자아개념 증진 프로그램이 정신지체아의 긍정적 자아개념과 사회성에 미치는 영향

Abstract

Self-concept refers to the extent to which one considers himself or herself able, important, successful or valuable. This concept has a very important meaning for one's life. Individuals with an affirmative self-concept have a positive perception toward their circumstances and behave in an open attitude, while those with a negative self-concept do not have confidence in themselves so that they think of themselves as useless, worthless ones and behave in an impractical way. Therefore, when mentally retarded children have a positive self-concept, they are encouraged to overcome their disability and able to play their role as a well-rounded social member. The purpose of this study is to see if self-concept promotion program influences mentally retarded children's self-concept and sociality positively to investigate the effects. This is a case study conducted for four mentally retarded children of a special class at S elementary school in Goksung-gun. The research has been implemented 15 times for five weeks. The program used in this research was Human Development Program by Bessell and Ball(1972) in translation by Kim Young-ae(1985). The examination tools were the self-concept scale that is Bently and Yeatts(1974)'s "I Feel ..... Me Feel" in adoption by Kim Jae-bong(1986) and Lee Seong-hyeon(1997)'s amended and complemented sociality scale of Jeong Beom-mo(1971)'s Elementary School Personality Inventory. The results were as follows: 1. Self-concept promotion program improved the overall scores of the mentally retarded children in self-concept. Thus, it may contribute to forming a positive self-concept. Furthermore, the subjects changed positively in such subfactors as general adequacy self-concept, peer relationship self-concept, teacher-school self-concept, academic self-concept and physical self-concept, which suggested the possibility of changes in self-concept. 2. It was founded from the interviews with their teachers that through self-concept promotion program they showed more active interactions than before by expressing their feelings, letting other children without mentally retard understand themselves and understanding as well as interpreting others' behaviors better. Their scores for the sociality scale also rose, which presented that the program had an affirmative effect on them.