WORKTEXT IN UNDERSTANDING THE
SELF
(Theory, Method and Application)
Jigo Rafael C. Catamio
Dr.
Ronan S. Estoque Trisha Joy O.
Gotinga Lovelyn F. Laresma
Illustrated by: Jonathan Astrid S. Anabo
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Table of Contents
The Self From Various Perspectives
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Chapter 1: Philosophical Perspective on Self
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Chapter 2: Sociological Perspective of the Self
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4
Chapter 3: Anthropological Perspective of the Self
Chapter 4: Psychological Perspective of the Self
Chapter 5: The Self in Western and Oriental/Eastern Thought
Unpacking the Self
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Chapter 6: Physical Self
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Chapter 7: Sexual Self
Chapter 8: Material/Economic Self
Chapter 9: Spiritual Self
Chapter 10: Political Self
Chapter 11: Digital Self
Managing and Caring for the Self
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Chapter 12: Learning to be a Better Student
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7
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Chapter 13: Setting Goals for Success
Chapter 14: Taking Charge of One’s Health
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The Self From Various
Perspectives
Learning
Outcomes
∙ Discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from
various disciplinal perspectives
∙ Compare and contrast how the self has been represented across disciplines and
perspectives
∙ Examine the different influences, factors and forces that shape the self
∙ Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the development of one’s
self
and identify by developing a theory of the self
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Chapter 1
Philosophical Perspective on
Self
Philosophy
Philosophy is derived from the Greek words “Philos” and “Sophia” which literally
means “Love for Wisdom”. It is the study of acquiring knowledge through rational
thinking and inquiries that involves in answering questions regarding the nature and
existence of man and the world we live in. As such, it is imperative to look into the
various explanations from different philosophers their notion of what the “Self” its nature
and how it is formed in order to have a better picture on how people develop their
behaviors, attitude and actions and to be able to identify and understand who we are
and how we came to be.
Socrates
Socrates’ work was never published, we were only able to know who Socrates is
and his works because of his illustrious students spoke generously and in detail about
his knowledge, wit, wisdom and intellect. His student Plato for example included
Socrates in some of his work as a pivotal character.
He could be considered as the first martyr of education, knowledge and
philosophy. For lighting up the minds of his students, he was literally charged with
corruption of minors. He was made to choose between exile and death via the intake of
hemlock. Socrates chose the latter, thus dying as a martyr that fights against ignorance
and narrow-mindedness.
The philosophy of Socrates underlies in the importance of the notion “knowing
oneself” for him, men’s goal in life is to obtain happiness and such goal motivates us to
act towards or avoid things that could have negative repercussions in our lives. As
such, by fully knowing oneself a person will be able to achieve happiness.
Socrates also posited that possession of knowledge is a virtue and that
ignorance is a depravity, that a person’s acceptance of ignorance is the beginning of
acquisition of knowledge. So, one must first have the humility to acknowledge one’s
ignorance so as to be able to know what he is lacking and what he needs to know.
Socrates believe that the answer to our pursuit in knowing ourselves lies in our
own abilities and wisdom, and that the only way for us to understand ourselves is
through internal questioning or introspection. This method of questioning oneself,
where the person assumes the
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role of both the teacher and the student is known to the world as the Socratic Method or
Socratic Conversation.
By continuously asking and evaluating who we are we as a person will also be
able to understand our strengths and weaknesses, the things that we like and dislike,
how we want people to treat us and how we want ourselves to be treated, so by
knowing these things we can act in accordance to what we know we are and live our
lives following our knowledge of ourselves.
Plato
One of the most prominent thinkers of his time, Plato included in his work the
learnings and ideas shared to him by his teacher Socrates. He wrote several literature
that tackles politics, human nature, and established the idea of virtue and intelligence.
Plato is historically known to be the father of the academy a place where learning and
sharing of knowledge happens, that later became one of the pillars and basis of what
schools and education is now in the present.
Plato generally followed his teacher and the idea of knowing thyself although
from his works such with the notable ones’ such as the allegory of the cave, the
apology, and his work on a perfect government and societal system, “the Republic”
where he said that the world can only be led by a Philosopher king, a person who is
virtuous as well as intelligent. According to Plato, a person who is a follower of truth and
wisdom will not be tempted by vices and will always be just.
Plato also believed in the division of a person’s body and soul which forms the
person as a whole aside from the material things and that could be observed and
associated with a person, Plato presented the idea the ones’ soul is divided into 3
different parts that has different views leading to different behaviors, these parts of the
soul are known as the Appetitive, Spirited, and Rational Soul.
Plato’s 3 parts of the soul
Appetitive Soul –Plato’s idea of the appetitive soul is the part of the person that is driven
by desire and need to satisfy oneself. This satisfaction both involves physical needs
and pleasures and desires. As long as the person find an object or situation good or
satisfying, the Appetitive soul can drive the person to lean towards those objects and
situations.
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Spirited Soul – this part of the soul can be attributed to the couragous part of a person,
one who wants to do something or to right the wrongs that they observe. Spirited soul
are very competititive and is very active, his competitiveness drives one to expect
positive results and winning.
Rational Soul – The last part of the soul could be said is the driver of our lives, this is the
part that thinks and plan for the future “the conscious mind” it decides what to do, when
to do it and the possible results one could have depending on their actions.
St. Augustine
A Saint and a Philosopher of the church, St. Augustine follows the idea that God
encompasses us all, that everything will be better if we are with God. His work’s focal
point is on how God and his teachings affects various aspects in life, he follows the
belief that everything is better if we devote ourselves in mending our relationship with
God.
His idea of a man and how to understand who we are as a person is related to our
understanding of who we are and how we question ourselves, though St. Augustine
also relates our existence to God being modeled in his likeness though being alive
means that we are still far from God and has yet to be truly with him.
St. Augustine also rejected the doubtfulness of the academy in which one cannot
or should not accept ideas from others. He emphasized that we may not be able to give
our agreement to everything other people tell us but we can still agree to those who we,
from our own perception, think is right or wrong based from our perception.
He believes that our notion of ourselves and our idea of existence comes from a
higher form of sense in which bodily senses may not perceive or understand, and the
more one doubts and question his life means that, that person is actually living. St.
Augustine while integrating the teaching of the church in his philosophy and
establishing our sense of self with God which we cannot achieve with our bodies since
the limitation of our senses in truly understanding the essence of our existence and role
in the world is limited. So people is in need to establish their relationship with god
through being virtuous, but at the same time, to be able to stand by on what we think is
true, who we think we are that are from our own understanding and solely defined by us
alone although people may say differently, by continuously questioning and finding the
truth will we be able to find the best answer to who we are and what our role is in the
world.
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Descartes
Rene Descartes is a French Philosopher known to be the father of modern
philosophy because of his radical use of systematic and early scientific method to aid
his ideas and assumptions. Though his works were often compared or said to be similar
to the concept of St. Augustine which could be traced back to the works of Plato, what
his ideas sets him apart is on his belief in modern dualism or the existence of body and
mind and it’s implication to one’s existence were presented with the evidences from
experiments as well as philosophical reasoning, he also known to be the proponent of
the “Methodical Doubt” which simply meant of a continuous process of questioning
what we perceive and accepting the fact that doubting, asking questions are a part of
ones’ existence. As such he has defined the roles of the mind and body to the notion of
one’s existence and sense of self.
Descartes is known for the statement “Cogito Ergo Sum” which means in English
as “I think therefore I am”. According to him a person is comprised of mind and body,
the body that perceives from the different senses and the mind that thinks and question
or doubt what the body has experienced. For him, the body and its perceptions cannot
fully be trusted or can easily be deceived, For instance there are times that we feel that
a dream is real before actually waking up or having different perception of size based
on an objects distance from the viewer.
Descartes explained that because we cannot always trust our senses and in turn
what we perceive as who we are or the essence of our existence, we as a rational
being should focus on the mind and explained that the more we think and doubt what
we perceived from our senses and the answer that came from such thinking or
doubting leads to better understanding of ourselves. He also implies that being in a
constant doubt regarding one’s existence is proof that a person actually exist.
Locke
John Locke is an English Philosopher, Physician, He is considered to be the
father of Classical liberalism some of his works on this subject matter paved the way to
several revolutions to fight the absolute powers of monarchs and rulers of his time that
led to the development of governance, politics and economic system that we now
know.
His work on the self is most represented by the concept “Tabula Rasa” which
means a Blank Slate. He believed that the experiences and perceptions of a person is
important in the establishment of who that person can become. Unlike what the other
Philosophers view on human experiences and senses, John Locke does not disregard
the experiences of the person in the identification and establishment of who we are as
a person. He stated that a person is born
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with knowing nothing and that is susceptible to stimulation and accumulation of learning
from the experiences, failures, references, and observations of the person.
Considering this, the process of the mind to absorb information and accumulate
knowledge may imply that as a person to be able to be whom we want to be, with the
right stimulations, enough experiences, as well as awareness that by primarily knowing
nothing will enable one to be open to any kind of learning and does not limit any
possibilities for growth implies that the opportunity for one person to develop to
anything he wants to be is limited only to the environment, experiences, and the
choices of the person.
Hume
The Scottish Philosopher David Hume, focused his work in the field of
Empiricism, Skepticism, and naturalism. Being an Empiricist which believes in concrete
evidences and observable experiences that meld a person, his notion on the self
contradicts to the ideas of the philosophers before him which said that at the notion of
self, one’s identity and behaviour does not exceed the physical realm and that the “Self”
is only the accumulation of different impressions.
According to him, there is no permanent “self”, that since our impressions of
things based from our experiences and from such impressions we can create our ideas
and knowledge which leads to the argument that since our impression and ideas
change, it may improve or totally be replaced means that one change occurred the
same phenomenon of will happen to ones idea of who he is and what he can do.
loving
happy
Cold
Impressions
approachable
warm
sad
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That is the idea that Hume reiterated when saying that there should be no
permanent concept of the self. He said when a person is asked the question “who you
are? “That person tends to answer different impressions such as good, happy,
optimistic, contented, sad, etc. generally they apply to who you are now but at the same
time these characteristics might change from time to time. If the neighbour you knew
your entire life to be happy and have a positive outlook suddenly looked sad and
discontented can we say that the person you seeing is not your neighbour anymore?
Kant
Immanuel Kant, a German Philosopher that is known for his works on Empiricism
and Rationalism. Kant responded to Hume’s work by trying to establish that the
collection of impressions and different contents is what it only takes to define a person.
Kant argued that the awareness of different emotions that we have, impressions
and behaviour is only a part of our self. He said that to fully understand who we are, a
certain level of consciousness or sense that uses our intuition which synthesizes all the
experiences, impressions and perceptions of ourselves will pave the way to define and
know who we really are.
Kant argued that the sense called “Transcendental Apperception” is anessence of
our consciousness that provides basis for understanding and establishing the notion of
“self” by synthesizing one’s accumulation of experiences, intuition and imagination
goes. Which means that this idea goes beyond what we experience but still able to
become aware of. For example the idea of time and space, we may not be able to
observe the movement of time and the vastness of space but we are still capable of
understanding their concept based from what we can observe as their representation.
With that in mind and following the idea of Kant about Self, we can say that we
are not only an object that perceives and reacts to whatever it is that we are
experiencing, we also have the capabilities to understand beyond those experiences
and be able to think and have a clear identification who we are and establish a sense of
self that is unique and distinct from others.
Freud
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian Psychologist and Physician, he is also known as the
father of psychoanalysis and is known for his work on human nature and the
unconscious. Freud believed that man has different constructs of personality that
interacts with each other and along with his
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concept of the different levels of consciousness provides an idea how a person
develops a sense of self.
Aspects of Personality
ID - also known as the child aspect of a person, The ID’s attention is on
satisfaction of one’s needs and self-gratification. It is driven by the pleasure principle.
SUPEREGO- is the conscience of the one’s personality, Superego has the
inclination to uphold justice and do what is morally right and socially acceptable
actions.The superego is involved in the notion of right or wrong that is imparted to us by
our parents or people that tool care for us during childhood.
EGO - Sometimes known as the Police or the mediator between id and
superego. It operates within the boundaries of reality, primary function is to maintain the
impulses of the ID to an acceptable degree.
Freud also introduced the idea that the accumulation of the experiences of a
person helps build his personality although such information are not stored in a single
area where we can
access them at any time. He introduced the levels of
consciousness, The Conscious where minority of our memories are being stored and
the memories that are in the conscious is easier to be tapped or accessed. The other
one is the Pre-conscious, the middle part of the entirety of our consciousness, the
memories stored in this area can still be accessed but with a little difficulty. And the last
one is the Unconscious, this area is where majority of our memories since childhood
are deeply stored. It is very difficult to tap the memories in the unconscious, it would
need a trained professional and several special techniques in order to make some
memories resurface.
Freud believed that we are a by-product of our experiences in the past. And that
are actions are driven by the idea of resisting or avoiding pain, and are molded from our
need for pleasure or being happy.
Ryle
Gilbert Ryle with his Behavioristic approach to self, said that self is the behaviour
presented by the person, his notion of dualism is that the behaviour that we show,
emotions and actions are the reflection of our mind and as such is the manifestation of
who we are.
Ryle does not believe that the mind and body, though some say can coexist, are
two separate entities which is said to be evident in the unexplainable phenomenon or
abilities of the
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mind where the soul is considered. To him, once we encounter others, their perceptions
of what we do, how we act, and the way we behave will then result to the
understanding of other people and establishing of who we are.
His explanation of self is further exemplified in his “ghost in the machine” view.
This view said the man is a complex machine with different functioning parts, and the
intelligence, and other characteristics or behaviour of man is represented by the ghost
in the said machine.
He gave further explanation using an example imagining that if you are touring a
visiting friend to the university that you are studying and you brought him to the athletic
centre, library, buildings and classrooms, but then your friends ask “but where is the
university? As such is the point of Ryle, all those places, buildings and offices are the
university which supports his idea that the mind and body is not necessarily separate
entities. So considering that analogy, the idea of Ryle is saying that the things that we
do, how we behave and react and all other components like the way we talk, walk, and
look is generally who we are as a person.
Churchland
Paul Churchlanda Canadian philosopher whose focus is on the idea that people
should improve our association and use of words in identifying the self. He has this idea
that the “self” is defined by the movements of our brain.
Churchland’s work revolves around challenging of the notion and terms being
used to explain behavior or to explain how a person feels, thinks, and act with regards
to physiological phenomenon that is happening in the body as well as definitions
brought about by emotions, this is one of the notion of the concept of Folk Psychology
also known as common sense psychology.
The main philosophy of Churhland built the idea of “eliminative materialism”.
Basically, eliminative materialism opposes that people’s common sense understanding
of the mind is false and that most of the mental states that people subscribe to, in turn,
do not actually exist, this idea also applies on the understanding of behaviour and
emotions.
This leads to his idea of Neurophilosophy, he believed that to fully understand
one’s behaviour, one should understand the different neurological movement of the
brain that pertains to different emotions, feelings, actions and reactions and how such
brain movements affect the body. With this in mind we can eliminate the ambiguity of
subjective and baseless identification of the mind,behaviour and self in general
because by understanding the different neural pathways, how they work, and what
implications are those movements are to people, will we not only have proof that there
is a measurable classification on one’s behaviour it can also be
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said that the constant movement of the brain can be the basis of who the person is this
is
emphasized by Churchland and his wife in the statement “The Brain as the Self”.
Merleau-Ponty
Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty is a French philosopher that is known for
his works on existentialism and phenomenology. His idea of the self, regarded that the
body and mind are not separate entities, but rather those two components is one and
the same. His idea that follows the gestalt ideation where the whole is greater than the
sum of its parts in which pushed his idea on the unity of the function of the mind and
body,this idea is called the Phenomenology of Perception.
The idea of Phenomenology of Perception according to Merleau-Ponty is divided
into three (3) division, The Body, The Perceived World, and the People and the world.
The body that both receives the experience as well as integrates such experiences in
the different perception. The Perceived world, which are the accumulation of the
perception as integrated by the experiences of the body. And the People and the world
that enable one to not only be able to integrate the other objects in the world but also to
be able to experience the cultural aspect and relate to others.
His idea of perception follows the idea of Gestalt psychology which gives
important on the whole than the sum of its part. For him, perception guides our action
based from what our experiences are, the body perceives while our consciousness
provides the meaning or interprets the various perception we have in the world and the
self could be established by the perceptions we have in the world, whereas one’s
action, behaviour and language used could be said to be the reflection of our united
perception of the world.
Required Reading/s:
Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of personality. In Pervin and John (eds).
Handbook of Personality Theory and Research (pp 134 – 194) . 2nd ed. Guilford
Press.
Chafee, J. (2013). Who are you? Consciousness , identity and the self. In the
Philosopher’s Way.
Thinking Critical about Profound Ideas(pp 106 – 169). Pearson.
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Chapter 2
Sociological Perspective of the
Self
Sociology, or the study of how human society is established, its structure and
how it works, the people’s interaction with each other and the effects they have to one
another is an aspect in which we have to consider with regards to the development of a
person. It is also important to understand that the establishment of the “Self” based on
social structures could give us a better understanding of who we are and provide
reasons how our interactions can affect us as a person.
George Herbert Mead and the Social
Self,
George Herbert Mead is an American Sociologist, he is considered as the Father
of American pragmatism, and one of the pioneers in the field of social psychology
because of his contributions on the development of the person relating to various social
factors.
Mead rejected the idea of biological determination of the self which proposes that
an individual already has an established self from the moment he is born. For him, the
notion of a person with regards to who they are develops from one’s social interaction
with other people. He reiterated that the process of establishing the self is through the
construction and reconstruction of the idea of who we are as a person during the
process of social experience.
The “I” and the
“Me”
Mead proposes that there are two components of the self which the person has,
these components are the “I” and the “Me”. The “Me” are the characteristics, behavior,
and or actions done by a person that follows the “generalized others” that person
interacts with, while the “I”
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is the reaction of the individual to the attitude of others, as well as the manifestation of
the individuality of the person. Simply speaking, According to Mead the concept the “I”
is one’s response to the established attitude, and behavior that a person assumes in
reference to their social interactions while the “Me” are the attitudes, and behavior of
the person with reference to their social environment.
Mead’s Three Role-playing Stages of Self Development
Mead proposed that there a three stages in which a person has to go through for
one to
develop one’s self. These stages are the Preparation/Language Stage, Play stage, and
Game stage.
The Preparatory Stage (Birth – 2 years Old) – According to Mead, during this stage the
infant simply imitates the actions and behaviors of the people that the infant interacts
with. Because the child is only mimicking what he or she observes from his or her
environment their actions are only the reflection of what they can remember without any
intention or meaning behind their actions or behavior.
The Play Stage (2 – 6 years old) – for the Play stage, it is the time where children
begins to interact with other with which certain rules apply, these rules often time does
not adhere to any set or standards but rather are rules that are set by the children
themselves. Also, this is the stage where the child practices real life situations through
pretend play and is the onset of self- consciousness. The development of the self in this
stage occurs through the preliminary experiences that serves as practice for the child.
The Game Stage (6-9 years old) – The final stage of self-development according to
Mead where are characterized by the ability of the children to recognize the rules of the
game and be able to identify their roles and the roles of the others that is playing with
them. With this, the children at this stage learns the implications of their actions as well
as the understanding or taking into account how one can take into account the view
point of the society on the attitudes and actions.
With the idea of Mead with regards to the establishment of the sense of self,
socialization is a lifetime endeavor, and the people one interacts with will change
throughout a person’s life, as such, considering the social environment one belongs to
along with the changes on the
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person’s development, may it be at school, home, or work, the interactions and
experiences the person acquires from those people and situations helps define a more
concrete identity and sense of self. That idea of “Self” may be based on the general
attitudes and behaviors of other people or the individuality of the person that manifests
as a response to those attitudes and behaviors of others.
Required Reading/s:
Lanuza, G. (2004). The constitution of the self . In David, R. (Ed.), Nation, self and
citizenship. An invitation to Philippine Sociology. Anvil Publishing.
Mead, G. (1972). Mind, self and society from the standpoint of a social behaviorist. The
University of Chicago Press.
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Chapter 3
Anthropological Perspective of the
Self
Anthropology
The Self and the Person in Contemporary Anthropology
I. Anthropology and Its Subdisciplines
The academic discipline of anthropology, or “four-field” anthropology, studies human
species and its immediate ancestors includes four main sub disciplines or subfields sociocultural, archeological, biological and linguistic anthropology. Each sub discipline
studies adaptation, the process which organisms cope with the environmental.
Anthropology is a systematic exploration of human biological and cultural diversity.
The Subdisciplines of Anthropology
1. Cultural Anthropology
Cultural anthropology is the study of human society and culture which describes,
analyzes, interprets and explains social and cultural similarities and differences. It
explores the diversity of the present and the past. Ethnography and ethnology are two
different activities which can study and interpret cultural diversity.
Ethnography
(based on field work)
Ethnology
(based on cross-cultural comparison)
Ethnography requires fieldwork to collect data, often descriptive and specific to group.
On the other hand, ethnology uses data collected by a series of researches, usually
synthetic and comparative.
2. Archeological Anthropology
Archeological anthropology reconstructs, describes and interprets human behavior and
cultural patterns through material remains. These materials remain such as plant,
animal and ancient garbage provides stories about utilization and actions.
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3. Biological, or Physical Anthropology
Biological, or Physical Anthropology focuses on these special interest, human evolution
as revealed by the fossil, human genetics, human growth and development, human
biological plasticity and the biology, evolution, behavior and social life of monkeys, apes
and other nonhuman primates.
4. Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistic anthropology studies language in its social and cultural context across space
and over time. Universal features of language are analyzed and association between
language and culture are evaluated.. It also studies how speech changes in social
situations and over time.
The Self Embedded in the
Culture
Culture refers to customary behavior and beliefs that are passed on through
enculturation (Kottak, 2008), wherein enculturation is the social process which culture is
learned and transmitted.
Culture is a social process that is learned and passes from generation to the next.
Culture depends on images, which have a specific significance and incentive for
individuals who share a culture. Cultural traditions take regular marvels, including
organic desires, and transforming them specifically headings. Everybody is cultured.
Social orders are coordinated and designed through predominant monetary powers,
social examples, key images and core values. Cultural mean of adjustment have been
urgent in human evolution. Cultures oblige people, yet the activities of people can
change cultures.
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Shared
Adaptive and
Maladaptive
Symbolic
Culture
Encompassing
Integrated
Natural
Learned
Culture defined: Culture is shared, symbolic, natural, learned, integrated, encompassing
and maladaptive and adaptive.
Csordas (1999) elaborated that the human body is not essential for anthropological
study but the paradigm of embodiment can be explored in the understanding culture
and the self. The body is not an object to be studied in relation to culture, but is to be
considered as the subject of culture, or in other words as the existential ground of
culture. On the other hand, Geertz (1973) described culture as "a system of inherited
conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate,
perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life"
.The interpretation of the symbols in each culture is essential which gives meaning to
one’s action. Each culture has its own symbols and has its own meaning; one must
need to comprehend those meanings keeping in mind the end goal to understand the
culture. One must disconnect the components of culture, discover the relationship
among those components, and portray the
entire framework in some broad way.
Required Reading/s:
Csordas, T. (1999). Self and person. In bode (Ed.),Psychological Anthropology (pp. 331 –
350).
Praeger. 331 – 350.
Geertz, C. (1973). The Impact of the Concept of Culture and Concept of Man. In the
interpretation of culture(pp. 33 – 54). Basic Book.
Geertz, C. (1973). Person, time and conduct in Bali. In the interpretation of culture(pp.
360 – 411).
Basic Book.
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Chapter 4
Psychological Perspective of the
Self
Psychology
Psychology has various ways of understanding a person and the therapist way of
helping people understand themselves. Self by definition is a reference by an individual
to the same individual person. Having its own or single character as a person, referring
to the person as same individual.
The psychology of studying self is about either the cognitive and affective representation
of one's identity or the subject of experience. The earliest formulation of the self in
modern psychology forms the distinction between the self as I, the person knower, and
the self as Me, the person that is known.
“The Self and It Selves”
William James, a psychologist, has introduced in his document The Principles of
Psychology (1890) a numerous concepts and distinction of self. For James, his main
concepts of self are the “me-self” and the “I-self”. The “me-self” is the phenomenal
self, the experienced self or the self as known. It is the self that has experience the
phenomena and who had known the situation. The “I-self” is the self-thought or the
self-knower. James had claimed that the understanding of Self can be separated into
three categories: “1. Its constituents; 2. The feeling and emotions they arouse –
Self-feelings; 3. The actions to which they prompt – Self-seeking and self-preservation
(James, 1890, p162)
Also, James wrote sub-categories of self, 1. the material self; 2. the social self; and 3.
the spiritual self.
The Material Self is constituted by our bodies, clothes, immediate family and home. It is
in this that we attached more deeply into and therefore we are most affected by
because of the investment we give to these things. The Social Self is based on our
interactions with society and the reaction of people towards us. It is our social self that
thought to have multiple divergence or different version of ourselves. It varies as to how
we present ourselves to a particular social group. The most intimate self, the spiritual
self. It is the most intimate because it is more satisfying for the person that they have
the ability to argue and discriminate one’s moral sensibility, conscience and indomitable
will.
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Conception of Self
Carl Rogers, had come up with his conception of self through the intervention he used
for his client, the Person-centered therapy. It is a non-directive intervention because it
believes that all people have the potential to solve their own problems. Rogers believe
that people must be fully honest with themselves in order to have personal discovery on
oneself. In this concept of self, he had come up with three sides of a triangle.
a.
The Perceived Self (Self worth - how the person sees self & others sees
them)
b.
The Real Self (Self Image - How the person really is)
c.
The Ideal Self (How the person would like to be)
Concept of Unified and Multiple Self
As DanielCW (2016) wrote in his article “Psychoanalysis vs Postmodern Psychology” he
has emphasized how Freud percieved person as a unified beings and Gergens concept
of multiple “selves”
In Freud’s concept, he argued that mind is divided into three connected but distict parts.
The Id, Ego and Super Ego. Id as the center of primitive, animalistic impluses (sex,
food & comfort) following the pleasure principle. Superego as the center for ethical
imperative. The one that reminds the self of what is right of wrong following morality
principle. And the Ego as the moderator between these two which was driven by
rationality principle. And then also, Freud has stated two important division of mind, the
conscious and unconscious. Conscious are the thoughts that we are aware of. And
Unconscious as thoughts that we are not aware of. (DanielCW, 2016)
Although, Freud has argued that self has a multiple parts, he still believed that ultimately
we are a Unified beings (Atleast, when we are healthy). Ego remains at the helm of
mind, guiding the Id and Superego and staying at the center. Thus Gergen argued that
having a flexible sense of self allows for multiple “selves”. That it is up to the the self to
define himself as warm or cold, dominant or submissive, sexy or plain.
According to Kenneth Gergen, proponent of Post modern Psychology, The
individual has many potential selves. He carries within him the capacity to identify
himself, whether warm or
24
cold, dominant or submissive, sexy or plain. How we bring ourselves in every situation
will held him get through for a day. Therefore, maybe it is healthy to have many mask.
Multiple selfhood is part of what it means to be human, and forcing oneself to stick to
one self-concept maybe unhealthy.
True Self and Fake Self
True Self, as rooted from early infancy is called the simple being. The sense of self
based on spontaneous authentic experience and feeling of being alive, having “real
self”. Example, as a baby we react base on our sense of reality. The baby reacted
spontaneously based on our instinctual sense.
Fake Self, is our defense facade. Overlaying or contradicting the original sense of self.
Problem would be we might build false set of relationship through concealing a barren
emptiness behind an independent-seeming façade.
Required Reading/s:
Hater, S. (1996). Historical roots of contemporary issues involving the self-concept. In
Bracken (Ed.),Handbook of self-concept: Developmental, social and clinical
considerations (pp. 1 – 37). John Wiley & Sons Inc.
25
26
Chapter 5
The Self in Western and Oriental/Eastern Thought
There is a clash of civilization that is plaguing the country right now and though this is
not officially and consciously acknowledged, this war for dominance is victimizing all
Filipinos in one form or another. There is really no middle ground, and it is either one is
rooting for the other side or opposing all contentions and wisdom from another side.
This is the battle for the dominance, and prisoners are not taken and captured. This is
literally, the war between the eastern self versus the western self.
Western culture basically is about the focus on oneself and personal needs; Eastern
culture is about focus on others and the feeling of others. Western culture is predicated
on putting egoism first while Eastern culture is about collectivism. Conceptually, there is
a vast of difference between egoism and collectivism. While egoism is focused on
oneself, collectivism is all about focus on others. While the Western culture is inclined
in more acquisition of material things, the Eastern culture is tilted towards less assets
(thus the mantra less is more). Western culture is obsessed with being successful, the
eastern culture is more inclined towards long life; for the Eastern culture, long life is
equated with wealth.
In the Eastern culture, wealth and poverty is the result of fortune and luck, for the
Western culture, wealth and poverty is the result of enterprise and hard work. The
Eastern culture values the wisdom of years and seniority, while the Western culture
celebrates the youth and being young. Philosophically, the Eastern culture subscribe to
concept of reincarnation while Western culture subscribe to the idea of evolution. Taken
as a whole, these basic and subtle differences between the Eastern culture and the
Western culture are taking its toll on Filipinos on which culture to adopt. The dilemma is
whether to follow and subscribe to the Western influences or subscribe to Eastern
ideas.
Concept of Self Western and Eastern Thought
Western
Eastern
∙ Self is a social construction
∙ A gentleman by following the moral
which is symbolically and
way consisting of the virtues of
signally created between and
love, righteousness, wisdom,
among social beings
propriety and loyalty in order to
promote harmony in society
∙ Phenomenological object which
can be productively studied
(Confucianism)
through as series of evanscent
∙ (Theravada) detachment and
desirelessness to reach
actionss, self is
nirvana; reciprocal
multidimensional entity
∙ Self is an interpersonal unit
27
∙
∙
∙
∙
Self takes form in communication
Self is intimately connected to
bodily
experience
both
ontogenetically and here and now
awareness
Self is both phenomenal
and nonphenomenal
Self acquires substance according
to semantic, syntactic and
pragmatic
relationship;(Mahayana)compassion to
other humans for belief that we are
part of the same ever-changing
universe (Buddhism)
Attainment of liberation in the
identification of Atman (the spiritual
essence of all individual human
beings) and Brahman (the spiritual
essence of the universe) through the
Four Yogas (Hinduism)
Attainment of liberation in the
identification of Atman (the spiritual
essence of all individual human
beings) and Brahman (the spiritual
essence of the universe) through the
Four Yogas (Taoism)
Concept of Kapwa, recognition of
shared identity, an inner self
shared with others; Two levels or
modes of social interaction –
ibang-tao or “outsider” and hindi
ibang-tao or “one-of-us” (Filipino
Psychology)
∙
∙
∙
Individualism versus Collectivism
∙
∙
∙
Individualism
People are autonomous and
independent from their
in-groups
Give priority to their personal goals
of their in-groups
Behave on their basis of
attitudes rather than norms
∙
∙
∙
∙
∙
Collectivism
Interdependent within their
in-groups
Give priority to the goals of their
in- groups
In-groups primarily shape
their behavior
Behave in a communal way
Concerned in maintaining
relationship with others
Required Reading/s:
Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of personality. In Pervin and John (Eds.),
Handbook of Personality Theory and Research 2nd ed (pp. 134 – 194). Guilford
Press.
28
Johnson, T. (1985). The western concept of self. In Marsella (Ed.), Culture and self:
Asian and western perspectives (pp. 91 – 138). Tavistock Publications.
Triandis, H. (1989). The self and social behavior in differing cultural contexts.Psychol.
Rev.
96.3.506 -520.
Wei-Ming, T. (1985). Selfhood and Others in Confucian Thought. In Marsella (ed).
Culture and Self: Asian and western perspectives. Tavistock Publication. 231 –
251.
29
30
31
Unpacking the
Self
Learning
Outcomes
∙
∙
Understand the theoretical underpinnings for how to manage and care for
different aspects of the self
Acquire and hone new skills and learnings for better managing of one’s self and
behaviors
∙ Apply these new skills to one’s self and functioning for a better quality of life
32
Chapter 6
Physical
Self
Physical self refers to the body which we interface with our environment and
fellow being.
It is a tangible aspect of the person that can be directly observed and examined.
People now days are too conscious on how they look. How they see themselves
in the mirror, how people will look at them and what will people say about them. Our
concept of our self and the perception of people around us will always have big effect
on how we deal in a situation, cultural or not. This discussion of Physical Self has found
place on different Schools of Psychology, like psychoanalysis, behaviorism, humanism
etc. For example:
∙
∙
∙
∙
∙
∙
William James considered body as initial source of sensation and necessary
for the origin and maintenance of personality. It is an element of spiritual
hygiene of supreme significance. For example, a boxer during a fight, do not
notice/feels his wounds until the intensity of fight has subside.
Sigmund Freud, In Psychoanalytical school, construction of self and
personality makes the physical body the core of human experience.
Wilhelm Reichargued that mind and body are one; all psychological
processes, he postulated, are a part of physical processes, and vice versa.
According to Erik Erikson, the role of bodily organs is especially important in
early developmental stages of a persons life. Later in life, the development of
physical as well as intellectual skills help determine whether the individual will
achieve a sense of competence and ability to choose demanding roles in a
complex society.For example a child get their confidence when they bigger,
stronger, faster and more capable of learning complex skills.
Carl Jung, argued that the physical body and the external world can be known
only as psychological experiences.
B.F. Skinner, says that the role of the body is of primary importance.
Which from this different orientation clearly show us and explains how people
deals with their physical self. Regardless of what culture or traditions he or she may be,
his or her interpretation of himself will be how people act in the community.
33
Self – Esteem
“We all know that self-esteem comes from what you think of you,
not what other people think of you” -Gloria Graynor –
People from different culture have opted to change their features in attempt to
meet the cultural standards of beauty, as well as their religious and/or social
obligations. They modify and adorn their bodies as part of the part of complex process
of creating and re-creating their personal and social identity to be accepted by society
and to be able to accept them self. This includes body painting, tattooing, jewelries and
adornments. Youth in present time are too conscious of their physical attributes that
they are not confident to face the day without make- up.
As our physical self, dictates how we act in front of other people it also defines
how we will manage our self-esteem. Yet, this self-esteem is vital on how we form
positive and healthy relationships with people around us. We have different kinds of
self-esteem; The Inflated Self- Esteem (this people holds high regards of themselves.
Better than the other to the point of under estimating them), High Self-Esteem (this is a
positive self-esteem, which make the person be satisfied of themselves) and Low
Self-Esteem (this person do not value themselves and do not trust their possibilities).
Most of the times, this self-esteem are define by what physical attributes they
have.
Beauty as define by the society, culture or traditions, is what matter to the person.
Required Reading/s:
Demello, M. (2014). Beautiful bodies. Body studies: An introduction (pp 173 – 188).
Routledge. Demello, M. (2014). Fat and thin bodies. Body studies: An introduction (pp
189 – 205).
Routledge.
34
35
36
Chapter 7
Sexual Self
As we come to understand the beauty of physical self, it is also proper to learn to understand the
sexual self. As psychoanalytical theory states that physical body is the core of human
experience as form of construction of self and personality. Freud maintained that nature of the
conflicts among id, ego and superego changes overtime as a person grows from child to adult.
There are psychosexual stages that focus: oral, anal, phallic and genital. Thus, these stages
are directly related to different physical center of pleasure.
To fully appreciate sexual self, it is necessary to understand human reproductive system,
erogenous zone,and human sexual behavior.
Understanding Basic of Sexual Behavior
Human Sexual behavior is complex and complicated, thus, it is not at all different from other
species (Feldman, 2010). To illustrate; men sexual behavior can occur at any time, by being
arouse to certain stimuli. At puberty, the testes begin to secrete androgens (male sex
hormones) which produce secondary sex characteristics like growth of bodily hair and change
in tone of voice. Female sexual behavior starts at puberty where the two ovaries begin to
produce estrogens and progesterone (female sex hormones). This stage of puberty for female
occurs in cyclical manner where also brought changes. While for nonhuman, period of ovulation
is only when the ovulation occurs to the female specie is receptive to sex.
Human reproductive system is an organ system by which reproduces and bear live offspring. It
requires the union between the male and female reproductive system to which carries out to
produce another life form. Provided that all organs are present, human reproductive system
works from the released of egg cell from female reproductive organ, to the fertilization of sperm
cells, to the conception, up to the giving birth of the baby and eventually to the return of the
female physical body to the original state. (Harrison, 2018)
37
Male Reproductive System
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Encyclopædia Britannica,
Inc.
Testis – is the most important part of male reproductive organ. It is the source of
Spermatozoa (male germ cell)
Scrotum – it is a sac of skin where the two testes are enveloped; directly below and
outside of the abdomen.
Prostate glands – it is a gland that carries out both urine and seminal fluid. It is
connected by sperm ducts from sperm ducts joining into single tube called urethra.
Urethra then leads to the outside of the body through penis.
Penis – it is where the ejaculation occurs by sending sperm cell from testis and secrete
out.
Sperm – It is a male gametes, one that is necessary for the egg to develop and become
a baby.
Female Reproductive System
1.
2.
3.
Ovary – It is a pair of small, oval organs which produces ova (ovum; female germ cells).
Thousands of ova will mature and will be taken up to the fallopian tube through the
uterus by the time of puberty.
Fallopian Tube – are pair of thin tubes that leads from ovaries to the uterus.
Uterus – (womb) it is a hollow pear-shaped elastic muscular structure where fertilized
ovum (zygote) develops into a baby.
38
4. Vagina – It is a tube leading to outside of the body through an opening called the
vulva.
During the sexual intercourse, the semen from male is discharged in the vagina. The sperms will
begin moving up to the uterus reaching the fallopian tube. During the travel most of the sperms
will die while climbing up the fallopian tube, only one sperm will enter the ovum and can remain
alive for only 12 hours. In this time, if it meets ovum which will lead to fertilization. This zygote
(fertilized egg) will form in an embryo from which will enter gestation period. It is around 9
months in time for the woman to give birth.
Physiological Aspects of Sexual Excitement
Erogenous Zone
These are part of the body that particularly sensitive to touch, pressure and vibration
which contributes to sexual arousal. Identifying erogenous zone (“hot spots”) gives different
reaction and effect to a person. For one, these could bring sexual satisfaction, also, improves
sexual health and stimulating different spots may produce different reaction to the body. Female
and male erogenous zone are reproductive organ (vagina, penis, scrotum & clitoris), mouth
(lips), neck, breast (nipples) and ears.
Phases of Sexual Response
Although, erogenous zone brings us to sexual arousal which is unique to each individual, people
shares
same basic aspects of sexual responsiveness. According to Johnson & Master (1966), sexual
response follows a regular pattern consisting of four (4) phases: arousal, plateau, orgasm and
resolution.
The arousal phase is a subjective sense of sexual pleasure. The physiological sign in
males is penile tumescence (erection) and vasocongestion to female leads to vaginal
lubrication and nipple erection.
39
The plateau phase is a brief period of time before the orgasm. It is the body’s
preparation for
orgasm.
The orgasm phase is an intense, highly pleasurable experience. When this phase is
reached, rhythmic muscular contractions occur in the genitals. In male, the contractions expel
semen, a fluid containing sperm, a process called ejaculation. For women and men, breathing
and heart rates reach maximum.
Last stage of sexual arousal, the resolution stage where the decrease of arousal
(particularly in male) happens. Genitals resume their unaroused state and shape; blood
pressure, breathing and heart rate return to normal.
Diversity of Sexual Behavior
Sexual behavior transcends in different forms. It may be influenced by not only the basic
physiological aspect of sexuality but also by different expectations, attitudes, beliefs and state of
medical and biological knowledge. It made sexual behavior take a more diverse forms such as
heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality and transexuality.
Heterosexuality
Is a sexual attraction and behavior directed to other sex. More than male-female
intercourse, it involves kissing, petting, caressing, massaging and other form of sexual
activities.
Homosexuality and Bisexuality
Homosexualsisa romantic and/or sexual attraction between members of same sex.
Bisexuals are person who can be romantically or sexually attracted to same sex and the other
sex. Some male homosexuals prefer the term Gay and some female homosexual prefer the
term Lesbian. Gays and Lesbian as preference for a terminology refer not only to their sexual
preference but also as Gender preference. These by which refer to a broader array of attitudes
and lifestyle of the individual than the sexuality itself.
Transsexuality
These are people who believed they were born with the body of the other gender. Men
transsexuals believe that they are men in a women’s body and women transsexuals believe that
they are women in a men’s body. Transsexuals sometimes seek sex exchange operations,
which undergo several steps such as intensive sexual counseling, hormone injections, living as
member of desired sex for several years, surgery.
40
Transgenderism
These are people who view themselves as a third gender, they are transvestites (who wears
clothes of the other gender) or those who believed that traditional male-female classifications
inadequately characterized them.
Natural and Artificial Method of Contraception
As overpopulation and countless cases of Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) such as
gonorrhea, syphilis etc., along with the threat of Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS),
the government educates people the importance of Contraception. There are two kinds of
contraception; the Natural Contraception and the Artificial Contraception.
Natural Contraceptionare type of birth control that depend with observations on woman’s body
through monitoring and recording different fertility signals during her menstrual cycle. Through
there different methods one may predict when it is safe or when a woman will more likely to get
pregnant. These may be in a form of abstinence, calendar method, basal body temperature
method, cervical mucus method,
symtothermal method, ovulation detection, lactation
amenorrhea method and coitus interruptus.
Artificial Method is diverse method of contraception using to prevent conception of a woman.
There are different types of artificial contraception but not all types are appropriate for all
situation. Using artificial contraception depends on the individual’s health status, age, sexual
activity and/or number of partners. These are oral contraception, transdermal patch, vaginal
ring, subdermal implants, hormonal injection, Intrauterine device (IUD), chemical barriers,
diaphragm, cervical cap, male and female condoms, surgical methods (vasectomy and tubal
ligation).
Method
Abstinence
Calendar Method
Natural Method of Contraception
Rate of
Description
Failure
Most effective way of birth control. Done thru
0%
abstaining from sexual intercourse. It is also
the most effective way to avoid STIs.
Also called as the Rhythm Method. It involves
avoiding coitus during the days that the
woman is fertile.
25%
Basal Body Temperature
BBT is the woman’s body temperature at rest.
Done
by monitoring the changes in the
woman’s
41
9 to 25 %
Cervical Mucus Method
25%
Symptothermal Method
2%
Ovulation Detection
2%
Lactation Amenorrhea
Method
Coitus Interruptus
Method
Oral Contraception
Transdermal patch
75%
temperature every morning before any activity. A
slight increase and decrease in her temperature
will be her sign of ovulation (fertile). This period
the woman must abstain from mating for the next
three days.
Here the basis is the changes in the cervical mucus
during the ovulation. According to this method a
woman is fertile when the cervical mucus is
profuse and watery. During this time she must
avoid coitus during this days.
It is a combination of Basal Body Temperature
(BBT) and Cervical Mucus Method.
It is an over-the-counter kit that requires a urine
specimen to detect the Luteinizing Hormone (LH)
to predict ovulation.
This is exclusive for breastfeeding woman. Thus, it
should be noted that the woman is advise to
choose other method after period of three months
or if the mother is not exclusively breastfeeding
or is using
formula drink for the baby.
The oldest method of contraception. This is where
the couple proceeds with coitus but the moment
he ejaculates, the men withdraw before emit
spermatozoa outside of the vagina.
Artificial Method of Contraception
Description
It is known as the “Pill”. Contains synthetic estrogen and
progesterone. It is recommended to take the pill on the first
Sunday after the beginning of the menstrual flow.
It is a patch applied in the following areas; upper outer arm,
upper
torso, abdomen or buttocks for three weeks.
42
Vaginal Ring
Releases a combination of estrogen and progesterone and
surrounds the cervix. It remains in there for 3 weeks. It was
removed on the fourth week as menstrual period flows. The
woman becomes fertile as soon as the ring is removed.
Subdermal Implants
It is a two rod-like implants under the skin of the woman
during her
menstruation or on the 7th day of her menstruation to make
sure that she will not get pregnant. It contains etonogestrel,
desogestrel and progestin. Have a 1% failure
This injection prevents ovulation and cause change in the
cervical
mucus. It has an almost 100% effectiveness. And one of the
most popular choice for birth control.
It is a small T-shaped object inserted in uterus thru
vagina to
prevent fertilization. It is done only by a physician right after
the
woman’s menstruation to be sure that she is not pregnant.
These are used to cause death of the sperm before it can
enter the
cervix of the woman. These are spermicides, vaginal gels
and creams, and glycerin films.
Inhibits the entrance of into the vagina. It should not be left in
place for more than 24hours to avoid irritation. It has a
failure rate of
16%.
Male Condomis a synthetic rubber sheath that is placed in the
erect
penis before penetration to avoid the sperm to enter the
vagina during the ejaculation
Hormonal Injections
Intrauterine Device (IUD)
Chemical Barriers
Diaphragm
Condoms
Surgical Methods
Female Condom is also a synthetic rubber placed against
the vaginal opening to prevent the sperm to enter the
vaginal during the ejaculation.
Vasectomy is a procedure done to male through small
incision
made on each side of the scrotum to block the passage of
sperms.
Tubal Ligation is a procedure done to female through cutting,
cauterizing, or blocking the fallopian tube to inhibit the
passage of both sperm and the ova.
43
Required Reading/s:
Feldman, R. (2008).Diversity of sexual behavior. In Bettino (Ed.), Understanding
psychology 8th ed (pp. 379 -385).McGraw Hall.
Feldman, R. (2008).Understanding human sexual response. In Bettino (Ed.),
Understanding psychology 8th ed(pp. 369 -375).McGraw Hall.
Feldman, R. (2008).Sexual difficulties. In Bettino (Ed.), Understanding psychology 8th
ed(pp. 389 - 391).McGraw Hall.
Lugue & De Leon (2001). Textbook on family planning. Rex
Printing.
Wolfson
(2010).
The chemistry
and
chimera
of
http://healthline.com/healthy/what-is-desire
desire
.
Retrive
d
from
44
45
46
47
Chapter 8
The Material and Economical Self
William James, Also known as the father of American Psychology identified
various components of the Empirical self, one of which is what he called a Material Self.
According to James, that Man’s “Material self” is not only consisting of his own body but
also includes the different things he possess from ones family, friends, as well as things
such as, ones clothes, house, cars, gadgets, end even the amount of money he has in
the bank.
Body
Possessions
(house, cars,
phone, car,
etc.)
Self
as"ME"
Family
Friends
In James’ idea of the Material Self, One defines themselves and at the same time
is being defined by the people they are acquainted with along with the accumulation of
objects and achievements that a person acquired from the different endeavours and
experiences in life. For example, a person can identify themselves as a singer not only
from their own beliefs that they can sing, we can also consider factors such as if other
people also says that he or she can sing, if he or she belongs to a family of singers,
have trophies and awards relating to singing (winning a singing contest), or works as a
singer in a band or in a concert hall.
48
The losing of such objects or people will render one feel that apart of him was
also lost at the same time, for example, in cases of death in the family, losing a
business that a person have invested for his entire life, sudden inability to play music
because of an accident. Also, the time a person died his possessions and associations
with other people will be the only objects that will remind the world of who that person
were.
So we represent ourselves through clothes, the gadgets we wear, the friends we
have and the things that we do. All of these contribute to whether we are accepted or
not in the world we live in. With this in mind, the choices that we make in order to
achieve the recognition of others depends not only on our own capabilities but more so
on the value we and the other people give to what we have or can acquire. For
example, now the things like having an Iphone, drinking coffee at Starbucks, or buying
branded clothes maybe used as a manifestation of a good social standing it may not be
similar to owning a company, having a house at an exclusive subdivision but the former
are much easier to acquire and achieve than the latter.
Having the ability to find the things that will define yourself that will persist
through time, were your life and achievements both defines who you are and what you
are capable of and at the same time provide you with the direction and knowledge on
what to prioritize will result to a more cohesive and easier establishment of who you are
as a person and what you want to be in life.
Required Reading/s:
Dittmer, H. The Individual Centered Approach: Material Possessions as Parts of the
Extended Self. Pp. 41 – 64 and Possessions as Symbolic Expressions of
Identity.Pp 95 – 121 in TheSocial Psychology of Material Possessions: To Have
is to Be?. St. Martin’s Press.
Gibbs et al. (2006). Self presentation in online personals: The role of anticipated future
interactions, self-disclosures and perceived success in internet dating.
Communications Research. 33.2.152-172.
Gonzales & Hancock (2010). Mirror, Mirror on my FB Wall: Effects of Exposure to FB on
selfesteem. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.
Doi:10.1089/cyber.2009.0411
Walther (2007). Selective self-presentation in computer mediated communication:
Hyperpersonal dimensions of technology, language and cognition. Computers in
Human Behavior. 23. 2538 – 2557.
49
50
Chapter 9
The Spiritual Self
William James’ take on spiritual self which is included to the other empirical selves is
defined as the inner most workings of the persons mind, the behavior, beliefs and even
morals that involves every aspect of the human as a person. Considering the will of the
person, how they distinguish between right and wrong and also one’s intellect are some
of the manifestation of the spiritual self of a person. According to James (1890) people
will find more satisfaction in having been able to show of the spiritual self like their
intelligence, to have their wishes be done, and to act upon their conscience than to
count or show their possession, because he said that the spiritual self “is the most
enduring and intimate part of the self”.
Person's
Will
Intelligence
and
Abilities
Spiritual
Self
Morals
Values
Manifestations of the Spiritual Self
Person’s Will – Refers to one’s wishes, these are the things that we want to see
and
achieve in our lives.
Intelligence and abilities – these are the perceived strengths of a person, the
things that they have confidence in doing and believe to have a certain level of mastery
of. Ex.
Morals – it is the definition of what is right and wrong, distinguishing the things
that are acceptable for a person, the society and at the same time the determination of
the possible effects of their actions to themselves, their environement and other people.
Values – is the person’s ability to distinguish what is important and what is not.
With one’s
values system a person may be able to prioritize what they think are the tasks or things
that the
51
need, what are things that should be done or resolve immediately and what are those
that they can delay without grave repercussions.
With these in mind, the establishment of a person’s notion of what is good, as well as,
their ability to not only be able to stand on what they think is the right thing to do but to
be able to make life decisions based on such beliefs is what William James consider as
the manifestation of a person’s spiritual self.
In the Philippines, our country is known to have a culture that values the
teachings of religion, where our notion of right and wrong is based on the teachings of
the church or any religion that the people are following. Having such guide, it is
imperative for one to fully understand the extent and be able to define the cohesiveness
of their own beliefs to the teachings of their religion, this will enable one to be able to
understand further who they are, what they want to do, and what are the things that
they can and cannot do based on the acceptable behaviours that are being taught in
one’s religious orientation.
People will act according to how they feel, what they believe in and what they
want to do or happen, but having the inability to understand that there may be some
difference on how others perceive and conflict may arise, since Williams also posits that
if the one’s beliefs, abilities as well as emotions are being criticized a person may feel
that they are being questioned as a whole which will result to negative reactions. For
example, people tend to criticize other people that are different from them (religion,
race, gender, etc.) these criticisms may elevate to bigger problems such as
discrimination or division of groups, but if we think carefully we cannot expect others to
believe what we believe in, one cannot expect others to have the skills that they have,
and an individual cannot expect others to be able to think exactly like him, then we will
have an easier time to create an environment that promotes the individuality of every
members of the society.
The Practice of Religion: Belief in Supernatural Being and Power
Religion refers to beliefs and behaviors related to supernatural beings and powers.
Worldview is broader than religion. Worldview refers to the collective body of ideas
that members of a culture generally share concerning the ultimate shape and
substance of their reality. Religion also differs from spirituality, which is a concern
with the sacred in an individual manner. All cultures have religion, spirituality, a
worldview and magic (Haviland, 2007).
Difference between Religion and Spirituality
52
Religion
∙ Religion is an organized system of ideas
about
spiritual
reality,
or
the
supernatural,
along with associated
beliefs and
ceremonial practices
(Haviland, 2007).
Spirituality
∙ Concern with the sacred, as
distinguished
from material matters. In contrast to
religion, spirituality is often individual
rather than collective and does not
require
a distinctive format or
traditional
organization (Haviland,
2007).
Myth, Rituals and Supernatural
Myth
∙ A sacred narrative that
explains the
Rituals
∙ A culturally
prescribed
symbolic
act
or
fundamentals of human
procedure designed to
existence—where we
guide
members of a
and everything in our
community in an orderly
world came from, why
way through personal
we are
here, and
and
collective
where we are going.
transitions.
∙ Two types: calendric and
crisis.
Supernatural
∙ The supernatural is
around
you all of the time,
especially
in
nonindustrialized societies
∙ In a lot of cultures,
health, wealth and daily
things are related to
supernatural.
Functions of Religion
Emotional Function
Cognitive Function
Enabling humans to explain
the unexplainable
phenomena.
Helping individuals to cope
up with anxieties that often
accompany illness,
accidents, death and other
misfortunes
Social Function
Social control, conflict
resolution and building group
solidarity
53
The Concept of “Dungan” – Spirit or Soul
The “soul“ or spirit of a person has two dimesions; (1) human body and (2)spiritual. Soul
referred to as kaluluwa by the Tagalogs or dungan by the Ilonggos comes from the root
word duwa,two. The dungan is not seen by the human eye, it takes on a different form.
For instance, it can be in a form an insect or a small animal such as lizard. The
Bisayans believe that the dungan leaves the body while person is asleep. Travelling
dungan outside the body must be free from accidents such as getting trapped in a jar.
Only when the soul has safely reunited with the body, the person will be awake.
Dungan is also connoted as “willpower”. If a person has a strong willpower, is it said to
have a strong dungan (Magos, 1986).
Rituals and Ceremonies
Rituals in the Philippines are quite common. Visayan fishing villages practice the
offering ritual called harang. A local shaman invokes sea-spirits. There are several
stages of the ritual purification, invocation, entreaty and feast which cover community
life such as harvest, operation of fishing boats and cases of illnesses (Kawada, 1996).
General Features of Harang
Ritual
Purification
of the Place
(tuob)
Invocation
of
Spirits
Explanation
of
Motivation,
Request &
Entreaty
(pagtawag)
(pangamuyo)
Offering
Communion
Feast
(kan-on)
(bayad)
Finding and Creating Meaning in Life
Viktor Frankl, the originator of Logotherapy, indicates how his involvement in quest for
the significance of life in a Nazi death camp changed his viewpoint of the world. Frankl
states that we can't abstain from affliction, yet we can pick how to manage it and
discover significance in it.
54
Frankl's hypothesis question the thoughts of Freud, who trusted the significance of life
was to seek after joy. Frankl trusted that the motivation behind life isolates the person
from creatures as well as enables us to survive troublesome circumstances. The
reason forever isn't identified with the quest for delight, however to finding what you
adore and living with significance. For Frankl, man cannot avoid suffering but can find
meaning from it. His theory holds three primary human capabilities called as noological
possibilities: self-detachment, self-transcendence, and the ability to “spiritually be in
touch” with something or someone independent of spatio- temporal dimensions. To
complement these capabilities he indentified three postulates.
Anthropological
“Man does not simply exist
but always decides what
his existence will be,
what he will become in
the next
moment.”
Man is ultimately
self- determining.
Psychological
Philosophical
Man’s key motivation is the Life has unconditional
meaning, regardless of the
search for meaning.
circumstances or situation.
His
life
in
the
concentration
camp,
Frankl writes that he
found meaning that helped
strengthen his will to
survive.
Required Reading/s:
Demetrio, Fernando & Zialcita. (1991) The soul, 95 -97. One is not enough. 99 – 101.
The soul book. GF Books
Frankl, V. (159). Man’s search for meaning:An introduction to logotheraphy (pp 149
-210).Verlag für Jugend und Volk.
Haviland,W. et al. (2007). Spirituality, religion and the supernatural. In The essense of
anthropology(pp 289 – 306). Thomson Wadsworth.
Kawada, M. (1996). Bayad sa dili naton kaipon: A visayan ritual offering to the spirits. In
Ushijima & Zayas (Eds), Binisaya nga kinabuhi (Visayan Life). Visayas maritime
anthropological studies (pp 213 – 240) . CSSP Publications.
Sosis, R. (2010). The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual. In Angelono (ed). Annual
editions: Anthropology 10/11. 33rd ed (pp 133 – 137) . McGraw Hill.
Stein & Stein (2011). Ritual. In the Anthropology of religion, magic and witchcraft (pp 77
– 102)
.Prentice Hall.
55
56
57
58
Chapter 10
The Political
Self
Developing a Filipino Identity: Values, Traits, Community and Institutional Factors
Collective action, shared vision, means of sustainable future and the link to generation
has been crucial in the construction of identity and sense of belonging in the democratic
standpoint. On the other hand, in the socio psychological perspective, citizenship or
being a Filipino serves a a cognitive and motivational basis for ones beliefs and
behavior. Thus, enhancing the practice of citizenship and democracy is crucial to the
awareness and understanding of self and community.
Three Major Concerns in Building an Identity
The level of individual, community and institution are primary factors that come into play
in the building an identity. At the same time, it is essential to consider the following
concerns in building an identity:
1.Instrumental - An individual act in accordance with rules and identities consistent with
supportive of democratic processes.
2. Morals - Values and beliefs embody and reinforce democratic principles.
3.Transformative - Includes process of self-reflection and redefinition of individuals,
institutions and communities.
Community
Person
Level of
Individual
Institution
59
Aspects in Developing Filipino
Identity
Individual Attitudes and
Traits
•Dualism of Filipino Traits
(negative and positive)
•Colonial/Accomodative
Surface Value (hiya, utang
na loob, pakikisama)
•Confrontatie Surface
Value(bahala na,
sama/lakas ng loob,
pakikibaka)
• Pivotal Interpersonal
Value (pakiramdam)
•Linking/socio-personal
Value (kagandahang- loob)
•Associated Societal Value
(karangalan,
katarungan,kalayaan)
Institutional Factors
• Family
• Church
• School
• Media
• Government
• Non-government
• People's organization
Macro-Factors at
the Societal
Level
•Immediate
community
with
which one readily
identifies one's self
•Less intimate grouping
of which one is a
member
Establishing a Democratic Culture
Sense of community and public good and empowerment of people are central questions
to consider in the development of democracy agenda. The following frameworks were
used as a guide in the development of action agenda. According to Diokno 1999, in her
article Becoming a Filipino Citizen, Perspective on Citizenship and Democracy, the
agenda was crafted in September 1996 conference in which perceptions of citizenship
and democracy from different standpoints were discussed.
March and Olsen’s Framework of
Democratic Political Development
•
Building institutions that civilize
expressions of solidarity and
confrontation of conflict among
identities.
Przeworski’s Concept of Effective
Citizenship
∙
∙
∙
Official conduct in accordance with
the law.
A judicial system appied equally to
all.
Social conditions for the exercise
of citizen's rights.
60
•
•
Forming specific identities (character,
habits of thought, sense of reality and
codes of conduct) that fit into and
support a democratic political order
Sense of solidarity that connects the
individual to a broad political
community of others and organize
others
and
organizes
other
belongings in a way that enriches
the community
Based on the following frameworks, the democratic agenda was crafted.
1. Improve the political and social environment and reduce poverty through
structural reforms in order to foster a sense of community and enable
citizens to exercise their rights and fulfill their obligations.
2. Continually re-examine societal institutions responsible for value formation so
that they can inculcate, rather than indoctrinate, democratic citizenship values.
3. Incorporate cross-cultural activities in public and private sector programs,
including
those of schools, churches, NGOs and POs, so as to recognize
ethnolinguistic and cultural diversity in the country and encourage the
sharing of experiences.
4. Further promote the use of Filipino and Philippine languages in all transactions
so as to enable the articulation of citizenship and democratic views and values.
5. Continue to harness institutional as well as informal mechanisms that open up
space for the exercise of citizenship and democracy.
Required Reading/s:
Doronilla, ML (1997). An overview of Filipino perspectives on democracy and
citizenship. In
Perspectives on citizenship and democracy(pp 69 – 112). UP TWSC.
Diokno, MS (1997). Becoming a Filipino citizen. In Perspectives on citizenship and
democracy(pp 17 -38) . UP TWSC.
Zialcita, F. (1997). Barriers and bridges to a democratic culture. In Perspectives on
citizenship and democracy ( pp 39 – 68) . UP TWSC.
61
62
Chapter 11
Digital Self: Self and Others in
Cyberspace
I, Me and Myself and My User ID
online
Digital self is a mask we put on to draw in the innovative world. With the digital
technologies such as web pages, online games, virtual worlds, social media, smart
phones, Internet, self- extension is extensive. Objects that one’s possess can truly
extend the self, as when an instrument or weapon enables us to get things done of
which we would somehow, or another be
unable. Belonging can likewise
emblematically extend self. Sartre explained that the reason we want to have
something is to enlarge our sense of self and that the only way we can know who we
are is by observing what we have. Belk (1988) presented the concept of the extended
self: (1) Dematerialization, (2) Reembodiment, (3) Sharing, (4) Co-construction of Self,
and (5) Distributed memory.
This reasonable refresh looks to renew the idea, consolidate the effects of digitization,
and give a comprehension of consumer feeling of self in the present innovative
condition. It is essentially a work in advance, for the computerized condition and our
conduct inside it keep on evolving. Be that as it may, some vital changes are now
certain. Five changes with advanced utilization are viewed as that effect the idea of self
and the idea of belonging. Required alterations and increments to the extended self are
laid out, and bearings for future research are recommended. The advanced world
opens a large group of new implies for self-extension utilizing numerous new items to
come to an incomprehensibly more extensive crowd. Despite the fact that this requires
certain reformulations, the fundamental idea of the extended self stays crucial.
63
Belk’s Summary of Digital Modification of the Extended Self
Digital Dimension
Self
Possession
Dematerialization
Attachment to
and
singularization of virtual
possessions; almost, but
not quite the same
Reembodiment
Avatars affect offline self;
Attachment to avatars
multiplicity of selves
Sharing
Self revelation; loss of
Aggregate possessions;
control
sense
of shared place online
Co-construction of self
Affirmation of self;building
aggregate extended self;
“Attachment
to
Virtual
Possessions
in
Videogames”
Distributed memory
Narratives of self
Digital clutter; digital cues
to sense of past
Selective Presentation and Impression Management
Self-presentation is behavior that attempts to convey some information about oneself or
some image of oneself to other people. These behaviors are activated by the evaluative
presence of other people and by others' knowledge of one's behavior. In new situations,
many people would like to impress and become self-conscious. People behave in ways
designed to create a favorable impression or even to one’s ideals. Humans are social
animals and regulate our behavior to fit in world or adjust it to impression that we
desire. People monitor their behavior, observe how others react and adjust their
performance to create a desired impression.
Two Types of Self-Presentation
1.Pleasing the audience – This type of self-presentation which try to match self to the
audience's expectations and preferences.
2.Self-construction – This type of self-presentation tries to match oneself to one's own
ideal self. The expression of the audience-pleasing motive varies across situations.
Multiple Aspects of the Self
Higgins (1987) argues that there are three domains of the self: the actual self, the ideal
self and the ought self.
1. Actual self – this refers to the attributes an individual possesses.
64
2. Ideal self – this refers to the attributes an individual would ideally possess.
3. Ought self – this refers to the attributes an individual ought to possess.
According to Higgins, the discrepancies between the actual self and ideal self leads to
feelings of dejection. Our sense of self helps organize our thoughts, feelings and
behaviors. Our overall self- evaluation influences our cognitive processes. For instance,
when people with high self- evaluation fail, they sustain their self-worth by looking at
others failure.
Ideal
Ought
Re
al
Multiple Aspects of the Self
Impact of Online Interaction on Self
Computer-Mediated Communication
Computer-mediated communication encompasses human communication involving
several exchanges through various platforms such as text, audio, and/or video
messages. A CMC interaction occurs through various types of networking technology
and software, including email, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), instant messaging (IM),
Usenet and mailing list servers. An interesting discussion can stem from a comparison
of how we construct our identity in the “real world” versus how we construct it in the
online world. As Dutton (1996) points out, that technology can work two ways – open or
close social choices. Individuals shape the impact of technology has on their lives by
choosing which technology to use and how to use it.
65
Boundaries of Self Online
The line between offline and online self has become blurred. Since people nowadays
are becoming more connected digitally, self-identity is becoming more fashioned in
transmedia paradigm. In the present culture of constant connectivity, the Internet is
coordinated into our lives with the end goal that the experience of being on the web is
subjectively not quite the same as before.
Required Reading/s:
Belk, R. (2013). Extended self in a digital world. Journal of consumer research . 40.3.
477 -500.
Ellison, et al. (2006). Managing impressions online: Self presentation processes in the
online dating environment. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. 11.
415 – 441. Doi 10.111/j. 1083-6101.2006. 00020x
Gibbs et al. (2006). Self Presentation in online personals: The role of anticipated future
interactions, self-disclosures and perceived success in internet dating.
Communications Research. 33.2.152-172.
Gonzales & Hancock (2010). Mirror, Mirror on my FB Wall: Effects of Exposure to FB on
selfesteem. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.
Doi:10.1089/cyber.2009.0411
Walther (2007). Selective self-presentation in computer mediated communication:
Hyperpersonal dimensions of technology, language and cognition. Computers in
Human Behavior. 23. 2538 – 2557.
66
67
Managing and Caring for the
Self
Learning
Outcomes
∙ Understand the theoretical underpinnings for how to manage and care for
different aspects of the self
∙ Acquire and hone new skills and learnings for better managing of one’s self and
behaviors
∙ Apply these new skills to one’s self and functioning for a better quality of life
68
Chapter 12
Learning to be a Better Student
Becoming a Better Student
As a person growth is an inevitable goal and change will always be present in
what we do. As such, for students, the need to understand that just barely passing the
different subjects and graduating after is not necessarily the best option for successfully
landing you dream job, or becoming successful in the world of work. It is also important
to note that being a student does not necessarily mean that the only thing you have to
do is to read books, go to class, or prepare and answer tests, these things may be the
usual things expected for a student to do in school, but understanding that the
preparation for real life endeavors may start in the class room, but not necessarily end
there.
In terms of having freedom in the classroom, there are several things that needs
to be noted, one of which is in the freedom of the students towards their choices of
what to learn as well as how they are going to use such learning in real life situations.
Aside from having a good learning environment where the needs of the students are
being met, the students should also understand the value of what they are learning and
why they are learning those (Kujjpers, Meijers, Gundy, 2011).
To become a better student, several things are needed to be done, aside from
just listening from the discussions and following the directions taught by the teachers a
student should be able to have a better understanding of what they are doing, have the
ability to recognize and sort the different information that they are encountering, and to
be able to have a certain level of understanding on the concepts that they are studying
in which could result for better application and appreciation of such learnings.
Tips to Become a Better Student
1.
Prepare Before going to school
∙ Always try to research or read the next lesson, do your assignments at
home or before going to school, eat and have proper rest before going
to school.
∙ In preparation for school not only your assignments, or making sure
that you have all the tools you need for class ready and prepared but
to also make sure to have your body prepared by making sure to have
enough rest and eating as
69
to ensure that you as a student have enough energy to go through the
entire day.
2.
Use different Resources
∙ Aside from books provided for the class, don’t forget to use the library,
and the internet. Using different resources will enable you as a student
to access more information and be able to learn the latest learnings
and information related to the subject matter that you are studying.
3.
Be Critical and make learning personal
∙ Know what you are learning, why you are learning and how they are
important to you and your plans in life.
∙ By being critical to the information that you acquire you will be able to
appreciate more their value and be able to apply and relate them to
your situation and let these learning help you to be able to achieve
your goals.
4.
Ask Help
∙ The school may focus on the interaction between the teachers and
students but the institution is comprised of more than what or who are
inside the class room and the people in the school from the guidance
office, librarian, registrar, etc. and even people outside the school such
as your parents and friends or other professionals can help you as a
student to break limitations, ease the difficulties that is brought about
by the requirements of the curriculum.
5.
Do other things
∙ The school provides co-curricular or extra-curricular activities, join
clubs, or school groups to widen you experiences as a student. Not
only can you have better relationships which will translate to more help
in the future, but an active body and mind that may or may not
necessarily related to school work can also help a student to balance
their lifestyle and maintain a healthy body and mind.
70
Required Reading/s:
J. Dunlosky, K.A., Rawson, E.J. Marsh, M.J. Nathan, & D.T. Willingham (2013).
Improving student’s learning with effective learning techniques: Promising
directions from Cognitive and educational psychology.Psychological science in
the public interest, 14 (1), 4 -58. Doi10.1177,1529100612453266
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72
Chapter 13
Setting Goals for
Success
Bandura’s Self- Efficacy
Albert Bandura, one of the most renowned psychologist. He has made significant
contributions to all branches of psychology. Self-Efficacy Theory is part of his Social
Cognitive Theory (or Social Learning Theory) which is a fundamental to positive
psychology.
Self-Efficacy is commonly defined as the belief in one’s capabilities to achieve a
goal or an outcome. It is the ability to influence events that affect one’s life and control
the way these events are experienced (Bandura, 1994).
Students with high self-efficacy may more likely to challenge themselves with
difficult tasks and be highly motivated to achieve the task. They put high degree of
effort and will do everything in their power to meet their commitments. Self-efficacious
students may more likely recover quickly from setbacks and ultimately are to achieve
their personal goal. However, student with low self-efficacy, believe that they cannot be
successful and will less likely to make extended effort and may consider challenging
task to be avoided. They have low aspirations and may result from poor academic
performances.
Four Ways to Build Self-Efficacy
1. Mastery Experience
Every experience is not always positive outcome. It may also bring failure. This
experience’s will help us build resilience thru treating failure as learning opportunity and
chance to reach our goal with different approach.
2. Social Modeling
Observing those who practice high self-efficacy in their lives and who have
reached their goals despite hardships can provide great motivation to a person.
Bandura notes that it is necessary to draw role-models from one’s own social
surroundings. In this age, internet and social media can be big source of employing
role-models.
3. Social Persuasion
73
It is about finding the right mentor. Social Persuasion is about having other’s (role
model) directly influence one’s self-efficacy by providing opportunities to master
experience. These social persuasion may are mentors that are knowledgeable and
practices what they preach.
4. States of Physiology
Our own emotions, moods and physical state can influence our interpretation of
self-efficacy. Having feeling of tension, anxiety and weariness can lower our
self-efficacy. Positive emotion can help build positive insight for high self-efficacy to a
person.
Dweck’s Mindset Theory
Another learning theory that explains persons acquiring of intelligence and
realizing his/her goals is the Mindset Theory by Carol S. Dweck. She is a psychologist
from Stanford University that tries explain the way to understand the effects of learning
and education to a person.
Dweck proposed that people hold for the nature and the cause of intelligence
have several implications, specifically the way the person motivates himself to learn
and practice. “Mindset” is a term used by Dweck to explain the assumptions, methods,
or notations held by one or more people or group of people. It represents the cognitive
processes activated in response to a given task.
There are two kinds of mindset, the fixed and growth mindset. Fixed mindset
(before termed as entity mindset) is an innate or in-born personality of a person. It is
basically “who you are”, how God made you. And Growth Mindset (or the Incremental
mindset), where people believe that training and an effort to learn can change one’s
qualities and traits. Whena parent constantly attribute the child’s success to inborn or
innate ability, children will come to develop a fixed mindset. (e.g. Pedro failed the math
exam because he finds the math subject as his weakness) Thus, praising his success
to performance will be attributing the success to child’s intelligence. However, when the
child’s success in school was particularly attributed to the child’s effort to review to pass
the test, it can be then be that the child has developed a growth mindset. (e.g. Pedro
failed the math exam because he did not review for the test.)
It is then said that acquiring a Growth Mindset is much better kind of mindset
because it attributes success to learning and continuous practice. Thus, the individual is
not afraid of failure, it only directs the person to need to practice more, pay attention,
invest on effort, and master new learning. The person then be more confident to face
challenges and believe in him/herself that he will improve his performance.
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Goal Setting Theory
Most people would probably agree that goal setting is one of the main ingredient
for a person to succeed. It is a powerful way of motivating people and motivating
yourself. Dr. Edwin Locke pioneers a research in 1960s’ about setting goals. This
theory was more known to work or industrial setting, much from where the SMART goal
originated. It was also then after several years he collaborated with Dr. Gary Latham to
a seminal work “A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance.
Goal Setting Theory states that there is a relationship between how difficult and
specific a goal was and the people’s performance task. He found that specific and
difficult goals led to better task performance than vague or easy goals.
Motivating words such as “Try Hard” or “Do your best” is less effective than
phrases such as “Try to get more than 80% correct” or “Try beating your best score”
Having goal that is too easy is not motivating force than hard and specific goals.
Five Principles of Goal Setting
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Clarity – Clear, measurable and unambiguous (specific) goals.
Challenge –Set a level of challenge to beat yourself with.
Commitment – The more harder the goal, the more commitment is required.
Feedback – Listen to feedback from people to provide opportunities to clarify
expectations, adjust goal difficulty and gain recognition.
Task Complexity – The more complicated and demanding the role would give
high level of motivation to a person.
Required Reading/s:
Locke, E. (2002). Setting goals for Life and Happiness. In Snyder & Lopez (Eds.),
Handbook of postive psychology ( pp 299 – 312). Oxford University Press.
Zimmerman, B. (2002).Becoming Learner: Self-Regulated Overview. Theory into
Practice, 41 (2), 64 -70. doi:10.1207/s15430421tip4102_2.
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76
Chapter 14
Taking Charge of One’s Health
Stressors and Reponses
Stress is person’s response to events that threaten them. A student can
experience various kinds of deadline from deadline of projects or exam, family problem,
peer pressure to the complex stress such as ever changing environment or terrorist
attack. Even the pleasant events, such as preparing for a party or starting a
sought-after job can produce stress.
In recent years, focus on this issue has been broadened as psychology came to
see stress and coping in broader context. Health Psychology, a newer subfield of
psychology, investigates the psychological factors such as stress of different kind and
in different situation. It also includes coping mechanism, prevention, diagnosis and
treatment.
∙ Muscle Tension
∙ Uncontrolled blood glucose
Stress Effect on the Body
level
∙ Tension-type headache
and migraine headache
∙ Heartburn or acid reflux
∙ Ulcer
∙ Difficulty in breathing
∙ Severe stomach pain
∙ Asthma
∙ Diarrhea
∙ Increased heartrate
∙ Constipation
∙ Stronger contraction of the
heart muscle
∙ Increased respiration rate
∙ Dilated blood vessel in the
∙ Elevated blood pressure
arms and legs
∙ Heart attack
∙ Stroke
∙ Inflammation of the
respiratory system
∙ Elevated epinephrine and
cortisol hormones
∙ Affects testosterone production
∙ Sperm production
∙ Erectile dysfunction
∙ Absent or irregular menstrual
cycle
∙ Difficult premenstrual
symptoms
Stress and Filipinos: The Social and Cultural Dimension of Stress
Stress is the non-specific response of the body to any demand placed upon it (Selye,
1926).Stress is an individual’s physiological and/or psychological reaction to the real
and imagined demands of life. It is the way a person reacts physically and emotionally
to change. On the other hand,
77
culture is best defined as a highly complex, continually changing system of meaning that
is learned, shared, transmitted and altered from one generation to another (Triandis,
1995). How does culture might influence environmental system, personal system,
transitory conditions, cognitive appraisal and coping skills, and health and well-being?
Stress has turned into an unavoidable truth, and for a few, the day by day standard.
However, incidental stress can help enhance our concentration and execution, living
with incessant stress can reverse discharge by causing uneasiness, discouragement,
and serious medical issues.Stress affects the body’s immune system. Filipinos
experience stress and results to illnesses, physical and mental, fleeting and serious
and life-threatening. This can also lead to depression and other maladaptive behavior
that can be harmful to self and others. On the other hand,stress can be mediated
through culture. For instance, Filipinos have various threshold and ways to cope with
stressors. Concurrently, men and women express emotion in different patterns. Women
deal with stressful situation through tiis (endurance)and kimkim (repression). Men are
less expressive than women and prone to confront “political economy of stress “(Tan,
2006). Thus, culture influences how people react to stressors.
Required Reading/s:
Tan, M. (2008).Stress and the Filipino. Retrieved from
http://pcij.org/stories/stress-and-the- filipino/
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80
81
82
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Taking Care of the Self: The Need for Self Care and Compassion
Self-compassion is composed of three main components: (1) self-kindness, (2) a sense
of
common humanity and (3) mindfulness. Self-compassion is not self-pity,
self-indulgence and self- esteem (Neff, 2003).
Main Components of Self-compassion
Self-kindness
∙ Being warm and
understanding
when
she/he suffer, fail or feel
inadequate rather than
self- critical
∙ Recognizing imperfection
and
consider
life
difficulties as inevitable
∙ Acknowledging problems
and shortcomings without
judgment
∙ Tendency to be gentle
when
confronted with
painful experience
Common Humanity
∙ Suffering and
individual
deficiency is part of
human existence
Mindfulness
∙Nonjudgmental, receptive
mind-state in which
thoughts and feeling are
observed
∙Equilibrated
stance
in terms negative
emotions
,feelings are
neither
suppressed or
exaggerated
∙Inadequacies are ignored
or distorted
Benefits of Self-compassion
1. Self-compassion enhances motivation.
2. Self-compassion promotes health-related behaviors.
3. Self-compassion benefits interpersonal relationships.
4. Self-compassion predicts happiness and optimism.
5. Self-compassion enhances well-being.
Required Reading/s:
Neff, K. (2012). The science of self Compassion. In Germer & Siegel (Eds.),
Compassion and
wellness in psychotherapy. NY, Guilford Press. 79 –
92.Retreived from http://self- compassion.org/the-research
86
87
88
89
90
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