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THE EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT OF WOMAN AN EXPLORATION OF SUCCESS AND THREAT AREAS
H. Liberska M. Farnicka
Introduction. Education is an important factor of human development and their psychosocial functioning since the earliest age (Bruner, 1963). It plays a significant role in gaining competence, knowledge and skills that prove useful with regards to coping developmental tasks assigned to consequent stages of life. In adulthood particularly important is the care about the development of professional career, the personal improvement. From the perspective of the sphere of the closest development (Wygotski, 1971) education contributes to the realisation of developmental potential of a unit. Therefore, education may be treated as an agent activating personal resources. Education supports several areas of development throughout the entire life, namely: (1) gaining knowledge, (2) the orientation in the world of values, (3) expanding interpersonal skills, (4) developing skills of functioning in the social world, (5) developing the self-knowledge skills and (6) developing the skills of managing personal improvement (comp. Luczynski, 2011). From the social perspective the accessibility of education for people on different stages of life may be regarded as its external resource reaching which opens new developmental possibilities through the activation of mutual interactions with internal resources of a subject. In the era of an intensive civilization and technological growth the education of adults is a chance not only for the realization of the planed professional career but also fulfilling the expectation concerning the socio-economical status, the family life, the spare time activities, social activity etc. In the times of economical crises the value of education increases due to the possibility of acquiring skills of adaptational character from the perspective of the real condition of the job market. In case of persistent difficulties with the access to work it may function protectively providing the basis for positive thinking and regarding oneself as a individual who is capable of self-developing and caring about personal image despite objective obstacles. This way the educational activity of adults may be a factor that is protective from the feeling of helplessness, social seclusion and, therefore, it decreases the risk of marginalisation of a unit. The engagement in personal education of an adult is the sign of their activity as a unit creating themselves and their way of life (Tyszkowa, 2000). In this respect it may be expected that undertaking or continuing education by an adult person has a direct representation in their knowledge and skills that are useful for coping various life and professional problems and, moreover, seems significant for autoperception of a unit, its way of thinking and self-esteem. It is also worth noticing the role of the lifelong education in satisfying the sense-of-life needs that gains a special meaning near the end of life. Nevertheless, the psychological knowledge about the importance of adult education for particular areas of psycho-social development is relatively limited.
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Own studies. Education, just any other activity, requires human engagement, the input of energy, devoting time. Continuing the education during adulthood is conditioned by a number of factors. One of them is the need for selfrealisation, gaining new knowledge, expanding competence as well as an improvement of personal image and the social image of oneself which is, not seldom, connected with increasing social competence. The social competence determines the effectiveness of functioning in social situations (Matczak, 2001), and facilitates the achievement of social aims (N§cka, 2003). In order to broaden the knowledge about the importance of educational activity of adult women for their personal image and social competence a comparative research has been carried out. The research embraced 60 adult women aged 25-45: 30 women who had actively participated in education and 30 women who had not use such chance. All people agreed to take part in the study which was anonymous. They were the citizens of a relatively big agglomeration (300000 inhabitants). The research was carried out in 2012. The primary research tools were the Self-Esteem Scale SES by M. Rosenberg, the Social Competence Questionnaire by M. Matczak and a survey concerning the self-assessment of the physical attractiveness of a woman.
The results of the research. (1) The comparison of social competences. The statistic analysis has shown that adult women who had been engaged in education have a significantly higher level of social competence: in the general result (z=4,66, a=0,0001), in the situations of social exposure (z=5,43, a=0,0001) and in intimate situations (t=2,94, a=0,01) as well as in situations requiring assertiveness (z=3,12, a=0,01) than the omen who were not engaged in education.
(2) The comparison of the level of self-esteem. The results of the statistic analysis indicate that there is a lack of significant differences in the levels of self-esteem among women belonging to either of the two groups (t=0,26, a=0,78) or their selfassessment of physical attractiveness (t=0,89, a=0,38). However, in the group of women engaged in education there was a bigger number of people characterised by a high level of self-esteem than in the group of women who do not use the available forms of education. Moreover, a significantly positive relation has been recognised between the level of self-esteem and the self-assessment of physical attractiveness in both groups - it was stronger in the group of women engaged in education (appropriately: r=0,80, a=0,0000001 and r=0,42, a=0,02). (3) The comparison of the relationship between self-esteem and the level of social competence. A significant positive relationship between self-esteem and social competence during the situations of social exposure, assertiveness and general result in both groups. The statistic analysis results revealed the lack of significant relationship between the level of self-esteem and social competence in intimate situations among women who had bee engaged in education in contrast with the group of women who had not (r=0,5, a=0,004). The results of the statistic analysis have shown a significantly positive relationship between the sense of physical selfattractiveness and social competences within the general result, assertiveness and social exposure. Similar relationship has not occurred with regards to intimate situations.
Conclusions. (1) Women who are engaged in their education reveal a significantly higher level of social competence than those not active in this field. It regards all dimensions of competence. (2) The level of self-esteem and social
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competence of women remain in a positively significant relationship. The same relationship is much limited among women engaged in education as it is not concern intimate situations. It has been confirmed that the level of social competence between the compared groups of women is significantly different: it is higher among educating individuals.
The research results have indicated the importance of relationships between the element of self-knowledge, namely the self-esteem regarding physical attractiveness, and social competence among both educating and non-educating women. What has also been proved was the positive relationship between the level of self-esteem and social competence of women who undertook education and those who had not done that. Nevertheless, it is more complete among women who had not undergo education as it is concern also with social competence in intimate situations. On such basis an interesting picture may be drawn of the relationship between competence and the self-image of a woman who continues her education and that who does not. Hence, educational activity generally positively correlates with the level of social competence of women still at the expense of intimate life.
The research over the notion of educational activity of adult women for all spheres of their life seem worth continuing. At the present stage of research it may look as though it was desirable to put attention to the search for factors that could contribute to gaining balance of women development in the sphere of education, work or family both in biological and social dimension. Further explorations will be aimed at describing the satisfaction gained from various areas of activity of women engaged in education and their temporal changes.
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