SPIRITUAL

IDEAL REAL PURPOSE

SUPPORT

PSYCHOLOGICAL
SPIRITUAL
SELF SELF

CULTURES

VALUES
SELF VALUES

CULTURES

POLITICAL
SEXUAL SELF
SELF

FILIPINO
CHARACTERISTICS

SEX GENDER

MAήANA
PRIDE
HABIT

SEXUAL GENDER FILIPINO CRAB

ORIENTATION IDENTITY TIME MENTALITY
 Self is not just the physical entity of the summation of a person’s cells. It is also
the product of how a person has been living his life. The self that was produced from
the different factors can make you unique from others.

If we are going to talk about the physical characteristics of the self, everyone is
the same. Everyone is made up of cells, tissues, organs, organ system and the whole
being but what makes each of us unique is that we are different from each other in
terms of different aspects. We are nothing without the self because self is everything, it
has the capacity to control and ability to understand every situation we face and gives
us chances to develop the different aspects of our life.

The culture we have can affect the self, culture matters to the extent that it is
normal for different experiences to be felt by the individuals in a given society. It is
worth noting here that the perspectives in cultural matters usually provide a new insight
into the psychological processes. The experiences we go through in life are facilitated
by the culture we live in, because culture provides all the experiences we should
experienced. As we go to the deeper meaning of the concept-model of the self, the self
is surrounded by cultures. Cultures can change an individual’s behavior or attitude, it is
an interconnected factor that can lead one’s self into a better or worst situation. Culture
has such a greater influence on an individual’s life contributing majorly to the self
concept of an individual. The influence might either be negative or positive depending
on the type of cuture that one has been brought up in. It is important that individuals
study and appreciate their culture and its contribution in shaping their individual
personalities. Being disconnected from your cultural heritage can lead you to question
who you really are and where you belong . This may cause you to feel lost and isolated.
Connecting with culture can have a positive impact on your sense of belonging and
identity and in turn, on your mental health and overall being.

Values also affects the self because values are the vectors or variables which
influence our behavior. Values are very close our selves. Whle other variables like
attitudes may not be very close to the self concept, our values very often become part
of our self system. Values have been shown to influence our personal behavior, choice
reactions and responses. Honesty, openness, and integrity are some examples values
which become integral parts of one’s self system. Thus, culture and values gives are
one of the things that are responsible to formulate our self, our identity who gives more
supplement to our daily living and to our whole perception as an individual.

The reason why the self is connected to a certain culture is because of the
following identities you need to discover about yourself. The following are the
psychological, spiritual, sexual and the political self. This aspects can bring you to
another decision making and realization that our life is a process of merely giving
justice to the things we wanted and to the things we need to discover. Moreover, there
are lots of factors affecting our self concept like our past experiences, personality traits,
abilities, physical features, values, goals, social roles, our own observations and the
feedback from others.
 One of the aspects of the self is the psychological identity, this aspects gives you
more knowledge about you handle every situation you encounter. The psychological self
gives us information on how we need to adjust the two important things under this
aspect. We are all obliged to give justice and care for our own identity. We are living in
this world full of criticisms and judgments, we are hiding our own identity because we
are afraid, or sometimes we are reaching our limitations because we don’t want to be
judge by the others.

The figure tells us that our ideal self and our real self are under the psychological
self, but before that, how does the culture and values affect the psychological self?
Culture and values made the psychological self more firm to its decision and choices.
The two factors are the one who helps the psychological self to discover, explore and
internalize every decision or choices we’ve made, because without our culture our real
and ideal self is nothing, without the values real and ideal self will be unidentified
matter.

The ideal self answers the question, who I want to be? While the real self
answers, who really am I? Our ideal self is important and essential in guiding and
motivating us to behave in a way that would lead us to be the best version of who we
want to be. The real self and ideal are connected to each other, both identities should
adjust in order for you as a person to grow more. Have ou ever wondered who you
really are, deep down inside? Who really lives and breathes underneath all of the multi-
layers of influence projected onto you over the course of your lifetime; molding you,
shaping you, and potentially slotting you into a definition of you that is not your own.
It’s so easy to fall into trap. You don’t even know that it is happened until one day you
wake up and wander, “who the hell am I?” What do I really want in life? It takes many
of us much longer. Sometimes it takes a life altering event to force us to look in the
mirror and when we finally do, we are often surprised by what we see reflected back.

According to Carl Rogers, he believed that we all own a real self and an ideal
self. The real self of course is what we are intrinsically. It’s the self that feels most true
to what and who we really are; the honest self that leaves us most comfortable in our
skin. It may not be perfect, but it’s the part of us that feels most real, and it’s the one
we need to learn to love the most. On the other hand, ideal self is the self that we think
we want to be, that we strive to be, and that we feel we are expected to be. This self is
born out of influences outside of us. It is the self that holds values absorbed from
others; a culminationof all those things that we think we should be, and that we feel
others think we should be. We want to accommodate those expectations because we
believe we will be more loved and accepted if we do.

What matters the most is you can handle and balance both ideal self and real
self. They must be meet halfways in order for you to handle the situation easy and not
complicated. Real self and ideal self explains that dreaming or expecting to the things
you want is possible if and only if you really know yourself well and you know the real
you.
 The psychological self is connected to our spiritual self simply because they ae
the same aspects who gives explanation to our self-identity. The concept of the spiritual
self is to care the activity we engage in to find and nurture the sense of connection to a
Higher Power and deeper meaning for our lives. Being spiritual person is one of our
culture as a Filipino, it is also a value that our ancestors teaches us, that’s why the
culture and value helps us to develop our spiritual identity. Just as it is essential to
nurture your body with food, it is necessary to nurture your soul with spirit.

There are many spiritual paths and spiritual systems, some of may find that one
particular spiritual pathfeels right and helps us fnd meaning and understanding for life.
Others may find spiritual meaning through an electric blend of different spiritual
traditions. Still others may blaze their own path, regardless of where you find spiritual
meaning, aa certain amount of effort and discipline are necessary for establihingand
maintaining spiritual nurturance.

Spiritual self is one of the most important aspects of self concept, it builds your
connection to our Supreme Being. Under the spiritual self, the purpose and the spiritual
purpose plays a vital role to distinguish and know your self identity.

Purpose, perhaps the biggest question we attempt to answer in life is our

purpose for living. When you have a sense of a higher purpose, the daily events of life
become rich with meaning. When you feel that your life has meaning, you experience a
greater sense of well being and confidence. You also can more easily to let goof blame,
regret, guilt and many of the things that you leave you feeling anxious ad stuck. You
can find your purpose through spiritual processes. Through the spirits you have,
encouraging yourself is just easy, because you are living with a purpose, you are
finding your purpose, your purpose is from Him through spiritual support.

Spiritual support is available in abundnce if you ask for it. The tricky part is
rememberiing to ask (to pray). The giving and receiving support is excellent way to hep
you remember to ask. It also helps you if, after asking for support, you tend not to
allow yourself to receive it. Spiritual support is as important to a balanced life as food is
for the body. When we care for ourselves, we also need to care for our spiritual
aspects, we naturally find a sense of peace and meaning for our lives. That is how
spiritual self affects our self.

The political self, is another part of a whole who gives more substance to self.
The culture and the values has a great contribution to the development of one’s political
self. One of the major aspects of a human being is being engage in political practices,
political issues, and polical manners and values. If we here about political self, some of
us reacts that it is all about politics and laws. But, if we are trying to dig deeper what
political self is, it is the conceptually discrete categories of inner and outer in reality
constantly interact, shape and inform each other. To develop your political you self you
must engage or participate and enjoy your political right with limitations, you must be
an active citizen, loving your country and your neighbor and must inherit the different
characteristics of being a Filipino.
 There are lots Filipino characteristics, others are good and others are not. This
characteristics are the identity of being a true blooded Filipino just like being hospitable,
being respectful to elders, helping your neighbors or bayanihan, etc., but there are
unique characteristics of a Fiipino, we have the crab mentality, pride, filipino time and
manana habit.

Maήana habit is the filipino term for procrastination. It was derived from a longer
Filipino phrase called “Mamaya na” meaning dawdling things, which could have been
done at an earlier time. It is a poor habit of laziness that results in heavier worloads.

Pride, most Filipinos hold on to their pride as if they are more precious than
keeping a good relationship with family and loved ones. When two parties are not in
good terms, they find it so hard to apologize and wait until the other party asks for an
apology first.

Filipino time, this is the most commmon attitude that Filipinos have, an attitude
of arriving late at commitments and another important meetings. They tend to not
observe punctuality altogether.

Crab mentality, this is a toxic trait among Filipinos where one resents the
achievement of another, instead of feeling happy for that person. Just like crabs in a
container, they pull each other down and ruin othr’s reputation rather than bringing up,
resulting to no progress. This characteristics of Filipinos is one of a kind.

Another aspects that contributes to one’s self is the sexual self. Cultures affect
one’s sexual identity or gender orientation as well as the values he/she have. Culture is
one of the most common factor thet is why there are lot of individuals who are
confused to their gender preference. Sexual self concept is defined as an individual’s
evaluation of his or her own sexual feelings and actions. Sexuality is a central aspect of
being human throughout life encompasses sex, geder identities and roles, sexual
orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction.

Under the sexual self is the sex and the gender. Others tell that sex and gender
tare the same but literally it is not. Because sex refers to person’s characterization as
female or male at birth, typically based on the appearance of external genitalia or other
biological characteristics including chromosomes. On the other hand, gender refers to
social characteristics that may be or may not be alined with person’s sex and adopted
by an individual as their gender identity.

Gender is connected to the gender identity of a person, which means it is one’s

concept of being male, female, a blend of both or neither, this is how individuals
perceive themselves and waht they call themselves. One’s gender identity can be the
same or different from thei sex assigned at birth. While sex is connected to the sexual
orientation of a person which refers to our sexual preferences towards males, feales, or
both. It is an inherent or immutable enduring emotiona, romantic, or sexual attraction
to other people. Furthermore, sexual orientation and gender identity are important
parts of who you are. Learning more about gender, sex, gender identity and sexual
orientation can help you understand yourself and the world around you.

Self concept is an overarching idea we have about who we are, physically,

emotionally, mentally, socially and spiritually, and in terms of any other aspects that
make up who we are (Neill, 2005) We form and regulate our self-concept as we grow
based on the knowledge we have about ourselves (psychological self), knowing our
purpose and asking for spiritual support and living with the practices and beliefs of our
religion with the help of Almighty God (spiritual self), giving fair and justice to our
political rights and changing the bad, toxic aand unpleasent characteristics we have so
that we are able to be considered as a good citizen (political self) and lastly, by simply
knowing what is your preferences towards other people and engaging yourself to learn
more about your sexual orientation and/or gender identity (sexual self).

Therefore, the culture and the value has a great impact to our self towards the
different aspect of self concept. We can see that the psychological, spiritual, polical and
sexual self are interconnected to each other.