UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Prelim – Final

COURSE CODE: GE1

COURSE TITLE: Understanding the Self

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the course, the students will be able to:
• know more about themselves by answering the guide questions;
• answer the “Who am I?” question;
• know the philosophers who tried to explain the meaning of human life;
• relate their own self-concept to that of the philosophers’;
• explain the different theories of personality;
• identify the structures of mind and personality;
• compare the three systems of personality;
• give example of the unconscious and conscious part of human mind;
• define anxiety;
• differentiate the three kinds of anxiety;
• enumerate the ego defense mechanisms commonly used by people;
• discuss the hierarchy of needs;
• classify different personalities using The Big Five;
• discuss the typical problems in developing a personality;
• distinguish abnormal behaviour from normal behaviour;
• discuss the different personality disorders;
• define mood disorder;
• enumerate the causes of depression;
• discuss schizophrenia as a mental problem;
• explain the different theories of motivation;
• enumerate the physiological determinants of hunger;
• identify the factors that contribute to overeating and obesity;
• discuss the eating disorders;
• explain the sexual behaviour of human being;
• enumerate the sexual disorders;
• define sexual dysfunction;
• define sexually transmitted disease;
• enumerate the sexually transmitted diseases;
• identify the natural and artificial methods of contraception;
• define digital self;
• determine the positive and negative impacts of online interactions on the self;
• explain the extended self in a digital world;
• enumerate how to set boundaries to their online self;
• define the material/economic self;
• define stress;
• differentiate eustress from distress;
• identify the sources of stress;
• explain how human responses to stress;
• discuss the Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome;
• identify the effective coping strategies for stress;
• enumerate some self-care therapy;
• define health psychology;
• enumerate the variables that affect health and illnesses; and,
• write a detailed information about their selves based from the lessons.

Join the Google classroom for further instructions and online assessments.
Google Classroom Code for
Block A to C: 6k36jal or https://classroom.google.com/c/MzczNzkzMTA1MDE5?cjc=6k36jal
Block D to G: 2isoaet or https://classroom.google.com/c/Mzc4NDUzMjkyNjkz?cjc=2isoaet

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INTRODUCTION:

Before anything else, do the following:

1. Set your cell phone into silent mode;
2. Take a deep breath;
3. Inhale (count 1,2,3);
4. Exhale (count 1,2,3);
5. Repeat 3 and 4 three times.
- Do this whenever you need to focus into something ☺ ☺☺

(READ ME! DO NOT SKIP ☺ ☺ ☺)

Hello students! ☺☺☺ I would like to introduce the subject “Understanding the Self” to you. First,
the purpose of this subject is very obvious from the word itself, with this, we will set a goal that after
passing all your requirements in this subject, YOU should be able to UNDERSTAND YOURSELF.
You might think that this subject is not that important because, it is not a major subject, but then,
you’re wrong. Understanding the Self is your foundation to go on with your life not only in school but, also
all throughout your life. Before anything else in the world, your self is the best spot to start with everything.

To enlighten you the importance of this subject, I want you to answer the following questions briefly:
Activity 1 (Write/type your answer in a separate paper)
1. What are the things (or situations) that make you happy or feel better? __________________
2. What are the things (or situations) that make you feel sad or angry? _____________________
3. What is the thing you want to do but, you can’t do? ___________________________________
4. If you won a lottery, what will you do with the money? _________________________________
5. What is your greatest fear? ______________________________________________________
6. What time are you more productive or energetic? (morning, afternoon, or night time) _________
7. What is your talent that most people know about you? _________________________________
8. What is your hidden talent/skill? __________________________________________________
9. What do you think about yourself? ________________________________________________
10. What do you think other people think about you? _____________________________________
11. Do you prefer being alone or being with other people? _________________________________
12. What is your biggest insecurity in yourself? _________________________________________
13. What is the most important thing to you? ___________________________________________
14. How do you define happiness? ___________________________________________________
15. How do you solve your problems? ________________________________________________
16. Describe the best version of yourself that you want to be? ______________________________
17. What learning or study technique is effective for you? _________________________________
18. Are there any dreams that continue to repeat themselves when you sleep? __________________
19. What makes you choose to enrol the course you’re taking now? _________________________
20. What are the areas in your life that you know you can improve?
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
21. What piece of advice you’d give yourself in the future?
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
22. If you could time travel, where would you go? (Past or future) why?
____________________________________________________________________________
23. What is your priority in life? ______________________________________________________
24. What is your motto in life?
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
25. What is your belief that you think it is different from others?
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
26. What is the hardest problem for you to handle? ______________________________________
27. Do you believe that there is a God who created everything? ____________________________
28. Do you believe in destiny? If so, what do you believe is yours? __________________________
29. What do you think is your purpose in life? ___________________________________________
30. What did you realize after answering the 22 questions? ________________________________
31. Do you know yourself? _________________________________________________________
32. Do you understand yourself? _____________________________________________________
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The questions you just have answered will lead you into knowing more about yourself. Trust me ☺ ☺ ☺
For analysis, fill in the table below. Check if the question is easy or difficult for you to answer and state
why.
Activity 2 (Write/type your answer in a separate paper)
Ques Easy Difficult Why?
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DEFINING THE SELF

The Self from Various Philosophical Perspectives

DISCUSSION: Who am I?

To answer the “Who am I?” question, many philosophers struggled to understand the meaning of
human life. Here are some of their views that have influenced the way we look at our lives today:

1. SOCRATES
a. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Unexamined Life
➢ It is a life that is no better off than animal life.
Examined Life
➢ It is a life that is duty bound to develop self-knowledge and a self-dignified with values and
integrity.
➢ Living a good life means having the wisdom to distinguish what is right from wrong.
b. “I know that I do not know.”
➢ Only in recognition of one’s ignorance that a person can truly know oneself.

2. PLATO
Psyche – core of the self and it is composed of three elements.
a. Appetitive – includes one’s desires, pleasure, physical satisfactions, comforts, etc.
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 b. Spirited – the part of the psyche that is excited when given challenges, or fights back when
agitated, or fights for justice when unjust practices are evident. This is the hot-blooded part of
the psyche.
c. Mind (nous) – according to Plato, this is the most superior of all elements. Nous means the
conscious awareness of the self. It is the superpower that controls the affairs of the self. It
decides, analyses, thinks ahead, proposes what is best, and rationally controls both the
appetitive and spirited elements of the psyche.

3. ST. AUGUSTINE
➢ A man’s end goal is happiness – only in God can man attain true and eternal happiness.

4. RENE DESCARTES
➢ Methodic Doubt – we cannot really rely on our senses because our sense perceptions can
often deceive us. Everything must be subjected to doubt. There will never be certain in
this world as long as it passes our senses.
➢ “Cogito, ergo Sum.” – “I think therefore I am” or “I doubt therefore I exist” – only after
certitude of the “doubting I” can all other existence (e.g. God, the universe, things, events,
etc.) become certain.
5. JOHN LOCKE
➢ Self is comparable to an empty space where every day experiences contribute to the pile
of knowledge that is put forth on that empty space. Experience, therefore, is an important
requirement in order to have sense data which, through the process of reflection and
analysis, eventually becomes sense perception.

6. DAVID HUME
➢ Hume agreed that all ideas are derived from impressions.
➢ All we know about ourselves are just bundles of temporary impressions.
➢ He claimed that “there is no self.”

7. IMMANUEL KANT
➢ The self is not in the body, it is outside the body and even outside the qualities of the body
– meaning transcendent.
➢ We need not reject our ideas, unlike Hume, no matter how temporary and non-persistent
they are because there is unity in ideas.

8. SIGMUND FREUD
➢ He regarded the self as “I” that ordinarily constitute both the mental and physical actions.
➢ “I” is a product of multiple interacting processes, systems and schemes.
➢ Topographical Model – the individual person may both know and do not know certain
things at the same time.
➢ Structural Model – ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO, where the id is the primitive or instinctive
component, ego is a part of id that has been modified by the direct influence of the external
world, and lastly the superego synthesizes the morals, values, and systems in society in
order to function as the control outpost of the instinctive desired of the id.

9. GILBERT RYLE
➢ The mind is never separate from the body.
➢ We will only be able to understand the self, based from the external manifestation, such
as behaviors, expressions, language, desires and the like.
➢ “I act therefore I am” or “You are what you do”.

10. PAUL AND PATRICIA CHURCHLAND

➢ Eliminative Materialism – brings forth neuroscience into understanding the self, using
neurobiology (MRI or CT scan).

11. MAURICE MERLEU-PONTY

➢ Phenomenology of Perception – our perceptions are caused by the intricate experiences
of the self, and processed intellectually while distinguishing truthful perceptions from
illusory.

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Activity 3 (Write/type your answer in a separate paper)
Choose 3 among the philosophers whom you can relate your self-concept to their philosophy and
explain briefly, how?

Next to philosophy about self is the theories of personality. These theories would explain to you
some of your traits and how you became who you are now as we go through.

Personality and Personality Development:

Essentials to Understanding Behaviour

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

1. Psychoanalytic Approaches to personality – according to psychoanalysts, our behaviour is

triggered largely by powerful forces within our personalities of which we are not aware. These
hidden forces, shaped by childhood experiences, play an important role in energizing and
directing our everyday behaviour.

a. Structure of mind – by Sigmund Freud

Conscious – the first level of awareness. It consists of thoughts, feelings, and actions of
which people are aware. Example is drinking water because you feel thirsty.

Preconscious – the second level of awareness. It consists of mental activities of which people
can become aware if they closely attend to them. Example is the memory of your first kiss,
you are not thinking of it all the time but, if it is asked, you are able to remember it, so thus
with what you eat during breakfast.

Unconscious – the third level of awareness. It consists of the mental activities beneath
people’s normal awareness. Most bad or traumatic memories are pushed into this part of our
mind. Example are the memories of being abused during childhood and you cannot remember
it.
- To Freud, the mind is like an iceberg. Only a small portion, the conscious level is apparent,
while the vast mass of the unconscious lurks beneath the surface.

b. Structure of Personality: ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO (by Sigmund Freud)

ID – the primitive, unconscious part of the personality that houses the basic drives. It is the
source of a person’s instinctual energy, which is either sexual or aggressive. It works through
the pleasure principle; that is, it tries to maximize immediate gratification through the
satisfaction of raw impulses. It is the only part of the personality present at birth.

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 SUPEREGO – it serves as the mind’s “police force” in charge of values and morals learned
from parents and from society. It corresponds roughly to our common notion of conscience. It
is the inner voice of “should” and “should nots”. It also includes the ego ideal, an individual’s
view of the kind of person he or she should strive to become.

EGO – the conscious and rational aspect of our minds that resolves the conflict between ID
and SUPEREGO. The ego must choose actions that gratifies the id’s impulse but without
violating one’s moral principles or incurring undesirable consequences; that is according to
reality.
Comparison of Freud’s Three Systems of Personality
ID EGO SUPEREGO

Represents biological Represents psychological Represents societal aspect

aspect aspect

Unconscious Conscious and preconscious Conscious, preconscious,

and unconscious

Pleasure Reality Morality

Seek pleasure and avoid Adapt to reality; know true Represent right and wrong
pain and false

Immediate gratification Safety and compromise Perfection

Unconsciousness:
1. Dreams
2. Slips of the tongue and forgetting a familiar name.
3. Posthypnotic suggestions
4. Material derived from free association techniques
5. Material derived from projective techniques
6. The symbolic contents of psychotic symptoms

Consciousness
- A person who is conscious is aware of the environment. However, consciousness also refers to
inner awareness (knowledge of your own thoughts, feelings, and memories).

Cycles of Everyday Consciousness

Morning person – an individual whose peak of alertness is as soon as he is awaken. This person may
experience a period of mental lethargy in the afternoon, this low point of wakefulness is regained when
the individual rest or take a siesta. Alertness increases for a time and fade again in the evening.

Night person – alertness is at its peak in the evening.

1. Daydreaming – mild form of consciousness alteration wherein attention is shifted away from the
external situation to focus internally on memories, expectations, and desires.
2. Fantasy – one form of daydreaming. Imagining unrealistic, unlikely, or impossible experiences.

Circadian Rhythms – bodily patterns that repeat approximately every 24 hours. The normal circadian
rhythms can be disrupted by air travel, mixed shift work, and other disturbances in your sleep-wake habits.

A. The Main Events of Sleep

Rapid eye movements (REM) – about 90 minutes during the sleep at night beneath our closed eyelids.
The indicator of the mental activity we call dreaming.

Sleep paralysis – other voluntary muscles are immobile or paralyzed to keep us from acting out our
dreams.

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Non-REM (NREM) – the interim periods, without rapid eye movements. Sleep walking and sleep talking
occur during this period.

The Sleep Cycle

Stage 1 – light sleep, you drift in and out of sleep and you are easy to wake up
Stage 2 – still in light sleep but the body is preparing for deep sleep and the heart rate slows down
Stage 3 – deep sleep and extremely slow brain waves, hard to wake up
Stage 4 – deep sleep guiding to 5th stage
Stage 5 – REM sleep

REM rebound – spending much more time in REM sleep than usual because of its deprived substantial
part from the other night

Function of Sleep – to conserve and restore energy and to help the brain flush out the day’s
accumulation of unwanted and useless information

Function of Dreams – to guard sleep (by disguising disruptive thoughts with symbols) and to serve as
source of wish fulfilment
➢ Freud believed that interpreting dreams can help people to understand themselves better, and so
dream analysis has become a central feature of psychoanalytic therapy.
➢ According to him, dreams operate on two levels of meaning:
a. Manifest content – refers to the dream’s superficial meaning: the story line of the
dream. This is just the disguise for the latent content.
b. Latent content – the dream’s real, but hidden meaning.

Sleep Disorders
➢ Serious problems that can interfere with careers and even shorten life.

1. Insomnia – it is experienced by people who are dissatisfied with the amount of sleep they get. It’s
symptoms are chronic inability to fall asleep quickly, frequent arousal during sleep, or early-
morning awakening. Insomnia is common among adults. It is a complex disorder caused by a
variety of psychological, environmental, and biological factors.

Subjective Insomnia – a case where a person complains of insomnia actually show completely
normal sleep patterns, some people on the other hand, who show insomnia-like sleep
disturbances report no complaints of insomnia.

2. Sleep apnea – this involves problems in the upper respiratory tract that interferes with breathing
during sleep and frequently produces heroic snoring levels.

3. Narcolepsy – one of the most unusual sleep disorders, produces sudden daytime sleep attacks,
often without warning. Anything exciting can trigger a narcoleptic attack.

Cataplexy – a second main symptom of narcolepsy, a sudden loss of muscle control. These
cataplectic episodes may occur just before sleep attack, giving the narcoleptic patient the strange
sensation of being awake and alert but unable to move.

Narcolepsy disorder is a genetic problem based in the brain stem. It has no cure, but there are
now effective treatments that rely on drugs (stimulants).

Daytime sleepiness – it is a common annoyance and an inevitable consequence of not getting

enough normal sleep. It may result from any of the sleep disorders mentioned above. This is not
a disorder.

Other Forms of Consciousness

1. Hypnosis – involves a state of awareness characterized by deep relaxation, heightened

suggestibility, and highly focused attention.
- The person who is hypnotized is in control of the situation. The hypnotist is more
like an experienced guide showing the way.
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 2. Meditation – achieving inner focus on the mental and spiritual self. This produces relaxation and
also reduces anxiety.
3. Hallucinations – experience of distortions in consciousness that cause people to see or hear
things that are not really present.
Illusions – perceptual distortions or misinterpretations of real stimuli that are experienced by most
people under similar conditions.
4. Psychoactive Drug States – using of alcohol, opium, cannabis, mescaline, cocoa, caffeine, and
other drugs to alter their perceptions of reality.
- Psychoactive drugs impair the emotion-based brain mechanisms that usually help
us make good decisions.
- Cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines are attractive because they stimulate the
brain’s “reward centers”.
Anxiety
- It is a state of tension that motivates us to do something.

Three Kinds of Anxiety

1. Reality – fear of danger from the external world (example: the fear you feel when someone is
trying to hurt or kill you)
2. Neurotic Anxiety – the fear that the instincts will get out of hand and cause one to do something
for which one will be punished. (example: feeling afraid that some of the people in your work will
harm or kill you)
3. Moral Anxiety - the fear of one’s own conscience. ( fear that you feel when you go against your
moral values, example: you are against those who commit illicit affairs but, you are falling to
someone who is already married)

Ego Defense Mechanisms – these are unconscious strategies that people use to reduce anxiety by
concealing the source from themselves and others. It prevents the ego from being overwhelmed.

1. REGRESSION – people behave as if they were at an earlier stage of development. (example:

thumb sucking)
2. DENIAL – the person simply refuses to accept or acknowledge an anxiety-producing piece of
information. (Example: a man whose wife died in an accident last month, while on a business trip,
thinks that his wife is still on business trip that’s why she is not at home.)
3. REACTION-FORMATION – over compensation or reversal formation. Doing the opposite of what
you truly desire. (Example: A man who is attracted to his step-mother, will either show too much
care/love to all step-mothers or he will express hatred to all step-mothers.)
4. PROJECTION – unconsciously making another person or circumstances responsible for one’s
unacceptable thought or actions. (Example: A man who is having an affair with other woman
keeps on blaming his wife or girlfriend that she is cheating on him.)
5. DISPLACEMENT – a transfer into another situation of an emotion in a previous situation where
in expression would not have been socially acceptable. (An employee who was reprimanded by
his/her boss during work time went home and released his/her anger by kicking their dog and
shouting to his/her family.)
6. RATIONALIZATION – attributing acceptable motive to thoughts, feelings, or behaviors, which
really have unrecognized motives. (A man who physically abuses his wife justifies his behaviour
by saying that his wife is irresponsible and deserves the beating.)
7. SUBLIMATION – the substitution of unacceptable instinctual drives into socially acceptable
expressions. (A man/woman who feels a great sexual arousal would choose to go out for a walk
or jog than to masturbate and indulge his/her sexual thoughts.)
8. REPRESSION – an involuntary, automatic banishment of unacceptable ideas and impulses into
the unconscious. (A woman cannot remember that she was raped during her childhood but, there
are time when she dreams about a girl being raped.)
9. IDENTIFICATION – the unconscious, wishful adoption (internalization) of the
personality/character, or identity of another individual, generally possessing attributes which the
subject envies or admires. (a child developing the behaviour of his/her parents)
10. COMPENSATION – conscious or conscious attempt to balance a real or imagined deficiency in
one area by developing other personal qualities to hide weakness. (a student who has poor
academic grades excels in extra-curricular activities)
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 11. CONVERSION – unconscious transferring of an emotional problem into a physical symptoms or
outlet. (a students who is afraid or very nervous to present in front of his/her classmates
experiences a feeling of discomfort/pain in his/her stomach.)
12. INTELLECTUALIZATION – the overuse of intellectual concepts and words to avoid effective
experience or expression of feelings. (after their divorce, the woman focused on her career and
she even accepted more responsibilities)
13. FIXATION - the arrest of maturation at an earlier level of psychosexual development. (a child who
is not satisfied with his/her oral needs may develop a smoking and drinking habit)
14. SUBSTITUTION – replacement of unattainable therapy or unacceptable activity into one which is
attainable and acceptable therapy assuring possibility of success. (a student who dreams to join
the NBA became a basketball coach in school.)
15. DISSOCIATION – the unconscious separation of painful feelings and emotions from unacceptable
idea, situation or object. (a man who is unhappy with his career is often caught by his superior
daydreaming during working hours)
16. FANTASY – use of imagination or daydreaming.(Imagining how will you spend your money won
by lottery to avoid thinking about your financial problems)

Developing Personality: Psychosexual Stages of Development

According to Sigmund Freud, personality develops throughout a series of stages during childhood.
The sequence explains how experiences and difficulties during a particular childhood stage may predict
specific sorts of idiosyncrasies in adult personality.

STAGE AGE MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS

Oral Birth to 12-18 Interest in oral gratification from sucking, eating, mouthing, biting
months

Anal 12-18 months to Gratification from expelling and withholding feces, coming to terms with
3 years society’s controls relating to toilet training

Phallic 3 to 5-6 years old Interest in the genitals; coming to terms with oedipal conflict, leading to
identification with same-sex parent

Latency 5-6 years to Sexual concerns largely unimportant

adolescence

Genital Adolescence to Re-emergence of sexual interests and establishment of mature sexual

adulthood relationships

1. Oral stage – in this stage the baby’s mouth is the focal point of pleasure. During this stage, the
child will suck, mouth, and bite anything that will fit into their mouths. This suggests that is the
primary site of a kind of sexual pleasure. If infants were either overly indulged or frustrated in their
search for oral gratification, they might become fixated at this stage. Fixation means that an adult
shows personality traits characteristic of an earlier stage development due to unresolved conflict
during the period.
2. Anal stage – the emphasis is toilet training. Anal region is the major source of pleasure. The child
gets the pleasure from retention and expulsion of feces. If fixation occurs, the adults might show
unusual rigidity, orderliness, punctuality – or extreme disorderliness or sloppiness.
3. Phallic stage – the point of interest is the genitals and the pleasure derived from fondling them.
The children focus their attention to the genitals, the differences between male and female
anatomy become more salient. During this stage, children may experience the following:
a. Oedipus complex – male child begins to develop sexual interest to the mother, starts to see
his father as rival, and harbors wish to kill the father.
b. Electra complex – girls develop sexual interest to her father and sees her mother as rival.
c. Castration anxiety – fear of a boy that his father will cut his penis.
d. Penis envy – girls think that there is missing on their body parts, and that is the penis.
4. Latency stage – children develop physically, but sexual urges are inactive. Sexual urges, fears,
and frustrations are suppressed; much of the children’s energy is channelled into social or
achievement-related activities.
5. Genital stage – this period extends until death. During this stage, the sexuality, fears, and
repressed feelings of earlier stages are once again exhibited. Over the course of this stage, the
adolescent becomes independent and learns to deal with members of the opposite sex in socially
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 and sexually mature ways. Many unresolved conflicts and repressed urges affect behaviour
during this stage.

2. Psychosocial Development Theory- by Erik Erikson

Age/Period Crisis Adequate Resolution Inadequate Resolution
0 to1.5 Years Trust vs. mistrust Basic sense of safety, Insecurity, anxiety
security, ability to rely on
forces outside oneself
2 to 3 years Autonomy vs. self- Perception of self as agent; Feelings of inadequacy
doubt capable of controlling one’s about self-control,
own body and making things control of events
happen
3 to 6 years Initiative vs. guilt Confidence in oneself as Feelings of lack of self-
being able to initiate, create worth
6 years to Competence vs. Adequacy in basic social Lack of self-confidence,
puberty inferiority social and intellectual skills, feelings of failure
acceptance by peers
adolescence Identity vs. role Comfortable sense of self as Sense of self as
confusion a person, both unique and fragmented shifting,
socially accepted unclear sense of self
Early adulthood Intimacy vs. isolation Capacity for closeness and Feeling of aloneness,
commitment to another loneliness, separation;
denial of intimacy needs
Middle Generativity vs. Focus of concern beyond Self-indulgent concerns;
adulthood stagnation oneself, to family, society, lack of future orientation
future generations
Late adulthood Ego-integrity vs. Sense of wholeness; basic Feelings of futility,
despair satisfaction with life disappointment

Stage 1: Trust vs. mistrust

Birth to 12–18 months old
- You’ve probably noticed that your little one’s totally dependent on you for everything: food, warmth,
comfort. Be there for your baby by giving them not only physical care, but also plenty of love —
no need to hold back the cuddles.
- By providing these basic needs, you teach them that they can depend on you. This builds within
them the psychological strength of trust. Feeling secure and safe, your infant will be ready to
experience the world.

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

18 months to 3 years old
- By this stage, your toddler has food preferences. So let them choose their own snacks. Or let
them choose which shirt they want to wear. (Survival tip: Give them two shirts to pick from.) Sure,
there’ll be times when their clothes just don’t match. Grin and bear it because giving them the
space to choose means helping them build their self-esteem.
- Here’s another biggie: Your toddler is ready for toilet training. Learning to control their bodily
functions gives them a feeling of independence or autonomy.
- Children who come through this stage with flying colors will believe in themselves and feel secure
in their abilities. Children who aren’t given the chance to assert themselves (within the limits you
set) will battle with feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt, according to Erikson.

Stage 3: Initiative vs. guilt

3 to 5 years old
- These are the preschool years. As your child interacts socially and plays with others, they learn
that they can take the initiative and control what happens.
- This stage is about much more than just calling the shots. Through both interacting with others
socially and through play, your child develops self-confidence and learns to enjoy having a sense
of purpose.
- However, if parents are controlling or don’t support their child when they make decisions, the child
may not be equipped to take the initiative, may lack ambition, and could be filled with guilt.
Overpowering feelings of guilt can prevent a child from interacting with others and deter their
creativity.

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Stage 4: Industry vs. inferiority
5 to 12 years old
- the child has plenty of teachers and peers. They may start comparing themselves to others. If
they decide that they’re doing well scholastically, on the sports field, at the arts, or socially, your
child will develop feelings of pride and accomplishment. (Watch out: They’ll also be comparing
their family to other families.)
- When the child succeeds, they’ll feel industrious and believe they can set goals — and reach
them. However, if children have repeated negative experiences at home or feel that society is too
demanding, they may develop feelings of inferiority.

Stage 5: Identity vs. confusion

12 to 18 years old
- At this psychosocial development stage, the child faces the challenge of developing a sense of
self. They form their identity by examining their beliefs, goals, and values.
- The questions they face aren’t easy to answer: “Who am I?”, “What do I want to work as?”, “How
do I fit into society?” Throw into all this confusion the question of “What’s happening to my body?”
and you’ll probably remember the turmoil that you felt during adolescence. On their journey to
self, most adolescents will explore different roles and ideas.
- Adolescents who successfully weather this crisis will come away with a strong sense of identity.
They’ll be able to uphold these values despite the challenges that they’ll face in the future.
- But when adolescents don’t search for their identity, they may not develop a strong sense of self
and won’t have a clear picture of their future. The same confusion may reign supreme if you, as
their parent, try to pressure them to conform to your own values and beliefs.

Stage 6: Intimacy vs. isolation

18 to 40 years old
- People with a strong sense of identity are now ready to share their lives with others.
- This is the time to invest in commitment to others. The psychosocial challenge now — according
to Erikson — is to build long-term loving relationships that feel safe.
- When people complete this stage successfully, they come away with safe relationships filled with
commitment and love.
- People who didn’t manage to complete the previous stage successfully and don’t have a strong
sense of identity are generally unable to build committed relationships, according to this theory.
- Lacking the security and warmth of a loving relationship, they’re more likely to
experience loneliness and depression.

Stage 7: Generativity vs. stagnation

40 to 65 years old
- This seventh stage is characterized by a need to give to others. On the home front, this means
raising your children. It can also mean contributing to community charities and events that better
society.
- On the work front, people strive to do well and to be productive. Don’t stress if you can’t find the
time to fit it all in — you may just have to wait awhile till the little people in your house are no
longer quite so demanding.
- People who complete this stage successfully have the satisfaction of knowing that you’re needed.
They feel that they’re contributing to their families and community and work place.
- Without the positive feedback in these areas, though, people may experience stagnation.
Frustrated that they’re unable to raise a family, succeed at work, or contribute to society, they
may feel disconnected. They may not feel motivated to invest in personal growth or in productivity.

Stage 8: Integrity vs. despair

Over 65 years old
- This is the stage of reflection. During late adulthood, when the pace of life slows down, people
look back on their lives to assess what they’ve achieved. People who are proud of what they’ve
done experience genuine satisfaction.
- However, people who didn’t complete the previous stages may have feelings of loss and regret.
If they see their lives as unproductive, they become dissatisfied and depressed.
- Interestingly, this last stage, according to Erikson, is one of flux. People often alternate between
feelings of satisfaction and regret. Looking back on life to get a sense of closure can help to face
death without fear.

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 3. Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious
Jung held that the unconscious anticipates the future and redirects a person’s behaviour. For
example, if a person is using too much defense mechanisms, the unconscious can anticipate problems
and helps the person deal with anxiety rather than distort it.
Collective Unconscious – is a shared stored house of primitive ideas and images in the
unconscious that is inherited from one’s ancestors. These inherited ideas and images are emotionally
charged, rich in meaning and symbolism, and contained in the form of archetypes within a person’s
unconscious. The archetypes of the collective unconscious emerge in art, in religion, and especially in
dreams. Among the archetypal memories are the following:
a. Animus – masculine side of a woman.
- The animus when it is integrated in a healthy female psyche would typically imbue the following
qualities:
1. Good rational and logical ability.
2. Ability for clear non-attached thought.
3. Ability to construct by sustained effort and application.
4. A strong centre.
5. Good external strength in the persona.
6. Bridge to knowledge and creative thought.
7. Problem solving.
- When the animus is displaced or overwhelms the female psyche it may exhibit some of the
following symptoms:
1. Know it all behaviour.
2. Bullying.
3. Sadism.
4. Controlling.
5. Loud.
6. Inability to effectively and meaningfully relate.

b. Anima – feminine side of a man.

- Some typical qualities of the integrated Anima are:
1. Self-soothing, self-nurturing and self-loving.
2. Access to creative inspiration.
3. Strong centre and contained inner life.
4. Capable of empathy.
5. Able to make value judgements beyond the realm of pure rationality.
6. Access to feeling life.
7. Good relatedness.
8. Happy.
- Some typical qualities of the displaced Anima are:
1. Uncontained, constantly seeking external affirmation.
2. Lack of creativity.
3. Moody.
4. Bitchy.
5. Poor relatedness, behaviour in relationships designed to isolate the person from others.
6. Masochistic.
7. Greedy, grasping.
8. Self-centred.

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 c. Persona
- Social mask worn by people in public. There can be various shelves in life from where human
beings collectively pull masks from. It can be your occupation, the religious group you are born in,
your political views, sexual orientation, to name a few. Some examples of persona, or the roles
you play, can be teacher, lawyer, doctor, policeman, mother, father, husband, wife etc.
- The persona can often be crucial to your positive development. As you begin to play a certain
role, your conscious self (the ego, as Jung calls it) begins to identify with it, which can be important
for your personality development.
- A persona provides for some predictability in social relationships. For example, the personas of
doctor and patient, or teacher and student can be useful in knowing what to do and where. A
viable social persona can be necessary for getting along with others, for enhancing
communication, for creating the impression that you wish to present, and for relating with the
surrounding environment as you fill in the roles that the society expects of you. The persona thus
helps an individual to adapt to the external social world.

d. Shadow
- Darker side of the self, representing the destructive and aggressive tendencies that we don’t
want to recognize in our personalities.
- The shadow is an archetype that consists of the sex and life instincts. The shadow exists as part
of the unconscious mind and is composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, instincts,
and shortcomings.
- The shadow forms out of our attempts to adapt to cultural norms and expectations. It is this
archetype that contains all of the things that are unacceptable not only to society, but also to
one's own personal morals and values. It might include things such as envy, greed, prejudice,
hate, and aggression.
- Jung suggested that the shadow can appear in dreams or visions and may take a variety of
forms. It might appear as a snake, a monster, a demon, a dragon, or some other dark, wild, or
exotic figure.

e. Other archetypes gives us the universal concepts of mother, father, birth, death, the
hero, the trickster, God and the self.

4. Carl Rogers and Self Theory

According to Rogers, there are three basic assumptions. These are the following:
a. Behaviour is goal directed and worthwhile.
b. People are innately good, so they will almost always choose adaptive, enhancing, and self-
actualizing behaviors.
c. How people see their world determines how they will behave.
Rogers believed that personal experiences provide an individual with a unique and subjective
internal frame of reference and world-view. He believed that fulfilment is the motivating force of
personality development.

Fulfilment – an inborn tendency directing people towards actualizing their essential nature and thus
attaining their potential.

Structure of Personality by Rogers

a. Self – it is the perception individuals have of themselves and of their relationships to other people
and to various aspects of life.
b. Self-concept – it is how people see their own behaviour and internal characteristics. Individuals
are constantly engaged in the process of fulfilling their potential – of actualizing their true self.
c. Ideal self – it is the self that a person ideally would like to be (such as competent professional, a
successful businessman, or a loving parent).

5. Abraham Maslow and the Healthy Personality

Abraham Maslow argued that there is a need for a theory that describes mental health as something
more than just the absence of illness. He studied people who have healthy personality, well-adjusted,
and accomplishing. He then came up with the self-actualizing personalities.

Self-actualizer – people who are creative, full of good humor, and spontaneous, but at the same time,
accepting of their own limitations and those of others. They are people who feel free to fulfil their potentials.

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 According to Maslow’s theory, a long-unfulfilled “deficiency” need, such as a need for love or
esteem, can produce maladjustment, while freedom from such needs allows the person to pursue
interests that promote growth and fulfilment of one’s potential.

Hierarchy of Needs by Maslow

SELF
ACTUALIZATION
NEEDS
AESTHETIC NEEDS

COGNITIVE NEEDS

ESTEEM NEEDS

BELONGINGNESS NEEDS

SAFETY NEEDS

PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS

1. Physiological needs – food, water, sleep, and sex

2. Safety and Security needs – shelter, money, work, clothes
3. Love and belongingness needs– love, acceptance, affection from the people around
4. Self-esteem needs- appraisal, affirmations, trust, self-confidence
5. Cognitive needs – knowledge
6. Aesthetic needs – peace, beauty, luxury
7. Self-actualization needs – actualization, self-understanding, connection to supreme being (God)

The higher needs in the hierarchy only come into focus when the lower needs in the pyramid are
satisfied. Once an individual has moved upwards to the next level, needs in the lower level will no
longer be prioritized. If a lower set of needs is not being met, the individual temporarily reprioritize
his/her needs by focusing on the unfulfilled needs, but does not permanently regress to the lower
needs.

6. Gestalt Psychology
- a school of thought that looks at the human mind and behavior as a whole. When trying to make
sense of the world around us, Gestalt psychology suggests that we do not simply focus on every
small component. Instead, our minds tend to perceive objects as part of a greater whole and as
elements of more complex systems.
- The whole is different than the sum of its parts.

7. The Big Five by Mcrae & Costa

- Many theorists have agreed that there are five broad trait categories. These are the following:
a. Extraversion – introversion – the extent to which people are social or unsocial, talkative or quiet,
affectionate or reserved.
b. Agreeable-antagonism - the extent to which people are good-natured or irritable, courteous or
rude, flexible or stubborn, lenient or critical.
c. Conscientiousness – undirectedness – the extent to which people are reliable or undependable,
careful or careless, punctual or late, well-organized or disorganized.
d. Neuroticism – stability - the extent to which people are worriers or calm, nervous or at ease,
insecure or secure.

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 e. Openness to experience – the extent to which people are open to experience or closed,
independent or conforming, creative or uncreative, daring or timid.

NORMAL AND ABNORMAL BEHAVIORS

- Normal behaviour is subjective to every societal standards. The definition of normality varies by
person, time, culture, and situation. It is easier to define what is NOT normal than what is normal.

Typical Problems in the Development of Personality

1. The inability to trust oneself and others;
2. Fear of loving and forming close relationships;
3. Low self-esteem;
4. Inability to recognize and express feelings of hostility, anger, rage and hate;
5. Denial of one’s own power as a person;
6. Lack of feelings of autonomy;
7. Inability to fully accept one’s own sexuality and sexual feeling;
8. Difficulty in accepting one’s self as a man or woman; and,
9. Fear of sexuality.
Characteristics of an Abnormal Behavior:
1. Atypical/unusual – it is not common. For example, ear piercing among teenage boys could not be
considered abnormal because it is common nowadays. But, washing one’s hand every few
minutes during the day until they are raw is atypical.
2. Socially unacceptable – to some degree, ideas about what is normal and abnormal vary according
to cultural values, which are constantly changing. Behaviour is abnormal if it is unacceptable to
society in general.
3. Distressing – abnormal behaviour often causes distress to the person or to those around the
person.
4. Maladaptive – behaviour that is self-defeating to the person exhibiting it. It often leads to more
misery and prevents people from making positive changes in their lives. (drug abuse)
5. Distorted cognitions (thoughts) – example, a man with distorted cognition may falsely believe that
people are out to get him.
- In recent years, psychologists have begun to describe behaviour in terms of maladjustment
rather than abnormality.

PERSONALITY DISORDERS:
Cluster A personality disorders – odd and eccentric
Paranoid personality disorder

• Pervasive distrust and suspicion of others and their motives

• Unjustified belief that others are trying to harm or deceive you
• Unjustified suspicion of the loyalty or trustworthiness of others
• Hesitancy to confide in others due to unreasonable fear that others will use the information against
you
• Perception of innocent remarks or nonthreatening situations as personal insults or attacks
• Angry or hostile reaction to perceived slights or insults
• Tendency to hold grudges
• Unjustified, recurrent suspicion that spouse or sexual partner is unfaithful
Schizoid personality disorder

• Lack of interest in social or personal relationships, preferring to be alone

• Limited range of emotional expression
• Inability to take pleasure in most activities
• Inability to pick up normal social cues
• Appearance of being cold or indifferent to others
• Little or no interest in having sex with another person

Schizotypal personality disorder

• Peculiar dress, thinking, beliefs, speech or behavior

• Odd perceptual experiences, such as hearing a voice whisper your name
• Flat emotions or inappropriate emotional responses

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 • Social anxiety and a lack of or discomfort with close relationships
• Indifferent, inappropriate or suspicious response to others
• "Magical thinking" — believing you can influence people and events with your thoughts
• Belief that certain casual incidents or events have hidden messages meant only for you

Cluster B personality disorders – dramatic and erratic

Antisocial personality disorder

• Disregard for others' needs or feelings

• Persistent lying, stealing, using aliases, conning others
• Recurring problems with the law
• Repeated violation of the rights of others
• Aggressive, often violent behavior
• Disregard for the safety of self or others
• Impulsive behavior
• Consistently irresponsible
• Lack of remorse for behavior
Borderline personality disorder

• Impulsive and risky behavior, such as having unsafe sex, gambling or binge eating
• Unstable or fragile self-image
• Unstable and intense relationships
• Up and down moods, often as a reaction to interpersonal stress
• Suicidal behavior or threats of self-injury
• Intense fear of being alone or abandoned
• Ongoing feelings of emptiness
• Frequent, intense displays of anger
• Stress-related paranoia that comes and goes
Histrionic personality disorder

• Constantly seeking attention

• Excessively emotional, dramatic or sexually provocative to gain attention
• Speaks dramatically with strong opinions, but few facts or details to back them up
• Easily influenced by others
• Shallow, rapidly changing emotions
• Excessive concern with physical appearance
• Thinks relationships with others are closer than they really are

Narcissistic personality disorder

• Belief that you're special and more important than others

• Fantasies about power, success and attractiveness
• Failure to recognize others' needs and feelings
• Exaggeration of achievements or talents
• Expectation of constant praise and admiration
• Arrogance
• Unreasonable expectations of favors and advantages, often taking advantage of others
• Envy of others or belief that others envy you

Cluster C personality disorders – anxious and fearful

Avoidant personality disorder

• Too sensitive to criticism or rejection

• Feeling inadequate, inferior or unattractive
• Avoidance of work activities that require interpersonal contact
• Socially inhibited, timid and isolated, avoiding new activities or meeting strangers
• Extreme shyness in social situations and personal relationships
• Fear of disapproval, embarrassment or ridicule

Dependent personality disorder

• Excessive dependence on others and feeling the need to be taken care of

• Submissive or clingy behavior toward others
• Fear of having to provide self-care or fend for yourself if left alone

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 • Lack of self-confidence, requiring excessive advice and reassurance from others to make even
small decisions
• Difficulty starting or doing projects on your own due to lack of self-confidence
• Difficulty disagreeing with others, fearing disapproval
• Tolerance of poor or abusive treatment, even when other options are available
• Urgent need to start a new relationship when a close one has ended

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD)

• Preoccupation with details, orderliness and rules

• Extreme perfectionism, resulting in dysfunction and distress when perfection is not achieved, such
as feeling unable to finish a project because you don't meet your own strict standards
• Desire to be in control of people, tasks and situations, and inability to delegate tasks
• Neglect of friends and enjoyable activities because of excessive commitment to work or a project
• Inability to discard broken or worthless objects
• Rigid and stubborn
• Inflexible about morality, ethics or values
• Tight, miserly control over budgeting and spending money

Anxiety Disorders
- When anxiety occurs without external justification and begins to impede people’s daily functioning.
1. Phobic Disorder – intense, irrational fears of specific objects or situations.
Examples:
a. Claustrophobia- a fear of enclosed places
b. Acrophobia- fear of high places
c. Agoraphobia- fear of open spaces and crowded areas
2. Panic Disorder –panic attacks last from a few seconds to as long as several hours. It is not
triggered by any identifiable stimulus; anxiety suddenly and without warning rises to a peak, and
an individual feels a sense of impending, unavoidable doom.
3. Generalized Anxiety Disorder – people with generalized anxiety disorder experience a long-
term consistent anxiety without knowing why.
4. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder – people are plagued by unwanted thoughts, called obsession,
or feel they must carry out some actions, termed compulsions, against their will.

Somatoform Disorders
- It involves real physical symptoms that are not under voluntary control and for which no apparent
cause exists.
1. Somatic Symptom Disorder – involves a person having a significant focus on
physical symptoms, such as pain, weakness or shortness of breath that results in major distress
and/or problems functioning. The individual has excessive thoughts, feelings and behaviors
relating to the physical symptoms.
2. Illness Anxiety Disorder - is a recent term for what used to be diagnosed as hypochondriasis,
or hypochondria. People diagnosed with IAD strongly believe they have a serious or life-
threatening illness despite having no, or only mild, symptoms. Yet IAD patients’ concerns are to
them very real. Even if they go to doctors and no illnesses are found, they are generally not
reassured and their obsessive worry continues. IAD can also trigger worries in people who do
have a physical illness that they are sicker than they really are. The disorder is not about the
presence or absence of illness, but the psychological reaction.
3. Conversion Disorder - a mental condition in which a person has blindness, paralysis, or other
nervous system (neurologic) symptoms that cannot be explained by medical evaluation.
4. Factitious Disorder - a serious mental disorder in which someone deceives others by appearing
sick, by purposely getting sick or by self-injury. Factitious disorder also can happen when family
members or caregivers falsely present others, such as children, as being ill, injured or impaired.

Dissociative Disorders
- The splitting apart of critical parts of personality that are normally integrated and work together.
- Puzzling disorder
- Involve problems with memory or changes in consciousness of self-identity that fracture the
continuity or wholeness of individual’s personality.
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 1. Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personality) – a person with this disorder displays
characteristics of two or more distinct personalities. It is most often found in women and there is
a very high correlation with sexual and physical abuse in childhood
2. Dissociative Amnesia – a failure or inability to remember past experiences.
a. Dissociative fugue – people take an impulsive, sudden trip, often assuming a new identity
3. Dissociative Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder - This involves an ongoing or episodic
sense of detachment or being outside yourself — observing your actions, feelings, thoughts and
self from a distance as though watching a movie (depersonalization). Other people and things
around you may feel detached and foggy or dreamlike, time may be slowed down or sped up, and
the world may seem unreal (derealization). You may experience depersonalization, derealization
or both. Symptoms, which can be profoundly distressing, may last only a few moments or come
and go over many years.

Mood Disorders
- Severe and persistent disturbances in mood.
Types of Mood Disorder:
1. Depressive – general category of mood disorders in which people on a day-to-day basis show
extreme and persistent sadness, despair, and loss of interest in life’s usual activities.
a. Major Depressive Disorder – feel sad, worthless, changes in sleep and eating patterns
and loss of interest in pleasurable activities.
b. Seasonal Affective Depression – severe depression in fall and winter
c. Dysthymic Disorder – mild but chronic form of depression (5 years and longer)
2. Bipolar Disorder (manic-depressive disorders) – patient’s behaviour vacillates between two
extremes: mania and depression. The manic phase is characterized by rapid speech, inflated self-
esteem, impulsiveness, euphoria, and decreased need for sleep.
Symptoms:
a. spend lavishly
b. drive recklessly
c. destroys property
d. pressured speech
e. flight of ideas
f. inflated sense of self-worth
g. sexual escapades
h. delusional
i. undertake task beyond their abilities
j. mood sinks into depression
Cyclothymic disorder – milder mood swings compare to bipolar
Causes of Depression
1. psychological – anger that turn inward to self
2. behavioural – depends on reinforce
3. cognitive – the way we interpret to the incidents in our life
4. learned helplessness – helplessness behaviour
5. biological – use of drugs
6. genetics
Suicide prevention:
1. Talk about stressors with the person who is at risk. The more thee suicidal individual talks, the
better. Don’t be afraid to talk about suicide; it will not influence your friend or relative to commit
suicide.
2. Help the person who is contemplating suicide to seek out a psychologist, psychiatrist, counsellor,
or parent.
3. Do not keep a contemplated suicide a secret. Do not allow the person to force you to remain quiet
about such confidences. Tell the person’s spouse, parents, guardian, or counsellor.

Schizophrenia
- Considered to be the most devastating, complex, puzzling, and frustrating of all mental disorders.
- People with this disorder lose touch with reality and are often unable to function in a world that
makes no sense to them.

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 - Eugen Blueler coined the term schizophrenia from two Greek words, schizo – split, phrenia –
mind.
- It’s a group of mental disorders characterized by a loss of contact with reality and by deterioration
of social and intellectual functioning.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia
1. Hallucination – sensory perception without stimulus (visual, auditory and olfactory)
2. Delusion – false beliefs which are inappropriate to the person’s background.

Types of Delusion:
a. Erotomatic – you believe that someone is in love with you
b. Somatic – belief that you have a certain illness
c. Jealousy – belief that your partner is having an affair
d. Grandeur – belief of inflated worth, power and identity
e. Persecutory – belief that other people wants to kill you
f. Mixed – combination of two delusion
3. Illusion – there is an stimulus but wrong interpretation
4. Echolalia – repetition of speech of other people
5. Echopraxia – definition of the movement of other people
6. Negativism – doing the opposite of what is being ask to do
7. Catatonia – immobilize body, like a statue
8. Autistic thinking – they believe that they have their own world
9. Associative disturbance – does not know anything, mind is idle and irrational
10. Neglect of physical hygiene

Etiology of Scizophrenia
1. Heredity
2. Prenatal injuries
3. Viral infection

Classifications of Schizophrenia
1. Disorganized – characterized by severely disturbed thought processes. Frequent incoherence,
delusions, and inappropriate affect. Patients may exhibit bizarre emotions, with periods of giggling,
crying, or irritability for no apparent reason.
2. Paranoid – the most difficult type to identify and study, because those suffering from it generally
are able to manage their lives reasonably well. Characterized by hallucinations and delusions of
persecution or grandeur (or both), and sometimes irrational jealousy. They may be alert, intelligent,
and responsive. However, their delusions and hallucinations impair their ability to deal with reality,
and their behaviour is often unpredictable and sometimes hostile.
3. Catatonic – characterized by displays of excited or violent motor activity or stupor. There are two
subtypes of catatonic:
Excited – show excessive activity
Withdrawn – tend to appear stuporous
4. Residual – people who show symptoms attributed to schizophrenia but who remain in touch with
reality. Such patients show inappropriate affect, illogical thinking, or eccentric behaviour. They
lack motivation in day to day living and sometimes does not want to live anymore.
5. Schizoaffective - combination of schizophrenia symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions,
and mood disorder symptoms, such as depression or mania.
6. Undifferentiated – patients who exhibit all of the primary features of schizophrenia but, not fit
neatly into above mentioned classifications of schizophrenia.

MOTIVATION AND EMOTION

Theories of Motivation

1. Instinct Theory – according to this theory, organisms are born with a set of biologically based
behaviour essential for the survival of the species.

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 a. Life instincts – sex
b. Death instincts – aggression or destruction
Fixed-action patterns – defined as unlearned behaviour patterns that occur throughout a species and
are triggered by identifiable stimuli.

2. Drive Theory – this refers to the uncomfortable state of tension that moves an organism to
meet a biological need.
Homeostasis –a balanced condition, the desirable state, which organisms seek.

Incentive – this can be positive and lure us, like food or a sexually attractive person, or they can repel
us and cause us to avoid a painful situation or someone we dislike.

3. Arousal Theory – it is an activation of the central nervous system, the autonomic nervous
system, and the muscles and glands.
Dodson law – suggests that arousal and level of task difficulty are related: one easy task, moderate to
high levels of arousal produce maximum performance; but, on difficult tasks, low levels of arousal yield
better performance.

4. Incentive Theory – external stimuli that trigger motives. This is often learned – as in the case of
money as an incentive for work or other conditioned reinforcers.

5. Expectancy Theories – your motivation is, in part, based on expectancies.

6. Cognitive Theory - it asserts that people are actively and regularly involved in determining their
own goals and the means of achieving them.

7. Extrinsic motivation – the form of rewards come from the external environment.

8. Intrinsic motivation – behaviors engaged in for no apparent reward except the pleasure and
satisfaction of the activity itself.

9. Achievement theory – people engage in behaviors that satisfy their desires for success,
mastery, and fulfilment. Tasks not oriented towards these goals are not motivating and are not
undertaken or performed without energy or commitment.

10. Humanistic theory – an explanation of behaviour that emphasizes the entirety of life rather
than individual components of behaviour.
Hunger – our desire to eat is pushed by our physiological state and pulled by our learned responses to
external stimuli.
Physiological Determinants of Hunger
1. Homeostasis – the body seeks to maintain balance,
2. Glustatic approach – it argues that the physiological cause of hunger is a low blood sugar level,
which accompanies food deprivation and create a chemical imbalance.
3. Ventromedial hypothalamus – is activated to stop an organism from eating when the blood
sugar level is high, or when this part of the hypothalamus is electrically stimulated.
4. Lateral hypothalamus – is activated to drive the organism to start eating when the blood sugar is
low.
THE PHYSICAL AND SEXUAL SELF
Physiological Explanation of Obesity
1. Genetics
2. Early nutrition
3. Current environment
4. Learned habits
Fat cells – these determine the person’s eating behaviour and propensity towards obesity. People born
with many fat cells are more likely to be obese than those born with few fat cells.
Set point - a level of body weight that is maintained by the body.

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Psychological Explanations of Obesity
- The body has great mechanisms to maintain weight gain, and weak mechanisms for shedding
weight gain when it is not needed.
Factors that contribute to overeating:
1. Food is readily and easily available.
2. Our diets are higher in fat than ever before.
3. Most children and adults do not engage in regular, sustained physical activity.
Differences between eating habits of obese and normal-weight people:
1. The obese tends to be oversensitive to food cues when compared to normal-weight individuals.
2. Obese individuals underestimate their food intake.
3. People who have lost weight often must take in fewer calories to maintain their weight that those
who have never been obese.
Eating Disorders
- This are psychological disorders characterized by gross disturbances in eating behaviour and in
the way individuals respond to food.
1. Anorexia nervosa – a starvation disease that is characterized by an obstinate and wilful refusal
to eat. They perceive themselves as fat if they have any flesh on their bones or if they deviate
from their idealized body image.
2. Bulimia Nervosa – an eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging.
3. Binge-eating disorder
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
- is a mental health disorder in which you can't stop thinking about one or more perceived defects or
flaws in your appearance — a flaw that appears minor or can't be seen by others. But you may feel so
embarrassed, ashamed and anxious that you may avoid many social situations
Sexual Behavior - A type of motivation that is not necessary to sustain life. In human beings, sex drive
is to a great extent under psychological control.
Sex hormones - it controls the sexual behaviour of human beings. Sex hormones differ from men and
women.
Testes - are the principal producer of androgens (testosterone), the male sex hormones.
Ovaries
– are the principal producer of estrogens (estradiol), the female sex hormones.
- The release of testosterone and estradiol signals and accelerates the onset of the secondary
sex characteristics in developing teen agers.
Sexual Response Cycle
1. Excitement phase – the first phase of the cycle, during which there are initial increases in heart,
blood pressure, and respiration.
Vasocongestion – engorgement of the blood vessels, particularly in the genital area, due to
increased blood flow.
2. Plateau phase – second phase of the sexual response cycle, during which the sexual partners
are preparing for orgasm. Autonomic nervous system activity, such as heart rate, increases.
3. Orgasm phase – third phase of the sexual response cycle, during in which autonomic nervous
system activity reaches its peak and muscle contractions occur throughout the body, but
especially in the genital area. Orgasm is the peak of the sexual activity.
4. Resolution phase – the body naturally returns to its resting or normal state.
Refractory period - when men are unable to achieve an erection for some amount of time.
Sexual cues - human sexual motivation does not come primarily from the genitals. The brain is the
major human sex organ. What turns you on is what your brain finds sexually arousing, and how you
respond is determined both by your inherited sexual tendencies and what your brain has learned.

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Sexual Disorders/ Paraphilic Disorders
- Having a sexual desire or behaviour that involves another person’s psychological distress,
injury, or death, or a desire for sexual behaviors involving unwilling persons or persons unable
to give legal consent.
Paraphilia Focus of erotic interest
abasiophilia People with impaired mobility
acrotomophilia People with amputations
agalmatophilia Statues, mannequins and immobility
apotemnophilia Having an amputaion
biastophilia Rape of an unconsenting person; consensual rape fantasy
coprophilia feces
dendrophilia Trees
emetophilia vomit
exhibitionism Exposing one’s genital area to others, with or without consent
faunoiphilia Watching animals having sex
fetishism Inanimate objects/ nongenital body parts
formicophilia Being crawled by insects
frotteurism Rubbing against a non-consenting person
gerontophilia Elderly people
hebephilia Teenagers/ early pubescent children
kleptophilia Stealing
lactophilia breastmilk
macrophilia giants
masochism Suffering, being beaten, bound or otherwise humiliated
menophilia menstruation
mucophilia mucos
mysophilia Dirtiness, soiled or decaying things
necrophilia corpses
nymphomania Too much indulgent to sex for women
orgy Multiple partner in sex
pedohilia Prepubescent children
pictophilia Pornography or erotic art, particularly pictures
sadism Inflicting pain on others
satyriasis Too much sex for men
somnophilia Sleeping or unconscious people
Telephone Obscene phone calls, particularly to strangers
scatologia
teratophilia Deformed or monstrous people
transvestism Wearing clothes associated with opposite sex
trichophilia hair
Troilism/triolism cuckoldism
voyeurism Watching others while naked or having sex, generally without
their knowledge
zoophilia animals
zoosadism Inflicting pain on or seeing animals in pain

Sexual dysfunction - refers to a problem occurring during any phase of the sexual response cycle that
prevents the individual or couple from experiencing satisfaction from the sexual activity.

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Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)
- These are infections transmitted from an infected person to an uninfected person through sexual
contact.
- It can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites.
- Infection with certain STDs can increase the risk of getting and transmitting HIV as well as modify
the way the disease develops.
- It can also lead to long-term health problems, usually in women and infants.
Examples of STDs are:
1. Chlamydia
2. Gonorrhoea
3. Syphilis
4. Chancroid
5. Human Papillomavirus
6. Herpes Simplex Virus
7. Trichomonas Vaginalis
Natural Methods of Contraception
1. Abstinence – refraining from sexual intercourse and is the most effective natural birth control
method with ideally 0% fail rate.

2. Calendar method – it is also called as the rhythm method. It entails withholding from coitus during
the days that the woman is fertile.

3. Basal Body Temperature – it indicates the woman’s temperature at rest. Before the day of
ovulation and during ovulation, BBT falls at 0.5 Fahrenheit; it increases to a full degree because
of progesterone and maintains its level throughout the menstrual cycle.

4. Cervical Mucus Method – the change in the cervical mucus during ovulation is the basis for this
method. During ovulation, the cervical mucus is copious, thin, and watery. It can be stretched up
until 1 inch and is slippery.

5. Symptothermal Method – combination of BBT and cervical mucus method.

6. Ovulation detection – using of the over-the-counter kit that requires the urine sample of the woman.
It can predict ovulation through the surge of luteinizing hormone that happens 12 to 24 hours
before ovulation.

7. Coitus Interruptus – one of the oldest methods that prevents conception. The man withdraws the
moment he ejaculates to emit the spermatozoa outside of the female reproductive organ. A
disadvantage of this method is the pre-ejaculation fluid that contains a few spermatozoa that may
cause fertilization.

Artificial Methods of Contraception

1. Oral contraceptives – also known as the pill. It is suggested that the woman takes the first pill on
the first Sunday after the beginning of a menstrual flow, or as soon as it is prescribed by the doctor.
2. Transdermal patch – it contains both estrogen and progesterone. The woman should apply one
patch every week for three weeks on the following areas: upper outer arm, upper torso, abdomen
or buttocks. At the fourth week, no patch is applied because menstrual flow would then occur.
The area where the patch is applied should be clean, dry, and free of irritation.
3. Vaginal ring – it releases a combination of estrogen and progesterone and it surrounds the cervix.
This silicon ring is inserted into the female reproductive organ and remains there for three weeks
and then removed on the fourth week, as menstrual would occur. The woman becomes fertile as
soon as the ring is removed.
4. Subdermal implants – these are two-rod like implants inserted under the skin of the female during
her menses or on the seventh day of her menstruation to make sure that she will not get pregnant.
It can be helpful for three to five years.

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 5. Hormonal injections – it is usually given once every 12 weeks intramuscularly. The injection
causes changes in the endometrium and cervical mucus and can help prevent ovulation.
6. Intrauterine device (IUD)- it is a small T-shaped object containing progesterone that is inserted
into the uterus via the female reproductive organ. The IUD is fitted only by the physician and
inserted after the woman’s menstrual flow. The device can be effective for five to seven years.
7. Chemical barriers – these are spermicides, vaginal gels and creams, and glycerine films ae used
to cause the death of sperms before they can enter the cervix and to lower the pH level of the
female reproductive organ so it will not become conducive for the sperm. It cannot prevent
sexually transmitted infections.
8. Diaphragm – it is a circular, rubber disk that fits the cervix and should be placed before coitus.
Diaphragm works by inhibiting the entrance of the sperm into the female reproductive organ and
it works better when used together with spermicide. It should only be fitted by physician, and
should remain in place for six hours after coitus.
9. Male condoms – a latex or synthetic rubber sheath that is placed on the erect male reproductive
organ before penetration into the female reproductive organ to trap the sperm during ejaculation.
It can prevent Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).
10. Female condoms – made up of latex rubber sheaths that are pre-lubricated with spermicide. They
are usually bound by two rings.
11. Surgical methods – vasectomy , a small incision is made on each side of the scrotum. The vas
deferens is then tied, cauterized, cut, or plugged to block the passage of the sperm.
Tubal ligation is performed after menstruation and before ovulation. The procedure is done
through a small incision under the woman’s umbilicus that targets the fallopian tube for cutting,
cauterizing, or blocking to inhibit the passage of both the sperm and the ova.
THE DIGITAL SELF: SELF AND OTHER IN CYBERSPACE
Online Identity
- The sum of your characteristics and interactions, because you interact differently with each
website you visit, each of those websites will have different picture of who you are and what you
do. Sometimes the different representations of you are referred to as partial identities, because
none of them has the full and true picture of who you are.
Digital self
- The selected character who we want to present and impress to others, what we view beneficial
to our personality.
Impact of Online Interactions on the Self

Positive Negative
Social media sites inform and empower Extensive online engagement is correlated with
individuals to change themselves and their personality and brain disorders like poor social
communities. skills. ADHD, narcissistic tendencies, a need for
instant gratification, and addictive behaviors and
other emotional distress like depression anxiety,
and loneliness.
Increased self-esteem when receiving many likes Low self-esteem due to the risk of being exposed
and shares. to cyber bullying and cyber pornography.
Boost one’s moral and feelings of self-worth. More occupied in giving attention to social media
than in keeping their customs and practices.
Extended Self in a Digital World – Russel W. Belk
1. Dematerialization – things are overtaken by virtual goods
2. Reembodiment – people are disembodied and reembodied as avatars, sharing identity with the
chosen avatar virtually.
3. Sharing – loss of control due to sharing; restrictions are not observed
4. Co-construction of Self – seeking affirmation from social media friends
5. Distributed memory – photos posted in the online world may not be accurate in giving memories
of the past since the photos, blogs, etc. may just be selected representations of happy times
hence, may not be sufficient to tell our stories.
Setting Boundaries to your Online Self
1. Stick to safer sites
2. Guard your passwords
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 3. Be choosy about your online friends
4. Remember that anything you put online or post on a site is there forever, even if you try to delete
it
5. Don’t be mean or embarrass other people online
6. Limit what you share

THE MATERIAL/ECONOMIC SELF

The Material / Economic Self
- The sum total of all that a man can call his. This included his body, family and reputation but also
his “clothes and his house, his lands horses, and yacht and bank account.
1. Social and Business Value – by recognizing a task’s social value, a person sees it as a worthy
investment of time and a part of his/her social duty, and he/she is usually happy to help out. When
money is offered as the motivation, however, people then start thinking less of the social aspect
and more about the business value.
2. Self-Sufficiency and Service – those who are conscious of money typically strive to be more self-
sufficient than those for whom money isn’t a priority.
3. Self-view – the amount one earns could have an effect on how he/she views both himself/herself
and others.
4. Ethics – those who perceive themselves to be in a higher class were the most likely to engage in
unethical behaviour, particularly when a symbol of wealth was introduced.
5. Addiction – a compulsive behaviour not motivated by dependency on an addictive substance, but
rather by a process that leads to a seemingly positive outcome.

Special cases of Extended Self:

1. Collections – a compulsive tendency urges them the increasing desire to collect as much as they
could which gives them a greater feeling of security, and therefore becoming a basis of the sense
of self and identity. “I shop, therefore I am; I have, therefore I am.”
2. Pets as extended self - pets are regarded commonly as representative of self.
3. Body parts – are among the most central parts of the extended self.
Cathexis – involves the charging of an object, activity, or idea with emotional energy by the
individual.

MANAGING AND CARING FOR SELF

Learning to be a Better Learner

LEARNING
➢ A relatively permanent change in behaviour brought about by experience.

Classical Conditioning by Ivan Pavlov

➢ An organism learns to respond to neutral stimulus that normally does not bring about that
response.

Extinction – occurs when a previously conditioned response decreases in frequency and eventually
disappears. It does not mean that the original learning is destroyed, only that the organism, over time,
pays less attention to the stimulus.

Systematic desensitization – to bring about extinction of the phobia.

Spontaneous recovery – the reappearance of a previously extinguished response after time has
elapsed without exposure to the conditioned stimulus.

Stimulus generalization – takes place when a conditioned response follows a stimulus that is similar to
the original conditioned stimulus.

Stimulus discrimination – an organism learns to differentiate among stimuli and restricts the
conditioned response to one stimulus rather than the others.

Higher-Order Conditioning – this occurs when a conditioned stimulus that has been established during
earlier conditioning is then paired repeatedly with a neutral stimulus.
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Operant Conditioning by B.F. Skinner
➢ Describes learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened, depending on its
positive or negative consequences.

Reinforcement – the process by which a stimulus increases the probability that a preceding behaviour
will be repeated.

Reinforcer – any stimulus that increases the probability that a preceding behaviour will occur again.

a. Primary reinforce – satisfies some biological need and works naturally, regardless of a
person’s prior experience
b. Secondary reinforce – a stimulus that becomes reinforcing because of its association with
a primary reinforce

Positive reinforce – a stimulus that brings about an increase in a preceding response.

Negative reinforce – refers to an unpleasant stimulus whose removal from the environment leads to an
increase in the probability that a preceding response will occur again in the future.

Escape learning – an organism learns to make a response that brings about an end to an averse
situation.

Avoidance conditioning – occurs when an organism responds to a signal of an impending unpleasant

event to permit its evasion.

Punishments – refers to unpleasant or painful stimuli that decrease the probability that a preceding
behaviour will occur again.

Schedule of Reinforcement:
1. Continuous reinforcement – this will result to learning rapidly and when reinforcement stops,
extinction also occurs rapidly.
2. Partial reinforcement – desired behaviour may ultimately be learned better than behaviour
that is always reinforced.

Law of Effect by Edward L. Thorndike

➢ States that responses that are satisfying are more likely to be repeated, and those that are not
satisfying are less likely to be repeated.

Shaping – it is the process of teaching a complex behaviour by rewarding closer and closer
approximations of the desired behaviour.

Latent learning – a new behaviour is learned but is not demonstrated until reinforcement is
provided for displaying it.

Observational learning – learning through observing the behaviour of another person called a
model.

4 Steps of Observational Learning

1. Paying attention and perceiving the most critical features of another person’s behaviour.
2. Remembering the behaviour.
3. Reproducing the action; and
4. Being motivated to learn and carry out the behaviour.

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 B. MEMORY
➢ The process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information.
Three Systems of Memory (Memory Storehouse)

1. Sensory memory – refers to the initial, momentary storage of information, lasting only an
instant. Information is recorded by the person’s sensory system as a raw, non meaningful
stimulus.
2. Short-term memory – holds information for 15 to 25 seconds. The information is stored
according to its meaning rather than mere sensory stimulation.
3. Long-term memory – information stored in here are on a relatively permanent basis, although
it may be difficult to retrieve. It has a storehouse of almost unlimited capacity.

The Modules of Memory

1. Declarative memory – memory for factual information: names, faces, dates, and the like.
Includes general knowledge acquired through schooling (semantic memory), and more
personal knowledge such as information about events we personally experienced (episodic
memory).
2. Nondeclarative memory – a memory for skills, habits, and the products of conditioning.
Memory of acquired skills such as how to ride a bike (procedural memory).
3. Explicit memory – this refers to intentional or conscious recollection of information. When
we try to remember a name or date, we are using explicit memory.
4. Implicit memory – refers to memories of which people are not consciously aware, but which
can affect subsequent performance and behaviour (skills and habits).

Repressed Memories – are collections of events that are initially so shocking that the mind responds by
pushing them into the unconsciousness.

Forgetting – when an information stored in a long-term memory cannot be retrieved.

3 Factors on Forgetting

1. Decay – the loss of information through its non-use.

2. Interference – information in memory displaces or blocks out other information, preventing its
recall.
a. Proactive interference/proactive inhibition – a decrease in accurate recall of information
as a result of effects of previously learned or presented information.
b. Retroactive interference/retroactive inhibition – a decrease in accurate recall as a result
of subsequent presentation of different information.
3. Repression – intentionally blocking of information to be recalled because of an embarrassing,
frightening, or unpleasant experiences.

Memory Dysfunctions

1. Alzheimer’s disease – an illness that includes among its symptoms severe memory problems.
2. Amnesia – memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties.
a. Retrograde Amnesia – loss of memory prior to the accident. There is a usual gradual
reappearance of lost memory, although it may take as long as several years for full restoration
to occur. In some cases, some memories are lost forever.
b. Anterograde Amnesia – loss of memory occurs for events following an injury. Information
cannot be transferred from short-term to long-term memory, resulting in the inability to
remember anything other than what was in long-term storage prior to the accident.
3. Korsakoff ’s syndrome – a disease afflicting long-term alcoholics living under an impaired diet
that produces a Vitamin B1 deficiency. A patient displays a strange array of symptoms, including
having hallucinations, repeating questions, even after being told the answer, and repeating the
same story over and over again.

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Improving Your Memory

1. Focus your attention – attention is needed to transfer information from short-term memory
to long-term memory
2. Avoid cramming – study regularly
3. Structure and organize – group the information or make an outline
4. Utilize mnemonic devices – associating terms to common item
5. Elaborate and rehearse – encode or write down the information
6. Visualize concepts – pay attention to photographs
7. Relate new information to already known items
8. Read out loud
9. Pay extra attention to difficult information
10. Vary your study routine – you may change your spot or time
11. Get some sleep

C. INTELLIGENCE AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Intelligence – it is the overall capacity of the individual to act purposely, to think rationally, and to deal
effectively with the environment

Theories of Intelligence

1. MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES by HOWARD GARDNER

TYPE OF INTELLIGENCE EXEMPLAR CORE COMPONENTS

Sensitivity to the sounds, rhythms, and
Linguistic Poet meaning of words; sensitivity to the
different functions of language
Sensitivity to and capacity to discern
Logical-mathematical Scientist logical or numerical patterns; ability to
handle long chains of reasoning
Ability to produce and appreciate rhythm,
Musical Composer pitch, and timbre; appreciation of the
forms of musical expressiveness
Capacity to perceive the visual-spatial
Spatial Navigator world accurately and to perform
transformations on initial perceptions
Ability to control bodily movements and to
Bodily-kinesthetic Dancer/Athlete
handle objects skilfully
Ability to make fine discriminations among
the flora and fauna of the natural world or
Naturalist Botanist/Chef
the patterns and designs of human
artifacts
Capacity to discern and respond
appropriately to the moods,
Interpersonal Therapist/Salesperson
temperaments, motivations, and desires
of other people
Access to one’s own feelings and the
Person with detailed ability to discriminate among them and
Intrapersonal accurate, self- draw on them to guide behaviour;
knowledge knowledge of one’s own strengths,
weaknesses, desires, and intelligence

2. STERNBERG’S TRIARCHIC THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE by ROBERT J. STERNBERG

The essence of intelligence is that it provides a means to govern ourselves so that our thoughts
and actions are organized, coherent, and responsive to both our internally driven needs and to
the needs of the environment

Successful intelligence – an ability to adapt to shape, and select environments to accomplish

one’s goals and the goals of society

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Triarchic Theory of Intelligence has three (3) dimensions:

a. Analytic dimension – deals with an individual’s ability to use intelligence for problem solving
in specific situations where there is one right answer.
b. Practical dimension – addresses a person’s application of experience with the external world
and everyday tasks.
c. Creative dimension – it is the glue that holds the other two sub-theories together. It describes
the mental mechanisms underlying what are commonly considered intelligent behaviours.
This includes a person’s ability to determine the tasks that need to be done, to determine the
order in which the tasks should be undertaken, to analyse their parts, to decide which
information should be processed, and to monitor performance.

3. VIGOTSKY’S VIEW
• Intellectual development as part of a social world that includes communication with the
self and with others.
• The most significant moment in the course of intellectual development occurs when
speech and practical activity, two previously completely independent lines of development,
converge.

4. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE by DANIEL GOLEMAN

• This includes self-awareness, impulse control, persistence, self-motivation, the ability to
recognize emotions in others, and social agility.
• People who develop a high emotional intelligence can better manage difficulties of life,
such as inappropriate aggression, eating disorders, depression, or alcoholism.

Exceptional Individuals
• Refer to people who are gifted as well as those who suffer from learning disabilities,
physical impairments, and mental retardation.

a. Giftedness – they may have superior cognitive, leadership, or performing arts

abilities. Moreover, they require special schooling that goes beyond the ordinary
classroom; their instruction needs to be individualized.
b. Mental retardation – refers to substantial limitations in present functioning, existing
concurrently with related limitations in two or more of the following applicable adaptive
skill areas: communication, self-care, functional academics, leisure, and work. It
manifests before age 18.

Causes of Mental Retardation

1. Biological – this includes genetic abnormalities, infectious diseases, and physical trauma
(including trauma caused by drugs taken by the mother during pregnancy).
2. Environmental – deprived environments especially for those with mild retardation.

Levels of Retardation

1. Mild retardation – (Wechsler IQ score is 55-69). Through special programs, they are able to
acquire academic and occupational skills, but they generally need extra supervision of their work. People
with mild retardation function intellectually at about the level of a 10 years old.

2. Moderate retardation – (Wechsler IQ score of 40-54). Most live in institutions or as dependents

of their families. Some can hold simple jobs, although few are employed. People with moderate mental
retardation are able to speak, write, and interact with friends, but their motor coordination, posture, and
social skills are clumsy. Their intellectual level is equivalent to that of 5-6 years old.

3. Severe retardation – (Wechsler IQ of 25-39). They show great motor, speech, and intellectual
impairment and are almost totally dependent on others to take care of their basic needs. Severe
retardation often results from birth disorders or traumatic injury to the brain.
4. Profound retardation – (Wechsler IQ of below 25). These people are unable to master even
simple tasks and require total supervision and constant care. Their motor and intellectual development
is minimal, and may are physically underdeveloped. Physical deformities and other congenital defects
(such as deafness, blindness, and seizures) often accompany profound mental retardation.
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 STRESS AND HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
Stress
- A physiological arousal accompanies negative emotions that carry a potential threat to our
physical and mental health.
Types of Stress:
a. Eustress – positive stress
b. Distress – negative stress
Stressor – stressful stimuli or situations
Sources of Stress:
1. Frustration – the emotional state or condition that results when a goal is thwarted or blocked.
2. Conflict – emotional state or condition in which people have to make difficult decisions about two
or more competing motives, behaviors, or impulses.
3 types of conflict:
a. Approach-approach conflict – people have to choose between equally appealing
alternatives.
b. Avoidance- avoidance conflict – people have to choose between equally distasteful
alternatives.
c. Approach-avoidance conflict – people are faced with a single alternative that is both
appealing and distasteful.
3. Pressure from work, time, and life events

Life’s Little Hassles

1. Concerns about weight
2. Health of a family member
3. Rising prices of common goods
4. Home maintenance
5. Too many things to do
6. Misplacing or losing things
7. Yard work or outside home maintenance
8. Property, investments, or taxes
9. Crime
10. Physical appearance

Our responses to Stress

1. Emotional, physiology, and behaviour
Emotionally – when frustrated, people become angry and annoyed; when pressured they become
aroused and anxious; when placed in situations of conflict, they may vacillate or become irritable.
Physiologically – increased heart rate, faster breathing, higher blood pressure, sweating palms,
and dilation of pupils.
Behaviourally – when moderately aroused, they behave in optimal effectiveness. When under
aroused, they lack the stimulation to behave and when over aroused they tend to produce
disorganized and ineffective.
2. Burnout
- State of emotional and physical exhaustion lowered productivity, and feelings of isolation, often
caused by work related pressures.
3. Health consequences
- In general, stress affects the immune system, making people more vulnerable to disease.
Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome
1. An initial short-term stage of alarm – the body mobilizes its resources.
2. A longer period of resistance - during this stage, physiological and behavioural responses become
more moderate and sustained. People in resistance stage are often irritable, impatient, and angry,
and they may be constantly tired.
3. A final stage of exhaustion – if people do not reduce their level of stress, they can become too
exhausted to adapt.

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Coping Effectively with Stress
- Coping means dealing with a situation.
1. Resilience and Coping Skills – capacity to recover quickly
2. Social support
3. The power of humor
4. Defense-oriented Coping Strategies
5. Nutrition and Diet
Self-care Therapy
1. Stop, breathe, and tell yourself: “this is hard and I will get through this one step at a time.”
2. Acknowledge to yourself what you are feeling. All feelings are normal so accept whatever you are
feeling.
3. Find someone who listens and is accepting. You do not need advice. You need to be heard.
4. Maintain your normal routine as much as possible.
5. Allow plenty of time for a task.
6. Take good care of yourself. Remember to:
a. Get enough rest and sleep.
b. Eat regularly and make healthy choices.
c. Know your limits and when you need to let go.
d. Identify or create a nurturing place in your home.
e. Practice relaxation or meditation.
f. Escape for a while through meditation, reading a book, watching a movie, or taking a short
trip.
Health Psychology
- A subfield of psychology concerned with the use of psychological ideas and principles in health
enhancement, illness prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, and rehabilitation
processes.
Variables that Affect Health and Illness
1. Personality – angry, hostile people are more prone to illness than optimists. Lack of illness causes
optimism, or at least a positive lifestyle.
2. Cognition – people’s thoughts and beliefs about themselves, other people, and situations affect
health-related behaviors. People with an internal locus of control are more likely to take charge of
their illnesses and attempt to get better than are people with an external locus of control.
3. Social Environment – family, close friends, and work can be sources of social support and the
key elements in helping people maintain health and recover from illnesses.
4. Gender – health concerns of women differ from those of men. While women generally have
enjoyed an advantage in longevity, the gap in average life span between men and women has
been decreasing.
5. Sociocultural variables – cultural background, age, ethnic group, and socioeconomic class also
are important variables that affect health.

Join the Google classroom for further instructions and online assessments.
Google Classroom Code for

Block A, B, and, C: 6k36jal or

https://classroom.google.com/c/MzczNzkzMTA1MDE5?cjc=6k36jal
Block D, E, F, and, G: 2isoaet or
https://classroom.google.com/c/Mzc4NDUzMjkyNjkz?cjc=2isoaet
Facebook Group Page link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1242689986079048

Prepared by:
LADYLEE T. WASIT
Instructor

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