ABSTRACT
This chapter provides activities for promoting self-awareness and social awareness. Self-awareness refers to: a feelings vocabulary (recognizing one’s feelings and thoughts and accurately labeling them); feelings awareness (recognizing the impact of one’s feelings and thoughts on one’s own behavior); self-appraisal (recognizing one’s personal traits, strengths and areas of challenge); self-efficacy (exhibiting proactive self-confidence in handling daily tasks and challenges); and optimism (looking toward the future with positive expectations, including about the success of one’s own actions). Social awareness refers to: perspective taking (recognizing and identifying the thoughts and perspectives of others); empathy (recognizing and identifying the feelings of others); understanding social/ethical norms (demonstrating an awareness of the expectations for social interactions in a variety of settings); respect for diversity (demonstrating an awareness of the differences among individuals, groups and others’ cultural backgrounds and demonstrating an understanding of the need for mutual respect when viewpoints differ); and social support (recognizing family, school and community support).
