UNPACKING THE SELF

THE PHYSICAL SELF

Physical Self

Physical self - refers to the concrete dimensions of the body. It is the

tangible aspects of the person which can be directly observed and examined.
Physical traits are the defining features of the person’s body which include the
color of the skin, the height, figure, facial features, hairstyle, clothing, our visual poise,
posture and the like. These physical characteristics can easily be disguised with the
naked eye. It can give a better advantage in the job if learned how to project and
present our physical selves properly in public. It will give us a better edge!

Erik Erickson believed in the importance of the body from early development
because the physical as well as intellectual skills will somehow serve as a basis to
whether a person has achieved a sense of competence and be able to manage and
face the demands of the life complexities. William James, on the other hand,
considered the body as the initial source of sensation and necessary for the origin and
maintenance of personality.
This is to present what reflects unique aspects of the various stages from childhood to
adulthood. So while both an 8 month old and an 8 year old are considered
children, they have very different motor abilities, social relationships and cognitive skills.
Their nutritional needs are different and their primary psychological concerns are also
distinctive. The same is true of an 18 year old and an 80 year old, both
considered adults. Here is a brief overview of the stages.

During prenatal period conception occurs and development begins. All of the
major structures of the body are forming and the health of the mother is of primary
concern. Understanding nutrition, teratogens (or environmental factors that can lead to
birth defects) and labor and delivery are primary concerns.

The first year and a half to two years of life which know as infancy
and toddler period are ones of dramatic growth and change. A newborn, with a
keen sense of hearing but very poor vision is transformed into a walking, talking
toddler within a relatively short period of time. Parents as caregiver are also
transformed from someone who manages feeding and sleep schedules to a constantly
moving guide and safety inspector for a mobile and energetic child.
Early childhood is also referred to as the preschool years consisting of the
years which follow toddlerhood and precede formal schooling. As a three to five-year-
old, the child is busy learning language, is gaining a sense of self and greater
independence and is beginning to learn the workings of the physical world. This
knowledge does not come quickly. However, preschoolers may initially have
interesting conceptions of size, time, space and distance such as fearing that they may
go down the drain if they sit at the front of the bathtub or by demonstrating how long
something will take by holding out their two index fingers several inches apart. A toddler
usually started to get more physically exploratory in determining his sense of the world.

The ages of six through eleven comprise middle childhood and much of
what children experience at this age is connected to their involvement in the early
grades of school. Exploring around using physical being is very tremendous during this
period, testing everything on his own. Schools compare students and make these
comparisons public through team sports, test scores and other forms of recognition.
Growth rates slow down and children are able to refine their motor skills at this point in
life. And children begin to learn about social relationships beyond the family through
interaction with friends and fellow students.

Adolescence is a period of dramatic physical change marked by an overall

physical growth spurt and sexual maturation, known as puberty. It is also a time of
cognitive change as the adolescent begins to think of new possibilities and to consider
abstract concepts such as love, fear, and freedom. Ironically, adolescents have a sense
of invincibility that puts them at greater risk of dying from accidents or contracting
sexually transmitted infections that can have lifelong consequences. According to
early
healthy children.org adolescence is divided into three periods such as
adolescence (11 to 14 years old), middle adolescence (15 to
17 years old) and the late adolescence (18 to 21 years old).
In the Philippines, the Youth in Nation-Building Act (1994) defined youth
according to ages which cover between 15 – 30 years. This range was created by the
National Youth Commission. Though there exists a difference in the age range for what
in the Philippine society may be considered as young, the physical changes that these
youths undergo in the period of adolescence are virtually the same as other adolescents
anywhere in the world.
The twenties and thirties are often thought of as early adulthood in some other
places. Most often, students who are in their mid-30s tend to love to hear that they are a
young adult. It is a time when we are at our physiological peak but are most at risk for
involvement in violent crimes and substance abuse. It is a time of focusing on the future
and putting a lot of energy into making choices that will help one earn the status of a full
adult in the eyes of others. Love and work are primary concerns at this stage of life,
projecting a better image of one self especially in public places.

The late thirties through the mid-sixties are referred to as middle

adulthood. This is a period in which aging, that began earlier, becomes more noticeable
and a period at which many people are at their peak of productivity in love and work. It
may be a period of gaining expertise in certain fields and being able to understand
problems and find solutions with greater efficiency than before. It can also be a time of
becoming more realistic about possibilities in life previously considered; of recognizing
the difference between what is possible and what is likely. This is also the age group
hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic like in Africa, resulting in a substantial decrease in the
number of workers in those economies (Weitz, 2007) as they physically get engaged
intimately with relating to others.
This period of the life span has increased in the last 100 years, particularly in
industrialized countries. Late adulthood is sometimes subdivided into two or three
categories such as the “young old” and “old old” and “oldest old”.
These periods mark categorization and distinction such as the “young old” who are
people between 65 and 79 and the “old old” or those who are 80 and older. One of the
primary differences between these groups is that the young old are very similar to
midlife adults; still working, still relatively healthy and still interested in being productive
and active. The “old old” remain productive and active and the majority continues to
live independently, but risks of the diseases of old age such as arteriosclerosis, cancer
and cerebral vascular disease increases substantially for this age group. Issues of
housing, healthcare, and extending active life expectancy are only a few of the topics of
concern for this age group. A better way to appreciate the diversity of people in late
adulthood is to go beyond chronological age and examine whether a person is
experiencing optimal aging, meaning those who is in very good health for his age and
continues to have an active, stimulating life; normal aging, in which the changes are
similar to most of those of the same age; or impaired aging, referring to someone who
has more physical challenge and disease than others of the same age. Declining
physical characteristics are already remarkable.

Factors that Affect Perception of the

Physical Self
There are four areas of development physical, intellectual, emotional
and social, these areas of development will overlap with each other. The fastest period
of growth and development is during the infancy and early childhood life stages. There
are recognized expected patterns of physical growth and change, as well as intellectual,
emotional and social developments, ‘norm’ of development. Each child is an
individual and will develop at their own pace as unique as the other. Looking into the
concept of growth and development, we may probably realize why we are all different.
The first answer would be genetics or the hereditary endowment.
Those are the characteristics we acquired from our both parents. The second is what
manifest from how we are brought up by them or the environmental or the social
influences we have or experienced inside and outside the mother’s womb. Therefore, it
entails the natural and nurturing process that our selves encountered.
As individuals go through life their health and well-being is affected by a number of
different factors that will affect an individual’s growth and development either positively
and negatively. These include physical, emotional, social, economic and environmental
factors. Knowledge of these factors is needed to be able to understand the effects they
have on the physical, intellectual, emotional and social development, as well as an
individual’s self- concept.

1. Personal Factors
a. Introspection and Self – Reflection – it is the process of making self-
examination after behaving in a certain way. Looking inward is the simplest way to
achieve self-knowledge though some people have a low self-insight on aspects about
the self where they wish were not true and many people tend to overestimate their
positive aspects.

b. Self - Perception Theory (SPT) is an account of attitude formation

developed by psychologist Daryl Bem. It asserts that people develop their attitudes
(when there is no previous attitude due to a lack of experience, etc.—and the emotional
response is ambiguous) by observing their own behavior and concluding what attitudes
must have caused it. The theory is counterintuitive in nature, as the conventional
wisdom is that attitudes determine behaviors. Furthermore, the theory suggests that
people induce attitudes without accessing internal cognition and mood states. The
person interprets their own overt behaviors rationally in the same way they attempt to
explain others' behaviors.

c. Self – concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about,
evaluates or perceives themselves. To be aware of oneself is to have a concept of
oneself. Therefore, it is the individual's belief about himself or herself, including the
person's attributes and who and what the self is. Self-Concept is about how we see
ourselves and how others see us. A range of factors influence an individual’s self-
concept such as age, appearance, gender, culture, emotional development, education,
relationships with other people, sexual orientation and everything about our Life
experiences. We can be having a positive (good) self-concept or we can have a
negative (poor) self-concept.

d. Personal identity is the concept you develop about yourself that evolves over
the course of your life. This may include aspects of your life that you have no control
over, such as where you grew up or the color of your skin, as well as choices you make
in life, such as how you spend your time and what you believe.

2. Social Factors
a. Attachment Process and Social Appraisal it is generally thought
that attachment style entails fundamental individual biases that can influence how
people perceive and respond to social information in a wide range of relationship
contexts. Nurturing that is consistent and appropriately responds according to one’s
need promote positive self-concept; whereas those that is neglectful and unresponsive
creates a negative self-concept believing that they are not worthy and that others
cannot be trusted.

b. Maintaining, Regulating and Expanding the Self in Interpersonal

Relationships. Aside from the attachment developed when individual are still young,
the sense of self is continuously shaped through ongoing interaction with others or with
significant relationship partners who act as private audiences with whom people carry
an internal dialogue. An interpersonal relationship is a strong, deep, or close association
or acquaintance between two or more people that may range in duration from brief to
enduring. The context can vary from family or kinship relations, friendship, marriage,
relations with associates, work, clubs, neighborhoods, and places of worship and the
like.

c. The Looking – glass Self Theory describes the process wherein individuals
base their sense of self on how they believe others view them. Using social interaction
as a type of “mirror,” people use the judgments they receive from others to measure
their own worth, values, and behavior. Charles Horton Cooley stated that a
person’s self grows out of society’s interpersonal interactions and the perception of
others.

d. Social Comparison Theory state that individuals determine their own social
and personal worth based on how they stack up against others. Below is the schematic
presentation of the theory:
e. Collective Identity Theory encompasses both an individuals' self-
definition and affiliation with specific groups or roles. A sense of connectedness to a
particular social group refers to the ways that people's self-concepts are based on their
membership in social groups it include sports teams, religions, nationalities,
occupations, sexual orientation, ethnic groups and gender.