Introduction to Personal Development
INTRODUCTION something that
• In the life cycle of every person,
adolescence is considered one of the
most critical development stages due to
the profound biological and
psychological changes that affects the
person.
• The adolescent age group includes boys
and girls from 13-19 years of age.
• The multiple changes in their body
brought about by maturity led them to
ask so many questions about them-selves.
• Adolescents have high desire to belong
and fear of rejection.
• Adolescence is also the period where they
are pressured to take adult roles.
Know Yourself
Interestingly, there are some who hardly
know themselves and many years of their lives are
wasted because they have not grown to be a
better person.
At this point, introducing the concept of
self-awareness will surely help.
Self-awareness is not about revealing your
secrets, but rather being conscious and
understanding who you are.
The more you pay attention to your emotions
and how you work, the better you will understand
why you do the thing you do and its effect to
others.
Building Self-Awareness
How could one be able to build his self-
awareness? Let me tell you that knowing oneself
through self-awareness is not learned from a
book but can be achieved by doing honest self-
reflection. Ask our self and list down your answer
honestly.
1. What are your strengths and weakness?
What do you value most? What trigger you to be
upset? How do you respond under stress? How
are you as a son/daughter, a sibling, a student, a
best friend, etc.?
2. Predict how you feel and respond before a
situation and reflect on your actual feelings and
response after the situation.
3. What did you learn from your past success
and mistakes?
4. From your immediate family friends,
teachers, and classmates ask for feedback on
your performance and behavior. Feedbacks can
help you identify your behavior you aren’t clearly
seeing the blind spots as they say.
5. Writing your thoughts and experiences
helps. It allows you to reflect on daily thoughts,
feelings perceptions, choices, behaviors, and
interactions with others. Be honest with yourself.
Reflecting on your experiences allows you to learn
can guide your personal
development.
Project Positive Self-Image
Parents who impose to their growing children
what to wear, what to do, who should be with
eventually develop a mini-me of their parents.
Thus, robs them of developing their own persona
and of knowing who they are. Idolizing celebrities,
imitating their ways and adopting it as if it’s your
own persona is very common among your age. At
a controlled level, idolizing people is harmless but
if it is beyond the limit, it diverts you of
discovering your true self.
Our self-image is complicated impression we
have about our physical appearance, social rules,
and personality traits. The way you look at
yourself is an important factor in the
development of your personality and in the
maintenance of your emotional health.
Those with a negative self-image tend to:
1. Lack self-confidence and self-esteem.
2. Feel insecure, skeptical, and fearful.
3. Accept being ignored, hurt, and rejected.
4. Feel embarrassed by compliments.
Those with a positive self-image tend to:
1. Accept themselves and others as they are.
2. Feel secure and confident.
3. Take pride of their achievements.
4. Accepts compliments gracefully.
Here are some techniques to help you.
1. Believes in yourself.
Remember that you are different from others.
You should believe that you are unique person
gifted with talent in spite of your limitations. You
are born with talents, skills, and abilities that you
need to nurture and show off. There is no need to
compare yourself to others.
2. Rediscover yourself
Know your strengths and build on them. Know
your weaknesses and correct them. Recognize
what’s not working and be willing to change. You
are at age where explorations and discoveries are
at its height. Do not live a monotonous life. You
are young and full of life. Be creative and try to do
something new at all times.
3. Stand on what you believe is right.
Set your own high personal moral standards ,
live it up to them , never compromise your values
and morals. It is inevitable that you will be
trapped in a situation which you can’t make
decision at once because you are considering the
negative results. Demonstrate your positive
personal values in all you do and speak. Be
sincere and real. You will gain people’s respect in
due time.
Target Excellence
Give your best effort in whatever you do.
Remember, yours are different from other
person’s so never compare because everyone has
their own strengths and weaknesses. It’s time to
be ambitious. Think big. Aim high and grandiose.
If you are strong in certain areas, keep it up and
strengthens it more; if you are weak in other areas,
get out of your comfort zone and do something to
reduce your weaknesses.
Success in your endeavors needs a very good
plan brought about by your goals. Setting goals
is just like aiming at a target. It helps you plan
things to do and its schedule. Without a plan, you
will not be able to do its schedule.
Mistakes enables us to learn to do things
better. There is always an element of risk in
whatever we do and that is normal. Be a risk-taker.
Stay positive and persevere. With this you will
motivate yourself to continue with your attempts
in whatever you do until you reach excellence.
Remember failures are steppingstones to success.
Achievement literally means success.
Develop Your Creative Mind
All of us have the so called creative bent, but
what matters is how we identify this talent for
creativity and make use of it. You just need to be
aware of what is happening around you. There is
much is so much happening around you that that
you take for granted and just tolerate what is
going on. Be curious. Keep on asking questions.
Find out why certain things happen and their
relevance, why people behave the way they do.
Don’t settle to what where and when questions
rather ask why and how.
Albert Einstein had the habit of lying down on
the grass and looking up the sky. He was dyslexic
that resulted to his poor academic performance.
He had reading disorder, but he introduced
the Theory of Relativity for which he won Nobel
Prize for Physics.
Finding the answer to “Who am I?” may begin
at your age now. You need to develop a healthy
you, someone who is flexible and adaptive, and
open to changes in relationships and in society.
DEVELOPING THE WHOLE PERSON
Developmentally, adolescence is a time of change.
The physical changes during this period are
simply matters of growth and maturation yet it is
only a fraction of changes that adolescents
experience.
Cognitive Development
is the emergence of the ability to think and
understand. Changes in one’s mental abilities,
learning capacity, memory reasoning, thinking
process and language are evident.
Physical Development
pertains to maturing of the body and its
systems along with its functions. Puberty, onset of
adolescence is the process of physical changes in
which a child’s body matures into an adult body
capable of sexual reproduction.
In 1940, William H. Sheldon introduced the
concept of body types, or somatotypes which he
associated with the psychological development of
man.
Ectomorphic
Physically they have narrow shoulders, thin
legs and arms, little fats on the body, a narrow
face, and a narrow chest. They always stay skinny.
They always keep to themselves and are afraid to
branch out.
Mesomorphic
Physically they tend to have a large head and
broad shoulders with a narrow waist. They have a
desire to have power and be dominant.
Endomorphic
Physically they are round, usually short, wide
hips and narrow shoulders. Personality wise they
are fun-loving , good-humored, tolerant and
sociable, love food and affection.
Psychological Development
begins with the experience, expression,
understanding, and regulation of emotions from
birth through late adolescence.
Social Development
refers to the learned and developed ways of
behaving in accordance to social expectations.
Erick Erickson (1959) developed the 8
psychosocial stages that provide a framework
from which we could understand the development
of human social nature from infancy to old age.
Spiritual Development
is best explain by how it is achieved. It is a
process of developing personal belief to God and
holiness.
DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES IN MIDDLE AND
LATE ADOLESCENCE
The major concern that adolescents face
is their identity, completeness, and
productiveness in life. The demands of growing
up are complicated during adolescence due to a
dramatic changes that take place physically,
psychologically, intellectually, and socially. As
adolescents start to mature, they tend to be more
attached to their age group with similar
characteristics, norms, and behaviors.
Developmental task according to Robert
James Havighurst (1972), is a task which an
individual has to and wants to solve at a
particular stages of life.
 Developmental Tasks of Adolescents
Robert Havighurst (1972) identified 8
developmental tasks associated with adolescents’
smooth journey to responsible adulthood.

1. Achieving new and more mature relations with

boys and girls in their age group.
Your interaction with people is not
extraordinary during this stage.

2. Achieving a masculine or feminine social role

With rapid physical and sexual maturity
taking place in your body, determining your role
in your family, in the society as a boy or a girl
should come along.

3. Accepting changes in one’s physique.

Some may have envisioned the kind of
body you want to look when you grow up.

4. Achieving emotional independence from

parents and other adults.
There are times when you are really
hurting inside but you would rather hide it form
your parents than show off unruly behavior

5. Preparing for marriage and family.

Interactions with opposite sex, most often
than not, lead to the development of sexual
attractions and infatuation

6. Selecting and preparing for occupation.

There are adolescents who want to
support himself for education or economic
reasons thus look for any kind of job.

7. Acquiring a set of values and an ethical

system as a guide to behavior; developing an
ideology.
Often, we hear adults telling us “You are a
grown-up now do what you think is right”.

8. Achieving a socially responsible behavior.

The adage “Tell me who your friends are,
and I will tell you who you are” simply connotes
that our behavior, manner of speaking, choice of
words and actuations are influenced by the
people surround us.

COPE UP WITH STRESS IN THE MIDDLE AND

LATE ADOLESCENCE