UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Miss KZ Ulboc
Reference: Cierva, MC.

Chapter 2: Lesson 4
MORAL SELF: LIVING WITH PURPOSE
This lesson primarily defined moral and morality as having to do with right
and wrong in the context of societal norms and expectations. The lesson went
on to say that one’s level of morality is tested especially when one is
placed in a dilemma in w/c s/he has to make a decision on what best course of
action to take while considering that his/her decision does not disturb,
offend or hurt other people.
It will be pointed out that the process of moral development is in sync
w/ intellectual development. It implies that moral development has cognitive
or intellectual foundations. As one goes through each stage of moral
development [Kohlberg], s/healso experiences the corresponding stage of
intellectual development [Piaget].
The importance of teaching the children the ability and skill to
determine what is right or wrong was likewise emphasized. Parenting styles
are considered a significant factor in developing moral reasoning. The four
styles or parenting were also described in this lesson.

E very day, people are confronted with various dilemmas. Solving them requires one to decide on
what kind of action or response to make. In some instances, it is easy for one to respond to a difficult
situation, while in some cases, choosing the best response is difficult.

A dilemma is a problematic/complex situation in which a difficult choice must be made. The kind of
responses taken or made when one is in a quandary/ predicament serves as a good test of a person’s
level of moral development.
Moral is related to a sense or standard that determines what is right and what is wrong. It distinguishes
correct/ right/ good from incorrect/ wrong/ evil from inappropriate. Morality refers to system of beliefs and
values that ensures that individuals will keep their obligations to others in the society and behaves in ways
that do not interfere with the right and interests others.
Decision-making is understandably difficult, the degree of w/c depending on the situation. An individual
who has a good sense of what is right and wrong will be an honest and upright member of the community
possessing a better moral self.

Moral Reasoning refers to the judgment people make about what courses of action are correct or
incorrect situations. Reasoning is a cognitive skill but influences moral development.

Lawrence Kohlberg came up with the Theory of Moral Development by studying the concept of
moral reasoning. This theory is shaped by and tied up to Piaget’s Stages of Intellectual Development.
Piaget asserts that intellectual development proceeds in stages or levels.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Miss KZ Ulboc
Reference: Cierva, MC.

Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

This progression is related to the development of moral reasoning. Thus the evolution of one’s sense of
right and wrong in making decisions depends on his/her level of intellectual development. This connection
implies that advanced levels of intellectual development are associated with higher stages of moral
development. With this situation, a child cannot exhibit advanced level of moral development if s/he is still
at an early stage of intellectual development.

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

At times, you might be placed in a dilemma w/c

requires you to decide. You must harness your
intellectual capacity and reasoning ability in
choosing what “best” decision to take. When
you are at the crossroads of deciding, always
go back to your goals and your philosophy of
life as your guide.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Miss KZ Ulboc
Reference: Cierva, MC.

PARENTING STYLES AND PRACTICES

The physiological or biological basis of moral and intellectual development has been discussed earlier.
One other factor w/c affect the individual’s development is environmental influence. This is the external
forces outside of the individual person.

It is known as the parent’s strategies. According to Diana Baumrind, there are three parenting styles,
namely authoritarian parents attempt to shape, control and evaluate the behaviors and attitudes of their
children in accordance w/ an absolute or respected authorities, thus, obedience becomes a virtue];
authoritative parents direct their children’s activities in a rational and intelligent way. They are supportive,
loving and committed; support a give-and-take relationship; discuss their rules and policies w/ children and
encourage children to present their viewpoints and permissive parents are less controlling and behave
with an accepting and non-punishing attitude towards their children’s desires, actions and impulses. The
fourth style was introduced by Maccoby and Martin in 1983. They coined the term uninvolved or
neglectful parents who take on a hands-off stand in the affairs of their children.

EFFECTS OF PARENTING STYLES

Parenting styles influence the development of children’s personality.
1. Authoritarian parents are demanding and their children have less behavioral problems w/c are
easily prevented. However, studies show that children reared under autocratic parents tends to
become withdrawn, fearful, and dependent. Children may suffer from low self-esteem.

2. Authoritative parents have children who are independent, reliable, rational and confident. These
children generally feel good about themselves.

3. Permissive parents rarely impose rules and are non-punishing. Thus, they tend to have children
who do not put structure and order in things that they do. For these children, anything goes.

4. Uninvolved parents are detached and indifferent to the needs of their children. As
such, children grow up feeling unloved and cannot follow instructions. Some fall prey or
sort to substance abuse as a form of distraction or a way to get attention.

It must be noted that the kinds of parenting styles represent the dominant practices applied by parents in
dealing with their children. it is important that when children misbehave, they are made to realize the
consequences of their behavior. On the other hand, if they behave well, the corresponding reward or
motivation should be given.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Miss KZ Ulboc
Reference: Cierva, MC.

Chapter 2: Lesson 5
POLITICAL SELF: BEING FILIPINO
The Philippines has only emerged in the 1890‟s after over three centuries of colonization of the Spaniards. Liberation from
the last colonizers, the Japanese, only occurred in 1946. Foreign culture, beliefs, language, and religion have made a huge
dent on our own by setting a foundation to the contemporary Filipino identity and culture.

An individual’s race, ethnicity, and physical characteristics are not the only factors that make a person’s national identity.
Values and traits also important indicator that set apart one nationality. Through common goals, principles, and values of its
people a nation empowers.

Who is a Filipino?
Buwan ng Wika and Independence Day celebrations prompt us to go back to our roots and reflect on the question: Who is a
Filipino? According to the 1973, of Philippine Constitution, Filipino citizens are;
a. Those whose fathers or mothers are citizens of the Philippines.
b. Those born before January 17, 1973,of Filipino mother.
c. Who elect Philippine citizenship upon reaching the age of majority.
d. Those who are naturalized in accordance with law.
Citizenship is not only a marker of being a Filipino. Culture and history greatly influenced the manner that Filipinos learn, live
and behave to date.

Filipino Value and Traits

Philippines is a lush island paradise famous for its grandiose mountain views, pristine beaches, and rich and diverse culture
changing from province to province. Philippines well known for its awe-inspiring beauty, perhaps the Filipinos unique traits,
reputable values, and laudable talents make the country a place to be. “Mabuhay!” and “Salamat" the common Filipino
phrases. “Po” and “Opo” habits saying to the elders. “Kumain ka na ba?” meaning “Have you eaten yet?” and importunate
asking of a Filipino.

The Filipino Hospitality Filipino‟s brand of hospitality is known everywhere.

Filipinos welcome their guests and tourists as if they are
their own brothers and sisters. They always make their
guests feel at home, offering them something to eat, and
or even a place to stay. They are also fond of giving
pasalubong or tokens and pabaon or farewell gifts to their
visitors.
Respect for Elders Filipinos greet their elders by kissing their hand while
saying “Mano Po!” constantly using “Po" and “opo” in
conversation. There is also a wide array of
eferences to elder people such as ate for elder sister; kuya
for older brother; Tito and Tita for uncle and aunt ;Lolo and
Lola for grandparents ;and Manong and Aling for older
people outside the family.
Close Family Ties Filipino maintains a tight relationship with their families
regardless if the children are old enough and already have
a family of their own.
Cheerful Personality Filipinos have a habit of smiling and laughing a lot. Smiling
is a coping strategy for many Filipinos especially during
trying Times and calamities. Filipino always tries to
maintain a positive outlook in life which makes them
resilient and able to manage almost everything with a
simple smile.
Self-sacrifice The self-sacrificing attitude of Filipinos can be seen as an
extension of the Filipino hospitality. Filipinos go out of their
way to extend help to their friends, families, and loved
ones.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Miss KZ Ulboc
Reference: Cierva, MC.

Bayanihan Is the spirit of communal unity and cooperation of Filipinos.

Giving without expecting something in return. Filipinos are
always ready to share and help their friends
and loved ones who are in need.
“Bahala na” Attitude “Bahala na” is a Filipino version of the famous line “Hakuna
Matata,” meaning no worries. The phrase said originated
from the “Bathala na,” where Bathala means God,
and the phrase meaning leaving everything into God's
hands. It can also view as cheerful and positive attitude of
Filipinos and allowing situations take care of themselves
instead of worrying about them.

Colonial Mentality It is regarded as the lack of patriotism and the attitude

where Filipinos favor foreign products more than their own.
It does not only concern goods, but also the desire to look
more foreign than local and keep up with foreign beauty
trends. It is attributed to the centuries of colonization
Filipinos had experienced under the Spanish, American
and Japanese rule.
“Mañana” Habit Filipino term for procrastination. It was derived from a
longer Filipino phrase called “Mamaya na” means dawdling
things, which could have been done at an earlier time. It
was a poor habit of laziness that results in heavier
workloads.
“Ningas Kugon" “Ningas" is a Filipino term for flame and “Kugon" is a
Filipino term for Cogon grass that easily burns out after it is
put into flames. It is refers to the attitude of eagerly
starting things but quickly losing eagerness soon after
experiencing difficulty. Filipinos are regarded as “Juan
Tamad” or Lazy Juan because of laziness.
Pride When two parties are not in good terms, they find it so hard
to apologize and wait until the other party asks for an
apology first.
Crab Mentality Where one resents the achievement of another, instead of
feeling happy for that person. They pull each other down
and ruin each other reputation rather than bringing them
up, resulting to no progress.
Filipino Time Filipinos have this common attitude of arriving late at
commitments, dinner, or parties especially if they are
meeting someone close to them. They tend to not observe
punctuality altogether.

FILIPINO MARKERS
1. Proverbs or Salawikain - Damiana Eugenio, regarded as the mother of Philippine Folklore, classified proverbs into six
categories (Eugenio,2000);
a. Proverbs expressing a general attitude toward life and the laws that govern life;
b. Ethical proverbs recommending certain virtues and condemning certain vices;
c. Proverbs expressing a system of values;
d. Proverbs expressing general truths and observations about life and human nature;
e. Humorous proverbs; and
f. Miscellaneous proverbs.
2. Superstitions – Filipinos subscribe to their own set of superstitious passed down from generation to generation. Some of
the superstitious influenced by beliefs from other cultures, but Filipinos have retold according to their own
experiences and they sometimes end up even more interesting.
3. Myths and legends
4. Heroes and Icons – Heroes serve as a reminder of true patriotism and nationalism as they have sacrificed their lives for
the sake of their country’s freedom and progress. The last monday of August we lend to celebrate our eroes to remember
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Miss KZ Ulboc
Reference: Cierva, MC.

their greatness, bravery, and resilience that has led to the freedom we know today. Lea Salonga, Manny Pacquiao, and our
national hero Jose Rizal, serve as important Filipino markers as they have made the Filipino name pronounced worldwide
through their own expertise.

HOW TO BE A GOOD FILIPINO?

The following are a few ways on how to be a good Filipino;
1. Be an active Filipino citizen.
2. Study the Philippine history.
3. Support local products.
4. Speak the Filipino language.
5. Do not spread fake news and be democratic in engaging with dissent.

Chapter 2: Lesson 6
DIGITAL SELF: WHO I AM IN THE CYBER WORLD?
It has only been 25 years since Tim Berners - Lee made the World Wide Web available to the public, but in that
time, the internet has already become an integral part of everyday life for the most of the world's population.
Almost two-thirds of the world's population now has a mobile phone. More than half of the world's web traffic now
comes from mobile phones. More than half of all mobile connections around the world are now "broad band." More than one
in five of the world's population online in the past 30 days.
Media users in the Philippines grew by 12 million or 25% while the number of mobile social users increased by 13
million or 32%. Those growth figures are still higher compared to the previous year. More than half the world now uses a
smartphone.

Based on Figure, the number of digital users worldwide increases. More people are becoming interested and devoted in
using the Internet for various activities. In Philippines, adolescents are among the most avid users of the internet. ONLINE
IDENTITY is the sum of our characteristics and our interaction. PARTIAL IDENTITY is a subset of characteristics that make
up our identity. Meanwhile persona is the partial identity we create that represents ourselves in a specific situation.

Selective Self-Presentation and Impression Management

According to Goffman (1959) and Leary (1995), self-presentation is the "Process of Controlling how
one is Perceived by other people" and is the key to relationship inception and development. To construct positive images,
individuals selectively provide information about them and carefully cater this information in response to other's feedback.
Anything posted online should be considered "Public" no matter what our "Privacy" setting are. PERSONAL IDENTITY is
the interpersonal level of self which differentiates the individual as unique from others. SOCIAL IDENTITY is the level of self
whereby the individual is identified by his or her group membership.
BELK (2013) explained that sharing ourselves is no longer new and has been practiced as soon as human being
formed. Digital devices help us share information broadly, now than ever before. In older Family albums, the photographer
was not often represented in the album (Mendelson and Papacharissi 2011), whereas with arm’s length photos, they are
necessarily included.
As Schwarz (2012) mentioned, we have entered an extraordinary era of self- portraiture. Blogs and web pages have been
continually used for greater self-reflection and self-presentation Facebook and other social media application are now a key
part of self-presentation for one sixth of humanity. As a result, researchers and participants become concerned with activity
managing identity and reputation and to warn against the phenomenon of "over sharing".
Many teenagers, as well as adults, share even more intimate details with their partners like their passwords
(Gershon 2010). This could be an ultimate act of intimacy and trust or the ultimate expression of paranoia and distrust with
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Miss KZ Ulboc
Reference: Cierva, MC.

partners. This condition has been called "Fear of Missing Out". People would like to remain updated and they keep on
sharing themselves online because it adds a sense of confidence at their end especially if others like and share their post.
One of the reason for so much sharing and self-disclosure online is the so called "Disinhibition Effect” (Ridley
2012: Suler 2004.) the lack of face-to-face gaze-meeting, together with feelings of anonymity and invisibility, gives people
the freedom for self disclosure but can also “flame” others and may cause conflict sometimes. The resulting disinhibition
causes people to believe that they are able to express their “true self” better online than they ever could in face-to-face
context [Taylor 2002]. However, it does not mean that there is a fixed “true self.” The self is still a work in progress and we
keep on improving and developing ourselves every single day. Seemingly self-revelation can be therapeutic to others
especially if it goes together with self-reflection (Morris et al. 2010.) But it does appear that we now do a large amount of our
identity work online.
When the Internet constantly asks us “Who are you” and “What do you have to share?”, it is up to us if we are going
to provide answers to such questions/ queries every time we use the internet and do what extent are going to share details
ourselves to others.
Many Many of us share the bad, embarrassing and lustful things we experience. We also react and comment on the
negative experiences of others. Sometimes we empathize with people. We also argue w/ others online. Relationships may
be made stronger or broken through posts online. Blogs and Social Media are the primary digital for a on which such
confessions, occur, but they can also be found in photo- and video sharing sites where blunders and bad moments are also
preserved and shared ( Strangelove 2011). According to M. Foucault, confessing our secret truths feels freeing, even as it
binds us in a guilt-motivated self-governance born of a long history.
According to Foucault`s (1998) Confession along with contemplation, self-examination, learning, reading, and
writing self- critical letters to friends, are a part of the “ technologies of the self” through which we seek to purge and cleanse
ourselves. Despite the veil of invisibility, writers on the internet write for an unseen audience (Serfaty 2004). Both the
number and feedback of readers provide self validation for the writer and a certain celebrity (O` Regan 2009). Confessional
blogs may also be therapeutic for the audience to read; allowing both. Sincere empathy and the voyeuristic appeal of
witnessing a public confession (Kitzmann 2003).Thus, we should have a filtering system to whatever information we share
online, as well as to what information we believe in, w/c are being shared or posted by others online. In the same way, we
should also think before we post or share in order to prevent conflict, arguments, and cyber bullying and to preserve our
relationships w/ others.

Setting Boundaries to your Online Self: Smart Sharing

The ff. guidelines will help you share information online in a smart way that will protect yourself and not harm others. Before
posting or sharing anything online, consider the ff.
1. Is this post / story necessary
2. Is there a real benefit to this post? Is it funny, warm- hearted, teachable-or am I just making noise online without
purpose?
3. Have we (as a family or parent/ child) resolved this issue? An issue that is still being worked out at home, or one
that is either vulnerable or highly emotional, should not be made public.
4. Is it appropriate? Does it stay within the boundaries of our family values?
5. Will this seem as funny in 5, 10, 15 yrs.? Or is this post better suited for sharing with a small group of family
members? Or maybe not at all?

Rules to Follow
Here are additional guidelines for proper sharing of information and ethical use of the Internet according to New (2014)
• Stick to safer sites
• Guard your passwords
• Limit what you share
• Remember that anything you put online post on a site is there forever, even if you try to delete it.
• Do not be mean or embarrass other people online.
• Always tell if you see strange or bad behavior online.
• Be choosy about your online friends.
• Be patient