Self Awareness theory Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to reconcile oneself as an individual separate

from the environment and other individuals. According to Robak (2005:98) Self-Awareness Theory states that when we focus our attention on ourselves, we evaluate and compare our current behavior to our internal standards and values.We become self-conscious as objective evaluators of ourselves. However self-awareness is not to be confused with self-consciousness. Various emotional states are intensified by self-awareness. However, some people may seek to increase their self-awareness through these outlets. People are more likely to align their behavior with their standards when made self-aware. People will be negatively affected if they don't live up to their personal standards. Various environmental cues and situations induce awareness of the self, such as mirrors, an audience, or being videotaped or recorded. Causal Theory The Causal Theory is a progressive theory of personality development based upon cause and effect. It assumes that personality and behavior, including and especially adult behavior, result from childhood experiences beginning from birth, and perhaps even in utero (Margaret,2008). By definition, it cannot coexist with other theories grounded in genetics. It does not maintain that genes are responsible for creating personality or behavior, but rather that experience is the predominant and only relevant determining factor. We dont dismiss any traits or behaviors in a person as inborn, thus with little recourse for change other than treating the symptoms with medication. That is why theories based on genetics so often rely on the medical model, leaving little hope for change other than recommendations for pharmaceuticals, which are designed to disable parts of the brain (with no long-term corrective solutions). With the medical model, you treat the symptom without identifying the cause of the problem or curing it. The Causal Theory holds that an individuals personality and behavior shows us where he or she experienced nurturing and where he or she experienced injury or trauma. It borrows and expands on lessons from attachment theory, trauma theory , family systems theory , and some behavioral and cognitive models.
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The Causal Theory identifies inborn mechanisms which facilitate healing and offers a synthesis of best practices to create healing for children with their parents and for adults, as well. Once we are informed how healing works, we are enabled to address our own healing and that of our children through a process of overcoming trauma by witnessing and releasing feelings and correcting learned behaviors. The assumptions The Theory makes pay off in many ways. Though it is easier to use genetics to explain away behavior, Causal Theorists dont dismiss any part of the personality or behavior as inborn. We seek to understand what we see in a child and, consequently, we can see behavior more clearly than those who blame genetics, even in part, because everything we see is meaningful and more importantly, capable of correction or healing. We look at all behaviors as clues that can inform us where children received nurturing and where they were lacking it. We can tell what needs to be corrected and perhaps even how to go about that task. For example, a child who exhibits an inability to sit still, pay attention, and focus (and who may have already been diagnosed with ADHD), suggests to us a child with bottled up feelings needing to be expressed so he can stop bouncing off the walls. We determine when and how the symptoms began. We often find its from spending time in daycare at an early age or because a large amount of his feelings have been repressed. In the latter case, we would need to explore the family system as to whether there is an open exchange of feelings or there may even be a family secret. Then we help parents learn a new way of treating the child and we teach them how they can reverse or heal the effects of their unconscious parenting. When you believe that personality is created, not born, you take more responsibility as a parent. You can equate it with a chef who tastes his food as he prepares it to carefully see how its developing so he can add or subtract ingredients along the way. If a parent is tuned into how her child is turning out, she can adjust the child in time for greatness, a term we use to describe a child who loves life and lives ethically. So, The Causal Theory informs us how to raise a Miracle Child, how to heal an injured or traumatized child, and how to correct our own childhood adaptations and behaviors which no longer work. Self-perception theory

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Self-perception theory (SPT) is an account of attitude change developed by psychologist Daryl Bem. It asserts that people develop their attitudes by observing their behavior and concluding what attitudes must have caused them. The theory is counterintuitive in nature, as the conventional wisdom is that attitudes come prior to behaviors. Furthermore, the theory suggests that a person induces attitudes without accessing internal cognition and mood states. The person reasons their own overt behaviors rationally in the same way they attempt to explain others behaviours (Bem, 1972). One useful application of the self-perception theory is in changing attitude, both therapeutically and in terms of persuasion. Firstly, for therapies, self-perception theory holds a different view of psychological problems from the traditional perspectives which suggest that those problems come from the inner part of the clients. Instead, self-perception theory perspective suggests that people derive their inner feelings or abilities from their external behaviors. If those behaviors are maladjusted ones, people will attribute those maladjustments to their poor adapting abilities and thus suffer from the corresponding psychological problems. Thus, this concept can be used to treat clients with psychological problems that resulted from maladjustments by guiding them to first change their behavior and later dealing with the problems. One of the most famous therapies making use of this concept is therapy for Heterosocial Anxiety'. In this case, the assumption is that an individual perceives that he or she has poor social skills because he/she has no dates. Experiments showed that males with heterosocial anxiety perceived less anxiety with females after several sessions of therapy in which they engaged in a 12-minute, purposefully biased dyadic social interactions with a separate females. From these apparently successful interactions, the males inferred that their heterosocial anxiety was reduced. This effect is shown to be quite long-lasting as the reduction in perceived heterosocial anxiety resulted in a significantly greater number of dates among subjects 6 months later. Secondly, self-perception theory is an underlying mechanism for the effectiveness of many marketing or persuasive techniques. One typical example is the foot-in-the-door technique, which is a widely-used marketing technique for persuading target customers to buy products. The basic premise of this technique is that, once a person complies with a small request (e.g. filling in a short questionnaire), he/she will be more likely to comply with a more substantial request which is related to the original request (e.g. buying the related product). The idea is
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that the initial commitment on the small request will change ones self image, therefore giving reasons for agreeing with the subsequent, larger request. It is because people observe their own behaviors (paying attention to and complying with the initial request) and the context in which they behave (no obvious incentive to do so), and thus infer they must have a preference for those products. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Motivation is the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal and elicits, controls, and sustains certain goal directed behaviors. For instance: An individual has not eaten, he or she feels hungry, and as a response he or she eats and diminishes feelings of hunger. There are many approaches to motivation: physiological, behavioural, cognitive, and social. Motives can be divided into two types: external and internal. Internal motives are considered as the needs that every human being experience, while external indicate the presence of specific situations where these needs arise. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on any external pressure (Haemmerlie,2005). Intrinsic motivation is based on taking pleasure in an activity rather than working towards an external reward. Intrinsic motivation has been studied since the early 1970s. Students who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to engage in the task willingly as well as work to improve their skills, which will increase their capabilities. Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they: Attribute their educational results to factors under their own control, also known as autonomy, believe they have the skill that will allow them to be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e. the results are not determined by luck), are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve good grades. Extrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an activity in order to attain an outcome, which then contradicts intrinsic motivation. It is widely believed that motivation
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performs two functions. The first is often referred as to the energetic activation component of the motivation construct. The second is directed at a specific behaviour and makes reference to the orientation directional component. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the individual. Common extrinsic motivations are rewards like money and grades, and threat of punishment. Competition is in general extrinsic because it encourages the performer to win and beat others, not simply to enjoy the intrinsic rewards of the activity. A crowd cheering on the individual and trophies are also extrinsic incentives. The concept of motivation can be instilled in children at a very young age, by promoting and evoking interest in a certain book or novel. The idea is to have a discussion pertaining the book with young individuals, as well as to reward them (Haemmerlie,2005). Social psychological research has indicated that extrinsic rewards can lead to overjustification and a subsequent reduction in intrinsic motivation. In one study demonstrating this effect, children who expected to be (and were) rewarded with a ribbon and a gold star for drawing pictures spent less time playing with the drawing materials in subsequent observations than children who were assigned to an unexpected reward condition. For those children who received no extrinsic reward, self-determination theory proposes that extrinsic motivation can be internalised by the individual if the task fits with their values and beliefs and therefore helps to fulfill their basic psychological needs.

References Bem, D. J. (1972). Self-Perception Theory. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 6, pp.1-62). New York: Academic Press. Haemmerlie, F. M., & Montgomery, R. L. (1982). Motivation concepts, London: Prentice Hall Laird, J. D. (2007). Causal Theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Robak, R. W., Ward, A., & Ostolaza, K. (2005 ). Self Awareness Theory, Chicago ,McGraw Hill

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