INTRODUCTION TO PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Personal development is the process of improving oneself by knowing who you are. By
developing oneself, it opens you to new discoveries and new growth. In contrast to human
development which primarily deals with physical (growth of the body and the brain, motor and
sensory skills, and even physical health), mental or cognitive (capacity of a person to learn, to
speak, to understand, to reason, and to create) and psychosocial (our social interactions with
other people, our emotions, attitudes, self-identity, personality, beliefs, and values), personal
development involves self awareness that includes thoughts, feelings and behaviour. A person has
to consciously and continuously work toward his personal growth and reach his full potential.
As you improve yourself, you will be able to develop qualities, attitudes, and values that will
make you a better person, resulting in knowing who we are, what we are, and who we will be.

Personal Development and Personality Development

There is a fine line differentiating personality and personal development. Personality is a set
emotional qualities, ways of behaving, etc., that makes a person different from other people.
These are also the attractive qualities that makes a person interesting or pleasant to be with. On
the other hand, Personal means to belonging or relating to a particular person.

Personality Development includes image enhancement, such as skin care and make-up,
fashion and clothing, and even body contouring, modeling and beauty pageants while Personal
Development may be defined as a process in which persons reflect upon themselves, understand
who they are, accept what they discover about themselves, and learn (or unlearn) new sets of
values, attitudes, behavior, and thinking skills to reach their fullest potential as human beings.

Psychology and Personal Development

Psychology and Personal Development are related to each other. Psychology is the study of
human thinking and behavior, and serves as the foundation of Personal Development. The school
of thought that gave birth to the modern-day understanding of personal development is through
Positive and Humanistic Psychology that believes in the human capacity for improvement and
goodness.

Proponents of Humanistic Psychology

1. Abraham Maslow - Five Stages of Human Development (Hierarchy of Needs)

2. Carl Rogers - Humanistic Approach - “The individual has within himself the capacity and the
tendency, latent if not evident, to move forward toward maturity.”
3. Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - refocused the emphasis of psychology from
diseases toward what is good and positive about human persons and their desire to achieve
their full potential - Positive Psychology. Positive Psychology believed that human nature is

Reference: Personal Development (Ricardo Rubio Santos)

 basically good and added that it has both positive and negative aspects, that it has strengths
and weaknesses.

Personal Development in Adolescence

Adolescence is the transition period between childhood and early childhood. It starts of with
the biological changes called puberty wherein the physical body experiences growth spurts
leading toward physical maturity. It is widely believed to be between ages 11 or 12, and lasting to
about 18 years of age.
In the Philippine context, there are three stages of adolescence:
1. Early Adolescence - 10 to 13 years of age
2. Middle Adolescence - 14 to 16 years of age
3. Late Adolescence - 17 to 20 years of age
Adolescence is a time when young people start to ask questions about
themselves, about their future, his or her identity and their beliefs.

KNOWING YOURSELF

The “self” is the essence of a person: his thoughts, feelings and actions, experiences,
beliefs, values, principles, and relationships. It includes the person’s purpose, meaning,
and aspiration. It is the cognitive and affective representation of a person and so it is
defined in terms of human characteristics such as behavior and thought.
According to Socrates, the most important thing to pursue is self-knowledge and
admitting one’s ignorance is the beginning of true knowledge. Plato, his student, shares
this idea.
In philosophy, “self” is the “being” – the source of a person’s consciousness. It is the
intangible agent responsible for a person’s thoughts and actions.
The “self” can be defined through personality as it is a set of characteristics
(behavior, emotions/feelings, thoughts, and motives) that identifies an individual.
Personality is the embodiment of one’s physical, psychological, cognitive, affective, and
spiritual self.

Personality

Personality is a set of characteristics that is unique and prevalent. The traits

that make up the person needs to be prevalent or enduring for it to be called a
personality trait. However, despite the trait being consistent it does not mean all
the time. A person who is perceived as friendly, at any given time, may not show
signs of friendliness.
Personality is generally given a definition of “the unique and relatively
enduring traits of behaviors, feelings, thoughts, and motives that characterize an
individual”.
According to Gordon Allport, personality is a “pattern of habits, attitudes,
and traits, that determine an individual’s characteristics, behavior, and traits.”

Nature, Nurture and Personality

Personality can be influenced by both nature and nurture. There is no single

gene that creates a trait. It is always a complex combination of genes,
environmental exposure and experiences, and cultural backgrounds.

Trait Theories

An approach in identifying types of personalities based on certain traits or attributes,

which vary from one person to the other. Costa and McRae (1992) developed a
categorized scheme that described personality. According to their work, these categories
are widely agreed upon and are universal, meaning they can be used to categorize
personality regardless of a person’s nationality.

Reference: Personal Development (Ricardo Rubio Santos)

 Five (5) universal traits:
O - Openness to experience – curiosity, interest, imagination, and creativity
to new ideas
C - Conscientiousness – planning, organizing, hard-working, controlling,
persevering, and punctuality
E - Extraversion – sociable, talkative, active, outgoing, and fun-loving
A - Agreeableness – friendly, warm, trusting, generous and kind-hearted
N - Neuroticism – calm, relaxed, and comfortable

Measuring Personality

Reasons why we measure personality:

1. For better understanding of oneself (thoughts, feelings, characteristics,
limitations, etc.)
2. For better understanding of others
3. To determine what is normal and abnormal
How Personality is measured:
1. Observation – the least reliable
2. Self-report
3. Psychological tests
a. Objective tests
b. Projective tests

There are four preferences of individuals according to the Myers-Briggs Type

Indicator (adapted by www.16personalities.com). As the combinations of preferences
differ, so do the personality of each person. There are a total of 16 combinations.

Extraversion or Introversion (E/I) – how an individual prefers to channel his or

her energy when dealing with people, whether inward (Introversion) or outward
(Extraversion).

Sensing or Intuition (S/N) – how one processes information, whether through

the use of senses (Sensing) or by dealing with ideas (Intuition).

Thinking or Feeling (T/F) – how an individual prefers to make decisions, either

through logic and analysis (Thinking) or through feelings based on values and
beliefs (Feeling).

Judging or Perceiving (J/P) – how a person prefers to manage his or her life,
either by being organized and planning (Judging) or through being flexible in
living (Perceiving).

Reference: Personal Development (Ricardo Rubio Santos)