1. Your Attitudes Toward Living
Chapter 3

2. Positive and Negative Attitudes
Attitudes are learned behaviors that we develop as we interact with our environments.
They affect our behavior
We all usually are more positive about ourselves, but we all have negative feelings here and there.
Positive:
Feel good about yourself, knows her strengths and weaknesses, has hobbies, can handle the ups and downs.
Negative:
Look for the worst in everything, feels helpless, unable to succeed.

3. Your Mental Attitude
Think positive then your experiences and attitude will be more positive.
Look at fig. 3-4 and 3-5
Positive attitudes means you believe your actions are important and you can influence others.
Parents and teachers have a big influence on your mental attitude
Defense Mechanisms (3-6)- methods people unconsciously use to deal with life situations.

4. Building a Positive Attitude
Direct attack
Method used to face a problem and recognize it and solve it.
Compensation
Focus on a strength to make up for the weakness.
EX: not good at basketball so try another sport.
Set Reasonable expectations
Do not expect to much out of yourself, challenges are good but make sure you can reach them so you do not set yourself up for failure and discouragement.
Use positive self-talk
Messages to yourself, ex: tell yourself “good job” in your head when you get an A on a test.
Don’t tell yourself your stupid when you do not do so great.
Interpret the facts
When a friend tells you should of worn a different shirt try and see that as a positive thing rather than a negative thing.
Select your friends
Friends that help you grow, make you feel good about yourself, do not talk bad about yourself.

5. Coping with Difficult Events and Emotions
Stress: (fig: 3-11 and 12) Body’s response to events of your life.
What causes it?
How can you handle it, how do you handle it?
Anger: When you feel wronged in some way.
Sometimes expressed in a harmful way.
Do not keep it inside, talk it out with someone you trust.
Anxiety:
Worries, concerns and fears.
Recognize a threat and do something about it.
Cry wolf
Depression:
Fig 3-19 causes
Coping with it by sleeping more, breaks inn dialy routine, organized, planned, meds.
Suicide:
When people are unhappy, lonely, depressed
Cry for help- recognize it.

6. Sex Roles and Stereotypes
How men and women should behave in society.
These days the linkage to one gender than to the other is not always seen.
EX: gays and women doing men's work and vice versa is more acceptable.
Stereotypes of men and women fig: 3-21.
Can change from culture to culture. What is acceptable here may not be acceptable in a different culture.

7. Activity
With a partner list some common sex stereotypes of men and women.
Discuss as a class
Work on review
Ch 1: even numbers
Chapter 2: 1,3,4,5,6,11
Chapter 3: 1,2,11,14

8. Activity
Watch a case document on suicide and write down the problem, what they did to try and commit suicide, why they wanted to, the characteristics, view of self, the responses of others and the development of life attitudes, etc on each teenager. What do the experts say?
Discuss as a class.