Lesson 5

THE PHYSICAL SELF

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:

 Explain stages of life and explain the physical changes that occur during each
stage.

 Explain the genetic and environmental factors on physical development of the

self.

 Explore the factors that affect body image.

 Explain the impact of culture on body image and self.

 Develop a positive body image.

•The physicalself refers to the body.

•The basic parts of the body are the head, neck, chest, arms, and legs.

•It is also made up of other organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, intestines,
bones, and muscles.

•These organs work together to perform many of its functions.

• The body' s ability to perform its functions gradually changes through the years.

• In general, the body performs its functions least well during infancy and old age.

• Physical efficiency generally peaks in early adulthood between the ages of

twenty and thirty, and then slowly declines into the middle age.
• Physical development and growth during childhood continues at a slow rate
compared with rapid rate of growth in babyhood.
• Adolescence begins with the onset of puberty.

• This stage is characterized by rapid physical

changes that includes the maturation of the reproductive system.

• Everyone goes through a succession of developmental stages.

• LIFE SPAN refers to the development from conception to death.

Elizabeth B. Hurlock outlined the stages in the life span:
1. Prenatal – fertilization to birth
2. Infancy – birth to 2 weeks of life
3. Babyhood – 2 weeks of life to 2nd year
4. Early Childhood – 2 to 6
5. Late Childhood – 6 to 10 or 12
6. Puberty – 10 or 12 to 14
7. Adolescence – 14 to 18
8. Early Adulthood – 18 to 40
9. Middle Adulthood – 40 to 60
10. Late Adulthood or senescence – 60 to death
Nature and Nurture Interaction
•Nature refers to HEREDITY it is the biological process of transmission of traits from
parents to offspring.
•Nurture refers to the influence of ENVIRONMENT includes parenting styles, physical
surroundings, economic factors and anything that is a result of learning or experiences.
•Environmental factors such as diet, nutrition, and diseases play an important role in
physical development.
BODY IMAGE
o Body image refers to how individuals perceive, think, and feel about their
body and physical appearance.
o Appearance refers to everything about a person that others can observe
such as height, weight, skin color,
o It appears that body image is related to self-esteem.
o Self-esteem is the overall evaluation of his or her own worth.
o Adolescents worry about different parts of their bodies.
o Body image can affect both the adolescent’s physical and psychological
well-being.
o Generally, girls are more dissatisfied than boys with their physical
appearance and their overall body image.
o For girls, self-consciousness and dissatisfaction with their appearance
reach their peak between the ages 13 and 15.

Causes of Poor Body Image

• Parents’ emphasis on thin ideal body leads girls to experience body
dissatisfaction
• Bullying and peer pressure have been associated with greater body
dissatisfaction.
• Media such as television, advertisements, music, and movies.

• They are filled with good-looking faces, making women and men more
concerned with physical attractiveness.
• The result is that it can cause a great deal of money to pay for the physical
attractiveness that women and men want to achieve.
• The reality, however, is that the standards of beauty presented in the media are
so unrealistic.
Effects of Poor Body Image
Girls who have higher body dissatisfaction are likely to experience depression, low self-
esteem, and eating disorders.
•Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which the person refuses to eat for fear of
gaining weight which can result in severe starvation and death.
•A related disorder is bulimia in which the person induces purging after binging on large
quantities of food.
•The disorder mostly afflicts females between the ages of 12 and 40, although men
may also develop it.
•Muscle dysmorphia the delusional or exaggerated belief is that one's own body is too
small, too skinny, insufficiently muscular, or insufficiently lean.

Body Modification
•Some people desperately change their physical appearance through body
modification.
•Tattooing, permanent makeup, body piercing, cosmetic surgery are forms of body
modification.

Body dysmorphic disorder-Preoccupation with one or more perceived defects or flaws

in physical appearance that are not observable or appear slight to others.
CONCEPT OF BEAUTY
•In Egyptian art, beauty is portrayed in women with slim, high waist, narrow hips, and
long black hair.
•Women with full figure and rounded hips was considered beautiful during the
Renaissance period.
•Some tribes (e.g., Africa) during the medieval age consider chubby, fat, or plump
women beautiful.
•People in Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia considered flat noses to be the most
attractive.
•Standards of beauty have changed over time based on changing cultural values.
•All cultures have, more or less, the same concept standards of beauty have changed
over time based on changing cultural values.
Nowadays, who is considered beautiful?
•Those who have clean and unblemished skin?
•Thick shiny hair?
•Well- proportioned bodies?
•Symmetrical faces?
Liking and Loving differ in how logical they are as processes with regard to
reinforcement theory. Liking can be accounted for in terms of reinforcers but love
seems to go its own way.

The Love Paradox

Birds of the same feather flock together.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Looks matter.
Opposites attract.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Why do people fall in love?
It can be summed up to one simple sentence – WE ALL HAVE THE NEED TO BELONG.
❖ Social attachments enhances survival.

❖ Falling in love allows us to feel irrepressible joy.

❖ We all long for acceptance.

❖ We feel supported by close intimate relationships.

❖ Life seems more meaningless without love.

PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS AND ATTRACTION

What factors lead to attraction?
■ Proximity
■ Physical Attractiveness
■ Similarity
■ Reciprocity

Proximity
■ Proximity kindles liking for it gives us the opportunity to interact with other people.
■ This interaction enables people to explore their similarities, to sense another’s
liking.
■ The more frequently you cross paths with one another, the greater the tendency
for liking.
■ Mere exposure effect
 It refers to the tendency for novel stimuli to be liked more or rated more
positively after the rater has been repeatedly exposed to them.
Physical Attractiveness
■ Research studies prove that the more attractive a woman is, the more a man
likes her and wants to date her again.
■ The more attractive a man is, the more a woman likes him and wants to date
him again.
■ Research studies also prove that sophisticated and intelligent people are less
concerned with superficial qualities like good looks.
■ Matching phenomenon
❖ The tendency for men and women to choose as partners those who are a “good
match” in terms of physical attractiveness, intelligence and other traits.
❖ It refers to the presumption that physically attractive people possess other
socially desirable traits as well.

❖ What is beautiful is good.

■ Attractive people are often more favored and valued.
■ But attractiveness is NOT the key ingredient for social skills. You should accept
yourself, like yourself and be comfortable with yourself.
■ Remember attractiveness is whatever the people of any given time and place
find attractive.
■ Likeness begets liking. The most appealing people are those most like us.
■ People like not only those who think as they do, but also those who act as they
do. Subtle mimicry fosters fondness.
■ The more similar someone’s attitudes are to your own, the more likeable you will
find the person.
■ But do opposites attract? We sometimes look in other people characteristics that
can complement our own.
■ Complementarity
❖ The popularly supposed tendency, in a relationship between to people, for each
to complete what is missing in the other.
Reciprocity
■ Liking is usually mutual. We commonly like those who like us.

■ Discovering that an appealing someone really likes you seems to awaken your
romantic feelings.
WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR BODY IMAGE AND INNER SELF
■ Smile a lot.
■ Take good care of your health.
■ Live a well-balanced life.
■ Dress well and be neat.
■ Spend some time alone to reflect.
■ Be creative and do something new all the time.
■ Develop a wholesome attitude toward sex.
■ Avoid temptations.
■ Respect individuality
Above all things physical, it is more important to be beautiful in the inside.

ACTIVITY
1. Instructions: Create a collage using your own pictures to show how you
developed from the time you were born up to present. For each picture, create
a caption to tell a story about your own evolution. Focus on the physical
changes manifested while you were growing up. BE CREATIVE.
2. Instructions: Based on your collage, answer the following questions.
A. What significant changes have you seen in yourself while growing up? What
makes these changes significant?
B. In your opinion, what factors contributed to those significant changes while
growing up? How?
C. Considering how you look now, is there anything you wish to change? Why or
why not?

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Assignment  Lesson 5