Lecture 10

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:20]Hello students, this is the last lecture of the week second of the paper guidance and counseling.

[00:00:30]Today we are going to discuss personal guidance, meaning objectives and significance.

[00:00:40]Highlights of the lecture are first of all we will try to introduce the topic and we will try to understand the definitions of the personal guidance meaning of guidance with the help of the definition of personal guidance. We will explore the objectives of the personal guidance and there are certain steps in personal guidance. We will try to understand that also.

[00:01:03]What are the significance of the personal guidance? These also be discussed in this lecture and we will also explore certain disadvantages of the personal guidance and then we will conclude our lecture.

[00:01:18]Let us start our topic personal guidance.

[00:01:23]Personal guidance occupies an important place in the entire educational program as everything revolves around the individual. Individual is a person his or her guidance is the key for achieving success in academics in careers and intermixing with the members of the society.

[00:01:51]So personal guidance is an assistance giving to any individual to overcome his personal problems and to assist him to control his emotions. Problems are generally associated to the uncontrolled emotions.

[00:02:10]When you are not having the control on our emotions or ability to control our emotions, we are bound to face personal problems. So ability to control emotions is supposed to be the most significant characteristic features of a mentally healthy person.

[00:02:31]There are certain definitions given by the experts of the field to explain the concept of the personal guidance.

[00:02:39]Let's let us understand these definitions. I'm explaining the definition given by the Hopkins in 1986.

[00:02:50]According to this definition, personal guidance is that guidance which is concerned with the problems of health, emotional adjustment and social adjustment of an individual.

[00:03:04]problems related to the health, emotional adjustments and social adjustment of the individual. It also includes his or her recreation and lesser times problems.

[00:03:21]Individuals are engulfed with a number of problems.

[00:03:25]These problems may be related to the health, maybe related to their emotions, maybe because of the social maladjustment and they can be related to any other aspects of the individual as personal guidance is basically in resolving all these kinds of the problems.

[00:03:48]That is strange very old definition.

[00:03:51]Personal guidance is the assistance given to an individual to solve his personal problems such as the emotional and social adjustment, economic and social relationship and problems connected with his physical as well as mental health. It is more elaborative definition. It is basically an assistance where individual is getting the assistant to solve his personal problems. So many problems are there.

[00:04:24]These may be related to their emotional aspect, social aspect, economic aspects and problems which can be related to their physical as well as mental aspects. All kinds of problems, personal problems are resolved through personal guidance. This is the ultimate conclusion of this definition.

[00:04:48]Crow and Crow also said person about the personal guidance. A very uh prominent definition given by uh Crow and Crow.

[00:04:57]Popular definition personal guidance refers to help given to an individual towards a better adjustment in development of attitude and behavior in all areas of life.

[00:05:11]Life is basically associated to the adjustment. If you have received education, if you are able to adjust well with the members of the family, with the members of the society, with the members of the classmates and the teachers, in the school environment and in our occupation, it means we are a successful person, well, well adjusted person and we will be able to contribute to the society.

[00:05:42]The adjusted adjusted individuals are supposed to demonstrate positive attitude and the positive behaviors in almost all the areas.

[00:05:51]Individual differences are there but ultimate objective must be to get better adjustment means adaptation to the changing situations and making the make meaningful contribution in whatever situation the person is placed.

[00:06:10]There are objectives of the personal guidance.

[00:06:16]Certain objectives are very well elaborated in this uh slide. Developing life course.

[00:06:25]This is the first objective of personal guidance.

[00:06:30]Okay. We need to develop among students a sense how to develop the life goals to ensure the achievement of the life goals. So personal guidance is basically assisting individuals set and integrate activities towards achieving socially desirable and personally satisfying life goals. Our life goals must have correlation or commensurate with the socially desirable aspects.

[00:07:08]We cannot achieve anything which is not expected by the society. Take for example any negative achievement.

[00:07:17]You want to engage in any corrupt activities and future which is not liked by the society. So we have to set positive goals in our life realizing that turmile is a natural.

[00:07:29]This is the most important aspect and most important objective we need to tell our student. Okay. This this uh turmoil which we are experiencing in our life.

[00:07:41]It this turmoil is natural.

[00:07:45]We can cite a number of examples in our day-to-day life where we have learned we have we have experienced failure in our life. We have various difficulties we resolve those difficulties and mix up with that difficulties and ultimately came out from that.

[00:08:07]So we need to assist the individual to understand that experiencing periods of turmoil is a normal part of the life.

[00:08:15]They should not be discouraged.

[00:08:19]They should not feel isolated. Rather they should they should engage with problem solving activities fostering self-direction.

[00:08:31]Ultimately one has to look about the self direction.

[00:08:36]We cannot we cannot be directed by others and personal guidance basically assist the individual to develop self directive abilities enabling them to make independent judgments and actions.

[00:08:50]My life is my own life and I should be able to direct my life by taking my own decisions.

[00:08:59]Decisions cannot be imposed by the elders, by the teachers or any members of the society.

[00:09:06]They are your decisions and one must learn the ability to use those decisions overcoming physical development changes.

[00:09:18]Personal guidance provides assistance to overcome difficulties related to physical development particularly during adolescent stage. As I told you when I was talking about the social development, many problems are encountered by the adolescents which are not known to anybody. We need to be very sympathetic. We need to be very rational and we need to be very objective in dealing with the students. At this stage, we have to provide personal guidance for these student. It must be the objective of the personal guidance and encouraging efforts within capabilities. We should also ensure that students are making their making their uh go life goals which must be according to their capabilities.

[00:10:14]So we need to motivate individual to work to their full potential recognizing that their capies capacities may differ from others.

[00:10:24]So while the individuals are making efforts they need to make ensure okay your your your efforts must be associated to your own abilities rather than the abilities of the others.

[00:10:41]Moving from dependence to independence dependence to independence in the beginning students are dependent on the elders in taking their own decisions. We need to make a gradual transition from relying on others to becoming independent in judgment and actions.

[00:11:02]When you are a grown-up, you are and you are a student of high school and then intermediate and and learning at university level then one should be able to take his or her own decisions. It means moving from dependency to the independence.

[00:11:19]resolving emotional and mental health issues. These issues are very very common among all the among the masses of the students.

[00:11:28]Some people are experiencing less stress and others are having the more stress.

[00:11:33]So we personal guidance basically assist the individual in understanding and resolving emotional problems.

[00:11:41]Emotionally unstable people are there and exploring adjustment mechanism to improve mental health. A mentally healthy person is supposed to be the welladjusted person. We need to develop life skills also.

[00:11:56]The personal guidance is also related to develop the life skills. Collaboration, cooperation, cultural competency, problem solving skill, creativity skill, innovative skills.

[00:12:09]These are some of the life skills.

[00:12:11]Communication skills very important.

[00:12:14]Very important. And we need to develop them so that they can be satisfying member of the society. Addressing personal and social hurdles.

[00:12:23]We need to identify personal guidance.

[00:12:26]Basically assisting the individual in identifying and minimizing personal and social aspect hindering normal development. These personal problems and social isolation is basically a hurdle in the progress of the individual and the society and ultimately to the nation.

[00:12:44]For that we have to address personal and social problems. Balancing aspirations with social departments. Helping individuals bridge the gap between their personal aspirations and societal expectations.

[00:12:58]Our aspirations must be linked to the social demands.

[00:13:04]What type of individuality is expected from the society? We have to develop that characteristic features in our personality which is liked, admired, appreciated and emulated by the members of the society. Developing well-rounded individual and the ultimate objective is fostering the development of individual to their fullest potential and promoting good citizenship.

[00:13:34]If we are able to develop ourself, it means we are achieving the concept of selfreization.

[00:13:41]Now we will discuss steps in personal guidance.

[00:13:48]Information gathering is first.

[00:13:51]Diagnosis of problems is second.

[00:13:53]Remedial measures is third. Providing guidance and support at number four. And we will discuss followup and evaluation steps in personal guidance. First of all, what we do? We try to get the information.

[00:14:11]This involves collecting data about the individuals background including family history, academic performance, personality traits and social environment. These are basically the broader areas which are influencing the personality of the individual or having the impact of the personality of the individual and we need to analyze all these aspects in a very comprehensive manner and this data can be gathered through various methods. We can conduct the interviews, take the advantages of the cumulative records. Psycho psychological tests are also available and observation techniques are also available for getting information or gathering information about the individual.

[00:15:02]After getting the information, once information is collected, the counselor analyzes the data to identify the root causes of the individual challenges. So this clear picture of the personality of the students gives an idea to the guidance counselor to understand the probable questions, probable problems faced by the students.

[00:15:32]This step involves understanding the individual specific needs and factors contributing to their difficulties.

[00:15:40]Whether the problem is arising from the family background, whether the problem is associated problem associated to the school level, whether the problem is induced by the uh teaching methods.

[00:15:56]What are the problems? to specific needs and factors contributing to their difficulties need to be understood through diagnosis at the stage of diagn diagnosis of the problem that is possible through the result of the individual or gathering information about the individual which is reliable valid and objective in nature. Then at third stage we take remedial measures.

[00:16:26]Based on the diagnosis the guide or counselor develops appropriate interventions and strategies to address the identified problems.

[00:16:37]This might involve counseling.

[00:16:41]This task can be developed in the counseling.

[00:16:44]Here we can develop certain skills which are needed to correct the behavior of the students or connecting the individual with relevant resources or we are exposing the individual to get certain information or through relevant resources that is also very important.

[00:17:06]Now at this stage we are providing actual guidance and support to the students.

[00:17:13]The guide or counselor offers personaliz personalized support and assistance to the individual helping them to implement the chosen strategies.

[00:17:26]So the it is basically basically an assistance given by given to the individual. This includes providing a safe and confidential space for the individual to express their concerns and work through challenges.

[00:17:42]We create an environment where students feel free to express their ideas, to express their challenges, to express their personal problem which they do not find to discuss with the group members and they are in a position to express themsel in an individual basis where we can say the one to one basis or in a counseling stage. follow up an evaluation after giving the guidance to them, assisting them and providing them some tips and exposing them or exploring them to certain relevant resources which can be helpful for the student. Now we are basically evaluating the entire process of evaluation entire process of giving personal guidance and that is called the evaluation.

[00:18:38]Regular follow-up sessions are crucial to monitor progress and make adjustment to the guidance plan as needed.

[00:18:48]So regular follow-up is very important because guidance is not static in nature. Personal problems cannot be solved in a one way or one go. We need to address our issues. We need to address our issue which we face during providing guidance to the individual.

[00:19:09]Personal guidance to the individual.

[00:19:10]This ensures the guidance is effective and individual is moving towards their goals. We have to ensure or evaluate the objectives of providing personal guidance. What were the objective which we have already discussed in the beginning?

[00:19:28]We need to evaluate are we able to achieve those objectives. If you are able to achieve those objective it means we are moving in a right direction and if there are there are major difficulty then we have to take the major steps for that. If there are minor difficulty then we can amend the program as per the need of the now come to the significance of personal guidance and after that we will also discuss the disadvantages in coming 10 to 12 minutes.

[00:20:04]Significance of the personal guidance can be elaborated in following points.

[00:20:09]It promotes emotional and mental well-being. It improves decision making ability. It facilitates interpersonal relationships.

[00:20:21]It boosts confidence and coping skills.

[00:20:26]It also assist in prevention and early intervention.

[00:20:31]It also supports academic and career success.

[00:20:36]Customized and individual centric approach.

[00:20:41]Let us understand these points in a little detail.

[00:20:49]Personal guidance promotes emotional and mental well-being. Emotional and mental mental well-being. These are the two important aspects of individual personality.

[00:21:00]And personal guidance helps individuals recognize their emotional problems.

[00:21:07]Why they are irritating?

[00:21:10]Why are they showing showing anger?

[00:21:13]Why they are showing reluctance at many situation? Hypertension demonstrating at many situations. Showing emotionally unstable personality. Low motivation.

[00:21:27]So providing support to manage stress, anxiety, depression. These are the elements of the mental well-being, loneliness and other such psychological issues.

[00:21:42]So personal significance of the p personal guidance the very important significance is it promotes emotional and mental wellbeing among the students and this further gives the benefit to the student to improve decision making ability. Personal guidance aids individuals in making informed and rational decisions related to life situations especially regarding health, relationship, habits and lifestyles.

[00:22:22]So personal guidance basically generates or creates the ability among the individual to take rational decisions which are based on reasoning and one must know the difficulties which they face in the society which they are experiencing at individual basis.

[00:22:47]So there are so many problems which may be related to the health, relationship, habits and lifestyle.

[00:22:55]So we are basically through personal guidance we are assisting the individual to improve their decision making ability. They must be able to take their own decisions. Their decision should be their own decisions rather informed decision.

[00:23:14]These decisions are not the imposed decision by someone else. This is the significance of the personal guidance.

[00:23:22]It facilitates interpersonal relationship. Enhancing the interpersonal relationship is very important to tackle many personal problems of the students. Personal guidance helps students develop social skills like empathy and effective communication thereby improving relationship with peers, teachers and family members. If students are not able to communicate with the members of the classmates and with other members, they definitely face difficulty and they will be isolated from the mainstream of the society.

[00:24:01]So personal guidance through various by engaging in various activities to the students which are very helpful in in enhancing the personal relationship are implemented and in this way it it facilitates interpersonal relationship among the students. It also boost confidence and coping skills by addressing personal challenges.

[00:24:29]Personal guidance enhances self-confidence.

[00:24:33]Resilience. What is resilience? It is the ability to adapt, bounce back and recover from adversity, trauma, stress and change, maintaining psych psychological well-being and problem solving skills. So personal guide guidance also boost confidence and coping skills. The students are able to cope up with various emotional, psychological and social and personal issues and the problems. They are in a position to handle them in a better manner.

[00:25:15]They demonstrate better mental health.

[00:25:18]Their anxiety is reduced.

[00:25:22]Their stress is reduced, the depression level is reduced and with that they boost they develop or enhance in their confidence prevention and early intervention.

[00:25:35]Personal guidance allows early identification and resolution of emerging emotional and behavioral issues preventing serious mental health problem. So personal guidance is not only the remedial rather it is preventive in nature and if early in intervention is taken in all educational institution in resolving the personal issues of the student then the personal guidance becomes preventive in nature and students students can uh develop the ability to resolve their problems and the issues and to develop better mental health which is very important.

[00:26:22]Support academic and career success. A mentally healthy person, a welladjusted person, a socially responsible person, a person who demonstrate empathy and feels happy and engages with the people in resolving and discussing and solving their problem.

[00:26:42]also also able to achieve better academic and career success. The success of the individual in academic as well as career aspect depends upon their emotional health.

[00:26:56]A student with sound personal and emotional health can focus better on academic and career goals making personal guidance indirectly supportive of educational achievement.

[00:27:10]customized and individual centric significant is it is customized and individual centric problems of the individual are identified they are evaluated adequate measures are taken followup programs are uh are adopted and further assistance or the guidance is given to the individual in this matter the personal guidance is typically tailored to an individual's unique personality and needs ensuring relevance and effectiveness. The effectiveness and relevance of the personal guidance is because of the nature. It is individual.

[00:27:54]It is not like a social guidance not a group guidance activity rather individual.

[00:28:01]But there are certain disadvantages of the personal guidance.

[00:28:05]It is very time consuming because it is not possible. It is not possible to provide individual guidance to all the students which are present in any educational institutions. It is a highly time consuming task which is not possible by the efforts of a single counselor available in the schools. So effective guidance requires considerable time and attention which may be challenging in institution with a large number of students and limited counselors. Generally counselors are not available in the institution.

[00:28:40]If they are available many of them are untrained and supportive environment is not available for that also. The personal guidance is basically specialized specialized people are needed for that.

[00:28:56]Shortage of trained professionals professionals are not trained.

[00:29:01]Lack of qualified and empathetic counselors to deliver personal guidance effectively especially in rural and underdeveloped areas in areas in in schools where where students where teachers are not sufficient enough to teach to the students. Not in proportion to the number of the student. Neither there is no facility available for the guidance and counsel although the guidance and counseling must be in must be an integral part of each and every school and there is a provision of the CBSC we need to provide a counselor in every school. So shortage of the trained professionals is also also disadvantage of the personal guidance resistance and stigma. Some individuals may be reluctant to seek personal guidance due to fear of judgment, social stigma or lack of trust in confidentialities.

[00:30:01]The stigma is also attached with the personal guidance. We do not have a positivity towards the guidance philosophy and student is still consider our children are basically engaged in some mental health issues that is why they they are resistance to get the advantages and the facilities available uh in any school. Difficulties in identifying needs.

[00:30:30]The students may not be openly may not openly express their personal problems making it hard to counselor to identify those in need of the support.

[00:30:40]Sometimes it happens. Okay, you are you are having an interview with the student but the students students although having difficulties in the problems of severe nature related to their emotional and mental health issues but they are not ready to ready to share to share their their problems.

[00:31:03]They are not expressing themsel personal problems. So it becomes very difficult on the part of the counselor to identify the difficulties faced by the student which may be given in personal guidance maybe may be taken care in the personal guidance. Culture and social barriers are also related. Certain cultural beliefs or societal norms may discourage personal disclosure or counseling thereby limiting the reach and effectiveness of the personal guidance.

[00:31:35]Some parents will not be able to allow or uh to to be comfortable in exposing to their children for personal guidance.

[00:31:46]Some culture in cultural societal barriers are always associated with the personal guidance. More importantly with the guidance although in daily life we are associated with the guidance at every juncture.

[00:32:01]Overd dependence on counselors. This is another disadvantage of the personal guidance. K students may develop dependency on guidance counselors for every personal issues reducing their ability to independently make decisions and solve problem. The objective of the guidance whether the personal guidance, social guidance or vocational guidance is basically to prepare the individual to develop the ability to take their own decisions, resolve their problems through discussions, through deliberations, through problem solving techniques and interacting with the teachers and the counselors.

[00:32:45]Once they develop the habit of overdependency of the on the on the part of the council because our society is a kind of the society where we have the habit of giving guidance to our youngest young younger population.

[00:33:02]At home also parents have the advantage at institutions teachers are having the advantages in giving the guidance to the student. So guidance and counselors uh can also face this difficulty or this is an disadvantage in inadequate institutional support. Lack of administrative priority funding and infrastructure can hinder the implementation of effective personal guidance. There is a possibility any any principle of the institution may not support the philosophy of the philosophy of the true guidance. he or she is not available not aware about the positives of the guidance. So in such a situation they do not provide the support to carry on the responsibilities of the guidance team in an effective manner. They create hurdles. They give less significance to that aspect. For that person we have to expose or provide professional development opportunities for our our principles and uh administrators so that they can understand the significance of the guidance and more importantly with the personal guidance and provide that.

[00:34:23]Let's let us conclude our lecture.

[00:34:26]The purpose of the personal guidance is to ensure better adjustment of the individual towards self others and his peculiar environment.

[00:34:38]This is the central purpose or main purpose of the guidance. Okay. We must be well adjusted towards ourself and we must secure the better adjustment in the society. A welladjusted person is basically adaptive.

[00:34:58]He know how to adapt to the changing situations.

[00:35:03]He or she also demonstrate emotional satisfaction in his behavior.

[00:35:10]He or she also demonstrates flexibility in his behavior and he has a realistic perception of the world.

[00:35:20]He or she is not having a false perception of the world. He possesses adequate level of aspiration, not living in the false aspiration, knows his or her own strength and limitations and is her own philosophy of the life. This is basically very important and the personal guidance assists the individual in making the individual well adjusted and a socially responsible person. With this we have completed the discussion of personal guidance it process and significance. Uh thank you very much for giving a patience hearing to this lecture. God bless you.