SELF IMPROVEMENT AND MOTIVATION

Pretend play or make-believe play (the acting out of stories which involve multiple perspectives and the playful manipulation of ideas and emotions) reflects a critical feature of the child’s cognitive and social development. The values of suchimaginative play as a vital component to the normal development of a child. Studies have demonstrated cognitive benefits such as increases in language usageincluding subjunctives, future tenses, and  adjectives. Psychologist Sandra Russ (2004) identified a number of different cognitive and affective processes that are associated with pretend play. Her research dealing with play involves  fantasy, make-believe, symbolism, organization, cognitive integration of seemingly separate content, and divergent thinking (the ability to come up with many  different ideas, story themes, and symbols). Pretend play allows the expression of both positive and negative feelings, and the modulation of affect, the ability to integrate emotion with cognitio

The capacity to notice the distress of others, and to be moved by it, can be a critical component of what is calledprosocial behavior, actions that benefit others: individuals, groups or society as a whole. Dr. Eisenberg, a professor of psychology at Arizona State University, draws a distinction between empathy and sympathy: Empathy is experiencing the same emotion or highly similar emotion to what the other person is feeling. Sympathy is feeling concern or sorrow for the other person. The ingredients of prosocial behavior, from kindness to philanthropy, are more complex and varied. They include: ·          the ability to perceive others’ distress ·          the sense of self that helps sort out your own identity and feelings ·          the regulatory skills that prevent distress so severe it turns to aversion, and ·          the cognitive and emotional understanding of the value of helping. c 4 c   Prosocial beh