Preservation Group

This is the root group of the Being category and relates to the awareness of an inherent physical and psychological vulnerability and the ways of dealing with it. Each of the areas included in this group relate to some form of apprehension.

• Courage is the root area of this group that is in both internal and external domains. This is because courage entails dealing with fear (an internal state) as well as facing the trigger of fear (usually an external object or event).
• Confidence belongs to the internal domain because it is about oneself. Confidence is often associated with actions, but actually it can relate to our appearance, social interactions, knowledge, experience etc. so it is really a way of being in the world (which is why it is not in the Doing category).
• Anticipatory attitudes (e.g. worrying) area belongs to the external domain because their focus is on the outside world.
• Security is a top area of this group that has internal and external sources – hence it too encompasses both domains. Security overarches other areas but it cannot be reduced to them. The overall difference is that a sense of security is more general, it does not require a specific trigger. It could be related to, for example, the fear of a particular person, or a worry that you may be laughed at, but it does not need to be. You may feel insecure without a specific reason.

Although there might be some similarities between these areas, they are all distinctive. In fact, it is possible to occupy the opposite sides of their respective spectrums at the same time. For example, a person who lacks confidence can still feel secure (if his sense of security relies on external factors); a courageous person may also not be very confident (e.g. ready to face a fearful situation as long as it does not depend on her); a person with a positive attitude (believing in a beneficial outcome of the situation) can still lack courage, while a courageous one can have a negative attitude about the outcome. In any case, all these areas significantly affect the formation of our self-concept, which is why this group is placed at the centre of the model.