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UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

INTRODUCTION

-ONE OF THE CORE COURSES UNDER THE

GENERAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM.

-IT COVERS THE NATURE OF IDENTITY, THE

FACTORS AND FORCES THAT AFFECT
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
MAINTENANCE OF PERSONAL IDENTITY.
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IT AIMS TO ASSIST STUDENTS IN

- KNOWING AND ACCEPTING ONESELF

BY RAISING FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS
ABOUT THE SELF.

- IDENTIFY THEIR GOALS, HABITS,

ATTITUDES AND SKILLS.

- TO DEVELOP CONFIDENCE AND SELF-ESTEEM

SO THEY MAY FIND MEANING IN THEIR LIFE.
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PREFACE
╺ UNDERSTANDING THE SELF IS A
FUNDAMENTAL COURSE IN THE GENERAL
EDUCATION CURRICULUM FOR TERTIARY
STUDENT. IT IS DESIGNED TO HELP THE
STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF
IDENTITY INCLUDING FACTORS THAT
INFLUENCE AND SHAPE PERSONAL
IDENTITY.
2

PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF
 SOCRATES

“Know thyself.”
 “
╺ Socrates uses the maxim 'know thyself' as his explanation to
explain why he has no time for the attempts to rationally
explain mythology or other far flung topics. Socrates says, "But
I have no leisure for them at all; and the reason, my friend, is
this: I am not yet able, as the Delphic inscription has it, to know
myself; so it seems to me ridiculous, when I do not yet know
that, to investigate irrelevant things."

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 “
╺ The phrase was later expounded upon by the philosopher
"The unexamined life is not worth living.“

╺ understanding 'thyself,' would have a greater yielded factor

of understanding the nature of a human being.
Syllogistically, understanding oneself would enable thyself
to have an understanding of others as a result.

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 PLATO
╺ “The first and greatest
victory is to conquer
yourself; to be conquered
by yourself is of all things
most shameful and vile.”

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 “The first and greatest victory is to
conquer yourself; to be conquered by
yourself is of all things most shameful and
vile.”
╺ OUR SELF IS FORGED BY REASON AND INTELLECT
THAT HAS TO GOVERN THE AFFAIRS OF THE HUMAN
PERSON.

╺ EACH SOUL: THE RATIONAL SOUL, THE SPIRITED

SOUL, AND THE APPETITIVE SOUL SHOULD BE
10 CONTROLLED.
Augustine
“THE PURPOSE OF
ALL WARS, IS
PEACE”

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“THE PURPOSE OF ALL WARS,
IS PEACE”

╺ "We do not seek peace in order to be at war. But we go to war that we may
have peace. Be peaceful, then, when you fight. Win against enemies that you
fight with, and bring them to a state of peace.“ - Augustine
"It must be said that, in order that a war may be just, three things are necessary.
Firstly, a country must go to war on the authority of its leader. Secondly, there
must be a good enough cause for the leader to go to war. The other country must
deserve to be attacked. Thirdly, the people fighting should do so for the right
personal reasons. That means to either prevent evil or to do good.“ – Thomas
Aquinas
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AUGUSTINE
Bifurcated nature

1. Man in the world

• IMPERFECT

• YEARNING TO BE WITH THE DIVINE

2. Man in the eternal realm

• IMMORTAL

• COMMUNION WITH GOD

GOAL: Achieve communion and bliss with the Divine by living on earth and virtue

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Thomas
Aquinas

“The things we love

tell us what we are.”

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The things we love
tell us what we
are.

And therefore man is reckoned to be

good or bad chiefly according to the
pleasure of the human will; since that
man is good and virtuous, who takes
pleasure in the works of virtue; and
that man evil, who takes pleasure in
evil works.

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 Maurice jean Jacques merleau-ponty
(1908-1961)

• Born on March 14, 1908

• French philosopher and public intellectual
• Leading academic proponent of existentialism
and phenomenology in post-war France
• Best known: embodiment, perception,
ontology
• Focus: problems of perception and
embodiment as a starting point for clarifying
the relation between the mind and the body,
the objective world and the experienced world
• Died: May 4, 1961
 Rene Descartes
(March 31, 1596 – Feb. 11, 1650)

• French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher.

• was one of the first to abandon scholastic Aristotelianism
• formulated the first modern version of mind-body dualism, from which
stems the mind-body problem
• the father of modern philosophy - because he promoted the development
of a new science grounded in observation and experiment, he has been
called
• established new epistemic foundations on the basis of the intuition that,
when he is thinking, he exists; this he expressed in the dictum “I think,
therefore I am” (best known in its Latin formulation, “Cogito, ergo sum,”
though originally written in French, “Je pense, donc je suis”)
• developed a metaphysical dualism that distinguishes radically between
mind, the essence of which is thinking, and matter, the essence of which
is extension in three dimensions.
• Descartes’s metaphysics is rationalist, based on the postulation of innate
ideas of mind, matter, and God, but his physics and physiology, based on
sensory experience, are mechanistic and empiricist.
3 SOCIOLOGY
(Bandura )

our office

The Self and the Development

of the Social World

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 Social Cognitive Theory
Bandura told Richard Evans (Evans, 1989) that his
decision to become a psychologist was quite
accidental; that is, it was the result of a fortuitous
event.

Observational Learning
Bandura believes that observation allows people to
learn without performing any behavior.
Modelling – core of observational learning

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 ╺ Observational learning requires
╺ (1) attention to a model
╺ (2) organization and retention of observations
╺ (3) behavioral production, and
╺ (4) motivation to perform the modeled behavior.
╺ Enactive learning takes place when our responses
produce consequences.

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 ╺ Addtl notes:
╺ Bandura (1986, 2003) believes that observational
learning is much more efficient
╺ than learning through direct experience. By observing
other people, humans
╺ are spared countless responses that might be followed
by punishment or by no reinforcement.

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 4

The Self
and
Culture
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 Filipino Values and Traits
1. FILIPINO HOSPITALITY 10. NINGAS KUGON
2. PO AT OPO 11. PRIDE
3. CLOSE FAMILY TIES 12. CRAB MENTALITY
4. CHEERFUL PERSONALITY 13. FILIPINO TIME
5. SELF- SACRIFICE 14. SUPERSTITIONS
6. BAYANIHAN 15. MYTHS AND LEGENDS
7. BAHALA NA 16. HEROES AND ICONS
8. COLONIAL MENTALITY\
9. MAÑANA HABIT
╺ B.F. SKINNER
Skinner grew up in a comfortable, happy, upper-middle-class
home where his parents practiced the values of temperance,
service, honesty, and hard work
╺ One week before his death, he delivered an emotional address
to the American Psychological Association (APA) convention
in which he continued his advocacy of radical behaviorism. At
this convention, he received an unprecedented Citation for
Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology, the only
person to receive such an award in the history of APA

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B.F. SKINNER’S OPERANT CONDITIONING
╺ Shaping
╺ the child can reach the final target behavior only if the
parent breaks up the complex behavior into its
component parts and then reinforces successive
approximations to each response.
╺ The ABC’s of Behavior: antecedent, the behavior, and
the consequence

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B.F. SKINNER’S OPERANT CONDITIONING

Positive Reinforcement

Presentation of beneficial stimulus such

as money, food, gifts, and etc to
strengthen behavior. Additionally, parents
should rely more on using praises as
reinforcement for their child/children’s
behavior
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B.F. SKINNER’S OPERANT CONDITIONING

Negative Reinforcement

This requires the removal of aversive stimuli such

as anxiety, fear, disgust, discomfort and etc in
order to strengthen behavior. Avoidance of injury,
disease and others may also count as negative
reinforcement, as with providing vaccination for
children to avoid accumulating dangerous health
risks.
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B.F. SKINNER’S OPERANT CONDITIONING
Punishment

Not to be confused with negative reinforcement,

punishments involve the presentation of aversive
stimuli to discourage a specific behavior, as with
spanking or hitting a misbehaving child. While this
is expected to reduce the likelihood of repeating a
behavior, its effects are less predictable than those
of positive and negative reinforcements.
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 Alfred Adler’s Birth Order Theory
╺ Suffered from rickets while he was young and almost
died from pneumonia at 5.
╺ Held strong rivalry against his older brother, Sigmund.
╺ These events led to Adler suffering from feelings of
inferiority.
Alfred Adler’s Birth Order Theory
7

PSYCHOLOGY
Demonstrate critical and reflective
thought in analyzing the development
of one’s self and identity by
developing a theory of the self.
 ERIK ERIKSON’S DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES

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39
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Among the Psychologists discussed, Maslow had
perhaps the worst childhood experience.

Felt hatred and deep-seated animosity toward his

mother until he died
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
 8 The Self as
Cognitive
Construct

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 Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Published his first scientific paper at the age of 11.
Developed his theories through observations with his own nephew
and daughter.
Children’s minds were not merely smaller versions of adults’ minds.

Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor – birth to 2 years old

- The child learns through basic reflexes, movement and sensation
- He also learns the concept of object permanence

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 Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Preoperational – 2 to 7 years old

- The child begins to use symbolic thinking
- Most children at this stage is egocentric
- They struggle to understand the idea of constancy or
conservation

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 Concrete Operational – 7 to 11 years old
- The child learns the idea of conservation
- They begin to do logical thinking and inductive reasoning
- Their egocentrism fades

Formal Operational – 11 and above

- Finally, the child gets oriented with abstract thinking
- They also begin to learn using deductive reasoning

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 Schema – pre-formulated concepts or knowledge that can be
modified or expanded.
Assimilation – adding new information to the original set of
schema to broaden the knowledge-base of an individual
Accommodation – modifying what already exists in the
schema especially when the original knowledge does not apply
to the situation
Equilibration – a balance between assimilation and
accommodation

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 9

The self in Western and

Eastern Thoughts
 WESTERN CULTURE
.
IS WHAT WE WOULD
CALLL AN
INDIVIDUALISTIC
CULTURE SINCE
THEIR FOCUS IS ON
THE PERSON
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 EASTERN
. CULTURE
LOOK AFTER THE
WELFARE OF THEIR
GROUPS AND
VALUES
COOPERATION.

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 REVIEW: MIDTERM

EXAM WEEK

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1
THE
BIOLOGICAL
A picture is worth a
thousand words

SELF
A complex idea can be conveyed with
just a single still image, namely making
it possible to absorb large amounts of
data quickly.
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GENES AND HEREDITY

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 Sexually
Transmitted
Diseases
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Chlamydia
It’s one of the most common STDs, and most people
who have chlamydia don’t show any symptoms.

Chlamydia is spread through vaginal, anal, and oral

sex. The infection is carried in semen (cum), pre-cum,
and vaginal fluids.

Chlamydia can infect the penis, vagina,

cervix, anus, urethra, eyes, and throat. Most people
with chlamydia don’t have any symptoms and feel
totally fine, so they might not even know they’re
infected.

Chlamydia can also be spread to a baby during birth if

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the mother has it.
Gonorrhea

A bacterial infection that is

transmitted by sexual
contact. Gonorrhea is one of the
oldest known sexually transmitted
diseases (STDs), and it is caused
by the Neisseria gonorrhoeae
bacteria. Men with gonorrheamay
have a yellowish discharge from
the penis accompanied by itching
and burning.
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HERPES SIMPLEX VIRUS

Two types of herpes simplex virus

infections can
cause genital herpes: HSV-1.
This is the type that usually
causes cold sores or fever blisters
around your mouth. HSV-1 is
often spread through skin-to-skin
contact, though it can be spread
to your genital area during oral
sex. 56
ACTIVITY:

BINGO TRAITS

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2
SPIRITUAL
SELF

Victor Frankl
Values and Traits 58
Dr. Viktor Frankl
was assigned in Vienna
Hospital suicide ward and
headed the Rotschild
Hospital. His book, Man’s
Search for Meaning has
been used as a textbook in
high school and college
courses.
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FRANKL’S 3 SOURCE OF MEANING

• To find the meaning of life starts with holding a future

goal. Each individual has each own future goal to
PURPOSEFUL
WORK
achieve or a task to perform. That task or goal to
fulfill the meaning of their life. Therefore, meaning of
life is unique to every individual.

• A meaningful life is a life with suffering. Suffering is

COURAGE IN
THE FACE OF
inevitable part of life. To find meaning of life is to
DIFFICULTY recognize suffering, pain, and death as part of life
and to have courage to face these life difficulties.

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 • The ultimate secret on the spiritual
foundation of life is that love is salvation
LOVE and joy eternity. The ultimate factor to
find the meaning of life is love.

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3
WHO AM I IN
THE
DIGITAL CYBERWORLD?
SELF

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 BEFORE POSTING OR SHARING ANYTHING
ONLINE, CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:

1. IS THIS POST/STORY NECESSARY?

SETTING 2. IS THERE A REAL BENEFIT TO THIS POST? IS IT
BOUNDARIES FUNNY, WARM-HEARTED, TEACHABLE—OR AM I
TO YOUR JUST MAKING NOISE ONLINE WITHOUT
ONLIE SELF: PURPOSE?
SMART 3. IS IT APPROPRIATE? DOES IT STAY WITHIN THE
BOUNDARIES OF OUR FAMILY VALUES?
SHARING
4. WILL THIS SEEM AS GOOD IN 5, 10, OR 15 YRS?
5. OR IS THIS POST BETTER SUITED FOR
SHARING WITH A SMALL GROUP OR FAMILY
MEMBERS? OR MAYBE NOT AT ALL?
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 HERE ARE ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES
FOR PROPER SHARING OF
INFORMATION AND ETHICAL USE OF
THE INTERNET:

1. STICK TO SAFER SITES.

RULES TO 2. GUARD YOUR PASSWORDS.
3. LIMIT WHAT YOU SHARE.
FOLLOW 4. REMEMBER THAT ANYTHING YOU
PUT ONLINE OR POST ON A SITE IS
THERE FOREVER, EVEN IF YOU TRY
TO DELETE IT.
5. DO NOT BE MEAN OR EMBARRASS
OTHER PEOPLE ONLINE.
6. BE CHOOSY ABOUT YOUR ONLINE
FRIEND. 64
5
DO NOT JUST DREAM,
MAKE IT HAPPEN
ACTIVITY:
LETTER TO MY FUTURE SELF

OUTPUT:
ENVISIONED SELF PLAN

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 Albert Bandura Self-Efficacy
People who believe Efficacy refers to
that they can do people’s confidence
something that has that they have the
the potential to alter ability to perform
Self-efficacy is not
environmental certain behaviors,
the expectation of
events are more whereas an outcome
our action’s
likely to act and expectancy refers to
outcomes
more likely to be one’s prediction of
successful than the likely
those people with consequences of
low self-efficacy. that behavior.
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 ╺ Addtl notes:
╺ In college, Bandura commuted to school with premed
and engineering students who were early risers. Rather
than do nothing during this early hour, Bandura decided
to enroll in a psychology class that happened to be
offered at that time period. He found the class
fascinating and eventually decided to take a psychology
major. Bandura later came to consider fortuitous events
(such as riding to school with students who were early
risers) to be important influences in people’s lives
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 6

LESS STRESS, MORE CARE

TECHINIQUES TO COUNTER CHRONIC
STRESS

1. RELAXATION RESPONSE-
THESE INCLUDE DEEP ABDOMINAL
BREATHING, FOCUS ON A SOOTHING
WORD, REPETITIVE PRAYER, AND YOGA

2. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY-
PEOPLE CAN USE EXERCISE TO STIFLE
THE BUILDUP OF STRESS IN SEVERAL
WAYS. EXERCISE, SUCH AS BRISK WALK
SHORTLY AFTER FEELING STRESSED CAN
CALM YOUR MIND.
SELF-CARE THERAPY

1. STOP, BREATHE, AND TELL YOURSELF: “THIS IS HARD AND

I WILL GET THROUGH THIS ONE STEP AT A TIME”
2. ACKNOWLEDGE TO YOURSELF WHAT YOU ARE FEELING.
3. FIND SOMEONE WHO LISTENS AND IS ACCEPTING.
SOMETIMES YOU DON’T NEED ADVICE, YOU NEED TO BE
HEARD.
4. MAINTAIN YOUR NORMAL ROUTINE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.
5. ALLOW PLENTY OF TIME FOR A TASK.
6. TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOURSELF.
A. GET ENOUGH REST AND SLEEP
B. EAT REGULARLY AND MAKE HEALTHY CHOICES
C. KNOW YOUR LIMITS
D. IDENTIFY AND CREATE A NURTURING PLACE IN YOUR
HOME.
E. ESCAPE FOR A WHILE TROUGH MEDITATION, READING
A BOOK, WATCHING A MOVIE, OR TAKING A SHORT TRIP.
References

╺ https://www.iep.utm.edu/merleau/
╺ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Merleau-Ponty
╺ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/merleau-ponty/
╺ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maurice-Merleau-Ponty
╺ https://www.iep.utm.edu/merleau/

╺ https://faculty.frostburg.edu/phil/forum/Descartes.htm
╺ https://poignantboy.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/descartes-concept-of-self/
╺ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rene-Descartes