appropriate responses to influences on personal lifestyle choices
sexual behaviour and sexual health
Written for
9
Life Orientation
200
All documents for this subject (2)
Seller
Follow
caitlinnorie
Content preview
TERM 1: SECTION 1: GOAL-SETTING SKILLS: PERSONAL LIFESTYLE CHOICE (page 1-20)
Your choices are influenced by your:
Family
Friends
Peers
Media
Environment
Deciding what is best for you requires appropriate responses to the influences. These include:
1. Being informed when you ake these decisions
2. Being confident by behaving assertively
UNIT 1: PERSONAL LIFE CHOICES
Your lifestyle consists of:
Your behaviour and habits
It reflects on:
What you value
How you see the world around you
Your attitude towards life
As a teenager, you may be:
Persuaded by your peers
Experimenting with drugs
Having sex when you’re not prepared to deal with such responsibilities or consequences
The choices you make now will affect your future decisions and actions. There are consequences for
the actions you make:
1. If you make good choices based on what you have learnt at school, from your family and from
people who have been successful, you will have a solid foundation to achieve success in your
life.
2. When you make choices based on the influence of those people who aren’t concerned about
your well-being, the consequences of those choices will have a negative impact on your life.
Setting goals for yourself gives you the opportunity to:
Examine how you’re living
Think about your personal lifestyle choices
Decide what you need to do to improve various areas of your life
UNIT 2: INFLUENCES ON PERSONAL LIFESTYLE CHOICES
1) Family: The first influence on your life is your family. Your choices are controlled by their values,
morals and attitudes. For example, your family may choose a religion for you during your
childhood. You are exposed to ideas from the media, your environment, your friends and peers,
culture, religion and community.
2) Media: The media, such as newspapers, magazines, the internet, music, movies and television,
all play a huge role in shaping the decisions of teenagers. Advertising in the media tempts
teenagers to copy the celebrities they see because they are glamorous and appear to have an
exciting time. An example of this is the use of alcohol. These consequences affect your lifestyle
choices in the future.
3) Environment: The environment refers to the conditions in which people live. This should include
fresh air, clean water, a clean home and a clean neighbourhood. If people are living in poverty,
their personal lifestyle choices are affected because they have fewer opportunities available to
them. Social environment involves people’s educational backgrounds including their living and
working conditions, how much they earn, their community and religious beliefs. Positive social
environment have expectations of success placed on them, they want the best for themselves
and they make the right lifestyle choices.
, 4) Friends and Peers: Peers are other people of the same age. Peer pressure happens when
teenagers are pressurised into doing things they would not normally do. Peer pressure may be
negative or positive. Negative peer pressure happens when teenagers are influenced by their
friends to become involved in harmful activities. Because teenagers feel the need to fit in with
their group, they follow their peers. They may drink alcohol or begin smoking to impress their
friends. Many teenagers give in to negative peer pressure and become involved in substance
abuse, risky sexual behaviour and crime. The consequences of these activities, such as
unplanned pregnancies, influence the future lifestyle choices of teenagers. Positive peer
pressure helps teenagers to choose personal lifestyles aimed at achieving excellence in their
academic work or sporting and cultural activities. For example, their friends may compete with
them and support them in sport.
5) Culture: This includes certain beliefs, habits and expected behaviour in their upbringing. For
example in some cultures, women are expected to stay at home and look after the family while
in other cultures expect girls to marry young.
6) Religion: Parents’ religious influence the beliefs of their children. Most religions teach tolerance
and kindness towards others, which encourages people to choose to treat others with respect.
Studies show that those involved in religious teaching when they are young are most likely not
to become involved in harmful behaviour.
7) Community: A positive influence may include an exchange of ideas where people learn from
each other. Negative influences from the community occur when teenagers are forced to follow
community members into making poor choices, such as committing crimes.
UNIT 3: APPROPRIATE RESPONSES TO INFLUENCES ON PERSONAL LIFESTYLE CHOICES
Informed decision-making skills: positive and negative influences:
Informed decision-making skills involve:
1. Decide exactly what you want to achieve in life.
2. Know yourself well. What are your values?
3. Identify your priorities.
4. Recognise any choices that may have a negative impact on your life.
For example, choosing to drink alcohol to impress your friends may lead to you getting drunk and
doing things you regret.
Assertiveness skills: Confident and firm decision making:
People who are assertive are confident. Assertive people are definite (sure) about their decisions
and keep to them. They are honest and open to discussing their choices.
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller caitlinnorie. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $6.70. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.