ABSTRACT

The Significance of High Value in Human Behaviour is an innovative conceptualisation of how the quest for a high self-worth works as a psychosocial dynamic, presenting the idea that feelings of impotence and low self-esteem induce a powerful impetus on negative human action. This book gives an account of what it means to base a whole psychological perspective on high value, which has been an understudied aspect of human action.

Employing an ethnographical approach, the book uses client observations and social research to promote original solutions in an empathetic and engaging manner for psychological support services aiding isolated individuals. It considers the concept of a valuable self and examines the negative effects within the personality which can be generated when this drive for a valuable self is blocked through human devaluation or violence.

The Significance of High Value in Human Behaviour will appeal to academics and post-graduate students in the fields of psychology and psychotherapy, psychotherapists with specialist interests in loneliness and self-worth, and sociologists concerned with the psychology of the self.

part 1|69 pages

Arenas of anxiety

chapter Chapter 1|12 pages

Companion

chapter Chapter 2|13 pages

Comparison

“Go compare”: social media and social toxins

chapter Chapter 3|21 pages

Competition

Tales of humiliation

chapter Chapter 4|21 pages

Compensation

Violence, transfer and scapegoats

part 2|101 pages

Notes on a theory of value

chapter Chapter 5|18 pages

A discourse on method and the dog that didn’t bark

chapter Chapter 6|13 pages

Re-setting the personality drivers

chapter Chapter 7|14 pages

Markers of devaluation

Difference and indifference

chapter Chapter 8|8 pages

Dignity, indignity and the anger of a valuable self

chapter Chapter 9|13 pages

The relational turn

Self-esteem and self-actualisation

chapter Chapter 10|14 pages

Like a sailboat in the harbour

Collision and collusion

chapter Chapter 11|19 pages

Through the life course

part 3|18 pages

A positive psychology

chapter Chapter 12|12 pages

Transformative change and positive places

chapter |4 pages

Postscript

What is it that Protests?