FILIPINO PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL WORK

Learn the interplay of human behavior and

the environment from a developmental and
ecosystem perspective
Apply human behavior and personality
development concepts and theories in
understanding the Filipino personality- its
uniqueness, similarities to other cultures and
adaptation to changing times
(TOS-NASWEI, CHED- CMO, 2017)
FILIPINO PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL WORK

Understand the essence of behavioral/social

science theories
To critically select and use appropriate human
behavior and social environment theory in the
assessment of client’s situation and in
intervention planning
Be able explain the causes and effects of
social problems on personal and collective
well-being
(TOS-NASWEI, CHED- CMO, 2017)
HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
FOCUSED ON

MAN
SOCIETY

Biopsychosocial/Spiritual Social, cultural, political and

economic forces

Continuous desire to Condition of equilibrium between

live productive, needs and demands imposed
satisfying life upon him by social environment.
MUST BE ESTABLISHED

Inability to satisfy Harsh and difficult social

needs because of: environment

Inability to cope with Personal Inadequacies

problems of living

Impairment of social
functioning  DEVIATION
SOCIAL WORK & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE
Human behavior can be explained adequately by
understanding the biological, physical,
psychological and social factors which influence
such behavior. These forces interact and affect
each other, thus we say that the individual is a
“biopsychosocial” being
(Mendoza, 2008)
BASIC CONCEPTS OF PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
 Origin –”persona”-theatrical masks –
Romans in Greek & Latin drama
 Totality of individual psychic qualities that
includes temperament, traits, one’s mode of
reaction & character.
 Stable & enduring organization of a person’s character,
temperament, intellect, physique which determines his/her
unique adjustment to his/her environment
 Unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits.
 A relatively permanent pattern of traits, dispositions or
characteristics that give some degree of consistency t a
person's behavior (Feist & Feist , 2010)
 TRAITS – a relatively permanent disposition of an
individual, which is inferred from behavior
 Maybe unique, common to some group or shared
by entire specie, but their pattern is different from
each individual
 CHARACTER – relatively permanent acquired qualities
through which people relate themselves to others and
to the world, (Fromm)
 Unique qualitied of an individual that include
attributes such as temperament, physique and
intelligence
(Feist & Feist, 2010)
What is Theory? – it is a set of related assumptions that allows
scientist to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable
hypotheses.

 Assumption - component of a theory that are not proven facts

in the sense that their validity has been absolutely established.
 Result of which continue to build and reshape the original
theory
 It is a set of assumptions
 A single assumption could not serve to integrate several
observations, a requirement of an adequate theory
 It is a set of related assumptions
 Isolated assumption can neither generate meaningful
hypotheses nor posses internal consistency- two criteria of a
useful theory
Social Worker uses theory to help organize and make
sense of the situations we encounter.
Reid and Smith (1989, p 45) suggest:
Scratch any social worker and you will find a
theoretician. Her own theoretical perspectives about
people and practice may be informed by theories in print
( or formal theories) but are put together in her own way
with many modifications and additions growing out of
her own professional and personal experience.
 Thus, theory gives us a framework for interpreting
person/ environment transactions and planning
intervention.
How might theory be of use to social workers?
Social work, like all professions, uses theory to guide practice.
Observation: theory provides guidance on what a social
worker might need to look out for when meeting people who
use services or carers and their families.
Description: theory provides a generally understood and
shared language in which these observations can be organized
and recorded.
Explanation: theory can suggest how different
observations might be linked in a framework that explains
them.
Prediction: theory can indicate what might happen in the
future.
Intervention: theory can provide ideas about what
might bring
about a change in the situation.
 PERSONALITY THEORIES
TYPE AUTHOR Theory
Psychoanalytic Sigmund Freud (1856- Psychodynamic/ Psychoanalytic Theory
Approach 1939)
Social Psychological Carl Jung (1875-1961) Analytical Psychology
Approach
Alfred Adler (1870- 1937) Individual Psychology
Erik Erikson (1902-1994) Psychosocial Theory of Development
(Ego Psychology)
Karen Horney Psychoanalytic Social Theory/
Social Psychoanalysis
Harry Stack Sullivan Interpersonal theory
Erich Fromm Humanistic Psychoanalysis
Biological Approach Hans Eysenck Trait theory
(Trait)
Humanistic Approach Carl Rogers Person-Centered Theory
Abraham Maslow Motivation Theory
Behavioral/Social B.F. Skinner Trait Theory
Learning Approach Albert Bandura Social Learning Theory
John Watson
Cognitive & Moral Jean Piaget Cognitive Theory
Approach Lawrence Kohlberg Moral Development Theory
 THEORIES AND APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY

1. Psychoanalytic– argue that people’s unconscious

minds are largely responsible for important
differences in their behavior styles.
2. Trait– identifies where the person might lie along a
continuum of various personality characteristics. It
viewed personality as the result of internal
characteristics that are genetically based.
3. Biological– point to inherited predispositions and
physiological processes to explain individual
differences in personality
4. Humanistic– identifies personal responsibility and feelings of
self-acceptance as the key causes of differences in
personality. theories emphasize the importance of free will
and individual experience in the development of personality.
5. Behavioral/Social Learning– explains consistent behavior
patterns as the result of conditioning and expectations.
Behavioral theories suggest that personality is a result of
interaction between the individual and the environment.
Behavioral theorists study observable and measurable
behaviors, rejecting theories that take internal thoughts and
feelings into account.
6. Cognitive– looks at differences in the way people process
information to explain differences in behavior.
 CONCEPT OF HUMAN NATURE

 Conscious vs. Unconscious

Determinants
 Biological vs. Social Factors
 Determinism vs. Free Choice
 Pessimism vs. Optimism
 Causality (prior experience) vs.
Teleology (aims and aspirations)
 Uniqueness vs. Similarities
SIGMUND FREUD: PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
 the father of psychoanalysis
 a physiologist, medical
doctor, psychologist and
influential thinker
 born in Moravia (now Czech
Republic ) but when he was
four years old his family
moved to Vienna where he
was to live and work until the
last years of his life.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/freu (1856-1939)
d/#H1
Psychodynamic Theory Key Concepts:

Concerned primarily with internal

psychological processes
Early childhood experiences is significant
Unconscious motivation
Presence of ego (rationality) and superego
(morality)
Use of defense mechanism
 PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY

 Refers to a wide group of theories that emphasize

the overriding influence of instinctive drive and
forces, and the importance of developmental
experiences in shaping personality
 Dynamic - The interplay of the forces in the mind,
forces acting in unison or in opposition and
finding expression in a form representing a
compromise of the participating elements.
 What makes Freud theory interesting and
controversial?
 Twin cornerstone of psychoanalysis: sex and
aggression
 Theory spread beyond Vienna through
ardent followers, romanticizing him as nearly
mythological and lonely hero
 His command of language enabled him to
present his theories in stimulating and
exciting manner
 Freud’s understanding of human personality was
based on:
 his experience with patients,
 his analysis of his own dreams and
 his vast readings in the various sciences and
humanities
 According to him, theory followed
observation, and his concept of personality
underwent constant revision during the last 50
years of his life
 Freud insist that psychoanalysis could not be
subjected to eclecticism and disciples who
deviated from his basic idea found
themselves personally and professionally
ostracized by Freud
FREUD’S BIOGRAPHY AND HIS
PERSONALITY THEORY
 First-born among his parents, although his father has
two grown sons from previous marriage, and had seven
other siblings
 Did not have close relationship with any of his
younger siblings
 He was his mother’s favorite, and enjoyed a
 warm, indulgent relationship with his mother
 Lead him to observe that mother/son relationship
was the most perfect, the most free from
ambivalence of all human relationships
 The birth of his younger brother
Julius made a significant impact
in his psychic development
 He was filled with hostility and
harbored an unconscious
wish for his brother’s death

 When Julius died at 6 months of

age, Freud was left with feelings
of guilt at having caused his
death

 When he reached middle aged, he began to understand

that his wish did not actually caused his brother’s death and
that children often have a death wish for a younger sibling

 This discovery purged him of the guilt he carried into

adulthood and by his own analysis, contributed in his later
psychic development
 He was drawn into medicine for his intense
curiosity about human nature
 Entered Vienna Medical School, with no intention
to practice medicine but to teach and do
research in physiology
 He worked in Vienna General Hospital and
became familiar with medicine, psychiatry and
nervous diseases
 Received a traveling grant from University of
Vienna and studied in Paris under French
neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, from whom he
learned the hypnotic technique for treating
hysteria
 HYSTERIA - a disorder typically characterized
by paralysis or improper functioning of a
certain part of the body, and through
hypnosis
 Freud was convinced of psychogenic and sexual
origin of hysterical symptoms.
 He developed a close professional and personal
friendship with Josef Breuer, well known Viennese
physician who taught him about catharsis
 Catharsis – the process of removing hysterical
symptoms through “talking them out”.
 Freud, while using catharsis discovered free
association technique, which he soon replaced
hypnosis as his principal therapeutic technique
 Free Association Technique – therapist instructs
the patient verbalize every thought that comes
to mind, no matter how irrelevant or repugnant
it may appear
 Considered as the pioneer forms of
psychodynamic treatment, later became
known as psychoanalysis
 PSYCHOANALYSIS
Key factors:
 The unconscious can affect our
behavior.
 Human personality & abnormality can
develop from childhood.
 You can treat neurotic patients through
talking
 ideas were based on dream
interpretation
 LEVELS OF MENTAL LIFE
 Man are primarily motivated by drives
of which they have little or no
awareness
Divided into two levels: unconscious and
conscious
 Unconscious – contains all the drives,
urges or instincts that are beyond
awareness but nevertheless motivate
most of our words, feelings and actions.
 Preconscious –contains all the elements that are
not conscious but come become conscious either
quite readily or with some difficulty
 Conscious- mental elements in awareness in any given
point in time, the only level of mental life directly
available to us
 PERSONALITY STRUCTURE
 Consists of 3 elements: the Id, Ego and Superego
PERSONALITY STRUCTURE
– PERSONALITY IS CONSISTS OF 3 ELEMENTS: THE ID,
EGO AND SUPEREGO
Processes or Systems of the Mind:
 ID
 origin of personality, most basic, instinctual- beyond
conscious awareness
 satisfaction of, internal and basic drive (hunger, thirst,
drive for sex)
 serves the pleasure principle (avoid pain & seek
pleasure feelings)
demands immediate satisfaction- powered by libido
 Libido (energy that permit life instinct to work; the
motive force of sexual life; the driving force behind
behavior)
ID- subjective/directed – in its wants and
demands
 Operates on 2 processes: reflex and primary
process
 Primary process works to resolve tension
created by the pleasure principle.
 The primary process acts as the id's
mechanism for discharging the tension
created by the pleasure principle.
 Rather than act on dangerous or
unacceptable urges, the id forms a mental
image of a desired object to substitute for an
urge in order to diffuse tension and anxiety.
 This image can take the form of a dream,
hallucination, fantasy, or delusion.
 For example: Hungry = Form mental image
of pizza or a sandwich.
 The experience of this mental image
through the primary process is known as wish
fulfillment.
 The primary process has no way to distinguish
between the fantasy image and reality, it can
be used to temporarily reduce tension, such
that it is only effective in the short-term.
 2 Basic Categories of Instincts
1) Eros (Life Instinct)- for survival; the energy for preserving
oneself and one’s species (libido)
 sexual instincts, the life instincts are those which deal
with basic survival, pleasure, and reproduction
 Also include thirst, hunger, and pain avoidance
2)Thanatos (death Instinct)- Freud noted that people
who experience traumatic event would often reenact
that experience; people hold an unconscious desire to
die
 aggression, violence, murder, suicide
 “the goal of all life is death.”
 aim of returning living things to their original lifeless
state;
 Ego
 objective, directed
 Manager of personality –
to cope with conflicting
demands of id, superego
& society
 works to satisfy id’s needs
in a socially acceptable
manner.

 Operates according to:

 reality principle (delay gratification of id demands;
allows satisfaction without harmful consequences)
 secondary process (thinking, planning, decision
making, etc.
  Superego
 guided by the moralistic and idealistic principles
 Unrealistic in its demand for perfection
 internal representation of society’s standards & values taught
by parents to child –reinforcement or punishment.

Two Subsystems of Superego

1) Conscience- results from the experiences w/ punishments for
improper behavior; tells what we shouldn’t do;
 Guilt- function of conscience- guilt results when ego acts or
intends to act contrary to moral standard of superego.
2) Ego-ideal -results from experiences with rewards for proper
behavior; tells us what we should do;
 Inferiority feelings stems from ego- ideal
 Feelings of inferiority arise when ego is unable to meet
superego’s standard of perfection.
THREE TYPES OF ANXIETY

1) Reality anxiety - caused by real, objective

sources of danger in the environment (ex.)
2) Moral anxiety – result from guilt/shame-fail
to live up to dictates of superego
3) Neurotic anxiety- fear that instinctual
impulses (id) overpowers ego control/gets
into trouble
 TYPES OF ANXIETY
 Ego reaction to threatening surges of its instincts
is anxiety
 Anxiety- a state of extremely unpleasant
emotional discomfort
 To ward off anxiety ego utilizes: defense
mechanism
 Defense mechanisms - psychological strategies
(mostly unconscious ) for coping with or
regaining control over threatening urges.
 According to Freud, our most overwhelming
experience of anxiety - birth trauma where
feeling of helplessness following birth - the basis
of all subsequent feelings of anxiety.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Functions: protect ego & minimize anxiety &

distress
Largely unconscious -help people achieve
some balance between instinctual drives -
demands of reality.
Assist in coping with reality, in deferring
gratification & in meeting needs in socially
acceptable ways.
Tend to distort or deny reality & operate
unconsciously- person not aware of what is
taking place- often & self-defeating
behaviors.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWpZS0WqMWs
 MOST COMMON TYPES OF DEFENSE MECHANISMS
 Denial – refusal to face unpleasant aspects or reality; refusal to perceive
anxiety-provoking stimuli.
 a person told that their spouse was killed in a motor vehicle accident acts
as if he/ or she is still alive (not consciously lying)
 Rationalization – justifying one’s failure with socially acceptable reasons
instead of the real reason
 Reaction Formation - Over-compensation for fear of the opposite. Two
conflicting parts of self -- one is strengthened while the other is repressed.
 Transforming anxiety producing thoughts into their opposites in
consciousness
 a person will attempt to hide his true feelings or desires by demonstrating
or adopting the exact opposite feelings
 An overly nice and agreeable person may have a lot of repressed hostility
and rage of which they are completely unaware on a conscious level
 A common pattern in Reaction Formation is where the person uses
‘excessive behavior
 Regression - involves a reversion to immature patterns of
behavior.
 Way of alleviating anxiety by withdrawing into behaviors that
have in earlier years.
 a person abandons age-appropriate coping strategies in favor of
earlier, more childlike patterns of behavior. This regression is a
form of retreat, bringing back a time when the person feels safe
and taken care of.
 After the divorce of his parents, a 10-year-old begins wetting
the bed.
 An adult suffering from a mental breakdown may begin to rock
back and forth in the fetal position.
 Repression- process where a threatening thought, memory,
emotion or event are excluded from consciousness.
 Repression involves keeping distressing thoughts and feelings
buried in the unconscious.
 Projection - Attributing own characteristics or
unacceptable thoughts feeling (often persecutory) unto
others.
 e.g. Someone with adulterous feelings might accuse
their partner of infidelity
Introjection (or identification)
 internalization of the characteristics of a loved or
feared individual in order to reduce anxiety, increase
closeness with that individual.
 bolstering self-esteem by forming an imaginary or real
alliance with some person or group.
 Displacement - involves diverting emotional feelings (usually
anger) from their original source to a substitute target.
 It is the expression of some feelings against and object that has
not provoked it. It is used when the real object is perceived as
being too threatening to confront directly
 Sublimation (type of displacement)
 Modification of unacceptable urges into acceptable ones by
changing the object or vehicle of expression.
 Psychic energies are channeled so that it results to valuable/
beneficial contribution to society.
 Fixation– when the prospect of making the next step becomes too
anxiety provoking, resorts to remain at the present, more
comfortable physiological stage
 Oral fixation: derives pleasure from eating, smoking talking
 Anal fixation: obsessed with neatness and orderliness
 FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF
DEVELOPMENT
 every child goes through a
sequence of developmental
stages ;
 the child’s experiences during
these stages determine adult
personality characteristics.

 that every person’s personality is established by the age of FIVE

(5)
 In order to make smooth transition from one stage to the next,
the child must not be overgratified or undergratified because it
can lead to either fixation or regression.
STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
STAGES APPROX. EROTIC FOCUS KEY TASKS
AGES AND EXPERIENCES
Oral 0–1 Mouth (sucking, biting) Weaning (from breast or
Fixation-oral receptive & oral bottle)
aggressive types
Anal 1–3 Anus Toilet training
(expelling or retaining feces)
Fixation- anal retentive & anal
expulsive types

Phallic 3–6 Genitals (masturbating) Identifying with adult role

Fixation- Oedipus complex(male) models; coping with oedipal
Electra complex (female) crisis

Latency 6 – 12 None Expanding social contacts

(Sexually repressed)
Genital Puberty Genitals Establishing intimate
onward (being sexually intimate) relationships; contributing to
Fixation- immaturity, sexual society through working
deviation & neurosis
http://career.iresearchnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Eriksons-Theory-of-Development.gif
ERIK ERIKSON’S
THEORY OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

(EGO PSYCHOLOGY)
Erik Erikson (1902 – 1994) was a Danish – German –
American Development psychologist and psychoanalyst.
He is best known among psychologist.
His theory places emphasis on social influences.
According to him children are active, adaptive explorers.
Assumes that human beings are basically rational
creatures whose thoughts, feelings and actions are largely
controlled by the ego.
Epigenetic Principle- development proceeds by stages.
Age stage is not passed through and then left behind.
 THREE INTERRELATED ASPECTS OF THE EGO

 Body ego- refers to one’s experience with his or

her own body. This refers to the physical state
such as being sickly, healthy, abused, battered,
etc.

http://www.nyx.net/~ewilli/schoop.jpg
 THREE INTERRELATED ASPECTS OF THE EGO

 Ego ideal- represents the image we have of

ourselves as compared with an established
ideal, such as role models or anyone that a
person sets for himself of herself is based on
how well the ego ideal is doing.

http://www.thesuccessfulparent.com/cache/com_zoo/images/photodun
e-5063700-superhero-kid-s_39bd9b7fb4c0029de4de58fd0cbc4e45.jpg
 THREE INTERRELATED ASPECTS OF THE EGO

 Ego identity is the image we have of ourselves

in a variety of social roles.

http://josefchladek.com/media/Content/book_Image/image/5879
/scalex/254;_hisashi_murayama_ego-identity_back.jpg
 REFERENCES
 Wilma C. Abig, RSW, MSSW. ( 2018 ). The Filipino Personality and Social Work.
PowerPoint presentation
 Tria, G., & Limpingco, D. (2016 ). Personality, 4th ed. Morato Ave., QS, Philippines:
Pantas Publishing Inc.
THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS!

Prepared by: Ms. Ma. Catherine A. Bacor, RSW