Body control

Good body control is a personal and social asset which contributes heavily to the person’s self-concept. The effect of body control on personality may be direct or indirect. The direct effect comes from determining what the person can do and how well he can do it. The direct effect is also evident in motivation. When a person is self-conscious about his poor body control, he may be so concerned about unfavorable social reactions that he will lack the motivation to do what he is capable of doing.

Indirectly, body control influences personality through the effect the person’s body control has on the attitudes of significant people in the social group. Because of the high social value placed on good body control, as shown in motor skills, strength, and speed, the person’s self-concept is damaged by poor control.

Awareness of social value of body control

Even before the young child discovers the social value of good body control, he derives satisfaction from being his own master and from being able to do what he sets out to do without help. In his early peer contacts, the child discovers that social acceptance depends largely on his ability to do what his age mates do and that leadership depends largely on superior play skills.

The schoolchild discovers that academic success is greatly influenced by the ability to do things which require skilled movements and that the confidence these build up encourages him to tackle new tasks. By adolescence, he is well aware that great prestige is attached to physical competence. Boys who excel in sports and girls who excel in social dancing are in the limelight of peer attention. Good body control is the key to social success.

In adult life, gracefulness and poise add to social success, while motor skills add to vocational success. At the basis of much of the feeling of inadequacy and self-consciousness noted among older people is the loss of body control which results from changes in the neuromuscular system and in the bones and joints-changes which are a natural accompaniment of the aging process.

Effects of body control on personality

At all ages, good body control enhances the self-concept in two ways. First, it fosters the development of self-confidence, which is expressed in a calm assurance, poise, and a willingness to try new things in the belief that they can be mastered. In time, self-confidence become generalized and spreads to situations where motor control is not involved. Second and more important, good body control encourage a feeling of security in social situations. This frees the person to turn his attention away from self and toward other, thus enabling him to make good social adjustments. He does not have to worry about how his body will function in social situations, whether he will be clumsy and do embarrassing things. The role of motor not control in the development of the self-concept has been stressed.

The psychological damage of awkwardness comes from different experiences at different ages. A young child must depend on others to do things for him he would like to do for himself. This dependency is a source of constant irritation and frustration.

The older child who is unable to keep up with his age-mates is embarrassed and ashamed. As such upsetting experiences accumulate, he develops a generalized feeling of inadequacy and inferiority, and his self-concept is damaged by feelings of shame. In time, he is likely to develop an inferiority complex.

Children who fall below their age-mates in play skills experience social rejection or voluntarily withdraw from the play group to avoid the embarrassment that comes from being considered awkward and clumsy. They are thus not only deprived of opportunities to improve their body control but also confirmed in their belief that they are inferior.

Not realizing that rapid physical growth can disrupt patterns of coordination established when the body was smaller, the young adolescent will wonder if something is wrong with him when he spills or breaks things, trips over rugs, and stumbles over his own feet. Ridicule and criticism from others add to his embarrassment and increase his feelings of inadequacy.

Temporary loss of body control during periods of rapid growth has a far less damaging effect on personality than permanent loss of control. However, if temporary awkwardness goes on too long, as in the slow mature at puberty, if can lead to a habitual concept of oneself as an awkward person even after the awkwardness has passed.

Decline in body control is one of the chief causes of the unfavorable self-concept that characterizes many elderly people. Feelings of inadequacy and inferiority arise when they compare themselves with younger people of with their own younger selves, and so they tend to shun motor activities and become dependent on others. As in young children, dependency in old age leads to frustration and unhappiness.

Since loss of motor control increases with advancing age, the damaging effect of awkwardness on the self-concept intensifies. Most elderly people are ashamed of their awkwardness, especially in situations where they must be with younger people who are likely to be critical of them or overprotective.

Left-handedness is often detrimental to good personal and social adjustment. Since manual dexterity affects the person’s educational and vocational success, it influences his self-concept. When the cultural group tends to favor the use of the right and to regard the left-handed person as “different,” the left-handed person’s mirror image, or social self-concept, is certain to be unfavorable.

Psychological pain-killers

The attention value of using such techniques as drinking smoking, and taking drugs to defy authority and their value as a means of inflating the ego lead some people to reply upon them to ease the psychological pain that comes from self-dissatisfaction and self-rejection. People discover, often by trial and error, that psychological pain can be eased by any technique that helps them to forget their troubles temporarily. This they may discover very early, even before they recognize the attention value of defying authority.

As psychological pains increase, may people follow the same path that they use easing physical pain; they increase the frequency of use and the intensity of the pain-killer. Just as some people become addicted to the use of aspirin or codeine, so some become addicted to the use of psychological pain-killers.

Today it is recognized that a person who has become addicted to any technique to deaden the psychological pain of self-rejection is suffering from personality sickness. Instead of condemning him for weakness of will power, as was formerly done, most people approve the new trend, which involves finding out what is responsible for the personality sickness so that its cause can be eliminated and the use of pain-killers made unnecessary.

In many cases, the infrequent and moderate use of psychological pain-killers cannot correctly be regarded as a danger signal of personality sickness. The motivation for their use may be social doing what everyone dose or merely the desire to attract attention.

On the other hand, their user may be regarded as a danger signal under three conditions: first, if they are used more often in solitude than in social settings; second, if they are used so frequently and with such intensity that they attract negative attention only pity or contempt; and third, if they are used much more often by those who are not well liked or who are socially inadequate than by those who are popular and who make good social adjustments. “Addictions,” write Stewart and Liv-son, “are not isolated habits but expressions of pervasive personality tendencies”.

Studies of people of different ages who are addicted to psychological pain-killers reveal that certain personality traits are characteristic among them. They are usually less popular and more rebellious, withdrawn, irresponsible, and easily dominated by parents or spouses than non-addicts. In describing the personality characteristics of the young male narcotic addict, Gilbert and Lombardi write.

He appears to be the kind of irresponsible, undependable, egocentric individual who has a disregard for social mores, acts on impulse, and demands immediate gratification of his wants. He is impatient and will act out aggressively against authority or others who thwart his desires. This acting out may then be followed by feelings of guilt and depression which can only be alleviated by more drugs..... Thus, the use of drugs may seem to him to be the only realistic solution to his problems at least it offers him a temporary relief from the pain of living.