UNDERSTANDING

THE SELF

Name: _________________________________ Course/Year: __________________

Teacher: _______________________________ Mobile No: ________________
Email: __________________________________ Term/S.Y.: _________________

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COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The course 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. It strives to meet its goal by stressing
the integration of the personal with the academic – contextualizing matters discussed in the
classroom and in the everyday experiences of students –making for better learning, generating an
new appreciation for the learning process, and developing a more critical and reflective attitude
while enabling them to manage and improve their selves to attain a better quality of life.
The course is divided into three major parts: The first part seeks to understand the construct of
self from various disciplinal perspectives: philosophy, sociology, anthropology and psychology – as
well as the more traditional division between the East and the West – each seeking to provide
answer to difficult but essential question – “What is the Self?”. And raising, among others, the
question: “Is there even a construct of the Self?” The second part explores some of the various
aspects that make up the self; such as the biological and material up to and including the more
recent Digital Self. The third and final part identifies three areas of concerns for young students:
learning, goal setting, and managing stress. It also provides for the more practical application of the
concepts discussed in this course and enables them the hands-on experience of developing self-help
plans for self-regulated learning, goal setting and self-care.
This course includes mandatory topics on Family Planning and Population Education. (CMO No.20,
s.2013)
Course Objectives
1. Discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from various
disciplinal perspectives
2. Compare and contrast how the self has been represented across different disciplines and
perspective
3. Examine the different influences, factors, and forces that shape the self
4. Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the development of one’s self and
identify by developing a theory of the self
5. Apply the new skills to one’s self and functioning for a better quality of life

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Table of Content
Chapter 1: The Self from Various Philosophical Perspectives

Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental

Perspectives on Self and Identity

Chapter 2: The Self, Society, and Culture

Chapter 3: The Self as Cognitive Construct

Chapter 4: The Self in Western and Eastern Thoughts

The Physical and Sexual Self

Chapter 5: To Buy or Not to Buy? That Is the Question!

Supernatural: Believe It or Not

The Political Self and Being Filipino

Chapter 6: Who Am I in the Cyberworld? (Digital Self)

Chapter 7: Learning to Be a Better Learner

Chapter 8: Do Not Just Dream, Make It Happen

Chapter 9: Less Stress, More Care

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Chapter 1
Lesson 1: Defining the Self: Personal and Developmental

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
Derived from the Greek word “PERSONA”
which means “MASK”
The process that creates growth, process,
This refers to individual differences in positive change, or the addition of physical,
characteristics patterns of thinking, feelings economic, environmental, social and
and behaving. It is also an Aspect of someone’s demographic components.
character that is presented to or perceived by
others.

So, what is Personal or Personality Development then?

Personal development is a development of the organized pattern of behaviors and attitudes that
makes a person distinctive. This is occurred by the ongoing interaction of temperament, character,
and environment.
It is also having a lifelong process. It is a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider
their aims in life and set goals to realize and maximize their potential.

Activity 1.1
Answer the following questions about yourself as fully and precisely as you can.
1. How would you characterize yourself?
2. What makes you stand out from the rest? What makes yourself special?
3. How has your “self” transformed itself?
4. How is your “self” connected to your body?
5. How is your “self” related to other selves?
6. What will happen to your “self” after you die?

Activity 1.2
Watch, read and listen to this course in your percipio.
Self-improvement for Lifelong Success- https://share.percipio.com/cd/jTTgM6z4z

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Lesson 2: Perspectives on Self and Identity
Self and Identity is a subfield of psychology. As the name implies, it deals with topics pertaining to
both self and identity. Key areas of investigation include self-concept, self-esteem, and self-control.
What distinguishes self and identity as a discipline is its scientific character.
Self-identity is how you identify and define yourself. It is your perception of specific and selective
traits, qualities, abilities, and characteristics that represent you.
Your self-identity is a combination of personality traits, abilities, physical attributes, interests,
hobbies, and/or social roles from your personal identity that you specifically selected to identify
yourself. It is also your perspective of your personal identity. You may not perceive or value some
traits that make up your personal identity, so you do not incorporate them as part of your self-
identity. Simply put, personal identity is who you are, while self-identity is who you see or define
yourself to be.

Activity 2.1
Watch, read and listen to this course in Percipio.
The Power of Insight: How Self-Awareness Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life-
https://share.percipio.com/cd/-CgoMgWEb

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Reflection:
Draw and explain that will show your own personality and identity and the share it to the class

Lesson 3: The self from various Philosophical Perspective

The following are discussions of different perspective and understanding of the “self” according to
its prime movers. From philosophers of the ancient times to contemporary period.

Socrates and Plato

This era was concerned with answering questions such as

 What is the world really made up of?

 Why is the world the way it is?
 What explains the changes that happen around us?

Socrates was more concerned with the problem of the self. He is the first philosopher who ever
engaged in a systematic about the self. According to him, the true task of the philosopher is to know
oneself. Socrates affirms, claimed by Plato in his dialogues, that the unexamined life is not worth
living.
For Socrates, every man is composed of body and soul. This means that every human person is
dualistic, that is, he is composed of two important aspects of his personhood. This mean, all
individuals have an imperfect, impermanent aspect, the body, while maintaining that there is also a
soul that is perfect and permanent.
Man= Body + Soul

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 Individual= Imperfect/permanent (body) +Perfect and Permanent (soul)
Plato is Socrates’ student and he supported the idea that man is a dual nature of the body and soul.
Plato added that there are three components to the soul: the rational soul, the spirited soul, and the
appetitive soul.
Rational Self- composed by reason and intellect
Spirited part- In charge of emotions
Appetitive soul- In charge of base desires, like eating, drinking, sleeping, and having sexual
intercourse, is controlled as well. When these are attained, the human person’s soul becomes just
and virtuous.
What happens to a person whose 3 components of the soul are imbalanced?

St. Agustine and Thomas Aquinas

Augustine followed the view of Plato but adds Christianity. He agreed that man is of a bifurcated
nature. There is an aspect of man, which dwells in the world, that is imperfect and continuously
yearns to be with the divine while the other can reach immortality. The body is bound to die on
earth and the soul is to anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in communion with
GOD. The goal of every human person is to attain this communion and bliss with the Divine by
living his life on earth in virtue.
The body- dies on earth; soul- lives eternally in spiritual bliss with “God”

Apparently, Aquinas said that indeed, man is composed of two parts: matter and form.
Matter, or hyle in Greek
refers to the common stuff that makes up everything in the universe.
Man’s body is part of this matter
Form, or morphe in Greek
Refers to the essence of a substance or thing
It is what makes it what it is. The body of the human is similar to animals/object but what makes a
human is his essence?
Man= Matter + Form
“The soul is what makes us humans”
Rene Descartes
He is the Father of Modern Philosophy, conceived that the human person as having a body and
mind. He claimed that there is so much that we should doubt. If something is so clear and lucid as
not to be even doubted, then that is the only time when one should buy a proposition.

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Thus, his famous (I think, therefore I am). The self then for Descartes is also a combination of two
distinct entities:
Cogito- the things that thinks, which is the mind and Extenza- extension of the mind, which is the
body.
In Descartes’ view, the body is nothing else but a machine that is attached to the mind. The human
person has it, but it is not what makes man a man. If at all, that is the mind.
But what then, am I? A thinking thing. But what is a thinking thing? It is a thing that doubts,
understands (conceives), affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagine also, and perceives. He also
believe that the body is a machine attached to the mind.
Human Person= body + mind
“There is so much that we should doubt” “The only thing one can’t doubt is existence of the self”

David Hume
He believes that one can know only what comes from the senses and experience
One can rightly see here the empiricism (is the school of thought that espouse the idea that
knowledge can only be possible if it is sensed and experiences) that runs through his veins.
Man can only attain knowledge by experiencing.
To David Hume, the self is nothing but a bundle of impressions.
According to him, self can be categorized into two:
Impressions- are the basic object of our experience or sensation. They therefore form the core of
our thoughts. Impressions therefore are vivid because they are products or our direct experience
with the world. (basic objects of our experience and sensation) (forms the core of our thoughts)
Ideas- are copies of impressions. Because of this, they are not as lively and vivid as our
impressions. (Copies of impressions, not as “real” as impressions)
“One can only know what comes from the “senses and experiences” (He is an empiricist)
“The self is not an entity beyond the physical body”
What is Self then? Self is simply a “bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each
other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in perpetual flux and movement”. In reality, what one
thinks as unified self is simply a combination of all experiences with a particular person. Everything
is just a combination of experiences.

Immanuel Kant
He agrees with Hume that everything starts with perception/sensation of impressions. Kant
emphasized that there is a mind that regulates these impressions. However, Kant thinks that the

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things that men perceive around them are not just randomly infused into the human person
without and organizing principle that regulates the relationship of all these impressions.
For Kant, there is necessarily a mind that organizes the impressions that men get from the external
world.
Along with the different “apparatus of the mind” goes the self. Without the self, one cannot
organize the different impressions that one gets in relation to his own existence. “We need active
intelligence to synthesize all knowledge and experience”.
He therefore suggests that the “self” is an actively engaged intelligence in man that synthesizes all
knowledge and experience. Thus, the self is not just what gives one his personality. It is also the seat
of knowledge acquisition for all human persons.

Gilbert Ryle
Gilbert Ryle solves the mind-body dichotomy that has been running for a long time in the history of
thought by denying blatantly the concept of an internal, non-physical self.
For Ryle, what truly matter is the behaviors that a person manifests in his day-to-day life.
He suggested that the self is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply the convenient
name that people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make.
Please share your thoughts:
For Ryle, looking for an trying to understand a self as it really exists is like visiting your friend’s
university and looking for the “university”
One can roam around the campus, visit the library and the football field, meet the administrators
and faculty, and still end up not finding the “university”. This is because the campus, the people, the
systems, and the territory all form the university.
“The self is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply the convenient name that we use to
refer to the behaviors that we make”.

Merleau-Ponty
A phenomenologist who says the mind-body bifurcation is an invalid problem.
He says that the mind and body are so intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another.
One cannot find any experience that is not an embodied experience. All experience is embodied.
The living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all one.
“One’s body is his opening toward his existence to the world” “The living body, his thoughts, emotions,
and experiences are all one”.

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Activity 3.1
Answer the following questions:
1. Do you believe in the concept of the soul coming to heaven after death?

2. What makes us people different from animals?

3. Do you agree with the statement about the self? (Body and soul) so far? Why?

4. What seems to be questionable in Descartes’ perspective about self?

5. Based on these philosophers’ theories and ideas about self, what is “self” in your own

perspective?

Activity 3.2
Create a matrix showing the various philosophers together with their perception about self and
explain.
Use the sample matrix table below.

Philosophers Their Definition My definition

Socrates

Plato

St. Agustine

St. Thomas Aquinas

Rene Descartes

David Hume

Immanuel Kant

Gilbert Ryle

Merleu-Ponty

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 Chapter Test
Name: ___________________________________ Score: __________
Course/Year: _________________ Date: __________

Identify the term being asked in each number. Write your answer in the blank.
1. _____________ Greek word which means “Mask”.
2. _____________ The process that creates growth, process positive change or the addition of
physical, economic, environmental, social, and demographic components.
3. _____________ Occurs by the ongoing interaction of temperament, character, and environment.
4. _____________ Student of Socrates who supported his idea that man is dual in nature.
5. _____________ He believes that one can only know what comes from the senses and
experienced.
6. _____________ He believes that there is an eternal life after death once you have your
communion with God.
7. _____________ Father of Modern Philosophy.
8. _____________ He believes that man is dualistic.
9. _____________ One of the components to the soul as per Plato which in charge of base desires
like eating, drinking, and having sexual intercourse is controlled as well.
10. ____________ Component to the soul of Plato that describes knowledge.

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Chapter 2: The Self, Society, and Culture
Guide Questions:
As we tackle this chapter, here are a guide questions that would help us better understand the
topic.
1. What is the relationship between external reality and the self?
2. How much of you are essential?
3. How much of who you are now is a product of society, community, and family?
4. Has your choice of school affected yourself now? If you were born in a different family and
schooled in a different college, how different would you be?
What is self?
In Contemporary literature and even common sense, SELF is commonly defined by the following
characteristics: “separate, self-contained, independent, consistent, unitary, and private” – Stevens
(1996)
Is the self a private entity?
The self is always affected by external circumstances that bump and collide with it. It is ev er-
changing and dynamic, allowing external forces to take part in its shaping.
The social constructivist perspective, then
Explains that there is a strong relationship between the self and external reality.
Argues that the person and their social context are merged, one cannot easily be separated from the
other. (Stevens, 1996).
Argues that the self is not static which stays constant through and through. Rather, it is in a struggle
with external reality and malleable in its dealings with society.
The self has a social life and can be influenced. Therefore multifaceted.

 Self is also self-contained and independent because it can exist. Its DISTINCTNESS allows it
to be self-contained with its own thoughts, characteristics, and volition. Consistent, because
it has a PERSONALITY that is enduring and therefore can be expected to persist for quite
some time. It allows to be studied, described, and measured.
 Self is unitary in that it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a
certain person. It is like the chief command post in an individual where all processes,
emotions, and thoughts converge.
 The self is private. Each person sorts out information, feelings, and emotions, and thought
processes within self. This whole process is never accessible to anyone but the self.
According to Social Constructivist Theory, it argues that the self should not be static entity that
stays constant through and through. Rather, the self must be in UNCEASING FLUX, self is always
in participation with social life and its dealing with society.

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 Lesson 1: The Self and Culture
Remaining the same person and turning chameleon by adapting to one’s context seems
paradoxical. However, the French Anthropologist Marcel Mauss has an explanation for this
phenomenon. According to Mauss, every self has 2 faces: Personne and Moi.
Moi- refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body, and his basic identity, his biological
giveness. Moi is a person’s basic identity.
Personne- Composed of the social concepts of what it means to be who he is. Personne has
much to do with what it means to live in a particular institution, family and religion, a particular
nationality, and how to behave given expectations and influences from others. The self
(especially the Personne) morphs according to different circumstances and contexts. It is
shaped by different aspects of culture such as international relations, environmental/territorial
concerns, language/lingo, romantic relationships, etc.

Our PERSONNE can be illustrated better cross-culturally.

TRIVIA
Do you believe that in a recent study, indicate that men and women in their growth and
development engage actively in the shaping of the self?

Mead and Vygotsky

The way that human persons develop is with use of language acquisition and interaction with
others. The way that we process information is normally a form of an internal dialogue in our head.
Language is another interesting aspect of this social constructivism. If a self-born into a particular
society or culture, the self will have to adjust according to its exposure. We process information in
form of internal dialogue therefore the cognitive & emotional development of a child is a mimicry of

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how it is done in the social world. A child internalizes values, norms, practices, and social beliefs
through exposure to dialogs that will become part of his individual world.
And so cognitive and emotional development of a child is always a mimicry of how it is done in the
social world, in the external reality where he is in.
Both Vygotsky and Mead treat the human mind as something that is made, constituted in dialogue
with others. A young child internalizes values, norms, practices, and social beliefs and more through
exposure to these dialogue that will eventually become part of his individual world.
For Mead, this takes place as a child assumes the “other” through language and role-play. A child
conceptualizes his notion of self through this.

Lesson 2: The Self in Family

The kind of family that we are born in and the resources available to us (human, spiritual,
economic) will certainly affects us and kind of development that we will have as we go through life.
Learning, therefore, is critical in our capacity to actualize the goal of becoming a fully realized
human, a child enters a system of relationships, most important of which is the family while every
child are born w/ givenness, disposition coming from his parents’ genes and general condition of
life is a factor in forming self.
Human beings are born virtually helpless and the dependency period of a human baby to its
parents is longer than most animals. In becoming a fully realized human, a child enters a system of
relationships, most importantly the family. This is w here the person learns how to live & their
selfhood.

Activity 2.1
Explain and give your ideas about the following sentences below:
1. It is what a family initiates a person to become that serves as the basis for the person’s

progress.

2. The child learns language and behavior from its family.

3. Without a family, biologically and socially, a person may not even survive or become a

human person.

Lesson 3: Gender and the self

Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change, and development. People
fought hard for the right to express, validate, and assert their gender expressions. Gender is an
aspect of the self that is subject to alteration, change, and development from the point of view of

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social sciences and the self, it is important to give leeway to find, express, and live his identity. Our
gender partly determines how we see ourselves in the world. Society often forces a particular
identity unto us by depending on our sex/gender. It must be personally discovered and asserted
and not dictated by culture and society.

Activity 3.1
Our Society forces an identity unto us depending on our sex and/or gender, give us your reaction in
these statements below. Write YES if you agree and No if not then explain.
1. Husband are expected to provide for family.

2. The eldest man in a family is expected to head the family and hold it in.

3. Mother’s role is to take care of her children.

4. Young women are encouraged to act like fine ladies.

5. Men are taught to behave like a man, like holding in one’s emotion, being tough and brave

and admiration for hard physical labor.

Activity 3.2

Answer the following questions cogently but honestly. Write your answers in the space
provided.

1. How would you describe yourself?

2. What are the influences of family in your development as an individual?

3. Think of a time when you felt you were your “true self”. What made you think you were
truly who you are during this time of your life?

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 4. Following the question above, can you provide a time when you felt you were not living
your “true self”? Why did you have to live a life like that? What did you do about it?

5. What social pressures help shape yourself? Would you have wanted it otherwise?

6. What aspects of your self do you think may be changed or you would like to change?

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