HELP ACADEMIC WRITING

SHOWCASE

Volume 1 ~ Issue 1 ~ Fall I 2014

2

2

Hyunjung Gu The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships………………. 2

Adolescents may have conflicts with their family, siblings, girlfriends or boyfriends and peers. This paper discusses the various problems of adolescents in their relationships.

Anna Kakimoto “What Makes People Motivated?”………………….………… 13

This paper discusses how people motivate themselves. In my opinion, there are many ways to become motivated. However, the important thing is that people should find a motivation method that suits them.

Younghee Lim “The Things People Can Do Better When They Know Themselves”…………………………………………………..… 23

This paper discusses how people could be improved in their behaviour when they know and change their psychological factors.

Moeka Yamada “Methods of dealing with their environment for adolescents” …………………………………………….…….…. 44

This paper discusses the various issues surrounding adolescents. Many teenagers are having many issues; for example, issues that are caused from stress, struggled, risk-taking, and social relationship.

In the Fall I Term of HELP 141W – Academic Writing, students learned how to write an academic research paper. This inaugural issue of the HELP Academic Writing Showcase spotlights the wonderful work of these students. The topics they chose were based on the reading they had done on human behavior.

Karen Takada “What Is Happiness”………………………………………………34

This paper discusses the what the happiness is. The discussion begins by examining values of happiness for adolescents and adults.

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships 1

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships

Hyunjung Gu

University of Hawai‘i at Manoa

Final Essay Assignment

HELP 441W

Fall 1, 2014

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships 2

Introduction

Adolescence is a period of life characterised by dramatic changes and difficulties. Teens’ bodies

experience physical changes. Also, they are given more expectations by society. Adolescents are

expected to behave like adults, not children. However, some adolescents are frustrated by these

changes because they think that they are still children. By various changes, they usually get confusion

and have some problems in their lives. In particular, teenagers have problems when they form

relationships with other people. Adolescents may have conflicts with their family, siblings, girlfriends or

boyfriends and peers. This paper discusses the various problems of adolescents in their relationships.

The discussion begins by examining what adolescence is.

What is Adolescence?

In general, adolescence is the middle period between adult and child life. All teenagers go

through a period of change from childhood to adulthood. There is no one definition of adolescence.

There are various perspectives in the world. According to Seal (2012), knowing accurately when

adolescence starts or finishes is hard. For Korea’s general law, adolescence is applied to the children

under 19 years of age. However, the exact age of adolescence is as variant as there are types of law.

Adolescence can also mean the period from 7th grade to 12th grade, from middle school students to

high school students. By this definition, elementary school students are not included. Educational

psychologists define adolescence as related to physical development and mental maturity (Ormrod,

2011). Although there are various definitions, this paper uses the definition of adolescence most often

used by developmental psychology.

Various Perspectives on Adolescents

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships 3

There are many perspectives on adolescence. Some people don’t see teenagers positively.

They think that teenagers are trouble­makers. According to their opinions, adolescents are rebellious

and defiant to adults. Also, they are antagonistic and tend to be hostile regarding society’s rules.

Unlike negative perspectives on adolescence, some people regard teenagers positively.

Adolescents have a lot of power and energy. They possess unlimited potential to fulfill their dreams. In

addition, they have many chances to experience various things. If they want to try something new, they

are not reluctant most of the time.

These perspectives are derived from an adult’s viewpoint. They sometimes misjudge their

children. If they don’t like teenagers’ life styles, their way of thinking and their culture, adults tend to

think that teenagers have problems. However, most teenager don’t think that they cause problems. They

behave as they do. Their behavior is natural. Teenagers may insist that adults exaggerate their minor

errors. Some matters that adults regard as dangerous might not be risky. Some adolescents may say

that although adults don’t know teenager’s culture or trend well, they pretend to know them very well.

For example, a few years ago, a reporter said that teenagers are addicted to playing games and it

makes them aggressive. He demonstrated this hypothesis through an experiment. He suddenly shut off

the power supply to turn off the computers being used by teenagers playing online games. At that

moment, teenagers were so upset. Some of them kicked their chair and sweared. The report said to

viewers that because of video games, teenagers are addicted and show their aggression. Actually, it

could be because someone suddenly powered off their computer without any notice that teenagers

expressed their anger. It was not caused only by video games. Also, this appears to be an

overgeneralization to define all adolescents without knowing enough about them. Therefore, some

teenagers don’t trust adults. They believe that adults always think that adolescents cause problems.

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships 4

Problems to Make Relationships

With Parents

When we watch TV dramas, we can see frequently the scene that shows the conflict between

parents and their children. Most adolescents have an attitude of defiance. Maybe, the most rebellious

phase during life is adolescence. There is one reason for it. In this phase, the adolescents want to be

independent from their parents. They think of themselves as adults. Unlike them, parents don’t regard

their children as adults. For some parents, they think of teenagers as babies even though their son and

daughter are over 18 years old.

Also, parents tend to overprotect their children. If a 16 year old girl wants to go camping and

wants to have a good time with her friends, she might not be allowed to go. When she tells her parents

that she will go camping with her friends, her parents reply to her: “You must not go.” As she listens to

their words, she becomes defiant of them. She thinks that her parents don’t understand her. Even more,

she might insist that they hate her because they don’t grant her wish. But it is not true. On the contrary,

they probably love her very much. So, they don’t want her to be hurt by dangerous things. Her parents

hope that she stays safe, but she doesn’t comprehend their intentions. She doesn’t care about potential

danger elements that might hurt her. She only focuses on whether she can go camping or not. This

example illustrates a conflict between parents and their teenage children.

These conflicts may be caused by “personal fables”. According to Elkind, “personal fables” are

imaginary stories. It indicates that adolescents tend to think they will be safe from hazard. Teenagers

regard themselves as lucky characters based on unreasonable thought (Seal, 2012). If they try to smoke

at first, they don’t think that they will be addicted. Rather they imagine that they will manage the

problem. Also they think that they can drive their car well even after drinking. Addiction to smoking and

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships 5

car accidents by drunk­driving are common, but teenagers think that it is not related to them because

they make their own “personal fables.”

Adults are aware of danger more than teenagers. When teenagers are undergoing a period of

wanting to do something unconventional and risky, adults have already undergone the stage. Although

they had not been in peril directly, they have had indirect experiences since they were adolescents too.

For example, some people haven’t become addicted to the use of narcotics. But they know its side

effects very well. Therefore, they don’t permit their children’s wishwhen it is related to danger.

With Siblings

Sibling relationships are various depending upon their ages. Some young children don’t like their

younger sibling because younger brothers or sisters spend more time with their parents and get more

attention (Sears, 2013). They feel envious and jealous to their young siblings. If it gets worse, these

feelings change from light emotion to resentment. They might think that their siblings take their parents

from them. So they may express their emotion by hitting their siblings. Although the teenagers are older

than their siblings, they want to be loved and get attention from their parents.

However, some adolescents have a serious difficulty in sibling relationship. It is caused by the

difference between siblings’ age and sex. First, they suffer changes about their view toward their sibling.

Oswalt (n. d.) mentioned that as people get older, their interests change. If the difference between

sibling’s ages is slight before entering elementary school, their interests are similar. They might like

playing with toys or playing video games. For girls, they like playing with dolls or putting make­up on

each other’s faces. But, as the older sister or brother grow up, they become interested in new things.

Oswalt (n. d.) stresses that older siblings tend to feel that they are different from young siblings. Also,

they may feel that younger sisters and brothers are childish. They don’t want to get along with them

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships 6

anymore. During that period, most adolescents want to spend time with their friends not their sibling.

Younger siblings want to play with their older siblings, but older siblings ignore them.

In addition, adolescents need their private space, a space like a room that nobody can enter

except them. It helps adolescents think about themselves and identify their egos. So, they don’t like it to

be invaded by someone, not even their family. Some teenagers go home, and upon arrival, they go

straight to their room. They hardly ever leave the room because they enjoy their private time. So, when

their younger sibling comes to their room to play with them, they tend to easily become upset because

their precious time is interrupted. However, younger siblings don’t understand them. Rather, they think

that their older sisters and brothers hate them. This misunderstanding makes their relationship become

worse.

With Girlfriends and Boyfriends

Above this, adolescents may experience problems with their girlfriends or boyfriends. Generally,

teenagers become aware of the opposite sex and take an interest in it as they mature. They want to have

a girlfriend or boyfriend. Why do the teenagers have this desire? One reason is that when they meet

their lover, their self­esteems may be higher than before. In some countries, having a partner is valued

highly because it demonstrates that the person is loved by someone. A pair of lovers shows that they are

important and precious people by each other. Both of them feel happiness and a sense of stability. They

can prove that their partner is a good person enough to get along with. While they go out with the

opposite sex, they can feel superiority to other teenagers who are single.

However, there are a lot of problems with teenagers getting along with their girlfriend or

boyfriend. They don’t know about the opposite sex very well. All people are selfish and they have their

own perspective (Carnegie, 1936). Adolescents are egoistical. They behave as they want and judge

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships 7

other people. Therefore, adolescents may lack understanding of the opposite sex’s personality and

thought. It causes problems between girlfriends and boyfriends. For example, there is a young girl who

has a problem with her friend. She wants to share this problem with her boyfriend. What she wants from

the boyfriend is for him to listen to her complain and express sympathy for her. Unlike her wish, her

boyfriend starts to analyze her situation. He distinguishes between who is right and who is wrong.

Furthermore, he may judge that his girlfriend caused the discord between her and her friend. Then, her

feeling is hurt more severely than before, because she believed that her boyfriend would side with her.

She is disappointed at him and gets angry. After this, she may not want to talk with him anymore. But he

don’t understand why her attitude changed. He had intended to figure out what the problem between

her and her friend was and giving a solution to her to get along with her friend again. So, these

misunderstandings to each other worsen their relationship.

Likewise, females might be significantly different from males. According to Rosseta Stone’s Fit

Brains Blog (2014), there are big differences between the brain of women and men. They said that

men’s brains are 8% bigger than women’s. Although women’s brains are smaller than men’s, they have

more interconnections than men. Women tend to be good at thinking related to “bigger picture”

situations (Rosseta Stone, 2014). In contrast, men perform better at mathematical and spatial thinking

because in their brain, there is an area called the “Inferior­Parietal Lobule” (IPL). This area controls the

mathematical field. Men have a larger IPL than women. Also, they stated that women usually get pain

more strongly than men. The part of the brain called the Inferior­Parietal Lobule, which controls

mathematical thought, is larger in men than women, resulting in better mathematical and special thinking

in men. The amygdala which is the brain part stimulated when a person feels pain is activated differently

depending on gender. For women, the left amygdala is activated more. The left side of the amygdala is

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships 8

more connected with emotional work. On the contrary to this, the right side is better at logical work.

So, women seem easily hurt by emotional problems and need more healing for pain in comparison to

men.

Also, women have a bigger limbic system than men. The limbic system’s major function is to

make people in touch with and express their emotions more. Generally women are really good at being

sympathetic with other people. However, men tend to concentrate on what is the main issue and ignore

trivial background information.

As above, the difference between women and men is considerable. To make a good

relationship with the opposite sex, recognizing the difference is necessary. For adolescents, it is difficult

because they think they are the same since they have grown up together regardless of gender. They

assume that other people’s thinking is the same as theirs and behaviors are similar to theirs because

teenagers are egocentric thinkers. Their immature thoughts cause the problems with their girlfriend or

boyfriend.

With Peers

When people talk about adolescents, they can’t help but mention their peers. During

adolescence, friends have the greatest impact. Friends are very important for adolescents because they

help them establish their identities. Grose (n.d.), a parenting expert, mentioned that peers are people

who accompany each other from childhood to adulthood. They may share various experiences. Also,

they provide a sense of belonging, security and high self­confidence. Teenagers can motivate and help

each other when someone is in a hard situation. They support their friends in their own way, which is

different from the support a family can provide.

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships 9

However, when teenagers make friends, some problems appear. First of all, adolescents want

to have friends that are similar to themselves or popular among them. They don’t want to associate with

teenagers who are regarded as “nerd” or “freak.” A lot of teenagers stay away from such people. The

teenagers who are discriminated against by most teenagers become “outcasts.” Peers reject them and

leave them out in the cold. Oswalt (n.d.c) pointed out that by these rejections, outcast students suffer a

painful life and distressing memories.

If the peer rejection get worse, some teenagers commit violent acts. Oswalt (n.d.c) said that

bullying to other people makes attackers and victims unhappy. It brings about serious long­lasting side

effects. For example, there is a bully who always teased and annoyed his friends. He teased them even

in front of many other students. Eventually, his friends didn’t endure his bullying, and they quit the

school. The bully didn’t know that his friends would quit because a bully usually doesn’t know how

painful the bullying is to a victim. After that, the bully would have to live with a bad memory of him

making his friends quit the school. Like in this example, committing violence can be a serious problem

for teenagers.

Adolescents can be influenced by negative effects of peer pressure. Many adolescents want to

belong in their peer group. Generally, adolescents think that if they behave as their friends do, they will

be accepted by them. Oak (2012) suggested that there are three negative effects. First, teenager’s

decisions would be wrong because they tend to comply with their peers’ decisions without their own

thinking. Second, adolescents might acquire bad habits. Peer pressure can lead them to take risks like

smoking or doing drugs. If a boy has many friends who are smoking, he has great likelihood to smoke.

To spend much time with his friend, smoking might be necessary for him. Third, peer pressure may

cause people to lose their own characteristics. To get along with their peers, many teenagers adopt or

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships 10

follow their friends’ tastes, regardless of their own preferences. If his or her friends like something, even

though he or she doesn’t like it, teens usually pretend to like it too.

Conclusion

This paper has discussed the problems of adolescents in various relationships. Many

adolescents have difficulties when they have relationships with other people. This discussion has

uncovered what makes teenagers get relationship problems and how teengers react to the problems. It

is not clear how adolescents solve their problems with family or friends, but it can be understood why

adolescents behave that way. Through this discussion people may understand that teenagers are

somewhat different from other age groups. It provides some information to understand them more than

before. For humans, adolescence is a very important period. It is necessary to analyze adolescents’

problems more and more and consider solutions about it.

Reference

Carnegie, D. (1936). How to win friends and influence people. New York, NY: Simon and

Schuster.

Coleman, C. (n.d.). Kids who hate their siblings. Globalpost. Retreived from

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/kids­hate­siblings­9994.html

Grey, S. (2013). Positive effects of dating for teenagers. Livestrong. Retreived from

http://www.livestrong.com/article/154840­positive­effects­of­dating­for­teenagers/

Grose, M. (n.d.). The importance of teen friendships. Body+Soul Mums. Retreived from

http://mums.bodyandsoul.com.au/pregnancy+parenting/parenting+tips/the+importance+of+teen

+friendships,7797

The Problems of Adolescents in Relationships 11

Kristine, T. (n.d.). Good things about teens dating. Globalpost. Retreived from

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/good­things­teens­dating­7390.html

Niu, A. (2014). Gender & the brain: Differences between women & men. Retreived from

http://www.fitbrains.com/blog/women­men­brains/

Oak, M. (2012). Negative and positive effects of peer pressure. Buzzle. Retreived from

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/negative­and­positive­effects­of­peer­pressure.html

Ormrod, J. (2011). Educational psychology: developing learners. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Oswalt, A. (n.d.a). Teens and family relationships: Parents. Resources. Retreived from

http://www.sevencounties.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=41169&cn=1310

Oswalt, A. (n.d.b). Teens and family relationships: Siblings. Resources. Retreived from

http://www.sevencounties.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=41170&cn=1310

Oswalt, A. (n.d.c). Teens and peer relationships. Resources. Retreived from

http://www.sevencounties.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=41168&cn=1310

Seal, B. (2012). Academic encounters. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

What Makes People Motivated? 1

What Makes People Motivated?

Anna Kakimoto

University of Hawai‘i at Manoa

Essay Assignment

HELP 441W

Fall 1, 2014

What Makes People Motivated? 2

Introduction

When people do something, they need motivation. For example, foreign students need

motivation for studying languages. However, sometimes they do not have motivation or lose their

motivation and it is difficult for them to maintain motivation. Not only are foreign students struggling with

motivation, but also other people are worried about how to stay motivated. This paper discusses how

people motivate themselves. In my opinion, there are many ways to become motivated. However, the

important thing is that people should find a motivation method that suits them. The discussion begins by

examining the motivation method for olympic athletes.

Motivational factors in different situations

In case of olympic athletes, they need to maintain motivation to participate in Olympics every

four years. In the article “How olympians stay motivated”, Khazan (2014) writes practicing self­talk can

improve sports performance. For instance, one of the Olympic gymnast medalists Karen Cockburn,

motivates herself using this method. Before starting the game, she always practices self talk like “You

got this, Karen. You can do this.” She generates motivation through self talk. On the other hand, when

Derek Sivers (2010) gave his presentation source about keeping your goals to yourself, he claimed that

if people tell their friends their goals, they will lose their motivation because they feel satisfied after talked

about it. He emphasized we could resist the temptation to announce our goal. Furthermore, Nixon

(2012) writes that an optimistic personality is related to success at the Olympics. For instance, it is

impossible to win all matches all the time. Athletes sometimes lose matches. If they fall into a slump, they

cannot come out of their slump easily. At that time, optimistic athletes can overcome discouragement.

However, thinking positively is more effective. For example, if athletes try to think about losing matches

optimistically, it is difficult for them to improve their skills. What I mean by “optimistic” is being both

What Makes People Motivated? 3

overly optimistic and lenient in thinking or attitude. Some athletes have an optimistic philosophy of their

game. Athletes may become accustomed to lose matches. They need to reflect and consider why they

lost matches. When Athletes lose a game, they need to think positively like “The match was taught me

my weak point.” For example, an athlete could focus on the lessons learned from the loss and think

about future games. Athletes might not dwell on losses and instead they could learn through that

experience and make improvements for the next match.

When people study English, they need motivation. For example, English learners suffer from

studying English because it takes a long time to improve their English proficiency. In addition, learners

cannot know how much they can improve English by themselves. Therefore, some students lose their

motivation and give up to studying English halfway. There are many ways to stay motivated to study

English. For instance, Soren (2014) said that meeting with native speakers helps English learners to

maintain motivation to study English. For example, when students want to improve their English, they

definitely need to use English a lot. When they first talk with native English speakers, they may get

nervous and worry about their mistakes. However, the more they talk, the more they improve their

English. In addition, when they can communicate with native speakers smoothly, it makes them get

self­confidence and their motivation. Therefore, talking with native speakers increases motivation for

learners. On the other hand, some Japanese people said that it is difficult to find native speakers in

Japan. They also said that even though they want to increase their motivation for studying English, they

do not have a chance to use English sources. Therefore, it makes them lose their motivation. For

instance, people tend to think English is not easy to master in Japan. So, they go to study abroad for

learning English. However, some people said that not being able to find native English speakers to study

English in Japan is a challenge that can be overcome. If people really want to improve their English, they

What Makes People Motivated? 4

do not matter these obstacles. Learners can think positively like they can meet native speakers because

they can speak English. Learners can use English in their workplace because they can speak English.

Learners can get an American boy friend because they can speak English.

For instance, a Japanese woman writes blog about how to stay motivated to study English

source. She is a high­school­graduate and has never gone to study abroad. However, she acquired

English by her own method and got a good TOEIC score. She said that learners can study English

without going to study abroad. She enjoyed learning English by trial and error. She reads English out

loud and her favorite English books in her daily life. She also said writing blog gives her motivation. It is

definitely true that studying English by oneself is really hard and tough. That is why, many people go to

English school to give them motivation. Some people think that they can get motivation from classmates.

Studying English together can be a stimulus for students because students try to study hard. However,

students sometimes lose their motivation because of classmates. For example, if other students speak

English better than them, it will make them lose their motivation. Therefore, it is important to compete

with same­level classmates.

New employees are difficult to stay motivated. Most new employees just graduated from their

school and first time to work. Unlike university students, new employees need to take responsibility for

everything they do. They are also required to make a good relationship with their boss. When they start

working, they often make mistakes and get scolded by their boss. Thus, their motivation go down.

Many people tend to quit their company within one or two years because they cannot maintain their

motivation. In the article, “What people want from work:motivation”, Heathfield (n.d.) writes most

people work for getting money. For example, if people work hard, they can get a salary and buy

something they want to buy. Salary provides motivation. In addition, paid vacation makes people

What Makes People Motivated? 5

motivated as well. If new employees can take a vacation, they can work looking forward to vacation.

Furthermore, after they went on a trip, they can feel refreshed and get rid of stress. They can have

motivation to do for their job. On the other hand, some new employees can get motivation from their

colleagues because they work at same place and knows the situation well enough . They can share the

experience and understand well. Therefore, they sometimes spend their holidays hanging out with their

colleagues.

Romantic relationships are required motivation. Carnegie (1963) said that people should avoid

argument because they are not be able to solve problems through arguing. Opera tenor Jan Peerce said

that “When two people yell, there is no communication, just noise and bad vibrations” (p. 115).

However, some people think that couples need to argue with their partner. For instance, if couples do

not argue with a partner, it is difficult to understand each other’s feeling. Especially, many women tend

not to speak with their partner directly even they feel dissatisfied. They try to put up with it. Then, when

they reach the extent of their patience, they explode their feelings or try to break up with their partner.

Nevertheless, most men cannot recognize their partner’s feeling without words. If they argue with their

partner more frequently, they can avoid these situations. It is difficult to understand each person’s

feelings without words. They can get to know each other better through talking. Therefore, some people

think that sometimes arguing is helpful for couples to maintain their relationship.

Studying at graduate school requires a lot of motivation. For example, graduate students not

only take their classes but also research what they are interested in. Many people tend to think that

graduate school is similar to undergraduate study. However, it is totally different. Most graduate

students need to write a thesis when they want to graduate. Researching and writing a thesis are really

tough and require a lot of motivation. Especially, doctoral students study and research for five or six

What Makes People Motivated? 6

years. If they do not have motivation, it is really hard to continue for so long. According to the Psych

Central, Mohana (2013) said that it is really important to find a topic that students are passionate

about. If they are not interested in their topic, it is really hard to write it. For example, when graduate

students is concerned about their thesis topic, their advisor may suggest some topics. Even though their

advisor gave them topics, students would struggle with writing their thesis because the topic was given

by their advisor. If students choose their topic by themselves, they can have motivation and passion

about their research. In addition, some students said that it is really important to talk with motivated

people such as doctoral students. For example, when master students are struggling with their research,

they sometimes ask doctoral students for advice because doctoral students had lots of experiences.

Doctoral students can share their experience with master students. Master students can get through their

problems and get motivation from doctoral students.

Sometimes, people feel lazy. If they have to do something, they tend to procrastinate it. For

example, when a teacher gives students an assignment on Friday, many students may do the assignment

on Sunday. Students think that they have enough time and postpone their assignment. However, they

sometimes cannot get motivated or do not feel like doing their assignment. Gerber (n.d.) said that it is

important to allow yourself time to relax and do the things that make you happy. When people have to

do something, it helps to think of something that you want to do after the assignment is finished. Some

students have a plan to hang out with their friends. Even if people do not hang out with friends, treating

themselves is still important. Before doing assignment, students usually think about after finished the

assignment. When their English teacher gives me an essay, students usually procrastinate it. It takes a

long time to get motivation when students start writing an essay in English. At that time, students usually

think about reward. For example, if students finished their writing, students can eat sweets or drink a

What Makes People Motivated? 7

delicious beer. When students are writing their essay, these kind of things motivate students. students

can try to work hard. In addition, exercising is also important to get motivation. For example, many men

workers work out at a gym. Many people said that they can feel positive whenever they exercise.

According to the article, people can get more energy and be more motivated through 30 minutes of

daily exercise.(Radding, n.d.) Some women do not like exercise and they do yoga instead of going to

gym. People sometimes do not have motivation during the morning. Some yoga poses give people

motivation. Yoga is useful for enhancing efficiency for work. It is said doing yoga is effective in the

morning in India. Many Japanese women do yoga before go to work.

However, sometimes people lost their motivation when they made a mistake or failed. At that

time, it is really difficult to have motivation even they exercise. Some people said that talking with close

friends helps us to get motivation. When people talk about their problems with their friends, they can

feel better and think positively. If they do not talk with someone and stay at their home alone, they tend

to think about it negatively by themselves. If they talk to some friends about their problems, they can feel

better and know other opinions. Furthermore, people need to set goals. Sometimes, people can achieve

their goal quickly, sometimes not. Some goals need a lot of time. For example, many foreign students try

to go to universities in the U.S. However, they need to get a high English score when they apply for the

university. Some students can get a good score easily. Some students take a long time to get the

necessary score. In this case, students need to set long term goals. In addition, self­improvement

literature can help people when we do not have the motivation. For example, when people read the

book, they can know author’s experience and philosophy through reading the book. People can realize

how authors succeed their life. Even though some authors had a difficult time, they were success and

achieved their goals. Their successful story makes people get motivated. In addition, going to their

What Makes People Motivated? 8

conference gives people motivation. They can listen their speech directly. It is more powerful than

reading their books. They can get a lot of energy and motivation through the seminar. If people can not

attend the seminar, they can have a session using skype. For example, there is a coaching session

source. She is a Japanese and advise people how to raise motivation. She lives in Paris so she cannot

hold her session frequently in Japan. However, she has a session using skype. Many people got

motivation from her. Even though it is expensive to attend a session, they can raise motivation.

Even though people need to maintain their motivation to achieve their goal, sometimes they give

other people’s motivation. Carnegie (1936) gave an example about it. One woman and his son tried to

pull a calf into the barn but, the calf could not move. After careful thought, she let the calf suck milk and

the calf was able to move. Therefore, when people want to make other people raise motivation, they

need to know what other people want. According to the Intervention Central (n.d.), praise is a strong

ways to give other people’s motivation. For example, if teachers praise student’s hard warks, student’s

eagerness grow. Teachers can raise student’s motivation through complementing students. Carnegie

(1936) also mentioned to praise and encouragement can change people’s life. On the other hand, some

people said that too much praise will turn student’s head. Students let themselves get too relax. They

tend not to study hard because they lack a sense of crisis. Then, some teachers are strict and rarely

praise their students to convey a crisis mentality. Furthermore, some people think that expecting can

increase people’s motivation. In 1968, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson’s study showed that

students grade can improve through teacher’s expecting. There is a pygmalion effect. Not only students,

but it also works subordinate. For instance, when boss wants to raise subordinate’s motivation towards

work. Subordinate think “I have my superiors confidence.” Subordinate works hard and his motivation

towards work goes up. However, some people think that boss’s expectation makes subordinate’s feel

What Makes People Motivated? 9

pressure. Some subordinates work hard because they try not to let boss down. But, they sometimes feel

themselves to be under pressure because their boss expect their work.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper has discussed many ways to keep up motivation in different situations.

Some people accept this motivating tool but some people do not accept it. There are different ways

from individual to individual. Therefore, people need to find a motivation that suits them. However, they

have something in common. That is passion. Passion inspires motivation in people. Even though

rewarding themselves provide motivation, people can maintain their motivation all the way to the end

through passion. Having passion helps people to achieve their goal. Sometimes people cannot find

something they really want to do. It is a good place to start to think about themselves and what they are

passionate about. If people can find something they really want to do, they can stick to it.

References

Carnegie, D. (1936). How to win friends and influence people. New York, NY: Simon and

Schuster.

Gerber, C. (n.d.). 5 ways to get energized and motivated when you feel lazy. Tiny buddha. Retrieved

from http://tinybuddha.com/blog/5­ways­get­energized­motivated­feel­lazy/

Heathfield, M. S. (n.d.). What people want from work: Motivation. About money. Retrieved from

http://humanresources.about.com/od/rewardrecognition/a/needs_work.htm

Khazan, O. (2014, February). How olympians stay motivated. The Atlantic. Retrieved from

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/how­olympians­stay­motivated/283643/

What Makes People Motivated? 10

Mohana, M. (2013). The motivated mind: Where our passion and creativity comes from. Psych

central. Retrieved from

http://psychcentral.com/lib/the­motivated­mind­where­our­passion­creativity­comes­from/0001

7359

Nixon, R. (2012, July). Going for gold! 7 olympic secrets to success. Live science. Retrieved from

http://www.livescience.com/21903­olympic­games­success­tips.html

Radding, B. (n.d.). Moderate exercise increases motivation. Men’s fitness. Retrieved from

http://www.mensfitness.com/training/cardio/moderate­exercise­increases­motivation

Soren (2014, May). 10 ways to keep yourself motivated learning English. Itaki. Retrieved from

http://www.italki.com/article/103/10­ways­to­keep­yourself­motivated­learning­english#.VDO

KMil5NQY

Sivers, D. (2010, July). “Keep your goals to yourself.” [TED Talks]. Retrieved from

http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself

Teacher praise: an efficient tool to motivate students. (n.d.). Intervention central. Retrieved from

http://www.interventioncentral.org/behavioral­interventions/motivation/teacher­praise­efficient­t

ool­motivate­students

The things people can do better when they know themselves 1

The Things People can Do Better When They Know Themselves

Younghee Lim

University of Hawai’i at Manoa

Essay Assignment

HELP 441W

Fall 1, 2014

The things people can do better when they know themselves 2

Introduction

Human behaviour is connected with various psychological factors. Thier reaction would not be

the same as usual when they feel stress or risk. Also every individual person would react in different way

even in the same stressful or risky situations. When do people feel stress or risks? Not only the

conditions related to the process of growing psychologically and physically, but also the environmental

conditions surrounding humans could be the factors of risk or stress. Therefore, people could hardly

expect to live without those problems in their routine. However, is there any method that people can

improve themselves in psychology and cope with these risks and stress more effectively? This paper

discusses how people could be improved in their behaviour when they know and change their

psychological factors.

The Psychological Issues of People Who are Living in a Rapid Changing World

People are living in a changing world. It has changed a lot, it is changing in this moment, and it

will change again and again. People could have hardly imagined about new technology they are using

everyday now in their routines, such as tablets, notebooks, or google drive, a few decades ago. People

who had lived in the nineteenth century hardly could imagine it would take them only about ten hours to

travel across the Pacific Ocean by airplane in the fast future. Also it is said that the world is changing so

much faster now than any other times before. According to Sweat (n.d.), many historians, sociologists,

and journalists are worried about the speed of change. People often can have a fear and problem to

handle the change, because the speed is too fast.

In this rapidly changing world, the problems people needed to cope with are getting various

and sophisticated. It is assumed that people take more risks, get stressed more, suffer more in growing

The things people can do better when they know themselves 3

up, procrastinate more, or have more troubles in relationship with others. How can people cope with

these difficult problems? It is clear nobody can lessen these problems by changing the world. Is it

possible , however, to change themselves to deal with these difficult problems in better ways? Can

people change themselves? If people can change their attitude or the way they think, would it bring a

different, better effect on their behaviour? How can they make themselves think with a different

perspective? People would know how to improve in a better way if they know why they are the way

they are and if they know what makes them think and act in specific ways.

Taking risks

When people face change, they are likely to take risks. It seems there is a connection

between adoption of change and taking risks. The things have been known and have been accustomed

to are easier to deal with than new things and new trials. Accepting new things is often taking risks. For

example, when people, who only had been traveling by cars and by ships before the airplane was

invented, decided on travelling by flying, they would have felt a big risk of falling from the sky with this

new travel technology. People could have a fear about travelling by flying in modern society with much

developed technology of course, however the flying would have been even more adventurous when they

started to accept that people could travel by flying. When Columbus took a risk of dying in the middle

of ocean during a long sailing, he could find the new continent, America.

Without taking risk there is no changing for development. Humans have taken risk for

progress in history. However, does everyone take risks in same way? Does everyone take risks?

Probably not, because people are different. People take different types of risks and have different

attitudes towards risks. Some are willing to take risks for progress, others are willing to give up their

The things people can do better when they know themselves 4

chances to achieve more. Why do people want to avoid risks even on the occasion they know the

advantage?

Barth (2013) tells that different character factors, like genes, culture, and experience influence

risk taking. People tend to imagine, in exaggerating ways, the results from the failure or the possibility of

failure, or underestimate themselves about their ability to handle risk (Warrell, 2013). That is to say,

some people are not willing to take risks because of imaginary failure and excessive fear of the failure.

Imagine there is a boy who loves to sing but never does it in front of other people despite having a gifted

voice. It might be nothing to worry to some people even who sing awfully, they might think that singing is

just for enjoying so that it is not a difficult, important thing to them. What chances is the boy losing, then?

He might be losing the chance to be loved more by friends, to be a big hit singer in the future, or at least

a chance to enjoy music more.What makes the boy refrain from singing in front of others? It is the fear

that he might not be able to sing well or the fear that friends might despise his singing. In this case, it is

not a physical, functional problem with his voice, but a psychological, imaginary problem. What if he

does not mind others’ criticism or he focuses more on the fact that he is not going to die even though he

might sing awfully or others might not like his song? A little change of thinking might release him to sing

confidently. People who want to take risks in order to get chances more are possibly finding solutions

when they observe why they do not take risks which represent good opportunities.

Stress

Certainly, taking risks are stressful whether the risks are taken in an ideal way or not. What

other problems make people feel stress? What is the result of stress? Can people reduce the negative

effect of stress? It is said that stress causes a variety of illnesses from colds to cancer because of the

effect of stress on the immune system, it weakens the function of it (Seal, 2012). Are there any

The things people can do better when they know themselves 5

individual differences in relation to stress, like in the case of taking risk? Do most people feel stress in

same way and deal with it in same way?

Even though the stress disturbs the function of the immune system, when people react in an

active way, the effect on immune system is smaller compared to the time people react in helpless and

depressed ways (Seal, 2012). According to research (“How do you cope,”2014), there are two ways

of coping with stress, one is the active way, which means being aware of stress and reacting to reduce

the negative effect from the stress. The other is avoiding which means ignoring and denying the stress

through sleeping, drinking, or isolating. Even cancer can be coped with well by a fighting active spirit

rather than by the feeling of depression and emotional reactions (Seal, 2012).

How could people react in active ways against stress? Why can some people deal with stress

more actively? Let’s think about first, why they are the way they are. Kim (2013) recommends

accepting everything. She said when people accept all the facts about who they are, they can move on.

Accepting does not mean having a favorable feeling here. It is more like to say that facing the problems

as they exist without denying or ignoring helps solving the stressful problems. As she recommended

when somebody accepts who they are, what they are able to do with the problems, they might start to

find a better suitable solution. An attemption to accept themselves and stressful situations with the

attitude of facing it as the way they are without denying could be one of active reactions against the

stress. As an example, people might be depressed, and want to deny the truth if they are diagnosed with

cancer. They might be angry asking why they got the cancer what they have done wrong. Those feelings

might lead them to bigger depression which is taking off the fighting spirit against the cancer. What if

they could accept their state without depression, denial, or resentment? They could move on so that

The things people can do better when they know themselves 6

they can focus on coping with the cancer in placid mind, and this attitude might be much more helpful

than depression to fight with the cancer.

Procrastination

What other psychological issues could be stressful and could be improved when we know

about our mind and understand reaction? There is procrastination which means people delay to do

things they have to do. What makes them delay? Moore, Baker, and Packer (1997) explained the

reasons for procrastinations; fear or worry about the result, perfectionism, lack of motivation ,and

difficulty to find the way, she also mentioned how to overcome procrastination. She suggested that

preparing well when the worry is the problem, and concentrating your own work rather than comparing

with others when the perfectionism cause procrastination, and think again what makes you want to do

some things when motivations are problems. Lastly, she suggested finding another’s help when you need

when you simply don’t know how to do it. If people follow her suggestions, can everybody work well

immediately without delay? If people just spend their time till the due date with worry or without

worry,could it be procrastination? When people could think they are lazy?What is the difference

between procrastination and laziness? Some people often put off the things they have to do. What

makes them not start immediately when they are able to do so, if their problem has nothing to do with

procrastination? Isn’t there any time people just want to be lazy without reason? For example, there are

people who arrive late very often to their school or working place. There is no clear reason to be late,

but if someone wakes up late, prepares to go out slowly, thinks five minutes are not big problem, then

they might be lazy. Some people might just want to take a rest first when they know that they can finish

in time after all, or even if they know when they start earlier they would have a better result, they

The things people can do better when they know themselves 7

sometimes do not mind about “better”. Do we need to distinguish procrastination and laziness? Can we

separate them clearly? Can we start right now if we know the reason to be late?

Whatever the reason of being late is, procrastination or laziness, if people know what makes

them work immediately, and if they want to do it, thinking and finding the reasons would be helpful not

to be late.

Adolescence

What could be different in adolescence? Adolescence is the state between being a child and an

adult. It is often regarded as a hard time for people and their family. Teenagers who are in this period

cause some trouble with their parents when they attempt to experiment with different things. Also, they

tend to think they are the center of everything, so they cannot consider other people’s viewpoints well.

Those problems cause trouble in their family, however if their parents’ style is not authoritarian or

permissive but democratic which means letting the teens make their own decision but involving in the

process of decision making, the teenagers and family might suffer less troubles (Seal, 2012). It shows

the uncomfortable features that everyone might have during the growing process could be less negative.

Even though it is less likely to find out a perfect ideal way to pass this unstable and confusing time to

young people and their family without any changing or suffering, it seems there is a better way people

withdraw more positive opportunity other than the image of conflict relationship and unstableness. How

could figure out it? All adults passed through their adolescence. When they look back on their own

adolescence they could understand why their sons and daughters act in that ways and could help to be

an ideal supporter for their precious child. Also, if the teenagers study about their mental, social, and

physical changing in positive ways, it might be less confusing and less troublesome.

What Carnegie Suggested

The things people can do better when they know themselves 8

People might change themselves when they study their psychology. Furthermore,

Carnegie (1936) suggested how to influence other peoples’ minds. That is to say, people could change

others mind as well as their own with proper methods. He suggested six ways to make people like you,

which are mostly about putting others in the center with sincere ways. He gave many successful

examples and explanations about human nature and the method to move the minds of others and to

achieve what people want. He empathized that human nature is supposed to like being important and

understood by others.When people imagine the person they want to be a friend with, many of them

would agree with Carnegie book. The person who could listen others’ interest and empathize sincerely

would be loved more than the person who usually talk their own interest only.

Carnegie (1936) also suggested not to order to others directly about what they have to do, but

to ask questions others their opinion and ideas regarding the issues. How could Carnegie’s suggestion

be adopted in our real life? It might be better to ask teenagers which environment they prefer between

neat, clean room and uncomfortable,untidy room, rather than to order them directly to clean their

room. Whilst the direct order might give the teens the chance of disobey their parents, the question

about their feeling or opinion might be the chance to think the states of their untidy room by themselves

without big resistance. Does Carnegie’s suggestion work to only others? Could it be applied to people’s

own mind? What if people ask themselves in soft voice why they delay something, why they feel stress

in some situations, what they could get more with procrastination or feeling stress, instead they push

themselves hard and order themselves to deal with the things they delay or the stress they feel? The

reasonable soft questions about their own psychological state might make themselves act in better way.

Even though in all cases people face, they could not be successful like in Carnegie's examples, it seems

there is little harm when people follow his suggestions.

The things people can do better when they know themselves 9

Conclusion

We have discussed how could people change themselves in better way. When people take

risks, suffer from adolescence, have procrastination problems, or feel stress, they could find out a better

way to cope with them if they know about their psychological features. Some research and examples in

this paper explain that human behaviour could be conducted in an improved way when they change their

perspective . There are many other studies and materials with more to say about human psychology.

Some of them might show different perspectives and understanding about stress, taking risks,

procrastination, etc. Therefore, it would be helpful to find more various materials for understanding

human psychological aspects, when people want to deal with those kinds of problems in better way.

This paper focused mainly on the possibility of changing behaviour through observing the inside of

people to support the idea that people living in the rapid changing world would need to change and

adapt rapidly too. Even though it seems not to be easy to change their habits, their values, or the way

they think, being self­aware would be one of solutions for people who want to change for better fitting in

the environment which is being developed constantly and providing new technology everyday, as well as

for coping with difficulty from rapid change. If someone wants to know their psychological features, it

would be helpful not only think and study by themselves, but also ask the others who know them such

as family, friends, and colleagues. It might also be recommendable to find and see a professional when

they have a larger problem. It is not certain, however, if someone could change themselves in better way

even they find out the various reasons that define and influence their thinking and reactions. It is possible

to think that people are supposed to think and act according to the way their genes formed, regardless

of what they have learned or how they were educated. There might be little things we know clearly,

regarding human beings’ psychological aspects. However, most people would want to know the way

The things people can do better when they know themselves 10

they could be better if it exists. Hopefully, this paper could help people find their own way to improve

and find happiness. People have changed the world and have written new history. People might be

more satisfied and improved in the way they change themselves even if they cannot change the world

they are living in as they want.

References

Barth, F. D. (2013). Afraid to take a chance? Psychology today. Retrieved from http://www.ucg.org/entertainment/how­can­we­cope­world­rapid­change/

Carnegie, D. (1936). How to win friends and influence people. New York, NY: Simon and

Schuster.

How do you cope? (2014). UCLA dual diagnosis program. Retrieved October, 13, 2014 from http://www.semel.ucla.edu/dual­diagnosis­program/News_and_Resources/How_ Do_You_Cope Kim, J. (2013). Why we are the way we are. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/valley­girl­brain/201307/why­we­are­the­ way­we­are Moore, R., Baker, B., and Packer, A. (1997). Building a paper: Explore. In N. E. Dollahite and J. Haun (Eds.), Sourcework (20­22). Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning. Seal, B. (2012). Academic encounters. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Sweat, B. (n.d.). How can we cope in a world of rapid change? The Good News. Retrieved from http://www.ucg.org/entertainment/how­can­we­cope­world­rapid­change/

The things people can do better when they know themselves 11

Warrell, M. (2013). Take a risk: The odds are better than you think. Forbes. Retrieved from

http://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2013/06/18/take­a­risk­the­odds­are­

better­than­you­think/

What is Happiness 1

What is Happiness

Karen Takada

University of Hawai‘i at Manoa

Final Essay Assignment

HELP 441W

Fall 1, 2014

What is Happiness 2

Introduction

Most people think being happy is the best thing for their lives. However, there are people who

have different perspectives about the nature of happiness. Is happiness for self­satisfaction? Most of

people sacrifice something for their happiness. No doubt, it is different depends on every people. This

paper discusses the what the happiness is. The discussion begins by examining values of happiness for

adolescents and adults.

Difference between Adolescents and Adults

Adolescents and adults have different perspectives about happiness. Both adolescents and

adults tend to take risks for their satisfaction. According to Price­Mitchell, adolescents can be happy

because they can develop curiosity, courageous, self­confidence, and persistence through taking

risks. Adolescents take a lot of risks because they prefer behaving physically and emotionally against

the society. Generally, adolescents enjoy taking risks when participating in various kinds of social

activities. For example, they prefer to break the law on impulse such as under age drinking, drunk

driving and smoking cigarettes. Moreover, they tend to be influenced by peers. They take risks to

identify themselves because it helps their self­esteem and self­confidence which are related to

success because these can lead them to be happy. On the other hand, it can be said that most of

adults take risks for different reasons.. Most of them challenge themselves at their work because

they want to be happy. For example, they work hard at the workplace, because more they want to

be promoted, improve job security and increase salary. It means that taking risks at work lead to

success. Taking risks can make them feel achievement and fulfilment of their lives, but if people were

asked that they are happy or not, their answers are different depends on person because it is hard to

define what the happiness is.

What is Happiness 3

The Elderly people

In general, older people are happier than younger generations (Tanner, n.d.). They are less

likely to feel anxious and depressed compared to younger people. For example, Japanese life

expectancy is 83 years old on average which is the highest in the world (“Life Expectancy,” n.d.).

Especially, there are many elderly people who live in Okinawa prefecture in Japan, and most of them

live longer than other places in Japan. According to Clear (2014), there is a reason why they live longer

because they find a purpose of living and follow the advice of “ikigai”. “ikigai” means to set a goal, or

find enjoyment and reasons in life. It is necessary for people to find their purpose of living when people

get old because some elderly who don’t have a purpose usually feel lonely and anxious about their

future, particularly concerning death. For instance, when people get old, people would face situations, in

which their close friends pass away, which is not a joyous occasion. Consequently, it is not clear that all

the elderly people are happy.

Being loved by people

According to Brilaki (n.d.), happiest people have common which they have a good relationships

with others. Being loved by people is also part of happiness. People might endure or sacrifice

themselves, if they want to be loved by others. There are various kinds of people who have a different

characters, so it is crucial to know how to deal with people too. Carnegie (1936), stated that showing

interests to the others, giving a smile, remembering people’s names, being a good conversationalist,

thinking about the others with interests, and behaving sincerely and smiling to the others, remembering

people’s name, and being a good listener are important if people desire to be happy. For example, he

told about a man who had never been remembered his name by others because his name was too long

to remember, so people usually call him in his nick name. However, when Carnegie called him by full

What is Happiness 4

name, tears sprung to his eyes because he was impressed. Some people might not like to be called their

full names, but most people feel happy when they are called by their full names.

Moreover, smiling is one important element of happiness. Smiling can decrease stress, even if

people make a fake smile at first, it can build good relationships later. Carnegie (1936), suggested that

William B. Steunhardt changed his life with smiling. He rarely smiled, but once he realized to change his

attitude by smiling and greeting, his life also changed as well. Smiling makes people happy, and even the

person who gives a smile also can be happy. According to Buscaglia (1924), "Too often, we

underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the

smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." It is rather happier than not

be liked by people because being loved by people is beneficial.

Which people can be happy, marriage or single?

Some people say that marriage is necessary and important to be happy, but others don’t agree

with this idea. According to Scheonborn (2004), both women and men who are married have health

benefits and well­being which are related to happiness. They don’t smoke or drink too much compared

to unmarried people. Also, it is said that they are less likely to get diseases such as cancer because they

have support from their spouses which has a positive impact on their health. Spouses can help each

other, so it would decrease their stress. For example, if a husband is working, and he is stressed about

his work, a wife could listen to his complaints. A spouse could play a role not only as a partner, but also

a friend and adviser. However, it is said that their happiness lasts only a moment, then they gradually

lose happiness because they are used to live with spouse or when they get a child, so their ways of living

would change at the same time (happify DAILY, n.d.). For example, both husband and wife have their

What is Happiness 5

common hobbies such as doing outdoor sports, but once they get a child, it would be hard for them to

enjoy their hobbies because they would devote their time to look after a child. Meanwhile, some people

might say that it is unnecessary to get married for their lives, because most single people are satisfied

with their lives without a partner. They can work by own, earn money, and focus on what they want to.

However, it is said that especially unmarried women can’t lead happier lives than married women.

According to Neal (2011), unmarried women are looked down upon by society. She also mentioned

that single people are hard to be approved by society. According to Stavrova (n.d.), some countries

recognize that women have to work as a wife, not a worker, so if they break this stereotype, they would

more likely to be exposed to social disapproval. It is evident that it is hard for unmarried women to be

accepted by society because of these reasons.

Introvert and Extrovert

Extroverts are generally prefer going out and meeting new people. They talk a lot, and are

outgoing, so they tend to be more involved in social relationships which make them to be success in their

lives. For example, when they go abroad to learn English, they are curious about new environment, so

they tend to talk to people without a feeling of shyness. Secondly, introverts prefer being alone, enjoying

themselves, and considering carefully. They are not outgoing, so it might hard to say that most of them

have a lot of friends, but it could be said that they try to understand friends more deeply. For instance, if

Japanese people and Westerns are classified into introverts and extroverts, Japanese could be

introverts, because if they are having a meeting at school or workplace, they tend to keep themselves in

their mind even if they think something. On the other hand,Westerns could be extroverts, because most

of them are assert themselves. While Westerns insist, Japanese just listen them because they are lack of

assertiveness. Even though Japanese don’t state a lot, they just keep their opinions in their minds. It

What is Happiness 6

seems like expressing their own opinions are necessary to be happy, so extroverts are less likely to be

successful and beneficial for their lives, but it is not clear because it can be said that both extroverts and

introverts make great efforts in order to be happy. In conclusion, both extroverts and introverts can get

happiness, so it is hard to explain which characteristics are better.

Positive and Negative

How do positive and negative feelings impact people’s lives? Are these emotions related to

happiness? Firstly, it is said that thinking positively and positive attitudes can motivate themselves

because it helps them to bring optimism. If a student studied very hard for a university exam, his result

wasn’t good, he might be upset himself, and lose his motivation toward studying. Even though he got

disappointed once, if he is a positive man, he can gets over his disappointment as soon as possible, and

it would help him to go to next step. Also, if a woman is working at the company, and scolded by her

boss because of her mistake at work. Even though positive people make a mistake, they can consider

themselves a positive light, so it can be said their attitude can lead them to be success. However, if their

attitude is always positive, another problem would occur because they might not be able to improve

themselves when they are wrong because they regard themselves as always right and correct.

Procrastinators

Procrastinators seem to be satisfied with themselves to procrastinate things. For instance, if a

university student who is a procrastinator gets an assignment from his school. He would hang out with

his friends, and spend his time for working at the part­time job as if he didn’t have any assignments.

When he notices the deadline is near at hand, he begins to start his assignment. This type of person is

likely to lose their chances, but he is actually never regret to procrastinate because procrastinating is a

What is Happiness 7

part of habits. However, according to Treleaven (2012), procrastination and happiness are related

because when people procrastinate, it influences their happiness. Treleaven

showed that procrastinating sometimes has a negative effect on people’s health because procrastinators

usually put off everything, and tend to finish what they have to do later, which leads to a lack of sleep.

Moreover, some people might think that procrastinators would regret because they put things off until

the deadlines come which would affect their lives.

Can money buy Happiness?

Many people might think that wealthy people are happier than poor people. Rich people

generally buy whatever they want. According to Stevenson and Wolfers (2008), rich people are usually

happier. For example, if they want to buy a car and a house, they can buy them as soon as possible.

Moreover, they can buy their own happiness because they can ship and travel. Also they can purchase

other people’s happiness because if they contribute to people who are in developing country, they can

provide them with food, medicines, vaccines, and schools. Wealthier people cannot only buy their own

happiness but also they can contribute happiness to the others too. However, it can be said that they are

not always happy because they might have a some financial problems. In contrast, there are some who

believes people in poorer countries are happier, but poorer people aren’t necessarily happiness.

According to Jayant Bhandari (2014), most people in developed countries have a mistaken image

about people who live in developing countries. She mentioned, “Some people living in big cities cherish

a romantic notion about rural places within their own area. Romantic, and mistaken: it is often a huge

error to presume that rural people believe in simple living, have a higher sense of community, are closer

to nature, are friendlier and more compassionate, and are physically more active and healthier. “ She

also said that poorer people are less stressed compared to richer people, because they don’t have time

What is Happiness 8

to feel depression. They always try their best in order to live everyday lives. For example, in a

developing country such as South Africa, children in South Africa aren’t well­to­do, and they don’t

have opportunities to get education no matter how much desire they have to go to school for learning.

But if a school is bulit for children, they would appreciate that opportunity and be happy to be learn.

Being poor or rich is not a good predictor of happiness because it is completely different.

Studying Abroad

If people have enough money to study, many people decide to go abroad to study languages

these days. Some people go to the U.S. to learn English, and some people go to China to learn

Chinese. It depends on people which nation they stay, but why do they go abroad expressly? Do they

study abroad to achieve something? Or, do they decide to go because some people influence to study

abroad? There are both advantages and disadvantages to study abroad. Firstly, most people go abroad

while they are high school students or university students. This can lead them to be happy in the future

because studying abroad makes it possible to learn new things. According to Brian (2014), people can

learn new things through meeting new people and experiencing new cultures such as food or customs

which they’ve never experienced before. He also stated that studying abroad is the best investment

because when people who study abroad experience different cultures and languages which are new

discovery for them. On the other hand, there are some people who go abroad to escape from their lives

in their own country. Some people think that they can find a purpose for the future, but people who

have those ideas usually fail when they go abroad. They would struggle, but they could discover how

difficult it is to live alone without any supporters such as parents and friends. They can realize how they

are living comfortable lives when they are in own country.

Conclusion

What is Happiness 9

This paper discussed that it is hard to define what is the real happiness is. Adolescents generally

take risks, but adults also do same things as well for their happiness. The elderly are said to be happy,

but they also have a fear of death. It is evident that happiness essentially contains success,

self­satisfaction, and self­esteem, but it is difficult to determine what the happiness is, because each

people have different lives and characters, so it can be understood that it depends on each individual

how they feel about happiness. Even if people are satisfied with themselves once, they might lose their

satisfaction later, and have to search for another happiness. It is not clear that people are happy, but if

people desire happiness, it is effective to focus on feeling happiness and to be in an environment which

they can feel comfortable. People will always want to figure out the exact nature of happiness because

they always want more.

References

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n­earth.html

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Carnegie, D. (1936). How to win friends & influence people. New York, NY: Gallery books.

Clear, J. (n.d.). Live Longer: What You Can Learn from Elite Athletes and Why the Japanese Never

Die. James clear. Retrieved from http://jamesclear.com/live­longer

What is Happiness 10

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Stavrova, O. (n.d). Society's disapproval is reason for unhappiness of cohabiting women. British

Sociological Association Annual Conference.

Schoenborn, C. A. (2004). Marital status and health: United States, 1999­2002. Advance Data.

Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad351.pdf

Stevenson, B., & Wolfers, J. (2008). Economic growth and subjective well­being: Ressessing the

paradox. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w14282.pdf

Treleaven, S. (2012). Is procrastination making you unhappy? Chateline. Retrieved from

http://www.chatelaine.com/health/is­procrastination­making­you­unhappy/

Tanner, L. (n.d.). Older adults are happiest Americans. USA Today. Retrieved from

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4688191

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Methods of dealing with their environment for adolescents 1

Methods of dealing with their environment for adolescents

Moeka Yamada

University of Hawai‘i at Manoa

Essay Assignment

HELP 441W

Fall 1, 2014

Methods of dealing with their environment for adolescents 2

Introduction

Adolescents are people who are age ten to nineteen years old, going through stresses and

struggles. This period of life is filled with difficulties and unique situations that are the starting point for

growth into adulthood. Adolescents have a hard a time because of the things that surround them. It

could be because of bullies at school, about getting good grades, or pressures from their parents. This

paper discusses the various issues surrounding adolescents. Many teenagers are having many issues; for

example, issues that are caused from stress, struggled, risk­taking, and social relationship.

Adolescent's Identity

There are issues about adolescent's identity, which are part of ‘identity crisis.’ It is a very

common issue among adolescents. ‘Identity crisis’ is a feeling of confusion, which is created by being

unsure about what kind of personality you have. According to Seal, adolescents begin to care about

how they look and what others see or think about yourself (2012). Also during adolescence, people

usually begin to redefine who they are. While people are going through their life, there are several crisis

of stages (Erikson, 2012). When an adolescent tries to discover who they are, they would likely to be fit

into the classic image of the rebellious teenagers. The development of individuality. It is usually different

from what their parents has or expect. For the solution of taking off the stresses and struggles, the action

of parents could be a key point. The action which parents refuse to talk about when they were teenager

or how they grew up to behave, believe and be an adult. One other issue that adolescents struggles with

could only be the situation of identity crisis, but when they are not able to find in themselves of unnatural

way making decisions. Identifying is also hard for adults but not only adolescents.

Adolescent’s Taking Risk

Methods of dealing with their environment for adolescents 3

Adolescents are most likely to have an image of risk taker. Risk taking combines curiosity,

challenge, excitement and denial (Pickhardt, 2014). The four factors makes adolescent want to take a

risk which also makes growth. Parenting is one of the reason, adolescents deals with taking risk. By

taking risk, adolescents could feel that it may cause a stressful situation, because of their parent’s eye or

frustrations about why he or she is taking risk. Adolescents are usually affected by their curiosity which

is made by their environments. The curiosity makes them learn about their surroundings and experiment.

Parents mostly notice in the adolescents. It could be something that relate to disorganization and

negative attitude for their school. Most parents of teenagers know mood swings, hormonal changes and

physical changes. They might also notice a lot of risk­taking behaviors in their children. However, by

taking risk, adolescents could learn skills to reduce impulsive and potentially life threaten behavior when

they go through learning techniques that promote their healthy body and lifestyle (Pickhardt, 2014). In

some cases, an adolescents who take more risks are experimenting, which is a necessary part of how

each of them grows. A study at the University of California, Los Angeles showed, adolescents who

went through a stress reducing program, which is called “YES! For Schools” had decreased impulsive

behaviors. The program teaches adolescents about health, making good decisions in their life, and how

to get relief from stresses. It also teaches techniques of yoga and deep breathing. The program helped

impulsive adolescents who are more likely to engage with risky activities that control their behavior

(Cassada, 2013). From this research, adolescent's behavior is definitely hard to understand sometimes.

In some cases, people sometimes need to take risks and this is the same for adolescents too. For

example, these days studying abroad for students who are in universities or colleges is popular in some

countries. For students who want to study abroad, there are risks such as, being away from their home

country for long time, which could cause home­sickness, facing with a huge ‘wall of language’, and

Methods of dealing with their environment for adolescents 4

culture differences. However, some students still want to go, because of they believe in their possibility

and talent. Most adolescents who takes risk seem like they have courage, which means that even if they

take risks, they seem like they will overcome challenges. University College London showed the study,

which is about risk­taking behavior appears during adolescence and that adolescents are “programmed”

to take risks (Donovan, 2011). Adolescents take risks because they like to feel thrill. Risk­taking is

adventure for adolescents. It is very exciting however at the same time it is very scary. There are

positive and negative effects of taking risks while adolescence. Some people define that taking risk is

only affecting them negativity, however there are some ‘positive risk­taking’, which is necessary for

adolescents to fulfill their need for developing identity, and testing authority. Positive risk­taking could be

activities such as team sports and volunteers activities. On the other side, negative risk­taking could be

some activities such as smoking, drugs, alcohol use, stealing, and eating disorders. While adolescence,

many adolescents seems like they have experiences such ‘negative risk­taking’, because they want to

feel thrill of risk­taking. “Learning how to win and lose as well as how to take risks to help others are

important social milestones that every teen must learn to conquer.” said Donovan (2011). Depression

in Adolescence

Depression is one way to express differently in children and adolescents than it does in adults.

The depression which appears in adolescence is more variable than depression in adult life, however

both have related symptoms. Many adolescents complain about depression that they get from not

getting along with friends or not wanting to go to school, said Neuman (2013). There might be many

ways that makes them depressed, especially when the depression is clinical. Every depressed people

doesn’t complain of being sad but, depression could show themselves simply in a failure to live

Methods of dealing with their environment for adolescents 5

successfully or to accomplish something. The behavior that are not sociable, such as stealing, or abuses

from drugs and alcohol could be manifestations of depression sometimes. The depression from those

things requires medical treatment. According to Neuman (2013), the adolescent is likely to become

sullen, irritable, and withdrawn and seems like lazy and rebellious rather and depressed. Some parents

are have questions like “Why do my kids (adolescent) get more easily upset than others?” It may be

because of a stressful time for the child, like crossing an experiential minefield with emotions, which is

mostly hidden in them (Pickhardt 2014). There are some factors that cause adolescents to be upset or

outburst: self­consciousness, sadness, anger, and loneliness. Self­consciousness happen for most young

people, begins around early adolescence and during late elementary school, when mostly happen young

woman or manhood begins. It may be because of the hormone, however it cause them to feel like they

are out of control and that could make their self­consciousness. Secondly, sadness could bring

adolescence some stresses. When adolescents are deeply suffering with loss, it may be make them want

to grow up faster.Third, the anger could be one of them. More adolescence try to be independently and

one one’s own terms causes, it makes confusion which related to the identity. Lastly, loneliness is one of

the factor that makes adolescents upset. When the occasion, separating from their parents, which make

them, put in the situation more pressure. Many adolescents go through the situation like when broken

friendship and it feels like they are left out by their friends. More loneliness, both at home and school,

makes them have stress. Sometimes depression causes a situation when adolescents are not doing great

at school and parents are thinking that they are not doing their best. However adolescents are

sometimes trying their best, which most likely cause pressure. Adults sometimes experience depression

because of something that happens to them, but the power of depression on adults and adolescents is

Methods of dealing with their environment for adolescents 6

different because of adolescents having depression. At the same time they have physical changes, which

makes waves of emotion.

Disorganization on Adolescence

As the above paragraph mentioned, that there are some disorganizations that are happening

between adults and adolescents. (Pickhardt, 2014) “Adolescence is disorganizing.” It is when individual

complexity and social complexity are growing. Those two factors are dealing with people, mostly

adolescents. In the age of disorganizing, there is a temptation for concerned parents to seek to help for

their child. Medication could be one method for this issue. However without any education is wasted

opportunity, because no one is daily helping the young person learn to organized and self­manage

effectively. Pickhardt (2014) mentions one way on how parents can help their organization; it is to

consider disorganization as a time management problem. Many young people are not ready to be

master of independence, because it requires knowledge and experiences. In addition, adolescents might

be surrounded by stress that comes from a multiplicity of new demands, breaking commitments.

Procrastination on Adolescents

A procrastinator is a person who postpones work. It is very likely to see them among the

students at high school. For example, homework is not done by due dates. This is one of the common

procrastinations for many people, even for an adult it could happen for their work. Adolescents are

more self­determined age (Piackhardt, 2014), and parental demands cause passive resistance, which

can cause procrastination to assert more independence. Procrastination is one of the strategies for

preserving the freedom of choice. When adolescents are not getting parental constantly as long as

Methods of dealing with their environment for adolescents 7

possible, it keeps social freedom open as long as possible. Because it seems like procrastination can

easily become a troubling self­management for adolescents and also adults, it is generally well for

parents to encourage their teenager to cooperate with their work and confronting problems of reality.

Procrastination may occur because of the delay the shorten time to get the done, due dates pressure

increase stress to finish work on time. Adolescents are active and passive resistance to parental

authority. Procrastination is one part of root in adolescents. There is a one of the common situation

when parents tell their son or daughter to do homework, however their answer is “Not right now” or “I

will do it later”. This kind of conversation makes adolescents frustrated but also parents too. For many

people, the goal of procrastination is to escape the immediate necessity of demand or work, but it

makes it even harder when procrastination is adds pressure to original demands.

Psychology Effects on Adolescents

Positive psychology is “the scientific study of optimal human functioning” which could provide

practical tools and it might be one solution that could make adolescents life little easier. The processes

that adolescents get through the stresses and struggles are important (Nicholas, 2009), because when

adolescents grow up, they would deal with people who are called “adult”, which mean they are satisfied

as people who already became independent and who are able to stand on one’s own feet. In “adult”

world, it may not be longer easier to deal with people like when they were in kindergarten. One reason

is because it seems like adults are living in a place, that has “reality” more than “wonders” like

adolescents has. According to Goeglein, many teenagers are having many issues, which mostly is fear of

failing. Fear of failure is a lack of concerns that adolescents have such as things that may lead to

problems that deal with their confidence and motivation (2014). Some adolescents believe in everything

Methods of dealing with their environment for adolescents 8

has to be perfect which leads to having such impossibly high expectations in their mind and it may lead

to believing one is worthless or a failure when they are not able to be successful according to these set

standards. When people try to concentrate on one thing, one another thing is distracting, that would not

work well. For example, when people try to focus on studying about certain one specific material, then

suddenly new discovery might appear which could cause to be interested in.

Physical Change on Adolescents

Physical changes could be another fact that could've been effecting on adolescent’s body and

also emotions. It is likely to see emotion’s wave that many of adolescents have when they are struggling

with friendships or relationships. It is very common that people get emotion of waves especially

adolescents. In some case, friendship is one of the main things that makes waves of emotion strong,

because of the adolescents are mostly spending their time at school, which means they are spending time

with their friends. However it could be very hard to time deal with their friends because every

adolescents are having physical changes and the not only the outside but inside of them changing as

hormone’s change. They are in the situation where they could control them but it is harder than when

they grew up to young adult.

Conclusion

This paper has discussed that many adolescents have issues and problems, mostly because of

the stresses and struggles that they have. Adolescence is one of the important times to get through. All

the stresses and struggles that they get through make their future path smoother. Adolescents are getting

through the time of structuring personality and finding identity. Sometimes it could be a hard time for

them because of procrastination, physical changes, and emotions that they have inside. Not only

Methods of dealing with their environment for adolescents 9

adolescents but also adults could consider this more. Every person can relate to the experiences of

adolescents.

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