain
even temper, an alert intelligence, socially considerate behavior and a happy
disposition.
We can conclude, the mental health as the health of one’s
mind which can prove a potent determinant of one’s integrated personality and
balanced behavior identified on the basis of the level of his adjustment to his
self, others and environment.
Understanding
the Concept of Mental Health
There are certain well-known characteristics and
findings for understanding the true concept of mental health. They have been
mentioned briefly as follows:
1. Nothing
called perfect mental health: Mental
health is a fiction and not reality. Hence, it is always better to talk of optimum
mental health in place of perfect mental health.
2. Mental
health is dynamic concept: Mental
health denotes a state of balanced equilibrium of our mind. This balance is not
static, it is quite dynamic. The circumstances in our life are never static and
since they are changeable, so is our adjustment. The adjustments we have
achieved at any point with ourself and the enviourmental forces may not be
helpful in future and so one’s mental heal is always in a state of dynamics.
3. Mental
health can’t be achieved without physical health. The saying that ‘ a sound mind lives in a sound
body’ is quite true. For achieving an optimal level of mental health, one has
to first acquire adequate physical health.
4. Mental
health and efficiency are not the same thing. It is not essential for the successful and efficient men to be
mentally healthy as well. One may be quite efficient and successful at his work
or profession but he could be most unhappy, full of anxiety, etc. otherwise.
5. Mental
health and Social ability are not the same things. While a mentally healthy person is sociable, it is
not necessary for a sociable or socially adaptable person to be healthy minded.
One may be sociable but extremely anxious to please everybody. Similarly he may
be amenable because of an inherent feeling of insecurity or inferiority.
6. Mental
health differs form ethical standards:
Mental health differs from ethical standards. Morality does not guarantee
mental health. There exist many individuals who are very moral but suffer from
serious abnormalities like phobias or sex perversions.
Common Characteristics of a Mentally
Healthy Person
The common
characteristics of psychologically healthy individual as proposed by several
psychologists are listed below:
1. Adaptable
and resilient mind
2. Conscious
control of life
3. Cheerful and
optimistic outlook
4.
Well-regulated instincts and habits
5. Emotional
balance
6. Insight into
one's own conduct
7. Enthusiastic
and reasonable
8. Normal sex-consciousness
9. Freedom from
prejudice
10. Calm
11. Good
tempered
12. Socially
adaptable
13. Definite
philosophy of life
14. Capacity to
think independently
15. Satisfied
with the work or occupation
16. Realistic imagination.
Adjustment
Meaning and Concepts:
“Life presents a continuous chain of
struggle for existence and survivals”, says Darwin. Adjustment is a necessary characteristic to be able to live
peacefully in this world. Adjustment problem starts right from the birth of and
continues till death, various situations arise at home. School, college, and
workplace where we need to give up a little of our demands and accept what is
present. Adjustment is the process of arriving at a balanced state between the
need of individual and their satisfaction. Home and school play pivotal role in
the adjustment of an individual.
According to the Darwin (1958) theory of
evolution, those species which
adapted successfully to the demands of living, survived and multiplied while
others who did not, died out. Therefore adaptation or change in oneself
according to the external environment is a basic need for survival. However the
concept of adjustment is not as simple as adaptation. Psychologist and scholars
differ considerably in interpreting its meaning and nature.
James Drever defines adjustment as the modification to
compensate for or meat special condition.
According to
the Shaffer, L.S. (1961) “Adjustment
is the process by which living organism maintain a balance between his needs
and the circumstances that influence the satisfactions of these needs. In the
words of Coleman, James C., “Adjustment is the outcome of the individual’s
attempts to deal with the stress and meet his needs: also his efforts to
maintain harmonious relationships with the environment.
And according to the Carter V Good , “adjustment is the process of finding and adopting
modes of behavior suitable to the environment or the change in the environment.
“Adjustment”
can be defined as a process of altering one's behavior to reach a harmonious
relationship with their environment. This is typically a response brought about
by some type of change that has taken place. The stress of this change causes
one to try to reach a new type of balance or homeostasis between the individual
(both inwardly and outwardly), and with their environment.
The above discussion can lead us to
summarize in the following way:
·
Adjustment is a
process that takes us to lead a happy and well-contented life.
·
Adjustment helps
us in keeping balanced between our needs and the capacity to meet these needs.
·
Adjustment
persuades us to change our way of life according to the demands of the
situation.
·
Adjustment gives
us strength and ability to bring desirable changes in the conditions of our
environment.
Areas of
adjustment:
Adjustment in the case of individual consisted of
personal as well as environmental components. These two aspects of adjustment
can be further subdivided into smaller aspects of personal and environmental
factors.
Broadly speaking there are three areas where an
individual need to be adjusted to live a balance life. These are: Family and home, School, and Society.
The major
areas of adjustment are:
Emotional
Adjustment: Emotions play a leading
role in one's adjustment to self and his environment. An individual is said to
be emotionally adjusted if he is able to express his emotions in a proper way
at a proper time. It requires one's balanced emotional development and proper
training in the outlet of emotions.
Health
Adjustment: One should be adjusted
with health and physical aspects soundly, if an individual's physical
development and abilities are in conformity with those of his peers and he does
not feel any difficulty in his progress due to some defects or incapabilities
in his physical organs, he enjoys full opportunity of being adjusted.
Family
Adjustment: He all knows that home is
a source of greatest satisfaction and security to its members. The
relationships among family members and their ways of behaviour play a leading role
in adjustment of an individual. All problematic and delinquent behaviour is the
result of the adjustment and maladjustment, to a great extent as it is the
product of faulty rearing an uncongenial atmosphere at home.
Social
Adjustment: An individual's social
adjustment can be ascertained by his social environment. Social adjustment
requires the development of psychic qualities and virtues in an individual. It
also requires that one should be social enough to live in harmony with that
social being and feel responsible and obligatory towards one's fellow people,
society and country.
Academic
adjustment involves the students'
healthy adjustment to school or college environment and work. It could be
looked upon as the student's adjustment to the curriculum as evidenced in his
interest and liking for it, steadiness and clarity of his goals, that is,
whether the student has a carefully conceived plan for his future; whether he
is conscious of clear and normal life-goals; whether he is stimulated to a
proper effort to achieve them. The achievement of these largely depends upon
his efficiency in the use of his time and methods of study he employs. His
emotional maturity, his sound mental and physical health, his personal and
social relationships with the teachers and his associates are factors that are
likely to help or hinder the efficient pursuit of his goals in the sphere of
collegiate life.
Academic adjustment may broadly be described in terms
of the characteristics exhibited by a well adjusted student. A well adjusted
student possesses or exhibits the following characteristics:
1.
He has a high degree of intrinsic interest in the subjects he is studying.
2.
He has a positive attitude towards the requirements of his courses.
3.
He has a realistic evaluation of his abilities and capacities.
4.
He has the ability to concentrate for a reasonable length of time in the
performance of his academic work.
5.
He exhibits stability in his goals and in his emotional life.
6.
He is able to enjoy life in many areas.
Academic adjustment is the satisfactory relationship
of the student to the academic situation. It may be defined as adaptation to
the demands of the total scholastic environment. The adjustment process
consists in the efforts of the student to overcome frustrations in achieving
the satisfaction of his needs. In this sense, the exact nature of adjustment
will be unique in each individual student in terms of his personality and his
self-elected goals.
The process
of adjustment can best be described in terms of a number of criteria:
(i)
Integration: A well adjusted student
is free from inner conflicts and therefore is able to concentrate his energies
on his goal or compatible group of goals.
(ii) Ego
development: A well adjusted student
is one who has learned to apply his intelligence to the effective solution of
his problems to living. He is able to work efficiently and adequately. He finds
reasonable enthusiasm, satisfaction and pleasure in his work. He develops a
sound and consistent philosophy of life which involves a broad and realistic
outlook of the world around him. He is able to plan for the successful
accomplishment of his goals.
(iii)
Reality orientation: A well adjusted
student recognizes reality, particularly his own limitations and capacities. He
learns frustration tolerance' and to inhibit his needs when they are not
suitable and postpones satisfaction for a more favourable occasion.
(iv)
Responsibility : A well adjusted
student has the necessary maturity to accept responsibility for his actions. He
has the necessary mastery and understanding of his own feelings. He has a
certain freedom of emotional expression and self-control.
(v) Sense of
security: A well adjusted student has
a sound sense of security which grows out of his feelings of belonging and
being desired. He has adjusted his aspirations to reality, that is, the reality
of what he can expect of himself in the light of his talents, social position;
and opportunities. He is free from excessive anxiety, depression, worry and
disturbing fears. His feelings betray neither excessive exuberance nor
despondency.
(vi)
Curiosity and Spontaneity: A well
adjusted students shows normal curiosity and exhibits a natural and easy
spontaneity in social relationships. His emotions are under his control and he
does not permit their exaggerated expression. He learns to put his energies to
constructive and socially desirable ends. He perceives the world about him as a
warm, friendly place inhabited by people largely benevolent and friendly. He is
optimistic.
Frustrations
Man is ambitions by nature. He has so many aspirations
and desires to be fulfilled. He plans and strives hard for their realization
but it is possible that despite his best planning and efforts, he may not get
the desired success. At times he may find himself in the state of utter
confusion and bewilderment. All the paths for going ahead seem to be blocked.
Such state of affairs, along with the repeated failure in the attempts, puts
one into a state or condition that can be termed as frustration. For making the
term more clear, let us take some definitions coined by eminent writers.
Carroll
(1962): a frustration is the
condition of being thwarted in the satisfaction of motive.
Good (1959): Frustration means emotional tension resulting from
the blocking of a desire or need.
Kolesnic : Frustration is the feeling of being blocked or
thwarted in satisfying a need of attaining a goal that individual perceives as
significant.
Barney and
Lehner (1953): Frustration refers to
failure to satisfy a basic need because of either conditions in the individual
or external obstacles.
These
definitions reveal the following facts about the nature and meaning of the term
frustration:
Frustration is that stage or condition
in which failure dominates the attempts.
In this state one feels a major obstacle
in the satisfaction of one’s basic needs or in the attainment of one’s
cherished goal.
The significance of the goal and
strength of the “blockade” increases the degree of frustration.
The cause of frustration lies both in
the individual himself and his environment.
Causes of Frustrations
The
cause of frustration may be devided into two major heads:
A
External factors
B Internal Factors
Please refer
Essentials of Educational Psychology by S.K. Mangal – pages 534 to 540 for
remaining notes.
Behavioural
Problems – Meaning and Concepts
All our behavior has some definite purpose, aim or
motive and it directed towards the satisfaction of our basic needs, desires,
ambitions, instincts and emotions. The way in which this give and take
relationship is maintained decides the course of our adjustment with the
society. Satisfactory adjustment gives satisfaction to us and the society.
Consequently our actions and behavior are adjudged proper and get rewarded or
praised. Contrarily when our equilibration, the balance between our self and
the social environment, is disturbed, we being to suffer from social
maladjustment. Then it becomes difficult to maintain harmony in our
relationship with the society. We are forced to drift away from the norms,
rules and regulations and expectations of the society and there begins a war
like situation between our ‘self’ and the social environment. We are confronted
with the feelings of insecurity, anxiety, frustration and other similar
emotions resulting in various abnormalities in our behavior. As a consequence,
our behaivour no longer remains a social behavior but becomes anti-social or
abnormal leading to many behavior problems to our self and the society.
Due to this, they fall easy victims to many
behavioural problems like: bed wetting, nail biting, autism (inability to
relate socially), Thumb sucking, Temper tantrums, Lying, Truancy, Stealing, pick
pocketing and other types of juvenile delinquency, Bullying or fighting, Hair
plucking, different phobias, Speech disorders like stammering, Extreme
fearfulness and anxiety, Copying, Negativism, Sexually deviant behavior and
Drug addiction etc.
In this way, a behavior, provided it related to the
point of causing problems to the individual himself as well as to the members
and resources of the society. However, such problems child or adult has
abnormality only in terms of the problems related with behavior, otherwise he
is as normal as others. In this way behavioural problems should never be
confused with the individuals suffering from developmental disorders and mental
illness.
On the basis of behavioural problem meaning and
nature, we can define it as:
The term
behavioural problem or problematic behavior stands for that type of serious
abnormality in the behavior of an individual (child or adult) which, while
causing a problem for his proper adjusted to self and the environment, proves
quite detrimental to his own welfare along with that of the society.
Some common types of behavioural problems of the
children and adolescents are:
Truancy,
Lying, Stealing, Temper Tantrums, & Drug Addiction
Truancy: is a behavioural problem is related with the school
life of a child. Those children who willingly make themselves absent from the
classroom or outside classroom or outside classroom activities of the school
without the prior permission of their parents, teachers or school authorities
are termed as truants and their such absenteeism related behavior is termed as
truancy.
Causes of Truancy
Truancy, in all its kinds and shapes, is a behavioural
problem and is thus the outcome of one’s maladjustment and maladaptation with
his self and the environment. The causes of his maladaptive behavior resulting
into truancy, thus lie well within the factors and circumstances related to
one’s physical, social and educational surroundings are given below:
Physical health of the child, Mental health of the
child, Level of physical and mental abilities, Behaviour of the teachers, Study
and teaching methods in schools, Lack of cocurricular activities and hobbies,
Indiscipline in schools, Ill effects of bad company, Home environment,
Difficulty in the satisfaction of basic needs, Desire to escape from work,
Social and emotional maladjustment, Desire to prove superiority and courage
etc.
Lying
Lying and speaking the truth represent the two opposite and
contradictory dimensions of one’s personality. While truth is associated with
the virtues like honestly, integrity, and transparency in one’s behavior, lying
is said to be in close relationship with the vices like dishonestly, fraud,
deceit and indecency. So while speaking of truth is always appreciated and
encouraged in our society, the telling of lie is considered bad, undignified
and immoral. In our books and literature, we are always told and preached that
we should not tell lies. However, despite such widespread opposition to lying,
we all, including small children, tell lies. The question arises as to what
makes such innocent children pick up the evil habit of lying in its many ways
and styles. Let us study this problem in detail.
Types of
Lies
Lies can be
classified mainly into two following broad types and styles.
A: The lies
that are told knowingly in the state of full consciousness with some definite
purposes. (eg. Told on account of
fear or for saving the self from punishment or some other personal losses,
safety of others, making fool of others, proving one as a super hero, winning a
game or competition etc.)
B: The lies
that are told unknowingly in the absence of essential consciousness are included
in this category. These are mainly
generated through one’s unconscious mind. (eg. Lies related to an incomplete,
improper or wrong reporting of the facts on account of inadequate remembrance
of the things or events, for expression of one’s unconscious motives and
desires, one’s world of imagination, children’s ignorance or innocence)
Stealing
Stealing refers to that behaviour of an individual or child in
which he (i) engages himself in picking up or taking away some thing (money or
material object) belonging to others without their consent or knowledge; (ii)
pleads or exhibits his ignorance about the whereabouts of the object and (iii)
keep an unauthorized possession of the picked up object with him or derives
benefits by selling or giving it to somebody else of his choice.
Temper
Tantrum
Temper tantrum or temper outburst is a common sight
for any professional who deals with the problems of the children. It occurs
more frequently among younger children who exhibit a variety of learning,
physical or emotional problems. As a matter of definition, temper tantrum may
be termed as an intense uncontrollable outburst of anger expressed though
cursing, kicking, hitting, biting, screaming, rolling on the ground,
destruction of property and related behavior that may be dangerous to those
around as well as to furnishings.
Drug
Addiction
The Drug
Addiction carries with it the concept of drug and addiction.
Drugs: We generally make use of one or the other drugs for
preserving our health and protecting as well as curing ourselves from illness
or diseases. In this sense, drugs are our best friends. However, this is one
side of the story. All drugs are not always so helpful to us. If taken in
excess or in contradiction to the need of the body, they may prove fatal. It is
truer with those drugs that are associated with intoxication. Here while trying
to know the meaning of the term drug addiction; we must be quite specific that
by work drug we clearly mean the drugs associated with intoxication.
Addiction: Physiological and psychological dependence on
something may be referred to as our addiction to that thing. In this sense we
may have addiction to our breakfast, lunch, or dinner. However, its excessive
and prolonged use can make him quite dependent on it both physiologically and
psychologically. Gradually, it becomes dependent on it thus resulting in such
craving that one is compelled to take it at any cost irrespective of the
consequences. Hence starting from a causal intake and ordinary habit, drug addiction
may take the shape of quire a dangerous personality disorder. In its developing
stages this disorder may be seen to gradually affect the individual in the
following ways.
Initial
effects of drugs, conversion into a habit, Tolerance for the heavy doses of the
drugs, Physiological and Psychological dependence, Presence of withdrawal
symptoms, and developing into a behavioural problems.
After understating the meaning of the terms drug and
addiction, we may now define the term ‘drug addiction’, in the following way:
The behavioural problem associated with the drug
addiction stands for that physiological and psychological state of an
individual which is resulted through the prolonged and excessive use of an
intoxicating drug and which may be characterized by (a) an intense craving or
compulsion to obtain or consume it regardless of consequences; (b) a tendency
to increase the dosage with time; (c) physiological and psychological
dependence on the effects of the drug; (d) manifestation of particular withdrawal
symptoms on abrupt discontinuation of the drug, and (e) to live and work only
for consuming the drug.
