MENTAL HYGIENE IN

EDUCATION

TATA V. BATUA

GRADUATE STUDIES

ST. PETER’S COLLEGE

The home is the first and most significant agency that affects the life of a child. The unique power of the home stems from the fact that it gets the new human being first before any other institution has had a chance to make an

impression upon him.

Factors in inter-parental

relationships to child

adjustments

• Tension over matters of sex;

• Problems of ascendance-submission;

• Lack of consideration for each other

• Lack of cooperation concerning the

upbringing of the child;

• Extra-marital relations;

• Problems of health;

Inability to talk over differences to mutually acceptable solutions;

Insufficient expressions of affection;

Tension over friends, work and relatives.

M.F. NIMKOFF

Described a good home as “one in which the child has parents who love each other, who love him, understand his interests, and do what they can to help him realize them and thus achieve adequate adjustment.”

INADEQUATE PARENT-

CHILD RELATIONSHIP

1. Emotional rejection of the child

it can be defined as an overt behavior toward an individual which leads him to believe that he is neither loved nor valued. Rejection causes the child to fear that those who constitute his world will not stand by him, are hostile to him, and are willing to abandon him.

PARENTAL REJECTION

1. Emphasis on the children’s shortcomings;

2. Severe punishment and negative responses (nagging, scorn, ridicule, threats)

3. Rigid discipline;

4. Desertion;

5. Eviction (to expel by legal process);

6. Unfavorable comparisons with other children;

7. Deliberate statements to the child indicating that he is unwanted.

2. DOMINATION OF THE PARENTS

The insistence of many parents upon early toilet training is another area of domination, by inhibition and restraint, which many professionals, especially the analysts, believe to be detrimental to the child.

3. SUBMISSION TO THE CHILD

-----a submissive parents isdefined as one who capitulatesto unrealistic demands arerequests, usually followingpressures and teasing on thepart of the child.

The outstanding causes of this type of parent-child relationship.

1. Illness of a severe nature which renders the child helpless and,

2. some strategy devised by the child to master his parents and with which they seem unable to cope.

SUBMISSIVE BEHAVIOR ON PART OF

PARENTS TENDS TO DEVELOP

1. Conceit

2. Overconfidence

3. Disobedience and

4. Disrespect for authority for their children

OVERPROTECTION OF THE CHILD

Overprotection by a parent involves over attention and pampering without offering opportunities for the child to make decisions or to assume responsibilities. Such a child be given everything he wants and have this very whim catered to.

4 FACTORS TO OVERINDULGENCE

1. Absence of love and affection in the parent’s own childhood;

2. Inharmonious marital relationships;

3. Frustration of personal achievement or thwarting of vocational aspirations;

4. Loss of mate or of another child.

OTHER DETRIMENTAL PRACTICES

COMMON AMONG PARENTS

1. some parents wish to relieve their lives through their children’s careers and thus project their vocational or professional ambitions without regard to the child’s interests and abilities.

2. Other parents who have acquired

considerable social prestige

because of their own

achievements expect their children

to perpetuate the family name

through their similar

accomplishments resulting in a

state of constant tension.

3. A parent who has a strong

preference for a child of a

given sex is likely to make

one of the undesired sex feel

unwanted as well as to focus

undue emphasis on liked-sex

characteristics.

ORIGIN OF PARENT –CHILD

RELATIONSHIPS

Mother-Child relationship

The infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship with his mother in which both find satisfaction and enjoyment

Father-Child relationshipTo the son, the father represents the man he will someday grow up to be like, the symbol of authority to which he must identify, the father-parent and the lover-husband he will someday become.

Is a person of either sex. In some

instances even an older brother or

sister—who substitutes for the real

parent actually or from the point of

view of the child. The child tends to

project his own parents—whether

positive or negative—on to such

parent surrogates and accepts them

emotionally.

Discipline

The modern of discipline does

not dispense with punishments

but utilizes it only when there

are reasonably certain

indications that it will result in

improved adjustment on the

part of the child.

B. SCHOOL AND MENTAL

HEALTH

It is said to begin at birth and continues until the end of life. It embraces all aspects of learning, and in a democratic society demands of the individual that he remains flexible and responsible to changing folkways and mores.

MENTAL HYGIENE PROGRAM 3

OBJECTIVES

1. To develop a well-adjusted personality;

2. To prevent a personality maladjustment;

3. To help in the readjustment of those who have already developed personality maladjustments.

THORPE PRINCIPLES

1. A democratic philosophy of education which reflects an atmosphere of academic freedom, initiative, and shared activity, and in which pupils and teachers work together cooperatively.

2. Attention to physical health and growth which includes the giving of periodic health examinations, encouraging teachers to be alert for symptoms of health disability, where possible, providing for the services of medical and dental specialists, protecting the child against communicable diseases, and promoting health instruction and practices.

3. A comprehensive program of activities which stresses play and creation of a variety of scholastic endeavors, activities leading to pupil self-direction, responsibility, and resourcefulness, as well as respect for the rights and property of others, and enjoyable social participation.

4. Effective methods of study and work which enable the pupil to experience the satisfaction and sense of competence which the mastery of work and study and responsibilities brings in its wake.

5. The adjustments of tasks to levels of maturity which comes from achieving desired goals and attaining a sense of personal security.

6. The development of a wholesome attitude toward sexual relationships as well as achieving masculine or feminine identification through healthy-boy-girl relationships and association with teachers.

7. a consistent and intelligent program of discipline directed toward healthy psychological adjustments and sound efforts to guide pupil’s conduct in harmony with desirable social standards and their own basic needs.

8. the presence of one or more adults in whom the pupils can confide thus providing a “substitute parent” for the emotionally unstable pupil as well as helping him with the relief of tensions and the solution of disturbing problems

C. COMMUNITY AND MENTAL HEALTH

The individual achieves his stature as a personality in group activities. His interpersonal relationships in the community will prove the application and the development of workable mental hygiene principles.

The demands of a given culture in society mold the personality of its members, and reflect the nature of the individuals who compromise it.

Just as mental health is, to an important extent, founded in physical health, so there must be a community hygiene in order to support mental health from without.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A PSYCHOLOGICALLY

HEALTHY PERSONALITY

Over the years, mental hygienists are faced with the problems of ascertaining the criteria of “full maturity” as well as “unhealthy” society. While there are available reasonably adequate criteria regarding satisfactory personality functioning within a given environment framework, very little is known by way of the pattern of an ideal personality exists.

PERCIVAL M. SYMONDS

Who offers a conception of normality or mental health in which includes

1. A balance or a compromise between the demands of society and the desires of the individual.

2. Maturity, or the absence of infantile and childish patterns.

3. Adequate functioning, or the ability to surmount severe threats and frustrating situations.

SHOBEN

“Congruent to the model of

integrative adjustment”

SELF-HELPS TO IMPROVE

PERSONALITY

1. Maintain a sound physical health

2. Develop a wholesome outlook in life.

3. Gain confidence through making sure of at least small success.

4. Learn to enjoy people and to make stimulating social contacts.

5. Cultivate a variety of active interests

Conquers fears by facing them.

Adopt a wholesome attitude toward sex matters

Develop a sensible independence.

Plan a balanced program of work and play.

Beware of alluring escapes

Learn to face things as they are.

Strive for a balanced satisfaction of life’s needs.

Remember that time is greater healer.

WAYS TO CONSOLIDATE

RELATIONS WITH PEOPLE.

1. Learn to like People.

2. Learn to understand people

3. Learn to be considerate of people

4. Learn to be socially Skillful with People.

Thank you for Listening…..