Canossa College

San Pablo City

Bachelor of Elementary Education

College Department

An

Integrative Paper

On

“Uniqueness of Self”

Submitted by:

Lea A. Fernandez

Submitted to:

Mrs. Kweenie Anne Cosico-Outlaw

GE108 Instructress
Introduction

One poet once said “to thine own self be true”. You yourself are the reflection of how others will
perceive you. So if you are true enough to yourself there’s a high possibility that what you are going to
show to others is true as well. However, knowing oneself is not only about being true hence, engaging
with others and exploring different things in the physical realm will help you to discover more about
yourself. A person grows and continuously grows because he does not focus on one thing or just focusing
about “self” but also giving him the chance to indulge himself in the world that has so many things to
offer that would help him to develop and improve as a human.

On the one hand, each one of us has different ways and techniques on how are we going to know
more our inner selves. Does it start when we are still the womb of our mother, puberty or adolescent
stage? Or when we are already aware that we are part of the world is the beginning of everything? Do
human stop discovering the “self”? There are also lots of people asking, how well do an individual know
himself? In relation to this, what is the purpose or sense of knowing oneself? Is there really a need to
know it? Is it part of being a human to know about himself? One’s existence is always a big question to
everyone. A person always look for an answer and never stop until he gets the best among all the answers
that he got because humans are made to seek for their means of living in this world. Of why they are here
that results to their eagerness of knowing themselves.

“Self is unique”. An individual is not made same with others. Even identical twins have a
difference with one another. We are all made differently. It can be in physical appearance or how a person
looks like. It can be in talents, interests, traits and intellects. After all, one thing is for sure. Even if a self
is created different from others there is still a thing that made us all equal and that is we are created in the
image and likeness of God.
 Chapter I

Perspective of Self

Self is defined as a focus of our everyday behavior, interaction with others and awareness which is unique
with other human beings. It is also how you perceive and value yourself, how you accept and appreciate
every discovery that you do for you to grow as an individual.

Philosophy Perspective of Self

Different perspectives from different minds defined what “self” is. According to one of the great
thinkers in philosophy who is Socrates, self exists in two parts: one part is the physical and second part is
the soul. The physical self is believed to be the tangible aspect of man. This is the part that is mortal and
constantly changing. The earth is the place which is also belongs to this physical realm so as our bodies.
The soul self, according to Socrates, it is immortal. The soul of a man is the part that is unvarying across
realms (physical realm and ideal realm) He believed that once a person died, the soul leaves the body to
travel to the ideal realm. He also added that a man should live a life of Virtues which is connected to
knowledge and is the deepest most propensity of a man. Plato, however, said that humans could be
broken down into three parts: body, mind and soul. The body is defined to be part of the physical world
which is mortal and is only concerned with experiences of the material world. The mind which is the one
that is directed towards the heavenly realm of Ideas, and is believed to be immortal. Soul, on the one
hand, is the driving force of the body and gives us the identity. The creator of the very famous saying “I
think, Therefore, I am” who is Rene Descartes also explained what self is. According to him, it is
composed of the body and mind. The two serve their own function to human and are interrelated. He
states that the self is the thinking identity of a man distinct from the body. On the other hand, John Locke
says that the self is defined based on experiences. The personal identity of a man is not in the brain but in
the consciousness of the self as he dealt in the physical world. Lastly, David Hume who said that self is
the Bundle Theory of Mankind. Self for him is how others perceive you. A person can never observe
oneself without the observation of others.

Sociology Perspective of Self

 According to a sociologist from late 1800s, George Herbert Mead, his theory about social self
includes the concept of “Self” “Me” and “I.” The social self is based on the perspective of self emerges
from social interactions through the observation and interaction with others, responding and internalizing
to other’s external and internal opinion about oneself. However, Mead’s theory states that self has two
sides which are the “me” and “I.” They have didactic relationship because “I” (object) represents the
individual’s identity based on the response to the “me” (subject of action.) In relation to this, socialization
is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of the society. It encompasses both learning and
teaching the culture which the human needs in order to survive. It differs depending on the race, gender,
class and orientation. There are six agents of socialization: (1) Family, which introduce to the children of
what is the expectation of the society to them. Next is the (2) Media, which is widely used all over the
world. (3) Peers which is a big help in building the identity of an individual in order to learn the concept
of self, gain social skills and for the formation of their values and attitudes. (4) Religions which tend to
shape the spiritual identity of a person and develop their spiritual life. (5) Sports where in both men and
women benefits to this agent through learning the concept of self. Finally is the (6) Schools which is the
foundation of different expectations that encourage the children to think and behave in particular ways
accurately.

Anthropology Perspective of Self

Culture is considered as one factor that affects the “self” for it defines the person’s behavior,
characteristics and values. Society is a collection of social identities distributed over a landscape.
Individuals strive to arrive at some identity/destination from which they can relate to other social
identities. However, the concept of personhood varies from society to society and it is often hard to
discern who is considered to be a person, what being a person entails, or how this differs from having
selfhood, or being an individual. The self is shaped through the culture, norms, practices and beliefs that a
human being follows which are handed down from generation to generation.

Eastern and Western School of Thoughts Perspective of Self

The “me” concept of Eastern is defined as eternal reality of universal truth: self-liberation through getting
rid of the false “me” and discovering the true “me.” Meanwhile, western believe that “me” is here and
now. The true “me” in every human being is a part of the Divine that need to become apparent. The true
“me” is given and doesn’t have to be cognizable. They also differ in beliefs and values. For Eastern, the
true key is “inside.” The inner world of human being and his or her ability to control and develop it is of
the highest value. Through self-development is the way to the top of your inside self. For Western, the
main values are success and achievement. These that can be achieved in many ways, but rarely through
developing inner strength. Through active outside intervention is the way to the top. Eastern’s
“collectivism” is stronger because a human being is an integral part of the universe and the society.
People are fundamentally connected and duty towards all others is a very important matter. However,
Western is stronger in “individualism” because a human being has an individualistic nature and is an
independent part of the universe and society.

Psychological Perspective of Self

The Self as a Cognitive Construction is a cognitive paradigm such as knowing, seeing, thinking and
speaking and their capacities to engender knowledge and perception, identity and consciousness, memory
and narrative, language and speech, are central themes of the self as an epistemological and ideological
product. It is a Self as a cognitive-derived, constructed agent is the core of self-formation. On the one
hand, the self as proactive and agentic is the large portion of human behaviour resulted from modelling in
which the behaviour of the model is consciously acquired for in the mind of the person; this process will
help him achieve his goals.

Chapter II

Aspects of Self

Material Self

According to Merriam Webster, material self is tangible objects, people or places that carry the
designation of mine. William James said that there are three components of what self is: its constituents,
the feelings and emotions they arouse, and the action. However, there are four parts of self. The body is
the innermost part of the material Self and certain parts of the body seen more intimately ours than the
rest. It is a must to strive hard that our own body functions well and good. The clothes comes next to the
most essential parts of Material Self. Clothing is said to be the form of self-expressions and it also affects
our attitude and behaviour towards oneself and to others. Intermediate Family holds another great
important part of us. They are the nearest replica of our self and what they do or become also affects us.
Lastly, Home where in the experiences are recorded and marked on particular parts and things in what we
call “home.” We regard our possession to certain thing and it means that “we are what we have and what
we possess.”
Spiritual Self
It is the most intimate and inner subjective part of the self. Each of us has the ability to use moral
sensibility and conscience through expressions of religions, beliefs and practices. Religion, on the one
hand, is the belief and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God of Gods.
There are different religions around the world which they vary in beliefs, rituals and practices and even
followers.

Political Self
The political self and being a Filipino is not only in physical appearance, culture or religion that
will distinguish who are Filipinos, values and traits are also important. Filipino, basically, is whose
mother and father is both citizens of the Philippines. There are five ways on how to be a good Filipino
citizen. (1) Being an active citizen is important. Next is (2) studying the Philippine History to have some
background of what happened back then. (3) Supporting local products can be a way of promoting how
rich the Philippines is when it comes to making the most out of its resources. (4) Speaking the Filipino
Language will truly show the patriotism that an individual has for his country. (5) Do not speak or spread
fake news for it is a crime and can put other citizens into false beliefs and practice.

Digital Self
Online identity is the one that represent yourself in specific situation whenever you are online. It
is the sum of all our characteristics. Meanwhile, partial identity is the subject of characteristic that made
up our identity. According to Goofman, self-representation is a process of controlling how one is
perceived by others, and is the key to relationship and development. Before, Belt said that sharing through
photos is the way of self-representation. When sharing online, it provides a more complete narration of
self and gives an idealized view of how they would like to be remembered. However, there two main
reasons for much sharing in the social media: fear of missing out and disinhibiting effect. We can
ethically use the internet through sticking to safer sites. Next is guarding your social media accounts’
passwords. Limiting whatever we share online because anything that we put in our accounts is there
forever. It is also important to not be mean or embarrass people online. Be choosy about your online
friends and must tell anyone immediately if you see something strange or bad online. Lastly, be patient.

Physical and Sexual Self

 There are different ways in order to take care of our physical and sexual self. At the age of 10-15,
it is where the so called Puberty hits and become conscious about our appearance: internal and external.
We have a system in our body that is responsible and triggers our sexual behavior as a person. There two
types of behavior: solitary and sociosexual behavior. Solitary behavior begins at puberty. It is also known
as self-gratification and is common among males and unmarried individuals. Sociosexual behavior, on the
one hand, is the heterosexual behavior that occurs between one female and one male. The sexual activity
that occurs between boyfriend and girlfriend outside marriage is called premarital coitus and extramarital
coitus when a married person engaged a sexual action with other person. There are different Sexually
Transmitted Infections (STI) and Diseases (STD) that can a person have when he or she practice any
sexual activity without being mindful about the proper steps and actions that he or she must remember
before engaging to such activity. There are three types of STI. First is the Bacterial STI such as
chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. Next is the Parasitic STI such as pubic lice, trichomoniasis and
scabies. Lastly is the Viral STI such as human papilloma virus (HPV), herpes, hepatitis, human
immnunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodefieciency syndrome (AIDS.)

Chapter III

Metacognition of Self

Metacognition is defined as “thinking about thinking.” It is the awareness of the scope and limitations of
your current knowledge or skills. Metacognition also includes keeping one’s emotion and motivation
while learning. There are two given aspects of metacognition: self-appraisal and self-management. Self-
appraisal is the personal reflection on your own knowledge and skills. Meanwhile, self-management is the
mental process you employ using what you have planning and adopting to successfully. On the other hand
there are three variables that affects how you asses yourself is “thinker.” The first one is the personal
variable which is the evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses. Next is the task variable which is the
strategies that you have to use in the given tasks and the last one which is the strategy variable.

Most Striking Topic

All throughout the different topics that we’ve discussed about Understanding the Self, the most
striking for me is the aspects of the self: material, digital, social, political, physical and sexual self. It is
important to know how these aspects contributed in my learning in order to know myself better. I’ve
known what are the important things or object, people or experience which will help me in order to live
my life accordingly. Above all, the main reason why I chose this as the most striking topic is because I
know that I can use this in the future most especially when I become a teacher and engaging myself
already in the academe. I can influence others through sharing the proper and accurate ways in order to
take care of oneself. For example, about the political self, it would be a great privilege for me to share
information on how to be a good citizen in our country to my future students, not only to my future
students but also to the people around me. Since we are in the modernize world, digital literacy is
important for a student to have a constructive learning about media and technology and to be able to
apply it in their daily lives. That is what matters to me, always, whenever I encounter new topics and
learning; if I can be able to share it to my fellow human being.

Conclusion

Many great thinkers, groups and ideologies defined what “self” is based on different contexts and
situations. It is undeniably seen that no matter what your experiences are, the world you are in, the body,
mind and soul that you have or even the thing that you want to attain for yourself, YOU IS YOU and no
one can define yourself but only you. Yes, others perspective about you is somehow essential but what
matters most is how you see yourself. Regardless of the culture, group or orientation that you belong, and
it doesn’t matter what norms or customs you follow. What important about self is you always go with
good thing which will not harm others. It is not about the practices, beliefs or rituals cause it is how you
live your life accordingly that performs righteous and morally upright actions is the one that a man must
always remember. Even without weighing how great or superior your religion is, the most vital thing is
the “self” in you possesses DIGNITY and that dignity that we have is something that merely define
yourself. If you know your dignity as a person, so as yourself. The learning about the aspects of self and
its metacognition is nothing if we don’t practice them repeatedly. It should not only stay in the mind but
also goes straight to the heart in order to influence other people and share to them the knowledge and
importance of taking care of our whole “self.”

Reflection
 This course is an opportunity for me to know more about myself that I didn’t discover before. I
hope that the next students who will take this topic will be able to absorb all the knowledge that the
course will provide. Furthermore, it is a big help for us students to be aware of the do’s and don’t’s about
“self” itself in order to properly manage and take care of ourselves. It truly hit or achieved the objective
that it should give to the learners because I myself was cognitively and affectively affected through this
subject. More importantly, I am able to push with and beyond my limits through exploring what more I
can do in order to know things that I didn’t know about myself. Above all, this course is an eye opening
to each one of us, and personally that “self” is not just plainly a “self” that dwells in this physical world
rather it is a vital object which God created in order for us to take care of it. According to 1 Corinthians
19-20, “the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, whom is in you, whom you have received from God.
You are not on your own; you were bought at a price, therefore, Honor God with your body.” This body
is not ours, it’s God’s, and therefore we must take every chance and opportunity to live our lives
meaningfully.