The Definition Of Psychological Courage And Its Relationship Of Mental Health And Growth Experiences

Psychological courage in Putman’s definition is mainly to overcome the the threat of "psychological death",apart from physical courage and moral courage.The investigation explores the dimension of psychological courage,the relations in psychological courage,mental health and personalities,and the qualitative research of courage and early growth experience.Given the fact that psychological courage interweaves the other two kinds of courage,constituting three types of courage,this study also investigating the relationship between individual’s early growth experiences and the level and characteristics of courage,in order to get a deeper understanding of the concept of courage.Study 1 compilated the Psychological Courage Scale and tested its reliability and validity.Study 2 measured the relationship among psychological courage,mental health(anxiety,depression and compulsion)and personality disorder tendency,using the Psychological Courage Scale compilated by Study 1.Study 3 is a qualitative research,conducting one-to-one semi-structured interviews with nine interviewers to explore the relationship between courage level and their early growth experiences.The interview discusses the interviewers5 understanding of the courage,their opinions of the three courage types,their own courage levels and the reasons of it,whatsmore,the most influencing person,etc.And the main conclusions are as follows:(1)Psychological courage scale can be divided into two dimensions,conscience psychological courage and truth psychological courage;(2)The correlation between conscience psychological courage dimension and mental health is more obvious,and "facing reality",the part of truth psychological courage,is more closely related to mental health;(3)The psychological courage are relatively more related to the group C personality disorder;(4)the individual’s early growth experience would affect the development of individual courage level;(5)there are stages in the development of courage,and the psychological courage belongs to the later stage;(6)the individuals with high level of courage were more concerned about "regret" when there came to making courageous choices,while the individuals with low courage levels were more concerned about "bottom line" when they were facing the situations.Which means,the more courageous individuals emphasized that if they didn’t do courageous things,they might feel "regret" about that,however,the less courageous individuals put importance on the "bottom line",as long as their "bottom lines" didn’t be touched,they were more inclined to give in or give up;(7)Families showed important influence on individuals’courage levels,and it is speculated that the levels might be infected by one’s self-esteem level as well as self-confidence level;(8)The interviewers believed that the cultural environment in the growth of individuals did not encourage the development of courage.