UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Session I

Lesson Title: Introduction to the Course

Understanding the self – deals with the nature of identity, as well as the factors that affects the
development and maintenance of personal identity. It is intended to facilitate the exploration
of the issues and concerns regarding self and identity to arrive at a better understanding of
one’s self.

Five Factor Model Personality Test

Openness to Experience

- Is the personality trait of seeking new experience and intellectual pursuits. High Scores
may day dream a lot. Low scorers may be very down to earth.

High
 Very Creative
 Open to trying new things
 Focused on tackling new challenges
 Happy to thing about abstract
concepts.
Low
 Dislike Change
 Does not enjoy new things
 Resists new ideas
 Not very imaginative
 Dislike Abstract or theoretical
concepts.

Conscientiousness

- Is the personality trait of being honest and hardworking. High scorers tend to follow
rules and prefer clean homes. Low scorers may be messy and cheat others.

High
 Spends time preparing
 Finishes important tasks right away
 Pays attention to detail
 Enjoys having a set schedule
Low
 Dislikes structure and schedules
 Makes messes and doesn’t take care
of things
 Fails to return things or put them back
where they belong
 Procrastinates important tasks
 Fails to complete necessary or
assigned tasks.
Extroversion

- Is the personality trait of seeking fulfillment from sources outside the self or in
community. High Scorers tend to be very social while low scorers prefer to work on
their projects alone.

High
 Enjoys being the center of attention
 Likes to start conversations
 Enjoys meeting new people
 Has a wide social circle of friends and
acquaintances
 Finds it easy to make new friends
 Facts energized when around other
people
 Say things before thinking about
them
Low
 Prefers solitude
 Feels exhausted when having to
socialize a lot
 Finds it difficult to start conversations
 Dislikes making small talk
 Carefully thinks things through
before speaking
 Dislikes being the corner of attention

Agreeableness

- Reflects much individuals adjust their behavior to suit others. High scorers are typically
polite and like people. Low scorers tend to “Tell it like it is”

High
 Has a great deal of interest in other
people
 Cares about others
 Feels empathy and concern for other
people
 Enjoys helping and contributing to
the happiness of other people
 Assists others who are in need of help
Low
 Takes little interest in others
 Doesn’t care about how other people
feel
 Has little interest in other people’s
problems
 Insults and belittles others
 Manipulates others to get what they
want
Neuroticism

- Is the personality trait of being emotional.

High Low
 Experiences a lot of stress  Emotionally Stable
 Worries about many different things  Deals well with stress
 Gets upset easily  Rarely feels sad or depressed
 Experiences dramatic shifts in mood  Doesn’t worry much
 Feels anxious  Is very relaxed
 Struggles to bounce back after
stressful events

Importance of Understanding the Self

 It Enables us to know ourselves better

 Importance of understanding the self
 Seek a better understanding of other people’s reaction to us
 It boosts our confidence level and self-esteem

Session 2

Lesson Title: A Survey on the concept of Self THROUGH GENERATIONS: A

Philosophical Perspective.

Plato – Dualist

Believes that soul exists before birth and after death. Thus, he believed that the soul or mind
attains knowledge of the forms, as opposed to the senses. Needless to say, we should care about
our soul than our body.

The Soul (mind) itself is divided into 3 parts:

- Reason
- Appetite (physical urges)
- Will (emotion, passion, spirit.)

 Defined self (soul) as the essence of living being

  He Considered the body and self as separate entities
 He thus, claimed that the mind-body dualism where the body is from the material world,
but the self is from the immortal world of ideas

Aristole

 He argued that the self and the body are inseparable, and the self is the actuality of the
body.
 When the body dies, the self-ceases to exist
 Aristotle used his concept of the soul in many of his works; the De Anima (On the
Soul)

Rene Descartes

 He thought that the self is a thinking thing distinct from the body
 His first famous principle was “corgito ergo sum” which means “I think, therefore I
am”
 Although the mind and body are physically together as a whole, the mind and body are
mentally independent and serve their own function.

Immanuel Kant

 He thought there are two components of the self:

1. Inner Self - is comprised our psychological state and our rational intellect
2. Outer Self – The Outer self includes our sense and the physical world.
-Unity of experience and consciousness are integral to the concept of the self
-Categorical Imparative

St. Augustine

 In his confessions takes this idea and expands it into an entire genre that critically
inquires what it means to be a person. This identity is achieved through a twofold
process; self-presentation, which leads to self-realization. Only in the presence of the
omnipotent and the omniscient can the self-attain happiness and completeness.
Session 3

Lesson Title: Sociological Perspective of Self Learning Objective

Charles Horotn Cooley

Three Principal Elements:

1. The imagination of our appearance to the other person;

2. The imagination of his judgement of that appearance, and
3. Some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification…

 Introduced a social psychological concept known as “Looking Glass Self”

 The Concept of the no-glass self describes the development of one’s self and of one’s
identity through one’s interpersonal interactions within the context of society
 He clarified that society is an interweaving and interworking of mental selves.

George Herbert Mead

 “The self is a social process”, meaning that there are series of actions that go on in the
mind to help formulate one’s complete self.
 As gestures are taken in by the individual organism, the individual organism also takes
in the collective attitudes of others, in the form of gestures, and reacts accordingly with
other organized attitudes.
 This process is characterized by mead as the “I” and the “Me” is the social self and
“I” is the response to “Me”. In other words, the “I” is the response of an individual to
the attitudes of others, while the “me” is the organized set of attitudes of others which
an individual assumes.

Three Activities develop the self:

1. Language – develops self by allowing individuals to respond to each other through

symbols, gestures, words, and sounds. Language conveys others’ attitudes and opinions
toward a subject or the person. Emotions, such as anger, happiness, and confusion, are
conveyed through language.

2. Play- develops self by allowing individuals to take on different roles, pretend, and
express expectation of others.

3. Games - develop self by allowing individuals to understand and adhere to the rules of
the activity. Self is developed by understanding that there are rules one must abide.