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Custom The Relation between Psychological well being and School Achievement in Children essay paper
The project is to prove the relation between the psychological well being and school achievement in children. This is done by answering the questions like what is the state of well being. There are different ways in which the psychologist defines the state of well being. As per them the well being can be of the body and that of the mind. Both of them affect a child’s performance in the school. A sturdy kid shows better resistance to all the diseases and shows better stamina to cope up.
In the same way a kid with a resilient frame of mind and a healthy brain shows better understanding of the situation around him and also devices methods to pave through them. But if the kid is already burdened with some other thought or sentiment his attention deviates. Hence a child is not able to keep up with the growing needs of the academics and hence loses the race. The talk is not about how these people suffer and get deviated, but to spot how the mental well being is related to their achievements, if any. There is a whole structure that defines the state of wellbeing for any individual. The psychologist points out how the there are six dimensions in which the well being has to be ensured to ensure the overall well being. The six dimensions that he talks about are the – positive relation with others, environmental mastery, autonomy, personal growth, purpose in life and self acceptance. In the paper you would find how all these dimensions are interconnected as well.
At the end all that is to be said is that these dimensions are not only inter related but also dependent on the performance in school. Each one of them boost up at the boosting of the performance. Hence to take that the psychological well being and school achievement in children are related and interdependent is not being wrong.
To comment on the effect of well being on a person’s performance it is needful to know the meaning of these two areas themselves. Also to understand how are they interconnected and how does one affect the other.
Understanding factors of psychological well being
For a child the indicator of his performance could be his achievements at school. School is the place where he interacts with the outer world and people who are not related to him. Hence, at such a place the work he does is done to prove his own self and to display his abilities. That means that school becomes his place to compete with the other elements of society and discover his place in the coming years. Whereas, the environment at home is according to his comfort therefore, the strife to understand the environment and his own self is not so much. The other elements are supportive and even profitable without his trying, there are trials and moments to prove oneself; if there is a sibling, but still it’s less competitive as per the environment at school. On these grounds we take performance at school as the real indicator of a child’s performance. This can also be supported with the point that if the child is encountering any familial problem then at home he is supported and helped to come out of it, at least by someone. But the outer world is no where concerned with it. Hence the conditions at school come out to be similar, to an extent, for all kids and hence their performance there- can be assessed as their ‘performance’.
Then we come to well being. In this essay the idea is to prove how psychological well being is important to help children performance at school, or how are the two connected and directly proportional. The state of well being has been defined by a lot of people in the field of psychology. Actually, well being could be, physical and mental. Here we talk of the mental aspect, that is, the psychological aspect. As defined by the department of psychology of the University of Wisconsin-Madison 53706, USA; the state of psychological well being can be a consequence of well being in six dimensions. The six dimensions in which well being is required for overall well being can be categorized under- Autonomy, Environmental Mastery, Personal Growth, Purpose in Life, Positive Relations with Others, Self-Acceptance.
These six dimensions that have been mentioned as the structure of well being are actually areas where a person exercises his will. A place a person would exercise his will and attain positive results and accolades, no wonder he would grow confident and satisfied with self. And his confidence would make the person feel secure of his position in this big world. He would feel assured and needed in the environment out of his family and will have a positive effect on his performance.
We need to know the relation between the well being of a child and his performance at school. To understand that we shall know what the two fields are we are talking about. We got to know after all this discussion done earlier. Now we shall understand why are the two related at all?
We found that the state of well being can be due to the six dimensions. If we talk about the first dimension- autonomy; we understand that it is about the person ability to be able to set rules for him and decide his own set of actions. He is able to monitor his life independently and hence has the confidence in self of being his own self on his own. This becomes the essence of his dignity and hence plays a part in the peace of his mind.
Then we come to the second dimension- environmental mastery. After having mastery over self and decisions, what you wish to have to prove yourself is that you are considered as the master in your place as well. This is like a social acceptance of the fact that you are capable of deciding things, not only for self but for a community and others. This is something that relates to the sentiment we experience every day.
A thing is not as good till the time it gets social acceptance. A red is not enough red if people acknowledge the fact that it is red. Otherwise it is not red at all. Hence when your achievements are considered by the people around you the achievement is registered as an achievement and hence you are an achiever recognized by everyone. Hence reassurance is necessary for environmental mastery and hence the peace of mind of the kid.
Then we can talk of the personal growth. A stagnant personality starts to fade out once the society starts to shift its perceptions. Hence to be accepted every time you need to develop as per the society and the process is continuous. Since the autonomous is always working even though the environmental mastery is there, therefore self assessment is always working inside the human mind. In such conditions the area of personal growth can never be left out even if the social acceptance is there. It is always needed for the mental peace. This makes you feel always updated and strong against the sprouting talents.
Then comes the purpose of life. This is as important for a person to live as is the direction needed for someone to navigate. You can do nothing with the social acceptance and autonomy if you do not understand your purpose of being there. This is very much close to the dimension of personal growth. With a purpose you can have a direction to work in hence the growth will occur. It is like the light at the end of the tunnel that keeps beckoning you while you are wallowing in life and walking towards it. This keeps you on track and since it affects the other dimensions as well, it is indispensible for the peace of mind.
Then is the positive relation with others. This is quite close to the dimension of environmental mastery and social acceptance. It specifies that the relationship shared is of positive nature. Even though we are out in the world to compete, we need someone to sympathize or empathize in the world. Family does help to great extent in this but then we have to go out and fend for ourselves. At that point of time family has little to offer. Positive relation with others is like and emotional support to the human and is needed to keep his mind at peace and calm. It also satisfies him in the sense that he is acceptable, and his ideas have relevance in the world. This is the similar reassurance we had known while dealing with such dimensions earlier.
And at last we come to self-acceptance. This dimension ensures that the dimension of autonomy is taken care of. If you are not accepted by self, then you are serving someone else. This is not what a human wants. By far we have realized that the peace of human mind depends on him and the society he is the part of. He wishes both of them to acknowledge and applaud him. And a true human sentiment is to be accepted by others even if you pay little attention to their needs and keep fulfilling your own self. Though the sentiments like keeping with the herd and helping others, mellows the extent of this sentiment, still it remains there. Hence it is very natural for a human to be able to accept himself to remain happy and satisfied, and hence at peace.
Now why is the performance of the child at school, or in the outside world related to the well being of his mind?
When a person performs he plans himself. For planning you are needed to know about all the factors that effect and how do they effect a situation. To study all this you need your mind to be free to concentrate on that. If you are mentally occupied how is it possible that you would study something else? If you are holding a crayon, to color, in the hand how would you write on the paper until and unless there is no restriction of writing with a pen?
Also if the mind is depressed with some reason the motivation level to work for something else dips down. In such a circumstance the performance deteriorates and hence it further affects the mental well being. From the beginning we have seen that psychological well being talks about the positive state of mind, it talks about a state when the child is not tormented from any psychological depression or incapability.
Hence we see why are the two states, that is, psychological well being and performance in school related.
Synthesis and Conclusion
Till now we have been giving reasons what and why are the two states related to each other. We also cited examples in order to come to a point where it seemed that they are related. We move ahead citing examples that the hypothesis given at the earlier instances make sense as per the situation.
There have been many psychologists commenting on how education of black students suffers due to their family conditions. One of them being Reginald M. Clark, who wrote the book- Family Life and School Achievement: Why Poor Black Children Succeed or Fail. In the book she talks how the family situations of the black students affect their performance in their school. The psychologist also talks about the mental peace of the kids and their ways to combat in the world. The aspect of mental peace is talked about in the way the family structure is and how are the conditions provided at home. The possible reason for some students does not aim for higher academic goals can be that they are expected to support their family structure as early as possible. It is difficult also in the way that they do not get enough space in their minds to concentrate on their development in terms of academics. The family fabric at home even though strong in terms of emotional support, is not able to provide the financial support. It is not that they are referring to all blacks under this. But they are specifically talking about the black children who come from poor families. Also as talked in the earlier parts that how environmental mastery is needed for psychological stability we can understand a lot of behavioral traits they all seem to follow. It is known that humans are adaptive and also try to survive in the given situation. Hence even if the environment is hard to live they find out ways to do so. They develop ways to get that mastery and acceptance. And for this they take any route which is not always academics, as for that the conditions are not favorable. Therefore we can witness how their psychological being affects their choices and hence their performance at school.
There is one more book- Family Life and School Achievement by the professor Clark. It also talks on the same lines and says how the needs of the school learning are different from the ones at home. This is what I mentioned earlier while giving the relationship between the psychological well being and school achievement in children. I did mention that the situations at home are different and there are possibilities of finding emotional support there. In the book he mentions that to excel in school the kid needs to develop a certain attitude, knowledge, skills and behavior. If the child is exposed to an environment at home where he has to fight for peace and develop a different attitude towards things then there are times that the required attitude would not come into being. The child will deal with all situations with that attitude or its derivatives. Also he might encounter that what is accepted at home and family and he can get things there do not work outside.
This will affect the social acceptance dimension of the psychological well being. Hence if the family is not helping the kid to attain psychological well being and making the life at the home itself a battlefield, then it is quite possible that he would not be able to battle outside for his academic achievements.
To this the example of the crayon works.
If then combating style he adapts for home and family works outside then he can go ahead and attain the environmental mastery otherwise he will not get social acceptance what he is. In this way his dimension of self acceptance will also get affected and hence will dip in that arena as well.
This is also talked about by the Clark in his book. He says that on research he also found out that the students who were not faring well in their schools did not go to meet the school personnel’s on their own, they were always summoned. This shows that when the dimension of environmental mastery is lost, the student loses his hold on other dimensions as well which were concerned with his self confidence. For example, the dimension of the personal growth, which depends on the acknowledgement by others, also shows a great amount of stagnation and hence deterioration. With this relation with others also stagnates and hence their social circle shrinks to those whom they identify with their own self. They start to suffer from low esteem when they are in company of others and hence lead to a mind which is clogged and suffering. In such a state it no wonder totally difficult for the student to come at term with his studies and deal with them even though the dimension of autonomy might be under his control but that is an outcome of stubbornness, ego and an anti to the emotions of inferiority. It is not the rational autonomous sense anymore, it is just the ego to prove him and regain all that he lost. Also Clark tells that the families which are better off and have a positive environment at their home have a positive attitude towards life. But I the family is disturbed then pessimism rules.
Due to this the enthusiasm dies long before it could sprout out. And hence the possibility to make a better image out at school loses hope.
The fact is not that I am here to prove how important family is for a child’s achievement at school, but to prove how important psychological balance and well being is important to make it big in school. Since at the time of childhood family is largely affecting the well being of the child, hence we can connect the family conditions to the level of achievement one makes in school.
There is one more book that points out how the marital status of parents’ affects the achievements at school. Here the author William Jeynes talks how a remarriage or a divorce fiddles with a child’s schooling. This also leads to the psychological well being of the kid. It is well understood that it is almost impossible to attain hundred percent in all the dimensions of well being. Every family has some or the other problem or a special situation, where the child has to battle through and feel confident. Hence it is natural that a child will encounter a few problems to adjust to these situations. And the whole project is done in order to prove that there is a close relation between the two things- the psychological well being and his achievement at school.
There are cases of excelling students and learned people who have made to that level after going through all the strife they encountered at home. To say that this flouts my whole paper and point of view is not justified. Coming back to the example of the crayon, the kid can write with the crayon if he is allowed to. The people who make to the top develop skills which are acceptable in the outside world. There are two ways a human brain can work, or may be more for it is quite complex. But they can always be segregated into two- the For and the Against.
There are also conditions which monitor this choice in a being. There has to be something to favour a particular choice made by the kid. Hence whatever be the case- whether the child excels in the academic arena or loses, he does that as an outcome of his psychological state. The kids who made it to the top despite the problems they faced had developed an immune to the negative factors and had developed a psychological well being and peace of mind to reach that stage. Hence we can say that it not at all natural to get positive results out of negative motives or sentiments. This is not just a philosophical statement but a proven fact and theory by many.
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