SAINT MICHAEL’S COLLEGE OF LAGUNA

OLD NATIONAL ROAD, PLATERO, CITY OF BINAN, LAGUNA

PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT
First Quarter – Module 1:
Knowing Oneself

Writer: RUTH ANN L.MUSNGI

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 Michaelean Distance Learning System

Foreword

To the Teacher,

This module was carefully prepared to serve as guide for the teachers of
Personal Development for Senior High School students. The module contains
the learning objectives, subject matter, and various learning activities that will
allow the students to achieve self-knowledge and practice self-introspection
and disclosure. It is expected that this material will be a great help for the
students to acquire a better understanding of her/himself.

To the Students.

This module is specially written for the students of Senior High School. This
aims to guide you in self-exploration and the practice of self- disclosure that
would allow a better understanding of yourself.

Through the lessons and the experiential learning activities, you will be led to
explore your self-concept (self-image, self-esteem, and your ideal self). The
activities like assessment of core strengths, self-esteem inventory, and writing
a reflection on lessons learned from online discussions as well as individual
study activities would be used as tools to a better self-understanding.

You are encouraged to open the given link to supplemental learning activities
for additional information about the lesson.

It is expected that you will be able to demonstrate an understanding of

yourself during this middle and late adolescence.

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 Find Out

This module was crafted to guide you in understanding yourself during this
middle and late adolescence. You will learn the different facets of yourself
as you share your unique characteristics, habits, and experiences. The
exercises and activities provided here will allow you to do self-exploration
and simple disclosure

This module contains:

 Lesson 1.1 – Personal Development: Alignment between the Ideal Self

and the Actual Self
 Lesson 1.2 - Self-exploration, Self-disclosure, and Goal-setting
1. Ang

Pre-test

Read carefully the following questions. Then answer by choosing the letter
of the correct answer and by writing True or False (Nos. 8-10).
1. It is what we think and know about our identity, personality, and
individuality.

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 a. Temperament c. human nature
b. Self-concept d. identity

2. This refers to the (descriptive) characteristics that we believe we

possess; it may include the roles we perceive we inhabit.
a. Self-regard c. Self-esteem
b. Self-image d. self

3. It is the (evaluative) belief we have of ourselves. It is our attitude

towards ourselves.
a. Human nature c. temperament
b. Self-development d. self-esteem

4. It is the intentional task of adolescents to develop their psychological,

cognitive, physiological, spiritual, and social aspects
a. Personality development c. Personal development
b. Self-development d. Self-enhancement

5. This is the sum-total of who a person is; a person’s inner force

common to all human beings.
a. Humanity c. knowledge
b. Self d. Attitudes

6. This refers to how we want to be.

a. Identity c. Ideal self
b. Actual self d. Self-concept

7. This is synonymous to our actual self.

a. Self-image c. Ideal self
b. Self-esteem d. Identity

True or False items:

8. Personality development is the same with personal development._____

9. The image we have of ourselves is already fixed when we start to
become adolescents. _____
10. Introspection is the ability to reflect resulting to insights about
oneself. _____

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 Lesson Personal Development:
1.1 Alignment between Actual
Self and Ideal Self
In this lesson you will learn the meaning of personal development and
the ways to achieve it. You need to have a closer look at the different
concepts particularly your self-concept which consists of self- image, self-
esteem and ideal self. Ones you are able to arrive at a deeper self-
knowledge through introspection, it can facilitate sharing of your
uniqueness and the acquisition of higher alignment between your actual self
and your ideal self. This will lead to setting realistic goals for better dealings
with self and others. Alignment is important. If the way you are (the actual
self) is aligned with the way that you want to be (the ideal self), then you will
feel a sense of mental well-being or peace of mind. If the way you are is not
aligned with how you want to be, the incongruence, or lack of alignment,
will result in mental distress or anxiety. The greater the level of
incongruence between the ideal self and real self, the greater the level of
resulting distress. Personal development modules’ ultimate aim is greater
self-knowledge that will lead to higher alignment between these two
personality domains.

Review

As a form of review of your past learning, let us see if you can

remember your usual answers when asked the following questions:

1. Is personality development the same as personal development? If not,

how are they different?
2. What is the difference between self-image and self-esteem?
3. When you receive positive or negative feedbacks about yourself from
others were there instances when you realized that you were not
conscious about these things while others are? What is the impact on
you when this happened?

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Notes to the Teacher
The first two questions are important in making
students see the value of taking the subject, Personal
 Learning Activities

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the concepts related to Personal Development and how

this can be achieved.
2. Recognize the dimensions of self that need to be developed.
3. Evaluate alignment of one’s actual self (self-image) and one’s ideal self.

Spot the Difference:

Personality Development Personal Development

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  Personality Development is the  Personal Development is the
development of the systematic intentional task of an
emotional and behavioral changes adolescent to develop their
that reflects the individuality of a psychological, cognitive,
person. physiological, spiritual, and
 "Personality refers to individuals' social make up
characteristic patterns of thought,  It is a process of assessing
emotion, and behavior, together with one’s qualities, traits, skills,
the psychological mechanisms -- interests to be able to set life
hidden or not -- behind those goals meant to be realized in
patterns." -Funder, 2001 the near future.
In the onset of adolescence, the teens are faced with various
challenges that may either hinder or facilitate them in arriving at a clear
self-concept. An increasing awareness of how different they are from others
may push them to try to fit-in or move away from certain peer groups. In
order to answer the perennial question, “Who Am I?”, adolescents attempt to
find answers by looking at their body, their thought processes, sensations,
feelings, and emotions and come up with a description of who they are.

READ: Ruth is 16 years old and has been constantly problematic about her
weight. She considers her weight and built as a great burden in her life as
she thought that her classmates since grade school and high school have
tagged her as ‘fatty Ruth’. She constantly was bullied for this and so she
had to stop befriending anybody, not even the neighbor’s kids.
She was resigned to this reality and even found herself ugly and
dirty compared to her schoolmates. This concept about her looks prevented
her from joining social events including their school’s Junior-Senior Prom,
Field trips and even Intramurals where she would just stay in one corner
while appearing to be busy with her phone. She thought that nobody would
be serious about somebody as “fat and ugly” like her.
BRAINSTORM
How does Ruth see herself?
Why is it that she does not want to make friends?
How do these issues affect her life as an individual?

SELF CONCEPT
Self concept is a person’s description of who he or she thinks he or
she is. It is multi-dimensional, incorporating our views of ourselves in
different aspects – e.g. personal, social, religious, spiritual, physical,
emotional, etc. During adolescence the development of one’s self concept
usually becomes very active because this is the time when the teens try to
seek answer to the question, “who am I”. Hence, they experiment with their
self-identity, comparing themselves with others, and try to develop a concept
of who they are which can be carried on when they become adults.

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 Self concept is not inherent. It is learned. This means the overall idea
we have about our self is influenced not only by biological and
environmental factors, but also by the social interactions we have through
childhood and early adulthood. It is relatively fixed when a person reaches
adulthood but it can be changed in later years depending on the person’s
experiences. This is most likely to be challenging since we have already
established ideas about who we are. Self-concept maintenance theory states
that we do not simply sit and wait for our self-concept to develop.
Maintenance processes of self concept usually concerns three things: our
evaluation of ourselves, our comparison of our actual selves and ideal
selves, and our actions taken to move closer to our ideal selves (Munoz,
2012). As adolescents the task therefore, is to move into alignment of actual
selves and ideal selves in order to arrive at a healthy well being as they
transition towards adulthood.
When a person develops a healthy self-image and self-esteem, this
contributes to the person’s healthy self-concept. In understanding self
concept, we need to understand how we describe ourselves and the value or
worth that we give to what we see in ourselves. The way we perceive these
two dimensions comprise our self-concept. Self-concept is not all positive or
all negative. Here are some examples of positive and negative self-concept:
Positive Self Concept

 A person sees herself as a smart and intelligent person

 A person perceives herself as a caring person
 A person perceives herself as a hard-working student

Negative Self Concept

 A person sees herself as stupid
 A person sees herself as a cold and unapproachable person
 A person perceives herself as a lazy student

SELF-IMAGE (ACTUAL SELF)

Self-image is one of the components that comprise self-concept (McLeod,
2008). It refers to the (descriptive) characteristics that we believe we
possess examples of which are our personality traits, strengths, and
limitations. Self-image can be positive, which gives us confidence in dealing
with others, or negative, which makes us doubtful of our capabilities in
doing things. There are six dimensions of self-image:

1. Physical dimension: how a person evaluates his or her appearance

2. Psychological dimension: how a person evaluates his or her
personality
3. Intellectual dimension: how a person evaluates his or her intelligence

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 4. Skills dimension: how a person evaluates his or her social and
technical skills
5. Moral dimension: how a person evaluates his or her values and
principles
6. Sexual dimension: how a person feels he or she fits into society’s
masculine/feminine norms (Oltmann, 2014)

IDEAL SELF

An idealized self is the image that we have developed overtime which is

usually based on what we have learned and experienced as we go through
life. Problem occurs when our ideal self (what we envision ourselves to be) is
not in-sync with the image that we have of our self (self-image) and the belief
that we have of what we have (self-esteem). There is mis-alignment of the
actual self and the ideal self.

Example: Self-image—I can play the piano

Self-esteem – I am not as good as my sister when it comes to
playing the piano
Ideal self – I need to be as talented as my sister

Alignment is important. If the way that I am (the actual self) is aligned with
the way that I want to be (the ideal self), then I will feel a sense of mental
well-being or peace of mind.

If the way that I am is not aligned with how I want to be, the incongruence,
or lack of alignment, will result in mental distress or anxiety. The greater the
level of incongruence between the ideal self and real self, the greater the
level of resulting distress.

FOR FURTHER LEARNING:

https://pressbooks-dev.oer.hawaii.edu/cmchang/chapter/16-2-self-concept-and-
dimensions-of-self/

Test Yourself!

Quiz: Are the statements TRUE or FALSE?

1. A person’s self-concept consists of his/her description he has of

him/herself, her/his beliefs about self in relation to an image of self
that he/she wants. (ANS: TRUE)
2. Once you reach adulthood, your self-concept will remain as such and
can never change in later years. (ANS: FALSE)
3. The goal of personal development is to reach alignment between our
self-image and the ideal self that we have. (ANS.: TRUE)

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 4. In order to develop one’s self-concept, you just need to do self-
reflection and interaction with other people is not necessary. (ANS.:
FALSE)
5. Self-esteem is your evaluative description of who you are. Hence, it
can be emotionally-inclined. (ANS.: TRUE)

Assignment: SONG ANALYSIS

Reflection (female cover) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzfOoCfwnk
Reflection (male version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auM0KEWYGUM
Instruction:

1. Listen to the song, “Reflection” (both male and female version)

2. Make a reflection using the following key points as guide:
a. The key points expressed in the two versions of “Reflection”
b. The influence of external or social factors in understanding the
answer to the question “Who Am I?”
c. The advantages of knowing oneself.

Think

Why is knowing oneself (the actual self) important in accepting one’s strengths and
limitations and in dealing with others better?

Remember:
As adolescents, it is important to continue to know one’s traits, abilities, interests, and
potentials that will help you set meaningful goals to be realized in the near future.

Challenge

How would you respond to this statement? “Like father like son; Like mother, like
daughter. You can never get away from the kind of person your parents molded
you to be”

Lesson Self-Exploration, Self-

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 1.2 Disclosure and Feedbacking
In this lesson, you will be guided in exploring the dimensions of the self or
the information that are known to you and to others, known to you but not to
others, known to others but not to you, and those that are not known to you and to
others. There will be several exercises on recognizing your core strengths as well as
an inventory of your self-concept and self-esteem that you have to take. Self-
reflection is important while doing these exercises because this involves your ability
to get in touch with your internal monologue which might reveal messages that you
need to accept, reject, or choose to improve. Self-disclosure activities will be done
online in order to help you bridge the gap between the actual self and the ideal self.
Feedbacking is an inevitable exercise to ensure that what you believe about
yourself may be validated by what others tell you about yourself. It is only through
self-exploration and reflection that you will be able to recognize your uniqueness
and share them to others.

Review

As a review of your past learning, let us see if you can remember by answering the
following questions:

1. Why is it important to know oneself?

2. What does self-concept comprise according to the framework of Carl Rogers?
3. What are the dimensions of self-image?

Notes to the Teacher

It is important to encourage the students to do the self-
exploration exercises. Rules in self-disclosure and
feedbacking must be carefully discussed. Goals that should
be set must be based on identified areas for improvement.

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 Learning Activities

Learning Objectives:
1. Engage in self-exploration, self-disclosure, and feedbacking.
2. Set goals on how to improve identified limitations in order to better
one’s dealings with others.

Self-awareness is achieved through the process of continuous reflection

or self-introspection. Engaging in introspection is like looking down a body
of water like a mirror and seeing your reflection. It does not end with just
looking at what your eyes see but instead, you go deep down the “waters” to
see more of what is yet to be revealed and create insights out of it. Self-
introspection enables you to describe what you perceive about yourself
which likewise involves some aspect of image and esteem. The perception
you have of yourself would influence and impact the manner you
communicate and deal with others.
Alfred Korzybski (1933) sees the importance of turning off our “internal
monologues” which can either consist of illogical and disorganized thoughts
or rational and reasonable ones because these can distract us from listening
to what other people say to us. If you engage in quiet moments of reflection
you will be able to hear what others would say about you. It is important to
listen to feedback since it may reveal some aspects of the self that you can
only be consciously aware when provided by another person. Feedback,
however, may be taken negatively or positively. Nevertheless, it provides
additional information of oneself which may either help or hinder in arriving
at a true understanding of self leading to improvement.

Self-exploration

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Exploring Myself # 1: MY BANNER—THE TREASURE WITHIN ME. In this
activity, you will be asked to get in touch with your “ACTUAL SELF” or the
self-image that you have.
Step 1: You are urged to write specific traits and characteristics
describing yourself in the following four areas:
.
1. 2.

3.

4.

Use these as guide in accomplishing the banner:

1. Physical dimension: describe your best feature when it comes to
your physical appearance.
2. Mental/Intellectual dimension: abilities, in what areas of
intelligence are you good – to help you answer this, go to Gardner’s
Multiple Intelligences - https://www.verywellmind.com/what-
kind-of-intelligence-do-you-have-3867398

3. Emotional area: usual feelings or typical ones in certain situations

4. Social: behaviors around other people; preferences for types of
social activities

Step 2: Ask yourself:

 What have you discovered about yourself (your core strengths)?

 What would you like to change about yourself in each of these
areas?

Exploring Myself # 2: MY SELF-CONCEPT INVENTORY

Complete the inventory about yourself and have at least two other people
(preferably a male and female) complete similar inventories about you
Step 1: Complete the following sentences.

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 Some relationships that are important to me are …
Two of my skills or talents are…
Two characteristics or behaviors I appreciate in myself are …
One thing I would like to improve about myself is…
I am proud of myself for…
A goal I have for myself is…
My top four values are…
On average I spend my time (be specific)…
On a scale from 1-10 I would rate my self esteem as?...
What would you do if you had one million tax free pesos?...
If you only had 1-3 months to live what would you do with that
time?...
What do you spend most of your time thinking about?...
Step 2: Ask two people to complete the inventory about yourself (male and
female)
Please complete the following questions about: _____________________________
My relationship to this person is: ________________________________
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How would the person describe him/her self in the following four areas:
(Don’t be vague. Use specific words, phrases, or sentences. He/she is
looking for specific feedback about what you believe he/she thinks of
him/her self.).
Physical (appearance, condition of body, health):
Mental (abilities, preferred ways of learning, attitude, or mental outlook):
Emotional (usual feelings or typical ones in certain situations):
Social (behaviors around others, preferences for types of social activities):
What would this person like to change about him/her self?

Please answer the following questions regarding the person asking you
to complete this form:

Some relationships that are important to this person are…

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 Two of this person’s skills or talents are…
Two characteristics or behaviors this person appreciates about
him/her self are…
One thing about self this person would like to improve is …
One thing this person is proud of is…
One of this person’s goals is…
What are the most important values of this person (four)?
On average this person spends most of his/her time (be specific)…
On a scale from 1-10 how would he/she rate his/her self- esteem?
What would this person do if he/she had one million tax free pesos?
If this person only had 1-3 months to live what would he/she do with
that time?
What does this person spend most of his/her time thinking about?
(adapted from Hanna, S. (2003). Person to Person: Positive Relationships Don’t Just Happen.
Prentice Hall: New Jersey.

Exploring Myself #3: The JOHARI WINDOW

Using the information you and the two other people have gathered,
describe yourself using Luft and Ingram’s dimensions of self.

2.Known to others 1. Known to me

but not me but not to
-
others

OTHERS
1 Known to me and 2. Not known to
others me or to
others
+

+ ME -
Step 1: Write your reflection using the following guidelines:
First quadrant: Identify information about yourself that is known to you
and others.

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Second quadrant: What were the things mentioned or observed by others
which were not known to you?
Third quadrant: What were the things that are known to you but not
known to others. Probably, hiding them for a reason?
Fourth quadrant: This quadrant involves information that is unknown to
you and your conversational partners. An example could be, a childhood
memory which you have repressed but still is influencing you now; or the
way you would react when faced with a certain situation. Are you
experiencing certain reactions which you cannot explain yourself and your
partners likewise are not aware of?
Step 2: Share your unique characteristics, habits, and experiences which
molded you to be what you are now. You may choose your manner of
expression (i.e. singing a song, reciting or composing a poem, drawing or
painting a symbol of yourself, etc.)

Step 3: Answer the question posted by the character of the movie Mulan—
When will my reflection show who I am inside? This is a call for goal-setting
for alignment of your ACTUAL SELF and IDEAL SELF

So I can better deal with myself I need to:

1.
2.
So I can better deal with others, I need to:

1.
2.

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 Think

1. Why is it important to acknowledge the internal monologues you have

about yourself?

Remember:
The dimensions of self remind us that we are not yet fixed—we are free to change through our
ability to reflect, anticipate, plan, predict, so that we can learn, improve and adapt to our
environment.

Post-Test

Read carefully the following questions. Then answer by choosing the letter
of the correct answer and by writing True of False (Nos. 8-10)
1. It is what we think and know about our identity, personality, and
individuality.
a. Temperament c. human nature
b. Self-concept d. identity

2. This refers to the (descriptive) characteristics that we believe we

possess; it may include the roles we perceive we inhabit.
a. Self-regard c. Self-esteem
b. Self-image d. self

3. It is the (evaluative) belief we have of ourselves. It is our attitude

towards ourselves.
a. Human nature c. temperament
b. Self-development d. self-esteem

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 4. It is the intentional task of adolescents to develop their
psychological, cognitive, physiological, spiritual, and social aspects
a. Personality development c. Personal development
b. Self-development d. Self-enhancement

5. This is the sum-total of who a person is; a person’s inner force

common to all human beings.
a. Humanity c. knowledge
b. Self d. Attitudes

6. This refers to how we want to be.

a. Identity c. Ideal self
b. Actual self d. Self-concept

7. This is synonymous to our actual self.

a. Self-image c. Ideal self
b. Self-esteem d. Identity

True or False items:

8. Personality development is the same with personal

development._____
9. The image we have of ourselves is already fixed when we start to
become adolescents. ____
10. Introspection is the ability to reflect resulting to insights about
oneself. ___

Key to Correction

1. B 6. C
2. D 7. A
3. D 8. FALSE
4. C 9. FALSE
5. B 10. TRUE

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 References

 Luft and Ingram’s Dimensions of Self. Retrieved from

https://pressbooks-dev.oer.hawaii.edu/cmchang/chapter/16-2-self-
concept-and-dimensions-of-self/
 Reflection (female cover) https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=aNzfOoCfwnk
 Reflection (male version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=auM0KEWYGUM
 Three Core Conditions for Therapeutic Change Carl roger’s Self
Concept. https://trueselfcounseling.com/2016/02/20/3-core-
conditions-for-therapeutic-change/
 Self concept. Retrieved from https://positivepsychology.com/self-
concept/
 Self-image. https://positivepsychology.com/self-image/
 What is self concept. Retrieved from
http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-self-concept-in-
psychology-definition-lesson-quiz.html;
 Ideal self vs. Actual Self. Retrieved from
http://study.com/academy/lesson/ideal-self-vs-real-self-definition-
lesson-quiz.html
 De Guzman, J. M & Nicolas, M. L S. (2016). Personal Development (A
Textbook and a Workbook for SHS students)
 Sanchez, Bo. (2006). Life Dreams Success Journal: Your Powerful Tool
to Achieve and Surpass Your Dreams One Step at a Time. Shepherd’s
Voice Publishing.

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