LESSON 1 KNOWING ONESELF: Exploring,
Discovering, and Disclosing Oneself
 
WHAT IS SELF?
“Know Thyself”
 This maxim denotes that you as a human
being must:
1. Examine your inner self;
2. Live according to your belief and values;
3. Be aware of your strengths and
weaknesses, dreams and passion, fear
and negative traits; and
4. Know how to understand them.
 
Self
 A person’s essential being, including one’s
typical character or behavior, which
distinguishes the individual from another.
 Attributes and abilities that are not physical
and that make a person unique.
 
ADVANTAGES OF KNOWING THYSELF
1. Self-awareness will aid you understanding
yourself. (what motivates you, what you
bad habits you must resist, and your
preferences on things grounded on your
beliefs and values)
2. It will help you relate in understanding
others, too. (learning to adjust, feel
sympathy and even empathy, and create
sound relationship with others)
3. It is the start of becoming happy person.
4. You would be more likely to get what you
want.
5. You will have less inner conflict if your
outside actions and inside feelings and
values are in accordance.
6. It can help you make better choices for
everything.
7. Being who you truly are would help you
more alive and make you experience a
richer, larger and more exciting life.
 
HOW DO YOU GAIN SELF-AWARENESS?
1. Understand your life story.
2. Make self-reflection a daily habit.
3. Seek honest feedback.
DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY
Factor 1. Biological Factors of Personality
 Biological factors are anything that affect
the function and behavior of a living
organism which include hereditary factors,
physical appearance and physique, and
rate of maturation.
Basically, the influence of biological
factors on personality structure are limited
and indirect. For personality development
characteristics such as aggressiveness,
nervousness, timidity and sociability are
strongly influenced by genetics.
The constitutional make-up (which is also
largely determined by heredity) influences
a person’s personality characteristics and
influences personality development in an
indirect way.
 
Heredity
 factors that were determined at conception
which include physical attributes, facial
attractiveness, sex, temperaments and
biological rhythms that are inherited from
parents.
o The rate of development is an important
factor in causing striking variations in the
age at which an individual attains maturity
due to chronological development.
o But take caution in emphasizing the
influence of physical attributes to personality
development. The relationship of physical
make-up and psychological characteristics is
not very rigid and categorical. It can be
influenced by a vast number of complex,
interacting factors determining the
individual’s personality structure.
 
Factor 2. Cultural Determinants of Personality
Social Environment
 From the point of view of this discipline,
it is the most significant aspect of the
individual’s world.
 All humans live in a society, an
interacting group of people.
Each society has distinctive:
o Culture
o Body of stored knowledge
o Characteristic way of living
o Feelings, attitude, goals
o Ideals and value systems
 There are cultural variations in the
methods of achieving such goal as to
perpetuating the group and maintaining
the solidarity or for satisfying the basic
need of its members.
 There are cultural prescriptions, so
children from different cultural
 background differs in personality
structure, behavior and attitudes.
 
Factor 3. Family Influences on Personality
Development
Family
 It has the most significant impact on early
personality development.
 Your first social learning occurs at home,
and your first experiences with your family,
especially your mother, are critical in
determining your attitude toward and your
expectations of other individuals.  psychological stress and experience
 The impact of various types of home
atmosphere on personality characteristics
have been studied cross-culturally. The
orientation at home affects greatly the
personality of the children as they grow.
LESSON 2 Understanding One’s Personality
Personality
→ Affected by both nature and nurture.
o Nature
 refers to heredity or genetic make-up
o Nurture
 refers to environment.
 
→ Developed through the combined influences
of heredity, environmental factors and cultural
backgrounds.
→ Psychology has identified factors that
determine different personality traits they are
known as the Big Five Factors.
 
BIG FIVE FACTORS
1. Openness
o Refers to being appreciative of varied
and new experiences.
o People who have a high level of
openness to experience often enjoy
going out the comfort zone.
2. Conscientiousness
o Is a measure of your tendency to control
impulses as well your competence,
sense of responsibility, orderliness and
drive for achievement.
3. Extraversion
o Is possibly the most recognizable
personality traits.
o It indicates how outgoing and social
person is.
 Introverts on the other hand, need plenty of
alone time perhaps because their brains
process social interaction differently.
4. Agreeableness
o Is the tendency to be cooperative and
compassionate towards others.
o It is the measure of the extent of
persons warmth and kindness.
5. Neuroticism
o Refers to the tendency to be prone to
unpleasant emotions easily.
o People who are high in Neuroticism
worry frequently and easily slip into
anxiety and depression.
 
LESSON 3 Developing the Whole Person
HOLISTIC PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
 refers to individual development areas.
 It is the multifaceted process of becoming
self-actualized which involves all aspects
of the self – physical, mental, emotional
and spiritual and includes taking personal
responsibility for one’s own learning and
development through a process of
assessment, reflection and action.
 
THEORIES OF HOLISTIC PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT
 The Holistic Dynamic Theory assumes that
the whole person is continually being
motivated by one need or another and that
people have the potential to grow toward
psychology health, that is self-
actualization.
 ABRAHAM MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF
NEEDS
 In 1943 Abraham Maslow, one of the most
influential psychologist of 20th century,
proposed a theory in psychology which is
known as Hierarchy of Needs.
 He proposed that a healthy human being
has certain needs and that these needs
are arranged in hierarchy.

AREAS OF HOLISTIC PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT
 Holistic development refers to human
development that is meant to involve all
aspects of a person: physical, spiritual,
mental, emotional and social.
 
A. Physical Development
 According to Dr. Wayne W. Dyer:
“We are not physical being having a
spiritual experience, but we are spiritual
being having a physical experience.”
 Physical development can be defined as
the progress of an individual’s control over
his own body. The awareness of your own
physical development allows you to
determine your state of health and start
working on it.
B. Spiritual Development
 Spiritual development is the process of
evolving one’s inner self your
consciousness.
 Your spirit is your soul. It is the real you. It
needs nourishment.
C. Mental Development
 Mental development concerns the mind. It
involves the thinking process; it is all things
we are aware or unaware of.
 Certain experiences affect our mental
status.
 Mental development greatly affects your
relationships, education and career.
 A healthy development allows you to have
a much better capacity for learning,
adapting to situation and controlling your
behavior.
D. Emotional Development
 Emotional development is an area of
development that is difficult to work on
because how you emotionally react to
things, people, and situations is not
something that you can easily change.
 Emotional healthy individual can identify
and understand their own feelings at the
same time, can accurately read and
understand the feelings of others.
E. Social Development
 Social development refers to the process
by which one learns to interact with other
people around him. It also refers to how
you develop relationships with others and if
conflict arises, how well you handle it.
 Each of these areas of personal
development are equally important and
you must use each of them in making your
personal development plan.
 Do not disregard and underestimate the
power of any area and how it can affect
your life.
 
LESSON 4 DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES IN
MIDDLE AND LATE ADOLESCENCE
 
INTRODUCTION
 Our history made us, build us, and
connect us to our environment, we are
connected with others, and their history
also depends on us.
 As a person develops he/she connect
themselves with others, in that sense
our developmental stages are
connected with other people. In this
lesson we are going to understand the
stages of development and how it affect
us and our environment.
 
According to Erik Erikson:
 The only thing that can save us as species
is seeing how we are not thinking about
future generations in the way we live. 
According to Ralph Waldo Emerson:
 "The only person you are destined to
become is the person you decide to be."
 
THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
 Human personality doesn’t come from
nothing. We might get our personality from
genetics, influences, culture or even
experience.
 In this lesson we are going to understand
how and where we get our distinct
character. We will also understand views
of Psychologist in gaining personality traits.
 
SIGMUND FREUD'S THEORY OF
PERSONALITY
 Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
 The Founding Father of Psychoanalysis
  Proposed method of treating mental Genital Beyond Individuals are
illness and theory that explains human Stage puberty attracted to opposite
behavior. sex peers.
 According to Freud, personality
develops from the interactions among  
what he called as the three basic ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY OF
structures of the human mind: DEVELOPMENT
o the id  In 1950, Erik Erikson, a developmental
o ego, and; psychologist and psychoanalyst, proposed a
o Superego psychosocial theory of development which
consists of eight stages from infancy to
 Conflicts among these three structures
adulthood.
and our effort to find balance among
 The person, according to Erikson,
these three would determine how we
experiences a psychosocial crisis during
behave in this world.
each stage which could have a positive or
 Superego (morality)
negative outcome for personality
 Wait for the right time.
development.
 Id (Instinct)  
 You are hungry, go out and eat
something.
 Ego (Reality)
 I'm hungry, I want to go out and eat
something
 
FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL THEORY OF
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
 Freud believes that not every person
completes that necessary tasks of every
developmental stage. And when they don’t,
the results can be a mental condition
requiring psychoanalysis to achieve proper  
functioning.
Stage Age What happens at this
range stage

Oral 0-1 Year Children derive

Stage Old pleasure from oral
activities, including
sucking and tasting
They like to put things
in their mouth.

Anal 2-3 Years Children begin potty  

Stage old training.

Phallic 3-6 Years Boys are more

Stage old attached to their
mother, while girls are
more attached to their
father.

Latency 6 Years Children spend more

Stage old to time and interact
puberty mostly with same sex
peers.  
Adopted from R. Havighurst:
  A developmental task is task that arises at
or about a certain period in life,
unsuccessful achievement of which leads
to inability of performance tasks associated
with the next period or stage in life.
 
DEVELOPMENTAL TASK
1. Learn to get along with friends of both
sexes and of different ages.
2. Accept one’s physical body and keep it
healthy.
3. Become more self-sufficient and
Independent
4. Make a decisions about marriage and
family life.
5. Prepare for a job or career.
6. Acquire a set of values to guide Behavior.
7. Become socially responsible
 
 
LESSON 5 STRESS AND COPING IN MIDDLE
ADOLESCENCE
 
STRESS
 Stress is a reaction or response to any kind
of demand or threat. The circumstances that
cause stress may be real or imagined. The
body’s physical response to stress is its way
of protecting you.
THEORIES OF STRESS
Systemic Stress: Selye’s Theory
o Selye (1976) defines stress as “ state
manifested by a syndrome which
consists of all the nonspecifically induced
changes in biologic system”.
o His stress model states that a situation
that threatens an organisms well-being
leads to a series of stereotypical
responses called general adaptation
syndrome (GAS)  CAUSES OF STRESS
Stage 1 : Alarm
 The action comprises an initial shock phase
and a subsequent counter shock phase.
Stage 2 : Resistance
 The organism enters resistance stage if
harmful stimulation continues. In this stage,
the symptoms of the alarm reaction
disappear, which seemingly indicates the
organism’s adaptation to the stressor.
Stage 3 : Exhaustion
 The organism gives way to stage of
exhaustion if the obnoxious stimulation
continues.
 If the ability of the organism to adapt to the
stressor is exhausted, the symptoms of the
first stage would reappear, but resistance is
no longer possible.
Stage 4 : Return to Normal
 In which the parasympathetic nervous
system is activated and body returns to
normal state.
SOURCES OF STRESS
 The relaxation and stress reduction
workbook by Davis, Eshelman and Mckay
(2008) sheds light on four basic sources of
stress.
 
1. Environment
o Stressors that are found in the
surroundings are called environment
stressors.
o Our environment is constantly
bombarding us with a diverse array of
allergens, toxins, pollution, noise and
traffic.
2. Social
o There is wide array of stressors within
our social world, placing demands on
our time and attention as well as our
mental and emotional resources.
3. Physiological
o Physiological or biological stress is an
organism response to a stressor. Our
bodies are constantly undergoing
changes as we go through the days,
weeks, months, and years.
4. Thoughts
o Our own internal cognitive processes
are an unimaginable source of stress.
Our own interpretation of
environmental changes has a great
deal to do with the subject levels
stress that we actually experience.
 
1. Family and Friends
2. Life changes
3. Finances
4. Work
5. Health Issues
6. Death of a loved one
7. Marital separation
8. Personal Relationship
9. Pregnancy
 
COMMON STRESSORS
 Family definitions and Expectations
 Health concern
  Social life
 Bullying
 
COPING WITH STRESS
 Coping is the conscious effort to deal
successfully with a difficult situation.
 The commonly used term, coping
strategies or coping skills, are also known
as psychological coping mechanisms.
 They are developed from infancy and are
learned by watching others and sometimes
through trial and error.
 Perceived control is an important resource
in coping with stressful situations.
 
1. Keep a positive attitude
2. Accepting that there are events that you
cannot control
3. Learn to Relax
4. Be Regularly active
5. Eat well-balanced Meal
6. Get Enough Rest and Sleep
7. Identify your stressors and find effective
ways to cope with them
8. Avoid caffeine, alcohol and nicotine
9. Talk to someone
 
 
LESSON 6 THE POWERS OF THE
ADOLESCENT BRAIN
 
THE HUMAN BRAIN
 The most powerful human organ is the
brain.
 Among vertebrates, relative to body size, the
human brain is the largest.
o The brain makes up about two percent of
a human’s body weight.
o A lot of us believe that great minds are
born and there those who are simply
gifted.
 However, we must think that all of us were
born with equally powerful brains and
everyone has the ability to use the brain’s
great potentials.
 
THE HEMISPHERES OF THE HUMAN BRAIN
 The largest part of the human brain is the
cerebrum which is divided into two halves:
o Left hemisphere
 receives sensory inputs and control
all the muscles on the right-hand
side of the body.
 Logic, analytical thought, math &
science
o Right hemisphere
 receives inputs from and control
those on the left-hand side.
 Intuitive thought, emotions, creativity
 They are connected to each other by corpus
callosum.
 The two hemispheres receive inputs and
control the opposite sides of the body.
 The two hemispheres are not entirely
symmetrical.
 
THE ADOLESCENT'S BRAIN
 The brain of adolescent continuously
develops until early adulthood.
 In recent researches, it has been found that
teen and adult brains work differently.
Findings show that adults think with
prefrontal cortex which is known as rational
part of the brain.
Amygdala
 The part of the brain which is relied upon
when making decisions and solving
problems, since the prefrontal cortex is not
yet fully developed and will not be until age
25 or so.
 Part of the limbic system which is associated
with emotions, impulses, aggression and
instinctive behavior.
 
5 THINGS ABOUT THE ADOLESCENT BRAIN
 New Thinking Skills
 Intense Emotions
 Peer Pressure
 Measuring Risk
 I am The Center Of The World
BUILDING A HEALTHY ADOLESCENT BRAIN
 Be positive role model.
 Stay connected with your child.
 Allow your child to take some healthy risks.
 Talk through decision step by step with your
child.
 Talks with your child about his/her
developing brain.
 Use family routines to give your child’s life
some structure.
 Offer frequent praise and positive rewards
for desired behavior.
 Provide boundaries and opportunities for
negotiating those boundaries.
 Help your child find new creative and
expressive outlets for his/her feelings.
 Ask about possible courses of action your
child might choose, and talk through
potential consequences.
 
LESSON 7 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
 
EMOTION
 natural and instinctive state of mind or
intuitive feeling.
 Distinguished from reasoning of
knowledge, an emotion is derived from
one’s circumstances, mood or
relationship with others.
 Emotions are complex experience of
consciousness, sensation and behavior
that reflects the personal significance of
a thing, event, or situation.
 Examples:
o Joy
o Sorrow
o Fear
o Hate
o Anger
THE THREE PURPOSE OF EMOTIONS
1. Emotions are means of communication.
o Your emotions serves an important
function, that is to connect with other. In
relating with others, our facial expression,
tone and tempo of voice, and body
language have more impact than the
words we say.
2. Emotions motivates behavioral impulses
o The biological underpinning convey fast
acting, yet subtle, bodily sensations that
we experience as impulses which causes
our body to take necessary action to get
our needs met.
3. Emotional signal a need
o We tend to experience emotion when
something is important to us. We feel sad
when something important to us get lost.
We feel surprised if our wish comes true.
JAMES-LANGE THEORY OF EMOTION
 From Psychologist William James (1842-
1910) and the physiologist Carl Lange
(1834-1900)
 Emotions occur as result of physiological
reactions to events.
 Example scenario:
1. You witness an external stimulus.
2. The stimulus leads to a physiological
response.
3. Your emotional reaction depends on
your interpretation of the physical
response.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EMOTIONS
Positive
 Hope, Pride, Empathy, Happiness, Faith,
Joy, Love
Negative
 Anger, Sadness, Shame, Guilt, Fear,
Hate, Regret
 
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
 EI, otherwise known as emotional
quotient (EQ)
 Refers to the capability of individual to:
o Recognize their own emotions
and those others.
o Discern between different
feelings and label them
appropriately.
o Use emotions information to
guide thinking and behavior •
Manage and/or adjust emotions
to adapt to environment or
achieve one’s goal
o Connect intelligence, empathy,
and emotions to enhance
thought and understanding of
interpersonal dynamics.
 
STEPS IN EMOTION REGULATION
1. Do Not React Right Away!
2. Ask For Divine Guidance
3. Find A Healthy Outlet
4. Look At The Bigger Picture
5. Replace Your Thoughts
6. Forgive Your Emotional Triggers