UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

LESSONE 1 (MIDTERM)

People are conscious with their physical feature while some people become contented of who
they are and how they look like, most people are busy making themselves prettier, sexier, more
handsome, and therefore more acceptable.

RELATIONSHIP - are built or destroyed because of transformation of one’s physical characteristics.

BEAUTY - correlated to physical activeness.

For us to appreciate the physical self, we must learn and understand – THE SEXUAL SELF

BODY IMAGE - how you see yourself when you look in the mirror or when you picture yourself on your
mind.

IT ENCOMPASSES:
- What you believe about your own appearance (including your memories, assumptions, and
generalization)
- How you feel about your body, including your height, shape and weight.
- How you sense and control your body as you move. How physically experience or feel in your
body.
HEALTHY BODY IMAGE - is an important part of mental well being and eating disorders prevention.

BODY IMAGE - is defined as one’s thoughts, perceptions, and attitudes about their physical appearance.

POSITIVE BODY IMAGE - is a clear, true perception of your shape, seeing the various parts of your body
as they really are.

BODY POSITIVITY (BODY SATISFACTION) – involves feeling comfortable, and confident in your body.

NEGATIVE BODY IMAGE - involves a distorted perception of one’s thoughts.

- (BODY DISATISFACTION) - involves feeling of shame, anxiety, and self-consciousness

BODY IMAGE - concerns often begin at a young age and endure throughout life.

By age 6, girls especially start to express concerns about their own weight or shape, and 40-60%
of elementary start girls (ages 6-12) are concerned about their weight or about becoming too fat (SMOLAK
2011). Furthermore, over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy
weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, and taking laxatives
(NEUMARK-SZTAINER, 2005). It is important to note that the age of onset differs depending on the
individuals, and these body image concerns may start younger, or never come up at all.

10 STEPS TO POSITIVE BODY IMAGE

1. APPRECIATE ALL THAT YOUR BODY CAN DO.
2. KEEP A TOP-TEN LIST OF ALL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF.
3. REMIND YOURSELF THAT “TRUE BEAUTY” IS NOT SIMPLY SKIN DEEP.
4. LOOK AT YOURSELF AS A WHOLE PERSON.
5. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH POSITIVE PEOPLE.
 6. SHUT DOWN THOSE VOICES IN YOUR HEAD THAT TELL YOU YOUR BODY IS NOT RIGHT OR
THAT YOU A BAD PERSON
7. WEAR CLOTHES THAT ARE COMFORTBALE AND THAT MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOUR
BODY. WORK WITH YOUR BODY, NOT AGAINST IT.
8. BECOMEA CRITICAL VIEWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGES.
9. DO SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF.
10. USE THE TIME AND ENGERY THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE SPENT WORRYING ABOUT FOOD,
CALORIES, AND YOUR WEIGHT TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP OTHERS.

SEXUAL SELF-CONCEPT - defined as individual’s evaluation of his or her own sexual feelings and actions-
is proposed as an important predictor of contraceptive behavior among teenagers, and a scale
measuring the concept is described.

SEXUAL SELF - is comprised of sexual orientation, gender role and gender identity.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION - refers to a person’s emotional and sexual attraction to a particular sex.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION IS TYPICALLY DIVIDED INTO FOUR CATEGORIES;

HETEROSEXUALITY - the attraction to individuals of the opposite sex.

HOMOSEXUALITY - the attraction to individual of one’s own sex

BISEXUALITY - the attraction to individuals of either sex.

ASEXUALITY - no attraction to either sex.

HETEROSEXUALS AND HOMOSEXUALS - may also be referred to informally straight and gay respectively.

NORTH AMERICA - is a heteronormative society, meaning it supports heterosexuality as the norm.

Homosexual often asked “WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE GAY?”

Heterosexuals rarely asked “WHEN DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU WERE STRAIGHT?”

According to current scientific understanding, individuals are usually aware of their sexual
orientation between middle childhood and early adolescence (American psychological association
2008).

HOMOSEXUAL WOMEN - also referred to as lesbians.

HOMOSEXUAL MAN - also referred to as gays.

Bisexual of both genders may have very different experiences of discovering and accepting their
sexual orientation. At the point of puberty, some may be able to claim their sexual orientations while
others may be unready or unwilling to make their homosexuality or bisexuality known since it goes North
Americans society’s historical norms (APA 2008).
GENDER - is much more complex. It is a social and legal status, and set of expectations from society
about behaviors, characteristics, and thoughts.
- Is much bigger and more complicated than assigned sex.
- Includes gender roles, which are expectations society and people have about behaviors,
thoughts and characteristics that go with a person’s assigned sex.
- Is also a social and legal status as girls, and boys, men and women.
- Society’s set of expectations, standards, and characteristics about how men and women are
supposed to act.

FAMILY - is the first agent of socialization.

GENDER ROLES - refer to societal expectations of how men and women should act.

GENDER IDENTITY - is how you feel inside and how you express your gender through clothing, behavior
and personal appearance.
- Is defined as a personal conception of oneself as male or female.

Some people assigned sex and gender identity are pretty much the same, or in line with each other. These
people are called CISGENDER.

Assigned sex is female, but gender identity is male. These people are called TRANSGENDER or TRANS.

Individuals who identity with the role that is the opposite of their biological sex are called TRANSGENDER.

Transgendered individuals who wish to alter their bodies through medical interventions such as surgery
and hormonal therapy----- so that their physical being is better aligned with gender identity are called
TRANSSEXUALS.

SEXUAL GENITAL - is a biological feature that distinguishes males from females.

During puberty, observable changes in the human body also known as SECONDARY SEXUAL
CHARACTERISTICS BEGIN.

GENDER ROLES - refer to societal expectations of how men and women should act.

BELK (1988) - stated that “WE REGARD OUR POSSESSIONS AS PARTS OF OUR SELVES”.

Our wanting to have and possess had connection with another aspect of the self- THE MATERIAL SELF.

WILLIAM JAMES - also known as the father of American psychology.

- Identified various components of the empirical self.

EMPERICAL SELF - one of which is what he called a material self.

MATERIAL SELF - is not only consisting of his own body but also includes the different things he possesses.

CLOTHING - is an essential part of the material self. Next or second to the body

MICROCOSMUS - stipulates that “any time we bring an object into the surface of our body, we invest
that object into the consciousness of our personal existence taking in its contours to be our own and
making it part of the self”.
IMMEDIATE FAMILY - third in the hierarchy.

HOME - forth component of material self. Is where our heart is.

-Earliest nest of our selfhood.

RUSSEL BELK - posits that “WE REGARD OUR POSSESSIONS AS PART OF OURSELFS, WE ARE WHAT WE
HAVE AND WHAT WE POSSESESS”.

SPIRITUAL SELF - is one of the four constituents of the self-according to William James in his book THE
PRINICPLES OF PYSCHOLOGY (1890).
- Is the most intimate, inner subject of the self.
- Indicates that a person is a spiritual being.

SPIRITUAL BEING - it is capable of higher concerns and of rising above the material.

GLOBAL SPIRITUALLY - is the core value of the spiritual dimension of a person.

- Refers to a spiritual journey which has three directions. (INWARD, OUTWARD,
FORWARD).

INWARD JOURNEY - enables us to develop our inner relationship with god of the sacred source of life.

OUTWARD JOURNEY - allows us to grow in our relationships with human community.

FORWARD JOURNEY - challenge us to consider our relationship with future generations.

RICK WARREN - in his book “THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE” shared some insight of the purpose of man’s life
here on earth.

FILIPINO VALUES AND TRAITES;

1. THE FILIPINO HOSPITALITY
2. RESPECT FOR ELDERS
3. CLOSE FAMILY TIES.
4. CHEERFUL PERSONALITY
5. ”BAYANIHAN”
6. “BAHALA NA” ATTITUDE
7. COLONIAL MENTALITY
8. MANANA HABIT
9. NINIGAS KUGON
10. CRAB MENTALITY.

FILIPINO TIME - related to the manana habit.

- Refers to the Filipino’s own unique brand of time, which is known to be minutes or
hours behind the scheduled or standard time.

BE AN ACTIVE FILIPINO;
1. SUPPORT LOCAL
2. SPEAK THE FILIPINO LANGUAGE
3. DO NOT SPREAD FAKE NEWS AND BE DEMOCRATIC IN ENGAGING WITH DISSENT.
ASPECTS OF SELF: PHYSICAL, SEEXUAL, SPIRTUAL, AND SOCAL BEEING.
NOW IN ASPECTS OF SELF, THEY INCLUDE – FINANCIAL POLITICAL AND DIGITAL SELF.
UNPACKING THE SELF - to unpack means discovering many facets of self.
- We have self for each and social situation.

We are living in a word where the MATERIAL and IMMATERIAL SELF are both represented.
PHYSICAL SELF - is the concrete dimension, the tangible aspect of the person that can directly observed
and examined.
BEAUTY - is appreciated differently, it varies from time, culture, and various perceptions about the world.
PHYSICAL BEAUTY - is important because our character and value as a person is still match to count on.
Second dimension is the SEXUAL SELF.
SEXUAL SELF - it is defined as an individual’s evaluation of her or his own sexual feeling and actions.
Each one of us has a sexual self, this involves RELATIONSHIPS and THE WORLD OF SENSUAL EXPERIENCES.
The aspect of unpacking the self would examine the sexuality, development of secondary
characteristics, and human reproductive system, human sexual response, roles of hormones in sexual
activity, diversity of sexual behavior, psychological aspects of sexual desire, sexual orientation and
gender identity issues, reproductive health, and the advantages and disadvantages of family planning.
ECONOMIC SELF - signifies aspects of one’s sense of self and identity.
ONE’S SENSE OF SELF AND IDENTITY - is influential on how individual chooses to purchase his or her
wants. Makes economic decision and address personal and social needs.
SPIRITUAL SELF -it is vital that you develop a healthy sense of wonder. About beliefs
- comprise activates that we engaged in to find and nurture a sense of connections to a
higher power and meaning for our lives

Regardless of where you find spiritual meanings, a certain amount of effort and discipline are necessary
for establishing and maintaining SPIRITUAL NURTURANCE.
POLITICAL SELF - we tend to focus about our national identity and on being a citizen in our country.
- Personality and image count for a lot on Philippines politics.

DIGITAL SELF - it has become an additional facet of self

- It is also called online life, or virtual world
- It has oriented inward and toward the world of thoughts and feelings because they can’t
see the users.
ONLINE LIFE – change the dynamics of self-identity, especially to the young generations.
SELF-PRESENTATION - tends to be superficial, people interact with digital world where those people you
know both online and offline although familiarity with these people would considerably vary
SOCIAL WORLD - is socially constructed through interactions between people, roles, roots,
categorizations, stereotypes, and so on.
SOCIAL NETWORKS - have the powers to amplify this human nature.
SELF-ACCEPTANCE - is being able to accept yourself in entirety.
FORGIVENESS AND COMPASSION TOWARDS YOURSELF AND OTHERS - ARE VERY IMPORTANT THIS TO
PRACTICE.
Accepting our talents is an essential step for SELF-ACCEPTANCE.
- It allows us to see limitations as opportunities rather than as obstacles.

“True self-acceptance is the realization that you are what you seek” - ROBERT HOLDEN