One of the most famous lines in the English language is actually of Scottish derivation, via the poetry of Robert Burns. As transliterated: "Oh, would some Power the giftee give us, to see ourselves as others see us."

We would recommend that maxim to the cadres of the two major political parties, both of which had indulged and perhaps over-indulged in some positive thinking on their own behalf last week. (See "Politics," p. 8.)

Consider, for instance, the appearance of Vice President Mike Pence as keynote speaker at the state Republican Party's annual Statesmen's banquet in Nashville. He and other prominent Republicans had a high time blowing their own horn, and who can begrudge them on an occasion like that?

The problem was that, here and there, the GOP speakers over-spoke themselves in a way that was seriously misleading, and, worse, self-deceptive. Could the Vice President actually believe, as he stated to a rapturous audience, that President Trump is "restoring our traditional alliances" and that "the world is responding to new American leadership"?

With all due respect to the president (and how much is due is up for debate), and without our attempting to judge the long-range effect of his foreign policy, such as it is, even his closest associates acknowledge that Trump is viewed with wary suspicion by those aforementioned allies for his ever-fluctuating policy declarations, and with outright scorn for his decision to take the U.S. out of the Paris climate accords.

Senator Lamar Alexander, as chairman of the Senate Health Committee, is taking the lead in breaking away from the hitherto closed ranks of Republican Obamacare decriers to hold hearings and entertain bipartisan negotiations on health care. Good for him. But to the crowd in Nashville, Alexander boasted of his prior votes with the rest of the GOP pack to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act and vowed, "I'm not going to rest until the 350,000 Tennesseans who buy their insurance on the free market are able to go into that market and buy insurance that they choose to buy and can afford." There's nothing in that statement that an exponent of the ACA couldn't also endorse.

Meanwhile, the five candidates for the chairmanship of the newly restored Shelby County Democratic Party spoke to some worthy goals in two Memphis forums last week. But almost all of them, including eventual chairman-elect Corey Strong, laid whatseems to us misguided emphasis on a need to createthe mostforbidding litmus test possible for participation in party affairs one that would almost guarantee, say,that anyone who had ever cast a Republican vote need not apply.

Really? Might as well put a sign on party headquarters: "Converts Not Wanted/Take Your Nasty Votes Away."

All we are recommending, to the true believers in either party, is that they step aside from their accustomed bromides and bloviations and make an effort to examine their preconceived notions with a neutral eye. They might actually learn something.

More here:
Republicans and Democrats Need More Political Self-Awareness - Memphis Flyer

Social and emotional learning (SEL) enhances students capacity to integrate skills, attitudes, and behaviors to deal effectively and ethically with daily tasks and challenges. Like many similar frameworks, CASELs integrated framework promotes intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive competence. There are five core competencies that can be taught in many ways across many settings. Many educators and researchers are also exploring how best to assess these competencies.

The ability to accurately recognize ones own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior. The ability to accurately assess ones strengths and limitations, with a well-grounded sense of confidence, optimism, and a growth mindset.

The ability to successfully regulate ones emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in different situations effectively managing stress, controlling impulses, and motivating oneself. The ability to set and work toward personal and academic goals.

The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures. The ability to understand social and ethical norms for behavior and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.

The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. The ability to communicate clearly, listen well, cooperate with others, resist inappropriate social pressure, negotiate conflict constructively, and seek and offer help when needed.

Responsible decision-making

The ability to make constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on ethical standards, safety concerns, and social norms. The realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, and a consideration of the well-being of oneself and others.

Go here to see the original:
Core SEL Competencies

Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to recognize oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals.[1] It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While consciousness is being aware of one's environment and body and lifestyle, self-awareness is the recognition of that awareness.[2]

There are questions regarding what part of the brain allows us to be self-aware and how we are biologically programmed to be self-aware. V.S. Ramachandran has speculated that mirror neurons may provide the neurological basis of human self-awareness.[3] In an essay written for the Edge Foundation in 2009 Ramachandran gave the following explanation of his theory: "... I also speculated that these neurons can not only help simulate other people's behavior but can be turned 'inward'as it wereto create second-order representations or meta-representations of your own earlier brain processes. This could be the neural basis of introspection, and of the reciprocity of self awareness and other awareness. There is obviously a chicken-or-egg question here as to which evolved first, but... The main point is that the two co-evolved, mutually enriching each other to create the mature representation of self that characterizes modern humans."[4]

Studies have been done mainly on primates to test if self-awareness is present. Apes, monkeys, elephants, and dolphins have been studied most frequently. The most relevant studies to this day that represent self-awareness in animals have been done on chimpanzees, dolphins, and magpies. Self-awareness in animals is tested through mirror self recognition. Animals who show mirror self recognition go through four stages 1) social response, 2) physical mirror inspection, 3) repetitive mirror testing behavior, and 4) the mark test; which involves the animals spontaneously touching a mark on their body which would have been difficult to see without the mirror.[5]

The Red Spot Technique created and experimented by Gordon Gallup[6] studies self-awareness in animals (primates). Toivanen says on a study done on perceptual self-awareness, "The attribution of self-perception to animals is based on a distinction between the experiential awareness of the soul and the intellectual understanding of its essence, a distinction postulated."[7] In this technique, a red odorless spot is placed on an anesthetized primate's forehead. The spot is placed on the forehead so that it can only be seen through a mirror. Once the individual awakens, independent movements toward the spot after seeing their reflection in a mirror are observed. During the Red Spot Technique, after looking in the mirror, chimpanzees used their fingers to touch the red dot that was on their forehead and,after touching the red dot they would even smell their fingertips.[8] "Animals that can recognize themselves in mirrors can conceive of themselves," says Gallup. Another prime example are elephants. Three elephants were exposed to large mirrors where experimenters studied the reaction when the elephants saw their reflection. These elephants were given the "litmus mark test" in order to see whether they were aware of what they were looking at. This visible mark was applied on the elephants and the researchers reported a large progress with self-awareness. The elephants shared this success rate with other animals such as monkeys and dolphins.[9]

Chimpanzees and other apes species which have been studied extensively compare the most to humans with the most convincing findings and straightforward evidence in the relativity of self-awareness in animals so far.[10] Dolphins were put to a similar test and achieved the same results. Diana Reiss, a psycho-biologist at the New York Aquarium discovered that bottlenose dolphins can recognize themselves in mirrors.[11]

Researchers also used the mark test or mirror test [12] to study the magpie's self-awareness. As a majority of birds are blind below the beak, Prior and colleagues[10] marked the birds neck with three different colors: red, yellow and a black imitation, as magpies are originally black. When placed in front of a mirror, the birds with the red and yellow spots began scratching at their necks, signaling the understanding of something different being on their bodies. During one trial with a mirror and a mark, three out of the five magpies showed a minimum of one example of self-directed behavior. The magpies explored the mirror by moving toward it and looking behind it. One of the magpies, Harvey, during several trials would pick up objects, pose, do some wing-flapping, all in front of the mirror with the objects in his beak. This represents a sense of self-awareness; knowing what is going on within himself and in the present. The authors suggest that self-recognition in birds and mammals may be a case of convergent evolution, where similar evolutionary pressures result in similar behaviors or traits, although they arrive at them via different routes.[13]

A few slight occurrences of behavior towards the magpie's own body happened in the trial with the black mark and the mirror. It is an assumption in this study[10] that the black mark may have been slightly visible on the black feathers. Prior and Colleagues,[10] stated "This is an indirect support for the interpretation that the behavior towards the mark region was elicited by seeing the own body in the mirror in conjunction with an unusual spot on the body."

The behaviors of the magpies clearly contrasted with no mirror present. In the no-mirror trials, a non-reflective gray plate of the same size and in the same position as the mirror was swapped in. There were not any mark directed self-behaviors when the mark was present, in color, or in black.[10] Prior and Colleagues'[10] data quantitatively matches the findings in chimpanzees. In summary of the mark test,[10] the results show that magpies understand that a mirror image represents their own body; magpies show to have self-awareness.

A new study, however, revolutionizes the idea of self-awareness in animals and suggests a new ethological approach, which may shed light on different ways of checking for cognition, and reopens the debate of ethologists (and philosophers) on consciousness. The research conducted by Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, associate professor at Tomsk State University in Russia and published in 2015 in the journal Ethology, Ecology and Evolution,[14] with the title borrowed from the novel by Lewis Carroll Self-consciousness: beyond the looking-glass and what dogs found there, could change the way some experiments on animal behaviour are validated.

I believe said prof. Cazzolla Gatti being much less sensitive to visual stimuli with respect to what, for example, humans and many apes are, it is likely that the failure of dogs and other animals in the mirror test is mainly due to sensory modality chosen by the investigator to test the self-awareness and not, necessarily, to the absence of this latter in some animal species.[15]

The study shows that the sniff test of self-recognition (STSR)[16], as defined by the Italian scientist in his study, even when applied to multiple individuals living in groups and with different ages and sexes, provides significant evidences of self-awareness in dogs, and can play a crucial role in showing that this capacity is not a specific feature of only great apes, humans and a few other animals, but it depends on the way in which researchers try to verify it.

Attempts to verify this idea have been made before, but most of them were only observational, lacked empirical evidences or had been carried out only with a single individual and not repeated systematically with other dogs of different sex and age (for example the ethologist Marc Bekoff in 2001 used a "yellow snow test[17]" to measure how long his dog was sniffing his scent of urine and those of the other dogs in the area). Therefore, the final test of self-recognition in a species phylogenetically distant from apes (thus with different sensory modalities and communication behaviour) as the dog, was not obtained.

The innovative approach to test the self-awareness with a smell test "highlights the need to shift the paradigm of the anthropocentric idea of consciousness to a species-specific perspective[18]" - said Roberto Cazzolla Gatti - "We would never expect that a mole or a bat can recognize theirselves in a mirror, but now we have strong empirical evidences to suggest that if species other than primates are tested on chemical or auditory perception base we could get really unexpected results.[18]

Just as Swiss cleaning robots perform behaviors that effectively cleans a room without being aware of it or having any program to detect debris, an organism can be effectively altruistic without being self-aware, aware of any distinction between egoism and altruism, or aware of qualia in others. This by simple reactions to specific situations which happens to benefit other individuals in the organism's natural environment. If self-awareness led to a necessity of an emotional empathy mechanism for altruism and egoism being default in its absence, that would have precluded evolution from a state without self-awareness to a self-aware state in all social animals. The ability of the theory of evolution to explain self-awareness can be rescued by abandoning the hypothesis of self-awareness being a basis for cruelty.[19][20]

Self-awareness has been called "arguably the most fundamental issue in psychology, from both a developmental and an evolutionary perspective."[21]

Self-awareness theory, developed by Duval and Wicklund in their 1972 landmark book A theory of objective self awareness, states that when we focus our attention on ourselves, we evaluate and compare our current behavior to our internal standards and values. This elicits a state of objective self-awareness. We become self-conscious as objective evaluators of ourselves.[22] However self-awareness is not to be confused with self-consciousness.[23] Various emotional states are intensified by self-awareness. However, some people may seek to increase their self-awareness through these outlets. People are more likely to align their behavior with their standards when made self-aware. People will be negatively affected if they don't live up to their personal standards. Various environmental cues and situations induce awareness of the self, such as mirrors, an audience, or being videotaped or recorded. These cues also increase accuracy of personal memory.[24] In one of Demetriou's neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development, self-awareness develops systematically from birth through the life span and it is a major factor for the development of general inferential processes.[25] Moreover, a series of recent studies showed that self-awareness about cognitive processes participates in general intelligence on a par with processing efficiency functions, such as working memory, processing speed, and reasoning.[26]Albert Bandura's theory of self-efficacy builds on our varying degrees of self-awareness. It is "the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations." A person's belief in their ability to succeed sets the stage to how they think, behave and feel. Someone with a strong self-efficacy, for example, views challenges as mere tasks that must be overcome, and are not easily discouraged by setbacks. They are aware of their flaws and abilities and choose to utilize these qualities to the best of their ability. Someone with a weak sense of self-efficacy evades challenges and quickly feels discouraged by setbacks. They may not be aware of these negative reactions, and therefore do not always change their attitude. This concept is central to Bandura's social cognitive theory, "which emphasizes the role of observational learning, social experience, and reciprocal determinism in the development of personality."[27]

Individuals become conscious of themselves through the development of self-awareness.[21] This particular type of self-development pertains to becoming conscious of one's own body and mental state of mind including thoughts, actions, ideas, feelings and interactions with others.[28] "Self-awareness does not occur suddenly through one particular behavior: it develops gradually through a succession of different behaviors all of which relate to the self."[29] The monitoring of one's mental states is called metacognition and it is considered to be an indicator that there is some concept of the self.[30] It is developed through an early sense of non-self components using sensory and memory sources. In developing selfawareness through self-exploration and social experiences one can broaden his social world and become more familiar with the self.

According to Emory University's Philippe Rochat, there are five levels of self-awareness which unfold in early development and six potential prospects ranging from "Level 0" (having no self-awareness) advancing complexity to "Level 5" (explicit self-awareness).[21]

By the time an average toddler reaches 18 months they will discover themselves and recognize their own reflection in the mirror. By the age of 24 months the toddler will observe and relate their own actions to those actions of other people and the surrounding environment.[31] There are multiple experiments that show a child's self-awareness. In what has come to be known as The Shopping Cart Task, "Children were asked to push a shopping cart to their mothers but in attempting to do so they had to step on the mat and in consequence, their body weight prevented the cart from moving".[32]

Around school age a child's awareness of personal memory transitions into a sense of one's own self. At this stage, a child begins to develop interests along with likes and dislikes. This transition enables the awareness of an individual's past, present, and future to grow as conscious experiences are remembered more often.[31]

As a child's self-awareness increases they tend to separate and become their own person. Their cognitive and social development allows "the taking of another's perspective and the accepting of inconsistencies."[33] By adolescence, a coherent and integrated self-perception normally emerges. This very personal emerging perspective continues to direct and advance an individual's self-awareness throughout their adult life.

One becomes conscious of their emotions during adolescence. Most children are aware of emotions such as shame, guilt, pride and embarrassment by the age of two, but do not fully understand how those emotions affect their life.[34] By age 13, children become more in touch with these emotions and begin to apply them to their own lives. A study entitled "The Construction of the Self" found that many adolescents display happiness and self-confidence around friends, but hopelessness and anger around parents due to the fear of being a disappointment. Teenagers were also shown to feel intelligent and creative around teachers, and shy, uncomfortable and nervous around people they were not familiar with.[35]

An early philosophical discussion of self-awareness is that of John Locke. Locke was apparently influenced by Ren Descartes' statement normally translated 'I think, therefore I am' (Cogito ergo sum). In chapter XXVII "On Identity and Diversity" of Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) he conceptualized consciousness as the repeated self-identification of oneself through which moral responsibility could be attributed to the subjectand therefore punishment and guiltiness justified, as critics such as Nietzsche would point out, affirming "...the psychology of conscience is not 'the voice of God in man'; it is the instinct of cruelty ... expressed, for the first time, as one of the oldest and most indispensable elements in the foundation of culture."[36][37][38] John Locke does not use the terms self-awareness or self-consciousness though.[39]

According to Locke, personal identity (the self) "depends on consciousness, not on substance.[40] We are the same person to the extent that we are conscious of our past and future thoughts and actions in the same way as we are conscious of our present thoughts and actions. If consciousness is this "thought" which doubles all thoughts, then personal identity is only founded on the repeated act of consciousness: "This may show us wherein personal identity consists: not in the identity of substance, but ... in the identity of consciousness."[40] For example, one may claim to be a reincarnation of Plato, therefore having the same soul. However, one would be the same person as Plato only if one had the same consciousness of Plato's thoughts and actions that he himself did. Therefore, self-identity is not based on the soul. One soul may have various personalities.

Locke argues that self-identity is not founded either on the body or the substance, as the substance may change while the person remains the same. "Animal identity is preserved in identity of life, and not of substance", as the body of the animal grows and changes during its life.[40] describes a case of a prince and a cobbler in which the soul of the prince is transferred to the body of the cobbler and vice versa. The prince still views himself as a prince, though he no longer looks like one. This border-case leads to the problematic thought that since personal identity is based on consciousness, and that only oneself can be aware of his consciousness, exterior human judges may never know if they really are judgingand punishingthe same person, or simply the same body. Locke argues that one may be judged for the actions of one's body rather than one's soul, and only God knows how to correctly judge a man's actions. Men also are only responsible for the acts of which they are conscious. This forms the basis of the insanity defense which argues that one cannot be held accountable for acts in which they were unconsciously irrational, or mentally ill[41] In reference to man's personality, Locke claims that "whatever past actions it cannot reconcile or appropriate to that present self by consciousness, it can be no more concerned in it than if they had never been done: and to receive pleasure or pain, i.e. reward or punishment, on the account of any such action, is all one as to be made happy or miserable in its first being, without any demerit at all."[42]

The medical term for not being aware of one's deficits is anosognosia, or more commonly known as a lack of insight. Having a lack of awareness raises the risks of treatment and service nonadherence.[43] Individuals who deny having an illness may be against seeking professional help because they are convinced that nothing is wrong with them. Disorders of self-awareness frequently follow frontal lobe damage.[44] There are two common methods used to measure how severe an individual's lack of self-awareness is. The Patient Competency Rating Scale (PCRS) evaluates self-awareness in patients who have endured a traumatic brain injury.[45] PCRS is a 30-item self-report instrument which asks the subject to use a 5-point Likert scale to rate his or her degree of difficulty in a variety of tasks and functions. Independently, relatives or significant others who know the patient well are also asked to rate the patient on each of the same behavioral items. The difference between the relatives and patient's perceptions is considered an indirect measure of impaired self-awareness. The limitations of this experiment rest on the answers of the relatives. Results of their answers can lead to a bias. This limitation prompted a second method of testing a patient's self-awareness. Simply asking a patient why they are in the hospital or what is wrong with their body can give compelling answers as to what they see and are analyzing.[46]

Dissociative identity disorder or multiple personality disorder is a disorder involving a disturbance of identity in which two or more separate and distinct personality states (or identities) control an individual's behavior at different times.[47] One identity may be different from another, and when an individual with DID is under the influence of one of their identities, they may forget their experiences when they switch to the other identity. "When under the control of one identity, a person is usually unable to remember some of the events that occurred while other personalities were in control."[48] They may experience time loss, amnesia, and adopt different mannerisms, attitudes, speech and ideas under different personalities. They are often unaware of the different lives they lead or their condition in general, feeling as though they are looking at their life through the lens of someone else, and even being unable to recognize themselves in a mirror.[49] Two cases of DID have brought awareness to the disorder, the first case being that of Eve. This patient harbored three different personalities: Eve White the good wife and mother, Eve Black the party girl, and Jane the intellectual. Under stress, her episodes would worsen. She even tried to strangle her own daughter and had no recollection of the act afterward. Eve went through years of therapy before she was able to learn how to control her alters and be mindful of her disorder and episodes. Her condition, being so rare at the time, inspired the book and film adaptation The Three Faces of Eve, as well as a memoir by Eve herself entitled I'm Eve. Doctors speculated that growing up during the Depression and witnessing horrific things being done to other people could have triggered emotional distress, periodic amnesia, and eventually DID.[50] In the second case, Shirley Mason, or Sybil, was described as having over 16 separate personalities with different characteristics and talents. Her accounts of horrific and sadistic abuse by her mother during childhood prompted doctors to believe that this trauma caused her personalities to split, furthering the unproven idea that this disorder was rooted in child abuse, while also making the disorder famous. In 1998 however, Sybil's case was exposed as a sham. Her therapist would encourage Sybil to act as her other alter ego although she felt perfectly like herself. Her condition was exaggerated in order to seal book deals and television adaptations.[51] Awareness of this disorder began to crumble shortly after this finding. To this day, no proven cause of DID has been found, but treatments such as psychotherapy, medications, hypnotherapy, and adjunctive therapies have proven to be very effective.[52]

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental disabilities that can adversely impact social communication and create behavioral challenges (Understanding Autism, 2003).[53] "Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors."[54] ASDs can also cause imaginative abnormalities and can range from mild to severe, especially in sensory-motor, perceptual and affective dimensions.[55] Children with ASD may struggle with self-awareness and self acceptance. Their different thinking patterns and brain processing functions in the area of social thinking and actions may compromise their ability to understand themselves and social connections to others.[56] About 75% diagnosed autistics are mentally handicapped in some general way and the other 25% diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome show average to good cognitive functioning.[57] When we compare our own behavior to the morals and values that we were taught, we can focus more attention on ourselves which increases self-awareness. To understand the many effects of autism spectrum disorders on those afflicted have led many scientists to theorize what level of self-awareness occurs and in what degree. Research found that ASD can be associated with intellectual disability and difficulties in motor coordination and attention. It can also result in physical health issues as well, such as sleep and gastrointestinal disturbances. As a result of all those problems, individuals are literally unaware of themselves.[58] It is well known that children suffering from varying degrees of autism struggle in social situations. Scientists at the University of Cambridge have produced evidence that self-awareness is a main problem for people with ASD. Researchers used functional magnetic resonance scans (FMRI) to measure brain activity in volunteers being asked to make judgments about their own thoughts, opinions, preferences, as well as about someone else's. One area of the brain closely examined was the ventromedial pre-frontal cortex (vMPFC) which is known to be active when people think about themselves.[59]

A study out of Stanford University has tried to map out brain circuits with understanding self-awareness in Autism Spectrum Disorders.[60] This study suggests that self-awareness is primarily lacking in social situations but when in private they are more self-aware and present. It is in the company of others while engaging in interpersonal interaction that the self-awareness mechanism seems to fail. Higher functioning individuals on the ASD scale have reported that they are more self-aware when alone unless they are in sensory overload or immediately following social exposure.[61] Self-awareness dissipates when an autistic is faced with a demanding social situation. This theory suggests that this happens due to the behavioral inhibitory system which is responsible for self-preservation. This is the system that prevents human from self-harm like jumping out of a speeding bus or putting our hand on a hot stove. Once a dangerous situation is perceived then the behavioral inhibitory system kicks in and restrains our activities. "For individuals with ASD, this inhibitory mechanism is so powerful, it operates on the least possible trigger and shows an over sensitivity to impending danger and possible threats.[61] Some of these dangers may be perceived as being in the presence of strangers, or a loud noise from a radio. In these situations self-awareness can be compromised due to the desire of self preservation, which trumps social composure and proper interaction.

The Hobson hypothesis reports that autism begins in infancy due to the lack of cognitive and linguistic engagement which in turn results in impaired reflective self-awareness. In this study ten children with Asperger's Syndrome were examined using the Self-understanding Interview. This interview was created by Damon and Hart and focuses on seven core areas or schemas that measure the capacity to think in increasingly difficult levels. This interview will estimate the level of self understanding present. "The study showed that the Asperger group demonstrated impairment in the 'self-as-object' and 'self-as-subject domains of the Self-understanding Interview, which supported Hobson's concept of an impaired capacity for self-awareness and self-reflection in people with ASD.".[62] Self-understanding is a self description in an individual's past, present and future. Without self-understanding it is reported that self-awareness is lacking in people with ASD.

Joint attention (JA) was developed as a teaching strategy to help increase positive self-awareness in those with autism spectrum disorder.[63] JA strategies were first used to directly teach about reflected mirror images and how they relate to their reflected image. Mirror Self Awareness Development (MSAD) activities were used as a four-step framework to measure increases in self-awareness in those with ASD. Self-awareness and knowledge is not something that can simply be taught through direct instruction. Instead, students acquire this knowledge by interacting with their environment.[63] Mirror understanding and its relation to the development of self leads to measurable increases in self-awareness in those with ASD. It also proves to be a highly engaging and highly preferred tool in understanding the developmental stages of self- awareness.

There have been many different theories and studies done on what degree of self-awareness is displayed among people with autism spectrum disorder. Scientists have done research about the various parts of the brain associated with understanding self and self-awareness. Studies have shown evidence of areas of the brain that are impacted by ASD. Other theories suggest that helping an individual learn more about themselves through Joint Activities, such as the Mirror Self Awareness Development may help teach positive self-awareness and growth. In helping to build self-awareness it is also possible to build self-esteem and self acceptance. This in turn can help to allow the individual with ASD to relate better to their environment and have better social interactions with others.

Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric illness characterized by excessive dopamine activity in the mesolimbic tract and insufficient dopamine activity in the mesocortical tract leading to symptoms of psychosis along with poor cognition in socialization. Under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, people with schizophrenia have a combination of positive, negative and psychomotor symptoms. These cognitive disturbances involve rare beliefs and/or thoughts of a distorted reality that creates an abnormal pattern of functioning for the patient. Multiple studies have investigated this issue. Although it has been studied and proven that schizophrenia is hereditary,[64] most patients that inherit this gene are not aware of their disorder, regardless of their family history. It is believed that Schizophrenia, in individuals of a family history of the disease, can be triggered by stressful life events.[65] The level of self-awareness among patients with schizophrenia is a heavily studied topic.

Schizophrenia as a disease state is characterized by severe cognitive dysfunction and it is uncertain to what extent patients are aware of this deficiency. Medalia and Lim (2004),[66] investigated patients awareness of their cognitive deficit in the areas of attention, nonverbal memory, and verbal memory. Results from this study (N=185) revealed large discrepancy in patients assessment of their cognitive functioning relative to the assessment of their clinicians. Though it is impossible to access ones consciousness and truly understand what a schizophrenic believes, regardless in this study, patients were not aware of their cognitive dysfunctional reasoning. In the DSM-5, to receive a diagnosis of schizophrenia, they must have two or more of the following symptoms in the duration of one month: delusions*, hallucinations*, disorganized speech*, grossly disorganized/catatonic behavior and negative symptoms (*these three symptoms above all other symptoms must be present to correctly diagnose a patient.) Sometimes these symptoms are very prominent and are treated with a combination of antipsychotics (i.e. haloperidol, loxapine), atypical antipsychotics (such as clozapine and risperdone) and psychosocial therapies that include family interventions and socials skills. When a patient is undergoing treatment and recovering from the disorder, the memory of their behavior is present in a diminutive amount; thus, self-awareness of diagnoses of schizophrenia after treatment is rare, as well as subsequent to onset and prevalence in the patient.

The above findings are further supported by a study conducted by Amador and colleagues.[67] The study suggests a correlation exists between patient insight, compliance and disease progression. Investigators assess insight of illness was assessed via Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder and was used along with rating of psychopathology, course of illness, and compliance with treatments in a sample of 43 patients. Patients with poor insight are less likely to be compliant with treatment and are more likely to have a poorer prognosis. Patients with hallucinations sometimes experience positive symptoms, which can include delusions of reference, thought insertion/withdrawal, thought broadcast, delusions of persecution, grandiosity and many more. These psychoses skew the patient's perspectives of reality in ways in which they truly believe are really happening. For instance, a patient that is experiencing delusions of reference may believe while watching the weather forecast that when the weatherman says it will rain, he is really sending a message to the patient in which rain symbolizes a specific warning completely irrelevant to what the weather is. Another example would be thought broadcast, which is when a patient believes that everyone can hear their thoughts. These positive symptoms sometimes are so severe to where the schizophrenic believes that something is crawling on them or smelling something that is not there in reality. These strong hallucinations are intense and difficult to convince the patient that they do not exist outside of their cognitive beliefs, making it extremely difficult for a patient to understand and become self-aware that what they are experiencing is in fact not there.

Furthermore, a study by Bedford and Davis[68] (2013) was conducted to look at the association of denial vs. acceptance of multiple facets of schizophrenia (self reflection, self perception and insight) and its effect on self-reflection (N=26). Study results suggest patients with increased disease denial have lower recollection for self evaluated mental illnesses. To a great extent, disease denial creates a hardship for patients to undergo recovery because their feelings and sensations are intensely outstanding. But just as this and the above studies imply, a large proportion of schizophrenics do not have self-awareness of their illness for many factors and severity of reasoning of their diagnoses.

Bipolar disorder is an illness that causes shifts in mood, energy, and ability to function. Self-awareness is crucial in those suffering from this disease, as they must be able to distinguish between feeling a certain way because of the disorder or because of separate issues. "Personality, behavior, and dysfunction affect your bipolar disorder, so you must 'know' yourself in order to make the distinction."[69] This disorder is a difficult one to diagnose, as self-awareness changes with mood. "For instance, what might appear to you as confidence and clever ideas for a new business venture might be a pattern of grandiose thinking and manic behavior".[70] Issues occur between understanding irrationality in a mood swing and being completely wrapped in a manic episode, rationalizing that the exhibited behaviors are normal.

Bodily (Self-)Awareness [1] is related to Proprioception (& Visualization).

According to a British survey, managers have a gap in self-awareness. Managers rate their own performance far higher than their team members do.[71]

Theater also concerns itself with other awareness besides self-awareness. There is a possible correlation between the experience of the theater audience and individual self-awareness. As actors and audiences must not "break" the fourth wall in order to maintain context, so individuals must not be aware of the artificial, or the constructed perception of his or her reality. This suggests that both self-awareness and the social constructs applied to others are artificial continuums just as theater is. Theatrical efforts such as Six Characters in Search of an Author, or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, construct yet another layer of the fourth wall, but they do not destroy the primary illusion. Refer to Erving Goffman's Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience.[citation needed]

In science fiction, self-awareness describes an essential human property that often (depending on the circumstances of the story) bestows personhood onto a non-human. If a computer, alien or other object is described as "self-aware", the reader may assume that it will be treated as a completely human character, with similar rights, capabilities and desires to a normal human being.[72] The words "sentience", "sapience" and "consciousness" are used in similar ways in science fiction.

Go here to see the original:
Self-awareness - Wikipedia

The mirror test, sometimes called the mark test or the mirror self-recognition test (MSR), is a behavioural technique developed in 1970 by psychologist Gordon Gallup Jr. as an attempt to determine whether a non-human animal possesses the ability of visual self-recognition.[1] The MSR test is the traditional method for attempting to measure self-awareness; however, there has been controversy whether the test is a true indicator.

In the classic MSR test, an animal is anaesthetised and then marked (e.g. painted, or a sticker attached) on an area of the body the animal cannot normally see. When the animal recovers from the anaesthetic, it is given access to a mirror. If the animal then touches or investigates the mark, it is taken as an indication that the animal perceives the reflected image as itself, rather than of another animal.

Very few species have passed the MSR test. As of 2016, only great apes (including humans), a single Asiatic elephant, dolphins, orcas, and the Eurasian magpie have passed the MSR test. A wide range of species has been reported to fail the test, including several monkey species, giant pandas, sea lions, and dogs.[2][3]

In 1970, Gordon Gallup, Jr., experimentally investigated the possibility of self-recognition with two male and two female wild pre-adolescent chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), none of which had presumably seen a mirror previously. Each chimpanzee was put into a room by itself for two days. Next, a full-length mirror was placed in the room for a total of 80 hours at periodically decreasing distances. A multitude of behaviours was recorded upon introducing the mirrors to the chimpanzees. Initially, the chimpanzees made threatening gestures at their own images, ostensibly seeing their own reflections as threatening. Eventually, the chimps used their own reflections for self-directed responding behaviours, such as grooming parts of their body previously not observed without a mirror, picking their noses, making faces, and blowing bubbles at their own reflections.

Gallup expanded the study by manipulating the chimpanzees' appearance and observing their reaction to their reflection in the mirror. Gallup anaesthetised the chimpanzees and then painted a red alcohol-soluble dye on the eyebrow ridge and on the top half of the opposite ear. When the dye dried, it had virtually no olfactory or tactile cues. Gallup then returned the chimpanzees to the cage (with the mirror removed) and allowed them to regain full consciousness. He then recorded the frequency with which the chimpanzees spontaneously touched the marked areas of skin. After 30 minutes, the mirror was re-introduced into the room and the frequency of touching the marked areas again determined. The frequency of touching increased to 4-10 with the mirror present, compared to only 1 when the mirror had been removed. The chimpanzees sometimes inspected their fingers visually or olfactorily after touching the marks. Other mark-directed behaviour includes turning and adjusting of the body to better view the mark in the mirror, or tactile examination of the mark with an appendage while viewing the mirror.[1]

An important aspect of the classical mark-test is that the mark/dye is non-tactile, preventing attention being drawn to the marking through additional perceptual cues (somesthesis). For this reason, animals in the majority of classical tests are anesthetised. Some tests, use a tactile marker.[4]

Animals that are considered to be able to recognise themselves in a mirror typically progress through four stages of behaviour when facing a mirror:[5]

Gallup conducted a follow-up study in which two chimpanzees with no prior experience of a mirror were put under anesthesia, marked and observed. After recovery, they made no mark-directed behaviours either before or after being provided with a mirror.[citation needed]

The inspiration for the mirror test comes from an anecdote about Charles Darwin and a captive orangutan. While visiting the London Zoo in 1838, Darwin observed an orangutan, named Jenny, throwing a tantrum after being teased with an apple by her keeper. This started him thinking about the subjective experience of an orangutan.[6] He also watched Jenny gaze into a mirror and noted the possibility that she recognised herself in the reflection.[7]

A large number of studies using a wide range of species have investigated the occurrence of spontaneous, mark-directed behaviour when given a mirror, as originally proposed by Gallup. Most marked animals given a mirror initially respond with social behaviour, such as aggressive displays, and continue to do so during repeated testing. Only a small number of species have touched or directed behaviour toward the mark, thereby passing the classic MSR test.

Findings in MSR studies are not always conclusive. Even in chimpanzees, the species most studied and with the most convincing findings, clear-cut evidence of self-recognition is not obtained in all individuals tested.[8] Prevalence is about 75% in young adults and considerably less in young and aging individuals.[9]

Until the study on magpies, self-recognition was thought to reside in the neocortex area of the brain. However, said brain region is absent in birds. Self-recognition in birds and mammals may be a case of convergent evolution, where similar evolutionary pressures result in similar behaviours or traits, although they arrive at them via different routes and the underlying mechanism may be different.[24]

A range of species have been exposed to mirrors. Although these might have failed the classic MSR test, they have sometimes shown mirror-related behaviour:

Two captive giant manta rays showed frequent, unusual and repetitive movements in front of a mirror suggested contingency checking. They also showed unusual self-directed behaviours when exposed to the mirror.[41]

The MSR test has been criticised for several reasons, in particular, because it may result in findings that are false negatives.[24]

The MSR test may be of limited value when applied to species that primarily use senses other than vision.[42][verification needed] For example, dogs mainly use olfaction and audition; vision is used only third. It is suggested this is why dogs fail the MSR test. With this in mind, the biologist Marc Bekoff developed a scent-based paradigm using dog urine to test self-recognition in canines.[19][42] He tested his own dog, but his results were inconclusive.[43] A 2015 study[44] suggested a new ethological approach, the Sniff test of self-recognition (STSR) which may shed light on different ways of checking for self-recognition.

Another concern with the MSR test is that some species quickly respond aggressively to their mirror reflection as if it were a threatening conspecific thereby preventing the animal to calmly consider what the reflection actually represents. It has been suggested this is the reason why gorillas and monkeys fail the MSR test.[45][46]

In a MSR test, animals may not recognise the mark as abnormal, or, may not be sufficiently motivated to react to it. However, this does not mean they are unable to recognise themselves. For example, in a MSR test conducted on three elephants, only one elephant passed the test but the two elephants that failed still demonstrated behaviours that can be interpreted as self-recognition. The researchers commented that the elephants might not have touched the mark because it was not important enough to them.[47] Similarly, lesser apes infrequently engage in self-grooming, which may explain their failure to touch a mark on their head in the mirror test.[24]

Primates, other than the great apes, have so far universally failed the mirror test. However, mirror tests with three species of gibbon (Hylobates syndactylus, H.gabriellae, H. leucogenys) have shown convincing evidence of self-recognition despite the fact that the animals failed the standard version of the mirror test.[48]

Rhesus macaques have failed the MSR test, but use mirrors to study otherwise-hidden parts of their bodies, such as their genitals and the implants in their heads. It has been suggested this demonstrates at least a partial self-awareness, although this is disputed.[49]

Pigs can use visual information seen in a mirror to find food, and show evidence of self-recognition when presented with their reflection. In an experiment, 7 of the 8 pigs tested were able to find a bowl of food hidden behind a wall and revealed using a mirror. The eighth pig looked behind the mirror for the food.[50] BBC Earth also showed the foodbowl test, and the "matching shapes to holes" test, in the Extraordinary Animals series.[51]

Pigeons are capable of passing a highly modified mirror test, but only after extensive training.[52][53] In the experiment, a pigeon was trained to look in a mirror to find a response key behind it, which the pigeon then turned to peck to obtain food. Thus, the pigeon learned to use a mirror to find critical elements of its environment. Next, the pigeon was trained to peck at dots placed on its feathers; food was, again, the consequence of touching the dot. The latter training was accomplished in the absence of the mirror. The final test was placing a small bib on the pigeonenough to cover a dot placed on its lower belly. A control period without the mirror present yielded no pecking at the dot. When the mirror was revealed, the pigeon became active, looked in the mirror and then tried to peck on the dot under the bib. However, untrained pigeons have never passed the mirror test.[54]

Manta rays repeatedly swim in front of the mirror, turning over to show their undersides and moving their fins. When in front of the mirror, they blow bubbles, an unusual behaviour. They do not try to socially interact with the mirror image, suggesting that they recognise that the mirror image is not another ray. However, a classic mirror test using marks on the rays bodies has yet to be done.[55]

In 2012, early steps were taken to make a robot pass the mirror test.[56]

The rouge test is a version of the mirror test used with children.[57] Using rouge makeup, an experimenter surreptitiously places a dot on the face of the child. The child is then placed in front of a mirror and their reactions are monitored; depending on the child's development, distinct categories of responses are demonstrated. This test is widely cited as the primary measure for mirror self-recognition in human children.[58][59][60]

From the age of 6 to 12 months, the child typically sees a "sociable playmate" in the mirror's reflection. Self-admiring and embarrassment usually begin at 12 months, and at 14 to 20 months most children demonstrate avoidance behaviours.[57] Finally, at 18 months half of children recognise the reflection in the mirror as their own[58] and by 20 to 24 months self-recognition climbs to 65%. Children do so by evincing mark-directed behaviour; they touch their own nose or try to wipe the mark off.[57]

It appears that self-recognition in mirrors is independent of familiarity with reflecting surfaces.[59] In some cases the rouge test has been shown to have differing results, depending on sociocultural orientation. For example, a Cameroonian Nso sample of infants 18 to 20 months of age had an extremely low amount of self-recognition outcomes at 3.2%. The study also found two strong predictors of self-recognition: object stimulation (maternal effort of attracting the attention of the infant to an object either person touched) and mutual eye contact.[61] A strong correlation between self-concept and object permanence have also been demonstrated using the rouge test.[62]

The rouge test is a measure of self-concept; the child who touches the rouge on his own nose upon looking into a mirror demonstrates the basic ability to understand self-awareness.[63][64][65] Animals,[42] young children,[20] and people who have their sight restored after being blind from birth,[19] sometimes react to their reflection in the mirror as though it were another individual[citation needed].

Theorists have remarked on the significance of this period in a child's life. For example, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan used a similar test in marking the mirror stage when growing up.[66] Current views of the self in psychology position the self as playing an integral part in human motivation, cognition, affect, and social identity.[60]

There is some debate as to the interpretation of the results of the mirror test,[42] and researchers in one study have identified some potential problems with the test as a means of gauging self-awareness in young children.[67]

Proposing that a self-recognising child may not demonstrate mark-directed behaviour because they are not motivated to clean up their faces, thus providing incorrect results, the study compared results of the standard rouge test methodology against a modified version of the test.[67]

In the classic test, the experimenter first played with the children, making sure that they looked in the mirror at least three times. Then, the rouge test was performed using a dot of rouge below the child's right eye. For their modified testing, the experimenter introduced a doll with a rouge spot under its eye and asked the child to help clean the doll. The experimenter would ask up to three times before cleaning the doll themselves. The doll was then put away, and the mirror test performed using a rouge dot on the child's face. These modifications were shown to increase the number of self-recognisers.[67]

The results uncovered by this study at least suggest some issues with the classic mirror test; primarily, that it assumes that children will recognise the dot of rouge as abnormal and attempt to examine or remove it. The classic test may have produced false negatives, because the child's recognition of the dot did not lead to them cleaning it. In their modified test, in which the doll was cleaned first, they found a stronger relationship between cleaning the doll's face and the child cleaning its own face. The demonstration with the doll, postulated to demonstrate to the children what to do, may lead to more reliable confirmation of self-recognition.[67]

On a more general level, it remains debatable whether recognition of one's mirror image implies self-awareness.[67]

See more here:
Mirror test - Wikipedia

Glen Campbell, who died Aug. 8 at the age of 81, was interviewed outside of Philadelphia in September 2011, a year after the country legend was diagnosed with Alzheimers. The following story, which originally ran in Blurt Magazine, was among the most illuminating talks to take place during that time. Shortly thereafter, Campbell retreated from public life.

Memory fades. Sifting through images and ideas is no easy process, not for the young or old, not where the distant past and recent immediacy is concerned.

When Glen Campbell announced that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease, that his new album, Ghost on the Canvas, would be his last and that his recent tour would put a cap on his long career, the desire to mourn to treat him differently kicked in. This was, after all, the golden boy of epically cosmopolitan country pop whose every 60s hit from Chris Gantrys Dreams Of The Everyday Housewife, John Hartfords Gentle on My Mind to the soaring subtlety of Jimmy Webbs Wichita Lineman and Galveston, the latter two reminiscent of Bogarts phrase at the end of Maltese Falcon the stuff that dreams are made of became the soundtrack to my youth.

These sonic gems were only made bolder by knowing that Campbell a masterful guitar picker was a touring Beach Boy that nearly replaced Brian Wilson and had played on hits by Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, the Monkees and Elvis Presley, the latter a fellow country boy whom Campbell befriended.Campbells image too is burned into the collective retina as he had starred in the original version of the revenge western True Grit and his own network TV show The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.

Certainly he had his Rimbaud-esque season in Hell the post 60s comedown of boozing, drugging, carousing (notoriously with firebrand country howler Tanya Tucker) and various arrests. Yet,Campbellhad commercial hits into the 70s and 80s with Rhinestone Cowboy, Southern Nights, Sunflower and I Have You. He kept the live fires burning with gigs in Branson, found God, a good woman Kimberly Woolen to whom hes been married since 1982 with three kids who have their own Arcade Fire-y band (Instant People) currently backing Campbell on tour. This latter day joy to say nothing of the potency of the deeply etched Ghost and its ruminatively ratcheting lyrics and still expressively clarion vocals made Alzheimers an even more heinous verdict.

Look intoCampbells eyes and despite the lines in his face (hes 75) and his occasionally forgetful demeanor and you see a man not so much struggling with memory but more alive with the past then the present. This author isnt trying to soften the blow or demystify the disease but seriously, I have a better grasp on what I did ten years ago then what I did ten minutes ago. Yet here they are, Glen and Kimberly sitting before me, frankly discussing the problem without letting it ruin their future.

Campbell, his producer Justin Raymond (who worked with the singer on his previous recording Meet Glen Campbell) and a crew of instrumentalists such as Dick Dale, Brian Setzer and Chris Isaak were already at work on the riveting Ghost when they diagnosis was announced. Suddenly the press made a big deal out of it, something that doesnt affect theCampbells as long as the disease doesnt overshadow the work,

No. it doesnt bother me, saysCampbellwith a slight cough. Im used to it by now. I leave it in Gods hands that its gonna be the way He wants. His wife Kim follows that with an understanding of an audiences curiosity how the disease works, how it effects her husband. We understand, she smiles. But the music is just so good we hope they get to that message as well.

Mention the contribution of songs from Paul Westerberg, Jakob Dylan and Robert Pollard along with self-penned tracks with Raymond culled interesting enough from the producers daily diaries of what the singer/guitarist said, and youve got quite a set of messages. AsCampbellstarts singing the new albums title track in a strong burst of melody, he states. Im really not a songwriter so if I hear a song, I feel it and like it, Ill do it. But Ill make it the way I want to hear it.

Part of this comes down to asking songwriters if he can turn negatives into positives (but with their permission of curse, says the gentlemanlyCampbell) and accommodating whereCampbells heart is now. Shell be running around the mountain just doesnt sound right, he laughs. It aint the way the song goes. Shell be coming around the mountain is more like it.

Campbell slowly and deliberately tells me how he takes songs one a at time and lets the good ones carry him away, the songs of other writers as well as the tunes presented by Raymond, a hands-on laid back producer who, during Meet Glen Campbell starting writing down what the singer said about life, confusion and happiness. Julian wrote down the the meaningful things that Glen would say about being baffled by what was going on in his head as well as how life was good to him, says Kim who recognized that Campbells memory was slipping during those 2008 recording sessions. Were so glad Julian got those meditations down and put those verses to music.

I need the ones I love more and more each day.

This is not the road I want for us.

MentionCampbells famed sense of perfection and he laughs. Nah. I may sound like one, he laughs. But I want it be natural. If I get a song a GOOD song I just sing it the way I hear it in my head. If anybody else wanted to add whistles and bells and chains rattling thats fine. Just not too much. I actually just do things as straight ahead as possible. You add the ifs, ands or buts.

To that end, Ghost has the richly orchestrated jangle of Pet Sounds with a country twang.

Campbellknows hes been blessed with great collaborators and productions, a powerful clear voice that was forever gifted with dynamic songs that suited his vocal range and challenged his playing skills.

Things turned out pretty well, saysCampbell.

Pretty well indeed.

Blame in part having come from a large all-singing all playing Arkansas family who took Glen to church regularly to express him self in song. Other than getting his fisrt guitar at age four, a seminal moment forCampbellcame when he nearly drowned at age 3. His Army-bound brothers dragged him out of the water, pumped the water and did CPR on the young Glen. That night back at the house while keeping time to the radio, I didnt say anything. I just sang. Something had changed me.

His distinct guitar playing, inspired by the likes of Barney Kessel and Django Reinhardt (Django was my main influence) gave him the confidence to form western swing bands and, by age twenty-one, head toLos Angeleswhere he quickly became a sought-after session musician. I think I mainly got all that work because I was the only guy who could use a capo, he laughs.

As he was just starting to make his session-man bones, he recorded a single for the Crest label. When I mention that 1961 track to him, Turn Around Look at Me,Campbellflashes a big smile.Well I thought that was it you know, smiles Campbell who starts singing the lines there is someone/walking behind me so mellifluously, its as if hes a kid in 1960 again. Even then I did songs that I liked, never tunes that I didnt care for. Otherwise it wouldnt be satisfying.

Campbellstops, leans into me and turns to his wife. Excuse me, honey, says Campbell who then turns from his wife and conspiratorially pulls me forward. His long fingers become a circle with another finger on his other hand barely peeking through the top. Hes made a tiny cock of it all.Its like a guy going into a whorehouse with THIS little thing and the woman says well who you going to satisfy with THAT?. And he says ME. That old joke, that stupid analogy thats the best way of describing what I want to do: satisfy me.

Campbellfast-forwards and says he did things he didnt want to do: lousy albums, hell-raising backstage antics of cocaine, booze and sex. I spent some time in Hell, he smiles. I got so high I could fart in a Martin box, he starts slapping his knee. Im glad thats over with it was a stupid place. I drowned, he starts to say, realizing that he told me that story before. Then again, perhaps he meant the psychic drowning that led to the rejuvenation of finding God and his wife. (He teases about meeting her on a blind date. I thought she was blind, he yuks then quacks like Daffy Duck.)

Ducking backwards to his session career and Turn Around he mentions how he stayed in the studio and played for the greats so that he stay home and make more money doing session work than he could promoting a struggling single on the road.

The wrongs of the road remind him of Elvis Presley, an old friend whose Viva Las Vegas he played on. He was a good man but I understood the peril his career had taken on. I didnt have the luggage he had, that entourage he has to take care of. I shouldve kicked his ass from here toJapanto get some sense in him. His old friends fromMemphiswere just bringing young girls backstage and crap like that -distracting him.

Campbellwent on to work and play with the Beach Boys and was nearly the front man when Brian Wilson broke down and left in 1965 yetCampbellwas more into doing his own music than joining a band (Capitol wound up signingCampbellon the basis of his strong showing with the Beach Boys). Plus, you know, Mike Love was there. Hes talented, but,Campbellscrunches his face.

The youngCampbellcontinued to play on records by Frank (Strangers in the Night) and Dean (Everybody Loves Somebody Sometimes) guys a generation before him the establishment before the counter cultural hippie-dippie movement took hold. He was no hippie but he was a young cat. What was he thinking?They were the tops. If you heard their stuff up close and saw them on stage they were incredible actually, says Capmbell of the Rat Pack titans. There was no mistaking their voices or their presence.Campbellwas hanging on the musician side of everything, playing guitar by their side. .But he got wise watching those men that singing would get him farther.

Enter guys like Jimmy Webb and John Hartford, songwriters whose best work came through the conduit ofCampbells rich voice. It was a blast according toCampbell, wonderful those melodies at his ready and those sorts of storytellers in his corner. If you have guys like this in your corner, you better have your chute together or you wont get down, he laughs. In particular,Campbellhas a warm long smile reserved for Webbs longing literate lyrics and winnowing melodies. My wife will tell you. I pray to the Lord and thank Him for letting me do those songs. When my dad heard those tunes he said its a good thing we didnt throw you back in the water. (Kim reminds me how, famously that Webb used to pray, after hearing Turn around Look at Me thatCampbellwould sing his songs)

Though the Ghost-ly songs of Westerberg and Pollard arent quite the stuff of Galveston and Wichita Lineman they are crucial, rare and deeply ruminative. They feel like the contemplative stuff of a finale. At 75 anybody at 75 the level of winding down that theCampbells plan on doing would seem essential and right. While Kim confides to me that she wishes they did more recording during the Branson days, she also mentions more tracks featuring Campbell and their kids, might be recorded at tours end. We still have a few special tricks up our sleeves. Other than that, were happy to go toHawaii, watch Glen golf and sit by the side as the kids start their career, says Kim Campbell..

As for Glen Campbell, a singer and guitarist whose recent tour finds him in strong voice and ticklish guitar skills, hes content to go out with an album as rich as Ghosts on the Canvas. I want to slow down you know, its really about whatever she wants to do but the record? You throw them out to the world and hope it comes back positive. Im glad it turned out as well as it did. I have to listen to it, you know.

The rest is here:
Glen Campbell: 2011 Interview Illuminates Health Struggles, Drug Battles, Complete Self-Awareness - Variety

Chloe Grace Moretz is making it too easy. In an interview with Variety published Tuesday, the 20-year-old actress took a swipe at the women of the Trump family that betrayed a next-level lack of self-awareness.

"Some people are in a bubble?" "Veiled curtains of privilege?"

Of Moretz's 20 years on earth, she has spent 13 in the thick bubble of show business. By the age of 19, she had purchased a $3.4 million, 56,000-square-foot home outside Los Angeles.

Speaking of people being "aware of their surroundings," does Moretz's personal "compass of what is real" point out that she is quite literally surrounded by a home gym and a spa? Or by wealthy, coastal entertainment industry insiders? Perhaps the view of her own wealth and insulation is blocked by those annoying "curtains of privilege" she so detests.

Don't get me wrong, Moretz deserves to enjoy her successes and run on a treadmill in the comfort of her own home. But, you know how the saying goes, those who live in massive glass houses shouldn't throw stones at other people who live in massive glass houses for living in massive glass houses. Did I get that right?

Next time, Moretz might do well to heed her own advice.

Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.

Read the original:
Wealthy actress with self-awareness deficit criticizes Trump women for their 'privilege' - Washington Examiner

There are so many different skills that experts say can help you attain professional success. Some are especially valued in some lines of work, but dont matter much in others. But, some of the most important skills are extremely valuable regardless of industry.

Self-awareness is one of those most essential skills for any professional, regardless of what you do for a living. It can help lead to success in so many ways.

When you know yourself, you know your strengths. This gives you a better understanding of the unique qualities you bring to your interactions with others and to your work. You can lean on your strengths during difficult times to help you, and others, get through.

Similarly, its important to understand your weaknesses in order to continue to grow professionally. This is more difficult than it seems at first. It can be hard to take a good, honest look in the mirror. But, self-awareness can help you pinpoint what you need to improve.

We need to be self-aware enough to get that were only human in order to face our strengths and our weaknesses with maturity. When you develop self-awareness, it makes it easier to take the good with the bad, forgive yourself, and move forward.

Self-awareness can help improve your career because it makes it easier to understand how others see you. This is key for success. Its essential to be aware of the perceptions of higher-ups, of course, but its also important to know how you come off when youre working in a leadership capacity.

Put simply, the qualities commonly associated with management and leadership being authoritative, decisive, forceful, perhaps somewhat controlling,if not moderated by a high degree of awareness as to how one comes across and is perceived by others, are also qualities that have the potential to easily alienate those on the receiving end, writes Victor Lipman at Forbes.

In another Forbes article, Lipman addresses the important topic of leadership and self-awareness. He highlights a study that was conducted in 2010 by Green Peak Partners andCornells School of Industrial and Labor Relations. This study looked at 72 executives, and concluded that high self-awareness often correlates with achieving high degrees of success as a leader. Per the research:

Leadership searches give short shrift to self-awareness, which should actually be a top criterion. Interestingly, a high self-awareness score was the strongest predictor of overall success. This is not altogether surprising as executives who are aware of their weaknesses are often better able to hire subordinates who perform well in categories in which the leader lacks acumen. These leaders are also more able to entertain the idea that someone on their team may have an idea that is even better than their own.

Self-awareness goes a long way toward improving people-skills overall. Without it, youre more likely to misunderstand situations and misread people. You learn to understand other people a little better once you yourself have become more self-aware. After all, how can you really have a mature understanding of what its like to be someone else if you dont have a good understanding of your own experiences.

Its often better to focus on your own actions rather than on others, especially when trying to solve a problem. People who are self-aware start by examining what they can change, personally, in order to succeed. Others might begin by pointing a finger at others.

Self-awareness leads to self-responsibility. And, that goes a long way to support positive behaviors and positive interpersonal relationships. Chances are that developing better self-awareness will have a positive impact on your personal life, too.

Has self-awareness helped you professionally? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.

people skills self-awareness tips for success

Read more:
7 Reasons Self-Awareness Leads to Success - PayScale Career News (blog)

NEW YORK (AP) Perhaps no show in TV history ever had a title that was better suited to it: Difficult People.

In this Hulu comedy, 30-something best friends Julie and Billy form a pushy, shameless united front as they wage war with New York and the world of show business they half-heartedly are trying to break into.

The upshot for viewers as they feast on this screwball, cringey series third season (which premieres Tuesday): Their difficulty not busting a gut.

Difficult People flings snark at Woody Allen, David Blaine, Passover, unhinged subway riders, a government initiative to deprogram gays, and Alcoholics Anonymous.

It finds Julie and Billy ducking into a church sanctuary to charge their phones but, when she finds no outlet there, blurting out indignantly, What is this place good for?

The show spoofs drug advertising with its commercial for Ridshadovan, an antidepressant that personifies depression as a sour, cronish woman who stalks the sufferer (including Julie, who finds this TV sourpuss actually stalking her).

The difficult duo of Difficult People are portrayed by Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner, with the jams they get into flowing from the mind of Klausner, who also created and writes the show.

Its a love story, she says. Granted, Julie lives with an ever-submissive partner (played by James Urbaniak, one among the series splendid troupe). Billy, a gay man, looks elsewhere for his flings.

But Billy and Julie share a transcendent bond.

The fact that we are so loyal to each other buys us a lot of real estate in the Being Horrible Department, Klausner says.

So its them against the world, armed with rat-a-tat, pop-culture-powered dialogue that spares nothing and no one. (Ever since President Trump replaced the Department of Health with Jenny McCarthys blog, says Billy, nothing makes sense.)

One of the most romantic things of all is finding someone you can hate everything else with, Klausner notes. Theres definitely a lot of opinions expressed by these characters. And a lot of agreement: They harmonize in stirring up their chaos.

The real-life team of Klausner and Eichner first joined forces on Billy on the Street, the breathless sidewalk quiz show for which she served as a producer. Its off-the-cuff style and pop-culture frenzy is akin to the meticulously scripted Difficult People she would mastermind soon after.

I spent more time with TV and movies than I did playing outside with people my age, the way healthy children are supposed to do, says Klausner, explaining her store of knowledge. Popular culture is the language I speak. And Billy speaks it too.

Earlier in her career, she applied that passion to churning out recaps of reality-show episodes. (Which, between auditions and capers with Billy, is what Julie does for money on Difficult People.)

For Klausner, recaps provided a great training ground for writing snappy commentary. She loved it.

But there is something about recap culture that feels like youre on the outside looking in, she says. Youre commenting on something that you really want to be making instead. So I definitely leaned into that with the character Julie, who feels like an outsider and is really frustrated.

Obviously, Real-Life-Julie and TV-Julie part ways in many respects. The red hair, air of mischief, and rapid-fire delivery are all the same.

But Im not stupid, and she kinda is, says Klausner, citing one distinction. She knows a lot about certain things. But she has no self-awareness. She is not enough of an adult to learn how to play the game. She doesnt do the work. Shes very stubborn: Ill stay exactly the way I am, and the world will come around to me.

Also: Unlike TV-Julie, mired lackadaisically with her boyfriend, Real-Life-Julie is currently single.

Im very picky, she cracks I want someone who is damaged in a very specific way.

Finally: What about Klausners emotional state?

In a touching scene, TV-Julie declares, I am an unhappy person. But the alternative is being somebody I dont know.

Klausner admits depression is definitely something Ive struggled with, but bursting out with a laugh, she adds, Im happier than I was before I had the TV show!

And the show is very therapeutic. Its definitely very helpful to be able to write about being a quote-unquote unhappy person, and in the process become a happier person and make other people feel like theyre not alone.

Thats what she demonstrates with Difficult People: You never feel alone when youre laughing.

The rest is here:
'Difficult People' star Julie Klausner: making it look easy - Norfolk Daily News

I read with great interest the report from Hadley Police Sgt. Mitchell Kuc, who remarked that the majority of the 400-500 accidents they dealt with happen on the towns Main Drag, Route 9 (Hadley police get unexpected clue in search for hit-and-run suspect, July 5).

It made me think about the causes, how fast they happen, and which are ones I am sometimes guilty of. I hope those who read this will look inside themselves, as well. Eight possible causes of fender benders:

1. Cell Phone behavior.

2. Reaching to change the station on the radio.

3. Driving with food or drink in one hand.

4. Distracted by someone walking by.

5. Leaning down to change the air conditioning controls.

6. Distracted by someone in a car in the opposite lane.

7. Following too close to be able to stop in time when the car in front of you suddenly jams on the brakes.

8. Finally, being too greedy to get ahead in the merges where double lanes get squeezed into one.

Id hate to see my lovely 1995 Toyota Celica Convertible banged by anyone doing any of these 8 dangerous and often mindless causes of accidents.

Sidney B. Simon

Hadley

Continued here:
Sidney B. Simon: Advises self-awareness to avoid driving mishaps - GazetteNET

You may have heard Yoga practice compared to the lotus flower, the flower of a thousand petals that grows in muddy waters.The metaphor that we are like the lotus flower, continuously creating and recreating itself and a reminder that we are in a constant state of renewal.

Yoga instructor Johanna Steinfeld demonstrates the viparita virabhadrasana with tree support pose.Gavin Young / Postmedia

The dedicated practitioner of Yoga practice will observe a multitude of blessings present and unfold themselves slowly and overtime.These are experienced initially by the physical body in forms of more flexibility, strength and improved ability to balance.Later on they are experienced more deeply as one penetrates the layers of the body to the more subtle realm and to fostering a quieter more relaxed mind.One will cultivate a deeper internal intelligence and learn how to listen and adjust to what the body is trying to tell you.

Yoga instructor Johanna Steinfeld demonstrates the modified adho mukha svanasana / downward facing dog with tree support.Gavin Young / Postmedia

The longer we have a relationship to our Yoga practice the more deeply these things unfold and open.

Like a cherished relationship that deepens and evolves over time, Yoga is the doorway to creating a strong and healthy relationship with all parts of yourself

Our bodies are made for full movement and huge range of motions.Yoga has us exploring movement in every direction and encourages us to keep our bodies connected, healthy and aligned.We practicepostures that work the left side of the body, the right side of the body and the centre line of the body.We expand, extend and work at opening the body in every plane and to moving with more awareness.And along the way, we grow ourselves from the inside out.

Yoga instructor Johanna Steinfeld demonstrates the modified virabhadrasana I / warrior 1 with tree to support the chest and shoulder opening for her August 2017 yoga column.Gavin Young / Postmedia

Overtime we learn to attune to what is happening deep within us.We have one side thats stronger and one side thats weaker.One side that is more open and one side that is more tight.Sometimes the disparity is obvious and sometimes it is more subtle.

Yoga practice shows us these subtle imbalances with constant illumination.We learn to work with the body to help create ease caused by misalignment and lack of awareness.And along the way we are bringing back to life what may have gone to sleep.

An example from one of my personal habits is that I hold my head slightly tilted to the right. I have learned that when I do this my ribs shift slightly to the left, my right hip lifts a little higher than the left and I am putting more weight and more pressure onto my right knee.Now that I am awake to the effects this small head tilt has on my body, I am working hard to break this habit and carry my entire structure in better balance.It is not easy to break our personal habits, but the work and effort will hopefully help elude bigger problems down the road.

The following poses will encourage you to stretch out both sides of your body.Pay attention to where things are tight.Move slowly and with your breathPractice patience, practice awareness and practice Yoga tree is optionalTo be guided in and out of each of the following poses, follow along with the attached video.

Be advised that it is always best to practice under the watchful eye of a dedicated Yoga teacher to grow your practice safely and slowly.

May your practice grow like the lotus flower, and may you be at home in the muddy waters.

Johanna Steinfeld teaches Yoga to people just like you in Calgary SW. http://www.itsjustyoga.comJoin me for a Yoga Vacation and Retreat at the Villa Sumaya eco resort on beautiful Lake Atitlan, Guatamala this October.All levels of Yogis encouragedwww.itsjustyoga.com/guatamala2017

Read more here:
Yoga helps foster deeper self awareness - Calgary Herald