Lesson 6

SELF-AWARENESS LEADS TO SELF-DISCOVERY

AND SELF-ACTUALIZATION

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Understand oneself better and can be express one’s own ideas about the
meaning of self concept.

2. Identify his needs that can help him to discover more about himself. Express
what his/her needs are, their feeling of satisfaction for each need, and state how
the satisfaction or lack of satisfaction can affect the fulfillment of potentials within
the limits of their capability.

3. Assess himself if he possesses the characteristics that will make him a self-
actualized person.

4. Be motivated to develop his strength and minimize his weaknesses through self-
discovery thus, acquiring traits that are socially desirable in order to become self-
actualizers.

MEANING OF SELF- CONCEPT

Self-concept is defined as the way one perceives himself, be it positive or

negative, high or low which is a result of one’s belief and of other’s belief.

Understand one’s self is a key to happiness as one would be able to identify his
weaknesses and strengths, thus, enabling him to undergo self improvement. The great
philosopher, Aristotle believes that knowing and understanding oneself can lead to the
true knowledge.

True knowledge is finding meaning to one’s existence, searching the path of his
direction and aiming to reach his destination.

In Roger’s theory, he coined the term “fully functioning persons”. They are people
who strive to experience life to the fullest, who live in the here and now, and who trust
their own feelings. They are sensitive to the needs and rights of others but do not allow
society’s standards to shape their feelings or actions to an excessive degree. Fully
functioning people aren’t saints- they can and do lose their temper or act in ways they
later regret. But through life, their actions become increasingly dominated by

1
constructive impulses. They are in close touch with their own values and feelings, and
experience life more deeply than most other persons.

If all human beings are capable of becoming fully functioning, why, then, they
don’t succeed? Rogers contends that it lies in the anxiety generated when life
experiences are inconsistent with our ideas about ourselves - in other words, there is a
gap between self-concept and reality. For instance, a woman believes that she is very
likable, and that she makes friends easily. One day, she happens to overhear a
conversation between two other people who describe her as moody, difficult to get
along with, and definitely not very likable. She is crushed; here is an information that is
highly inconsistent with her self-concept. As a result of this experience, anxiety occurs,
and she adopts one or more psychological defenses to reduce it. The most common of
these is distortion; for example, the woman convinces herself that the people
discussing her do not really know her very well, or that they have misinterpreted her
behavior. Another defense is denial. Here, the woman may refuse to admit to herself
that she heard the conversation, or that she understood what the other people were
saying.

In the short run, such maneuvers are successful in the sense that they help
reduce anxiety; however, they produce a wider gap between an individual’s self-concept
and reality. The larger the gap, the greater an individual’s maladjustment and personal
happiness.

A distortion in the self-concept is common because most people grow up in an

atmosphere of conditional positive self-regard. That is, they learn that others, such
as their parents, will approve of them only when they behave in certain ways and
express certain feelings. As a result, individuals are forced to deny the existence of
various impulses and feelings and their self-concepts become badly distorted.

Now, in order to align the self-concept with reality the unconditional positive
self-regard will help the person to accomplish this goal. It is setting in which the
individual will realize that he can still be accepted by another person no matter what he
say or do. This found to be of great help to enhance people’s level of personal
happiness and adjustment.

Maslow is another humanistic theorist who is well known for his Hierarchy of
Needs, ranging from physiological needs, safety and security needs, belongingness
needs, esteem needs and lastly the self-actualization needs. According to him, lower-
order needs in the hierarchy must be satisfied before we can turn to more complex,
higher-order needs.

Maslow did not only focus on the need hierarchy but also gave attention to the
study of people who are described as psychological healthy. These are individuals
who have attained high levels of self-actualization. What are such people like?

2
CHARACTERISTICS OF SELF-ACTUALIZED PEOPLE

1. They accept themselves for what they are.

2. They recognize their shortenings as well as their strengths.

3. Being in touch with their own personalities, they are less conformist or
inhibited than most of us.

4. They are well aware of the rules imposed by society but feel greater freedom
to ignore them.

5. They seem to retain their childhood wonder and amazement with the world.
For them, life continues to be an exciting adventure than humdrum routine.

6. They seem to achieve peak experiences in which they experience powerful

feelings of unity with the universe and tremendous waves of power and
wonder. Such experiences appear to be linked to personal growth, for after
them, individual’s report feeling more spontaneous, more appreciative of life,
and les concerned with the problems of everyday life.

To become self-actualized, we have to understand more our self-concept. Many

theorists have suggested that in several respects, our self-concept has two aspects;
self-esteem and self-monitoring (Baron, 1992).

SELF-ESTEEM: SOME EFFECTS OF FEELING GOOD OR BAD

Self-esteem is the extent to which our self-evaluation is favorable or

unfavorable.

Self-esteem is related to many forms of behavior. Persons who have high

self-esteem seem to report fewer negative emotions and less depression. They
can handle stress and experience fewer negative health effects. They are less
susceptible to influence, more confident of achieving their goals. While, high self-
esteemed individuals accept criticisms constructively, the low self-esteemed
individuals seem to be easily affected with negative feedback and feel unworthy
and rejected.

SELF-MONITORING: PUBLIC APPEARANCE AND PRIVATE REALITY

Self- monitoring is the ability to adjust his actions to suit and produce
positive reactions from other people. High self-monitors can easily change to
match the current situation. Low self-monitors stick to their own values and
attitudes. Thus, they like people who are more or less resemble their own
behavior, beliefs and views.

3
HOW ACCURATE DO YOU KNOW YOURSELF?
(Adopted from Baron, 1992)

Directions: Rate yourself from 1-7 on the following traits: 4 is the middle of the scale.
Choose ten people who know you and ask them to rate you. Compare the result with
your own answer. Average their rating and find out if the difference is big.

1. Cautious Adventurous
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2. Insensitive Sensitive
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

3. Calm Anxious
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4. Cooperative Uncooperative
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

5. Irresponsible Responsible
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

6. Composed Excitable
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

7. Sociable Shy
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8. Suspicious Trusting
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

9. Imaginative Down-to-earth
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

10. Careless Careful

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4
 EXERCISE ON LESSON II

Name: ______________________________________________Score:_________________
Subject & Section:______________________ Instructor:_______________________
Course & Year: _____________________________________Date:__________________

Directions: Make an evaluation of yourself by answering the following questions and

write it in narrative form:

1. Who am I?

2. What are my strengths and weaknesses?

3. What are my goals and aspirations in life?

4. How can I achieve or maintain high self-esteem?

5. Can I be a self-actualized person?

______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

5
 My Declaration of Self-Esteem
What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly.
Carl Rogers

I am Me.

In the entire world, there is no one else exactly like me. There are people who have
some parts like me but no one adds up exactly like me. Therefore, everything that
comes out of me is authentically mine because I alone choose it. I own everything about
me- my body, including everything it does; my mind including all my thoughts and ideas;
my eyes, including the images of all they behold; my feelings, whatever they might be
anger, joy, frustrations, love, disappointments, excitement; my mouth and all the words
that come out of it- polite, sweet, or rough, correct or incorrect; my voice, loud or soft;
and all my actions, whether they be to others or to myself, I own my own fantasies, my
dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own all my triumphs and successes, all my failures and
mistakes. Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so
doing, I can love me and be friendly with me in all my parts. I can then make it possible
for all for me to work in my best interest. I know there are aspects about myself that
puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know. But as long as I am friendly and loving
to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for the solutions to the puzzles and
ways to find out more about me. Whatever, I look and sound, whatever I say and do,
and whatever I and represents where I am at that moment in time. When I review later
how I looked and sounded, what I said and did, and how I thought and felt, some parts
may turn out to be fitting. I can discard that which is unfitting and keep which proved
fitting and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see hear, feel, think,
say and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, to make
sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me and
therefore. I can engineer me. I am ME and I am OK.

Source: NSTP, Developing a Responsible Citizen Towards Community

Development, 2008