Relationships

Learning Objective

Students will understand the meaning of this pillar to then engage their character strengths within it in their lives.

Mục tiêu học tập

Học sinh sẽ hiểu được ý nghĩa của trụ cột này để sau đó gắn kết những điểm mạnh tính cách vào trong cuộc sống của mình.

What Does This Pillar Look Like When Applied?

Relationships (R) consists of “developing social and emotional skills to enable the development of nourishing relationships with self and others” (Norrish, Robinson & Williams 2013). This is important because social isolation is a risk factor for depression, substance abuse, suicide and other symptoms of mental ill-health (Hassed 2008). On the other hand, supportive school relationships have been linked with child and adolescent wellbeing and resilience (Stewart et al 2004).¹

"Showing others matter by doing good to feel good, feeling good to do good and being respectful. Looking to the future with optimism and hope." ²

"We thrive on connections that promote love, intimacy, and a strong emotional and physical interaction with other humans. Positive relationships with one’s parents, siblings, peers, coworkers, and friends is a key ingredient to overall joy." - Positive Psychology

"The end result of a positive nurtured relationship is that we feel a sense of value in ourselves that stems from the actions of others, while at the same time; we feel that same value of self by the action we perform to enhance and build the relationship." - The Positive Psychology People

"Specific qualities in a relationship, particularly social support, affect physical health. This term refers to the ways in which we provide information or assistance, show affection, comfort, and confide in others. As mounting evidence shows, people of all ages function best in socially supportive environments." ³

Trụ này trông như thế nào khi được áp dụng?

Learning Activities (Choose from the Following)

1. Healthy and Positive Relationships - Work with your partner to list types of relationships. Examples are peers, teacher-student, boss-worker, etc. What do positive relationships look like? Describe them. Then, list skills and behaviors that help support healthy and positive relationships. Examples are being a good listener, being honest, etc. Self-reflection - Review your list of skills and behaviors with your partner. Share which of them you are doing well and which you struggle with. Goal> To build an understanding of the structure of relationships and the skills and behaviors needed to support them.
   

2. Active Listening - Go back to the web page on Social Intelligence. Review the information on Active Listening. Do a practice session with your partner taking turns speaking and listening. Goal> To build an understanding of how essential listening is in relationships. To practice active listening.
   

3. I Feel Statements - Read (translate) this article that describes how you can share your feelings with others so that they understand you while not becoming defensive themselves. Practice making some I Feel Statements with your partner. How does it feel to receive the feelings of your partner? What are some situations when you can use I Feel Statements? Goal> To understand how sharing feelings nurture relationships by building mutual understanding.
   

4. Active Constructive Responding (ACR) - Have you ever been excited about something you shared with friends? Do you remember how they responded? Were they energetic, enthusiastic, and supportive in their response? Or was their response one with low energy with only a word or two? Did they react negatively, dismissing your sharing? Or did they not respond at all, talking only about themselves? These four responses are in the chart below. We hope for an Active Constructive response in which the listener enthusiastically joins in our celebration of good news to go the extra step to ask a question or two to learn more about our experience. How we interact with others as they share personal information about their lives can affect our relationship with them! This is where active listening comes into play. And it is also essential to be active and constructive, showing empathy when someone shares a negative experience. Task> Work with your partner to review the chart below. Then role-play each of the four responses. The next step is to share with the speaker how you felt about each response from your partner. Goal> To understand that being supportive of one's relationships means being constructive in conversations.

Whole Class Wrap-Up: Here are a few guiding questions for the class to respond to as you reflect on relationships. Go through the questions as a class.

• What can you do more of to have more positive relationships? Which activities can you do more of?

• What should you do less to have more positive relationships? (Remember that we can subtract things from our lives just as we can add them.)

• Which character strengths, when exercised, can help you more fully experience this PERMAH pillar?

• As a class, to answer the following question, take the responses from the previous questions to brainstorm. What can I do to have positive and healthy relationships?
  

Extension - Healthy Boundaries & Support Network: What is the "health of your relationships"? Who is in your "support network"? Go to the web page on Social Intelligence. Review the chart listing seven boundaries. Which boundaries can you work on to keep your relationships positive and healthy? List what actions you need to take to keep those boundaries healthy and robust. | Create a mind map with you in the middle. List all the people who you can count on to support you. Beside each name, write how they support you. Now write down the people who you support. Beside each name, list how you support them!

Goal> To learn from each other's experiences and insights regarding relationships.

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Taking Action: Use the WOOP goal-setting system to plan to engage this PERMAH pillar more often in your life. It can be helpful to work with a partner to complete the WOOP worksheet to coach and support each other to reach your goal. Remember to list in the plan section the character strengths that can help you fully engage within this PERMAH pillar! Goal> To engage this pillar more often with intention in your life! To also exercise multiple character strengths!

Hoạt động học tập (Chọn dưới đây)

I Want To Learn More

Tôi muốn tìm hiểu thêm

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¹ UPP

² The Learning Curve

³ Hales, D. (2021). An invitation to health: Taking Charge of Your Health (19th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning

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