(Tiểu luận) research paperside effects of self help books on neustudents

1.3 Noticeable side – effects of self – help books, which have influence on NEU 1.4 External factors that lead to misunderstanding of self – help books: 10 1.5.. LIST OF FIGURESFigure 2:

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

School of Advanced Education Programs

RESEARCH PAPER

SIDE EFFECTS OF SELF-HELP BOOKS ON NEU

STUDENTS

Instructor: Dr.Nguyen Thuy Trang

Class: Advanced International Business Administration 64A

Students:

Nguyen Viet Bao

Nguyen Thi Van Anh

Nguyen Minh Ngoc

Nguyen Thanh HieuNguyen Dinh DucPham Phuong Linh

Ha Noi, 2023

This research took three months to complete, which provided us with a fantastic learning experience Without your help and support, we would not havebeen able to go this far

First of all, we would like to express our gratitude to our supervisor Mrs Trang for guiding us through our research and for her step-by-step assistance Your insightful comments allowed us to conduct our research more equally and improved our future studies

Second, I want to give an appreciation toward the NEU students who tookthe time to complete our survey and share their perspectives with us Their opinions have allowed us to get more accurate data We much appreciate your support since without it, our research would not have been possibly

accomplished

Last but not least, thanks to the members of our team: Nguyen Viet Bao, Nguyen Minh Ngoc, Nguyen Van Anh, Nguyen Thanh Hieu, Nguyen Dinh Duc, and Pham Phuong Linh for their incredible productivity, teamwork, and support And a particular thank you to Nguyen Viet Bao, our group leader, who brought

us together and provided us with invaluable advice and encouragement

1.3 Noticeable side – effects of self – help books, which have influence on NEU

1.4 External factors that lead to misunderstanding of self – help books: 10 1.5 Internal factors that lead to misunderstanding of self – help books: 11

2.2 The factors lead participants to read a self-help book 15 2.3 Personal opinion when reading self - help books 19 2.4 Opinion about the advantages of self-help books 23 2.5 Suggestions about methods of reading self-help books 24

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2: The age of participants

Figure 3: The factors lead participants to read a self-help book 15 Figure 4: The frequency of reading self-help books 16 Figure 5: The reasons for reading self-help books 17 Figure 6: The participant’s state of emotion during self-help book reading 18 Figure 7: The frequency of the solutions’ effectiveness given in self-help books

Figure 8: The opinions about the drawbacks of self-help books 19 Figure 9: The participants’ state of emotion after reading self-help book 20 Figure 10: The duration of a "good feeling" following reading a self-help book 21 Figure 11: Participants’ possible reactions when facing defective advice in self-help books

Figure 12: The perspective of participants about the benefits of self-help books 23 Figure 13: Possible solutions for a better “self-help reading” for NEU students 24

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

NEU National Economics Universities

1. Rationale

In today’s stressful world, there are more and more people who use help books, videos, and courses, as sources of healing and motivation This trendencourages the self-help industry to increase rapidly “According to Market Research, the self-improvement market was worth $9 billion in 2016 and is estimated to grow to $13.2 billion by 2022 with 5.6% average yearly gains”

self-(Uta, 2019)

Quick surveys were conducted on first to third year NEU students, and most of them responded that they often depend on self-help publications to help them find motivation and think more positively There are also a few students, though, who spent much money to buy self-help books, but finally didn’t receiveany encouragement and self-direction They seemed to get confused with their future and realized that nothing changed

Since the introduction of self-help in 1936 (with the publication of “How

to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie), a large number of studies has been done to focus on the advantages of this industry, instead of the side-effects As a result, people usually praise it while the drawbacks may be ignored and underestimated As NEU students, we decided to conduct research

on the topic: “A study on self-help book ‘s side-effects on NEU students”

2. Objectives

There are three particular objectives of this study:

- To find the drawback of self - help books

- To analyze reasons for misunderstanding beliefs of self-help

- To suggest the solutions of better “self - help reading” for NEU students

3. Research questions

The study is conducted to answer the following research questions:

- What are the drawbacks that self-help books can bring to NEU students ?

- What are the factors that lead to misunderstanding of self - help books of NEU

students ?

- What are the solutions for NEU students to read self - help books more effectively ?

4. Scope

Self-help industry is popular with people of all ages, from teenagers to theelderly However, this study only focuses on the side effects of self-help on NEUstudents, aging from 18 to 20 This research consists of the current situation and opinions of these students on self-help and some recommendations for them to utilize the benefit of self-help and avoid the side effects of it

This study will be conducted by both quantitative and qualitative methods Previously, we will use survey questionnaires for participants to obtainprimary data (their opinions, time and money consumed for self-help

publication) Besides, informal interviews with informants as well as their teachers and material-reading will also be done to acquire secondary data

6. Structure

The study consists of three parts:

Introduction: presents rationale, objectives, scope, method, and design of the

study

Development: includes three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature Review – provide the basic theoretical background from literature on self-help such as the original, famous authors and “gurus”, and the main content of almost self-help publications Especially, the advantagesand disadvantages of this industry, which are the main issues of this study, are discussed obviously in this chapter

Chapter 2: Findings and Discussion – provide the statistics on NEU students ‘ self-help consumption, in order to discuss the typical reasons and

“traps” that they usually get in when using self-help products

Chapter 3: Recommendations – give the advice from professors and teachers, to help students cope with these “traps” and utilize the advantage of this industry

Conclusion: presents the summary of the study, limitations and the suggestions

for further study

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CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Definition of self-help books

The self-help book market today is approaching a total of $1 billion and iscontinually growing In fact, surveys have shown that one in five people hasread a self-help book in the last year (Project Bold Life, 2022) It can be seenthat self-help books have become so popular in today’s stressful world To have

a better understanding of this research, it’s necessary to acknowledge thedefinition of self-help book

According to IULIA-CRISTINA UTA, self-help is about consciouslyidentifying and developing one or more facets of your life Merriam Websterstates : “self-help is the action or process of bettering oneself or overcomingone's problems without the aid of others''

To be added, Adbergsma (2007) defined the self-help book as theguidance in print for every conceivable mental problem and for every lifechoice, from what Meyer (1980) has called the positive thinkers

To conclude, the self-help book is the type of book that provides guidanceand advice about mental and personal issues to help readers overcome theirproblems without professional aid

1.2 The role of self - help books

Self-help books are not included on reading lists at any prestigiousuniversities, they are not evaluated in scholarly publications, and it isunfathomable that one of their authors could ever win a major literary award.This organized campaign of criticism directed at the self-help genre as a whole

is a sign of Romantic prejudice towards the concept of emotional education It isconsidered beneath the dignity of any serious writer to provide explicitEmotional Education If we are even remotely intelligent, we ought to already

be aware of how to live (The school of Life, 2018) It can be understood thatpeople nowadays are encouraged to disregard the idea of self-help books Thisled to the degradation in the quality of self help books and the trend wherepeople underestimate the core value that self-help books can bring

Going back to the classical cultures of ancient Greece and Rome(Eudaimonia) - when self-help was at the pinnacle of literature, the utmostaspiration of any author was considered to be to provide the reader with anemotional education that may lead them to fulfillment Plato, Aristotle, Cicero,Seneca, Plutarch, and Marcus Aurelius, some of the most revered philosophers,all produced self-help books with the intention of teaching us how to live and

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die properly They also used all of their wit, intelligence, and writing skills whencrafting their manuals to ensure that both the cerebral and emotional facultieswould be delighted by their messages The best literary masterpieces, regardless

of culture or time period, including Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and Seneca's

On Anger which unquestionably are also self-help books Tolstoy's War andPeace clearly strives to teach compassion, serenity, and forgiveness It alsoprovides advice on money, manners, relationships, and professional growth Italso aims to demonstrate how to be a good friend and a better parent It'sobvious that the book is a self-help manual; the current custodians of culture justchoose not to call it one Similar to other self-help books, Marcel Proust's InSearch of Lost Time shows us how to let go of our commitment to romantic loveand social position in favor of a focus on art and thought To call such worksself-help books is hardly a slight It helps us recognize their goals, which are tolead us away from foolishness and toward lifestyles that are more honest andauthentic (The school of life, 2018)

When considering aforementioned self-help masterpieces, it is obviousthat quality self-help books actually provide beneficial value to the reader Self-help books’ aim is to lead people toward a more positive lifestyle as well asprovide advice on many aspects of life The aspects of life that self-help booksmainly benefit can be divided into 4 aspects presented by 4 themes of self-helpbooks according to Ad Bergsma (2007)

“Personal Growth” is the first theme when the readers can get adviceabout self-management, art of living, personal effectiveness, and methods forachieving goals This type of self-help book provides people with an orientation

to develop and grow

"Personal relations" makes up the second theme This area, which focuses

on close connections, also touches on communication The first category (havingsatisfying relationships) is more goal-oriented, whereas the second aims toprovide tools to understand and improve communication abilities Intimaterelationships as well as other situations might benefit from these communicationskills

The third theme of the self-help book is ‘coping with stress’ These booksprovide practical ideas on how to find relaxation and rest, in particular inrelation to working life Another theme in this category is to enhance resilience

in difficult circumstances The authors offer interventions that have a cognitivebehavioral signature They help readers to develop an outlook on the world thatminimizes stress

The final significant category is "Who Am I?" which gives people a sense

of identity The majority of the discrepancy between the two raters was caused

by this section's substantial overlap with the Personal growth category The firststep toward improving oneself and making wise decisions in life can be thought

of as knowing oneself The distinction is that the category Personal growth ismore pragmatic while the category Who Am I? is more focused on offering

insight (Ad Bergsma, 2007)

1.3 Noticeable side – effects of self – help books, which have influence on NEU students

Firstly, self - help books can form perceptions of inferiority Self-help

books are synonymous with helping readers think positively (Ad Bergsma, 2007) Journal of Happiness Studies states that reading this kind of book

provides people with life satisfaction However, in his blog “5 Problems with theself-help industry”, Mark Manson claims that self-help brings pessimisticfeelings to readers but not satisfied ones The main major content of most self-improvement books is about successful people and the way they got victoryachievements, which does not help the readers possess long-term motivation butthe perceptions of being flawed When reading, people tend to have a great

desire in looking for perfection or to follow the life plans of others (Alexandra Schwartz, 2018) Improving ourselves to death Reporting that this action is not

only stressful but also deadly British journalist Will Storr, moreover, writes

“People are suffering and dying under the torture of the fantasy self they are

failing to become” in his book: “Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us” (March 2018) Self-help books appear to becomeunmotivated advisors by giving readers a sense of being shameful when readingabout others’ success

Moreover, creating unrealistic expectations is a noticeable side - effect ofself - help books A lot of cynicism has been raised about the effectiveness ofself-help books Self-help books usually give an over-simplistic view of reality

to their readers As the authors understand what the young readers desire, theycreate an ideal world where every effort with the right intentions and formula

can achieve success (Styron W, 1990) Darkness visible “New York: Random House” calls self-help books fraudulent Csikszentmihalyi, M (1999) Flow:

Psychologie van de optimale ervaring Amsterdam: Boom claims it is apparentself-help books will not help most readers to achieve what they desire; though itprovides its readers with constant positive feelings, these feelings are onlytemporary, and even if they succeed the readers will still be as unhappy as before

they read the book (Polivy J & Herman P 2002) If at first, you don’t succeed;

false hopes of self-change American Psychologists, 57(9), 677–689 claim that

buying self-help volumes must be part of a false hope syndrome This can beunderstandable because self-help books give inadequate assessments of thearduousness of self-change and unrealistic goal-setting for NEU students Suchself-help book advice is typically not justified by scientific studies As a result, it

is almost impossible to investigate the effectiveness of self-help books

1.4 External factors that lead to misunderstanding of self – help books:

In today’s world, more and more people find self-help books as a way tocope with stress, this can especially be applied to students Since students oftenhave young mindsets , they can be an easy target for self-help book’s traps.These traps are often hidden in the students ' surrounding environment.When the students themselves enter their first year of college, theystruggle to adapt to that new environment and find their places It can bedifficult for them to handle others' thoughts and criticism causing stress andunhealthy desire to be approved by everyone Consequently, they might findself-help books to improve themselves due to their dissatisfaction with wherethey are currently at Their vulnerability and insecurity make them considerablysusceptible to certain alluring troubles that self-development offers Self-helpbooks create an ideal world where people try to be the better version ofthemselves, a world where anyone can take control of their decisions, a placewhere they make progress in improving themselves Nonetheless, theseillusional efforts they make trying to upgrade themselves can only help themgain positive feelings but cannot yield any real result

Another reason that makes self-help books popular among students may

be the influence of crowd effect Crowd effects come into play when a studentbecomes a part of the crowd, that individual displays a new behavior that isswayed by the opinion of the crowd A student’s opinion can be affected easily

by their environment and their colleagues Since self-help books are alreadypopular among students , the students, who are unfamiliar with self-help books,will try reading it to be a part of the community Consequently, the self-helpbook community will continue to spread out and students will be blindly guided.Among that community, there is a minority who are well-aware of self-helpbooks’ side-effects, yet their opinion might be dominated or even be convinced

by the clueless larger crowd As a result, students will only see the tip of theiceberg but not the underlying detriment

1.5 Internal factors that lead to misunderstanding of self – help books:

Beside the environmental factors, it cannot be denied that self-help bookreaders are also responsible for the misinterpretation of the book

On the one hand, most self-help books available for a massive amount ofreaders follow a one-size-fits-all approach to mental health Unlike the mentalhealth practitioners who often listen, understand and offer their patientssolutions that work for their unique circumstances, when an author writes a self-help book, their ultimate goal is to sell to as many readers as they possibly can

As a result, these books are usually oversimplified and sweetened with falsesense of hope and meaningless encouragement Therefore, most readers feelthey can relate to these books and feel considerately satisfied while readingself-help books even when they gain no benefits A classic study published inThe American Psychologist has suggested that, because self-help is oftennonprofessional helping each other, the solutions described in self-help booksmay not take into account an individual’s nuanced symptoms, which apsychotherapist is trained to interpret The study, which has reviewed over a 100studies as well as case reports, also established that self-help treatment planswere often difficult to follow and were likely to be misunderstood by theintended readers

On the other hand, one of the most popular ways for individuals to handleanxiety and depression’s symptoms is to purchase self-help books The quality

of these books are various, there are some great books out there written byexperienced and qualified professionals, some of the best books even walk thereaders through the principles of social anxiety disorder and depression.Counting every highly qualified book, there are a large number of self-helpbooks created by the” self-help gurus” who have managed to cure their ownissues and are willing to help others Sometimes these books are written bypeople simply looking for a quick buck The real problem lies in someunprofessional techniques suggested by self-help books authors for dealing withmental health issues that can be counter-intuitive and can actually make thesituation worse For social anxiety, people tend to believe that safety behaviorshelp prevent the worst social situations they can possibly evaluate On thesurface of many self-help books, common advice like “ people don’t want tohear your problems-focus on the positive” may sound great Nevertheless, thishas never been the case Unfortunately, many self-help books are full of theserecommendations

1.6 Other studies related to self – help books

While numerous studies focused on the impact of self-help books on

people with mental problems, very few of them referred to normal people (e.g Anderson et al 2005, Bjorvatn et al 2018) In fact, people who have mental

illness find it harder to read self-help books than normal people do, because thiskind of book may make people suffer more stress whenever they see othersbecoming successful and achieving more goals Meanwhile, there are manypeople with no mental issues reading self-help The effect of self-help books onthem seemed to be underestimated Moreover, a lot of studies discussed theproblems of self-help books without giving any suggestions to utilize the

advantages of them (e.g Bergsma, 2008) It may cause misunderstandings about

self-help publications, that the drawbacks outweighed the benefits Every coinhas two sides, and the aim of self-help books is to help people become better,though They are still helpful despite some side-effects For this reason, inaddition to showing some drawbacks of self-help books, this study will makerecommendations for readers to read self-help more efficiently, and avoidmisunderstandings about them

CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS & DISCUSSIONS

2.1 Background information

2.1.1 Participant’s gender

Figure 1: The gender of survey participants

The pie graph illustrates the gender of self-help book reading of 1st to 3rd year college responding students in NEU Units are measured in percentage Generally, it is clear that most of the respondents are female and the least responses are from others According to the chart, self-help books read by females comprised 68%, twice as much as the figure for males at about 30% The other was only 2% in all of the examined gender not confessing about their gender

2.1.2 Participant’s year

Figure 2: The age of participants

The pie chart shows the proportion of NEU students from the first year to the third year taken in the survey Overall, first-year students registered the highest percentage while third-year students seemed to be the smallest proportion As is shown in the diagram, self-help books read by first-year students remained the largest fraction at just below three quarters about 70% Moreover, the numbers

of second-year students and third-year students are approximately equal at 16%, and 14% respectively

2.2 Start reading a self - help book

2.2.1 The factors lead participants to read a self-help book

Figure 3: The factors lead participants to read a self-help book

The bar chart illustrates the factors that lead students from first-year to year to read self-help books at National Economic University Overall, it can be

third-seen from the chart that the most popular factor is the book’s reputation, and the least common factor is from parents.

The first obvious feature of this chart is that the reputation of the book took up just below half of the total proportion at about 46% Following that, the second most common factor is the attraction of the book title and cover at

approximately 42%, almost twice as much as the influencer recommendations atabout 24% Furthermore, 38% of students read self-help books due to

recommendations from their friends and only 2% read them because of their parents

In conclusion, most students start reading the book due to its popularity and the cover, which leads to their lack of information about the content inside and makes the “self-help reading” habit become ineffective This phenomenon may come from their subjective evaluation as well as a social effect called “crowd effect” It means that the more famous a self-help book, the more people get attracted and find this book reliable

2.2.2 The frequency of reading self-help books

Figure 4: The frequency of reading self-help books

The bar chart illustrates the frequency of self-help book reading of the 1st to 3rd-year college students at NEU Units are measured in percentage Overall, it was clear that the most popular reading frequency was a few times a month, while every day appeared to be the opposite among students aged 18 to 20

As can be seen from the given chart, the proportion of students who read help books at the frequency of a few times a month remained highest at just over

self-a third self-at self-about 36% Furthermore, the two equself-al proportions of reself-ading frequency come second which are a few times a year and whenever you need some advice at more than a quarter about 26% A fifth of students spent a few times a week consuming self-help books products and only a small fraction of approximately 6% read these books every day

To be concluded, one of the main reasons why reading self-help books is not productive may be that most of the readers rarely read it and consider it just for entertainment They pay little of their attention to what they read and what they can learn from it