UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Introduction to Self-Understanding

Understanding oneself is essential to understand behaviors and beliefs that affects ourselves and others specifically
in becoming effective and successful person in life, work, and relationship. Moreover, self-understanding (1) provides a
sense of purpose; (2) leads to healthier relationships; (3) helps harness your natural strength; and (4) promotes
confidence.

This module will introduce you to the basic concepts of self and personality, and how they are related with each
other. Self and personality characterized the way we define our existence, also these refers on how we organized our
experiences that are reflected to our behavior. On the other hand, people have different ideas about themselves. These ideas
represent the self of the person. Moreover, we behave in different ways in a given situation, but people also behave fairly
stable in different circumstances. The relatively permanent pattern of behavior represents personality of the person.

Personality

▪ The etymological derivative of personality comes from the word “persona”, the theatrical masks worn by Romans
in Greek and Latin drama. Personality also comes from the two Latin words “per” and “sonare”, which literally
means “to sound through.”

▪ Personality has no single definition since different personality theories have different views on how to define it.
However, the commonly accepted definition of personality is that it is a relatively permanent traits and unique
characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior (Roberts & Mroczek, 2008).

▪ Personality plays a key role in affecting how people shape their lives. It involves the complex relationship of people
with their environment, how they cope and adjust through life, and how they respond to demands of physical and
social challenges.

▪ Personality is the overall pattern or integration of a person’s structure, modes of behavior, attitudes, aptitudes,
interests, intellectual abilities, and many other distinguishable personality traits.

▪ Personality is the conglomeration of the following components: physical self, intelligence, character traits, attitudes,
habits, interest, personal discipline, moral values, principles, and philosophies of life.

Determinants of Personality

Personality refers to the total person in his/her overt and covert behavior. The determinants of factors of personality
are as follows:

▪ Environmental Factors of Personality

The surroundings of an individual compose the environmental factors of personality. This includes the
neighborhood a person lives in, his school, college, university, and workplace. Moreover, it also counts the social
circle the individual has. Friends, parents, colleagues, co-workers and bosses, everybody plays a role as the
determinants of personality.

▪ Biological Factors of Personality

This further includes: 1) hereditary factors or genetic make-up of the person that inherited from their
parents. This describes the tendency of the person to appear and behave the way their parents are; 2) physical
features include the overall physical structure of a person: height, weight, color, sex, beauty and body language, etc.
Most of the physical structures change from time to time, and so does the personality. With exercises, cosmetics
and surgeries, many physical features are changed, and therefore, the personality of the individual also evolves; and
3) brain. The preliminary results from the electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) research gives indication that
better understanding of human personality and behavior might come from the study of the brain.

▪ Situational Factors of Personality

Although these factors do not literally create and shape up an individual’s personality, situational factors
do alter a person’s behavior and response from time to time. The situational factors can be commonly observed
when a person behaves contrastingly and exhibits different traits and characteristics.
 ▪ Cultural Factors

Culture is traditionally considered as the major determinants of an individual’s personality. The culture
largely determinants what a person is and what a person will learn. The culture within a person is brought up, is
very important determinant of behavior of a person. Culture is complex of these belief, values, and techniques for
dealing with the environment which are shared among contemporaries and transmitted by one generation to the
next.

Personality Traits

Personality traits reflect people’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Personality traits imply
consistency and stability—someone who scores high on a specific trait like Extraversion is expected to be sociable in
different situations and over time. Thus, trait psychology rests on the idea that people differ from one another in terms of
where they stand on a set of basic trait dimensions that persist over time and across situations.

The most widely used system of traits is called the Five-Factor Model. This system includes five broad traits that
can be remembered with the acronym OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and
Neuroticism. Each of the major traits from the Big Five can be divided into facets to give a more fine-grained analysis of
someone's personality. In addition, some trait theorists argue that there are other traits that cannot be completely captured
by the Five-Factor Model. Critics of the trait concept argue that people do not act consistently from one situation to the next
and that people are very influenced by situational forces. Thus, one major debate in the field concerns the relative power of
people’s traits versus the situations in which they find themselves as predictors of their behavior.

The Five-Factor Model of Personality

Research that used the lexical approach showed that many of the personality descriptors found in the dictionary do
indeed overlap. In other words, many of the words that we use to describe people are synonyms. Thus, if we want to know
what a person is like, we do not necessarily need to ask how sociable they are, how friendly they are, and how gregarious
they are. Instead, because sociable people tend to be friendly and gregarious, we can summarize this personality dimension
with a single term. Someone who is sociable, friendly, and gregarious would typically be described as an “Extravert.” Once
we know she is an extravert, we can assume that she is sociable, friendly, and gregarious.

The table below provides descriptions of people who would score high and low on each of these traits.

Table 1. Descriptions of Personality Traits

Big Five Trait Definition

Openness The tendency to appreciate new art, ideas, values, feelings, and behaviors.
Conscientiousness The tendency to be careful, on-time for appointments, to follow rules, and to be hard working.
Extraversion The tendency to be talkative, sociable, and to enjoy others; the tendency to have a dominant style.
Agreeableness The tendency to agree and go along with others rather than to assert one owns opinions and choices.
The tendency to be frequently experienced negative emotions such as anger, worry, and sadness,
Neuroticism
as well as being interpersonally sensitive.

Table 2. Example behaviors for those scoring low and high for the big 5 traits.

Big Five Trait Example Behavior for LOW Scorers
Prefers not to be exposed to alternative moral
Openness systems; narrow interest; inartistic; not
analytical; down-to-earth.
Prefers spur-of-the-moment action to planning;
Conscientiousness
unreliable; hedonistic; careless; lax.
Preferring a quiet evening reading to a loud
Extraversion
party; sober; aloof; unenthusiastic.
Quickly and confidently asserts own rights;
Agreeableness irritable; manipulative; uncooperative; rude.
Not getting irritated by small annoyances;
Neuroticism calm, unemotional; hardy; secure; self-
satisfied.
Example Behavior for HIGH Scorers
Enjoys seeing people with new types of
haircuts and body piercing; curious;
imaginative; untraditional.
Never late for a date, organized; hardworking;
neat, persevering; punctual; self-disciplined.
Being the life of the party’ active; optimistic;
fun-loving; affectionate.
Agrees with other about political opinions;
good-natured; forgiving; gullible; helpful;
forgiving.
Constantly worrying about little things;
insecure; hypochondriacal; feeling inadequate.
 Scores on the Big Five traits are mostly independent. That means that a person’s standing on one trait tells very
little about their standing on the other traits of the Big Five. For example, a person can be extremely high in Extraversion
and be either high or low on Neuroticism. Similarly, a person can be low in Agreeableness and be either high or low in
Conscientiousness. Thus, in the Five-Factor Model, you need five scores to describe most of an individual’s personality.

Traits are important and interesting because they describe stable patterns of behavior that persist for long periods
of time (Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005). Importantly, these stable patterns can have broadranging consequences for many
areas of our life (Roberts, Kuncel, Shiner, Caspi, & Goldberg, 2007). For instance, think about the factors that determine
success in college. If you were asked to guess what factors predict good grades in college, you might guess something like
intelligence. This guess would be correct, but we know much more about who is likely to do well. Specifically, personality
researchers have also found the personality traits like Conscientiousness play an important role in college and beyond,
probably because highly conscientious individuals study hard, get their work done on time, and are less distracted by
nonessential activities that take time away from school work. In addition, highly conscientious people are often healthier
than people low in conscientiousness because they are more likely to maintain healthy diets, to exercise, and to follow basic
safety procedures like wearing seat belts or bicycle helmets. Over the long term, this consistent pattern of behaviors can add
up to meaningful differences in health and longevity. Thus, personality traits are not just a useful way to describe people
you know; they actually help psychologists predict how good a worker someone will be, how long he or she will live, and
the types of jobs and activities the person will enjoy.

Who Am I?

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Who am I?”? Answering the question 'Who am I?' can lead to a solid
self-concept and self-understanding. For many people, answering this question isn't very easy. For others, a solid
understanding of who they are is a big part of their lives. Understanding of who you are as a person is called self-concept
and understanding what your motives are when you act is called self-understanding.

In definition, self-concept is generally thought of as our individual perceptions of our behavior, abilities, and unique
characteristics—a mental picture of who you are as a person. For example, beliefs such as "I am a good friend" or "I am a
kind person" are part of an overall self-concept.

Self-concept tends to be more malleable when people are younger and still going through the process of self-
discovery and identity formation. As people age, self-perceptions become much more detailed and organized as people form
a better idea of who they are and what is important to them.

According to the book Essential Social Psychology by Richard Crisp and Rhiannon Turner:

▪ The individual self consists of attributes and personality traits that differentiate us from other individuals. Examples
include introversion or extroversion.

▪ The relational self is defined by our relationships with significant others. Examples include siblings, friends, and
spouses.

▪ The collective self reflects our membership in social groups. Examples include British, Republican, African-
American, or gay.

At its most basic, self-concept is a collection of beliefs one holds about oneself and the responses of others. It
embodies the answer to the question “Who am I?” The lesson to follow will facilitate learning about the self, and self-
concept.