Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you should be able

to:

✓ analyze the need of understanding the self;

Part 1 ✓ identify the meaning of self, its nature and

importance;

✓ examine the self in eastern and western

thoughts;

✓ demonstrate better understanding of the

Basic Concepts of Filipino concept of the self; and

“Self” ✓ discuss how the mind, and society functions

and interact with society
The need for Understanding the Self
1. to help you acquire a positive
sense of self;
2. to help you develop your potentials
for you to live harmoniously in the
context of a fast changing and
challenging world;
3. to help you participate meaningfully
in all endeavors as responsible
members of a global community
taking into account multi-cultural
perspectives;
4. to help you understand local and
global issues and concerns which
continuously giving impact to your
lives;
5. enables you to develop the capacity
to think, reason and act legally and
morally;
6. enables you to behave in ways that will
fulfill your needs and goals in the
contemporary society;
7. To help you possess personal, civil,
and moral obligations.
Definition of Self
Self is:
▪ a unified being
▪ a condition that makes one subject of
experience distinct from all others
▪ one’s identity
▪ expressed in the first person
▪ a dynamic, responsive process that
structures neural pathways according
to past adolescent environment
Importance
Kant
▪ We can be responsible to ourselves
▪ We can examine what type of object the self
is and how it is constituted
Thorin Klosowski
▪ We are able to develop self-awareness and
introspection which are the starting point to
every improvement
New York Times report
▪ If a person collects data about himself, he
can make improvements based on the data
The Constitution of the Self Self-awareness
▪ Private self-awareness – self looking inward
at oneself (i.e. emotions, thoughts, beliefs
1. Self-knowledge and feelings)
➢ sometimes referred as self-concept
➢ Allows people to gather information and ▪ Public self-awareness – gathering information
beliefs about themselves about your self through the perception of
➢ includes self-awareness, self-esteem others
and self-deception eg. singing

Ways to learn about ourselves: Self-esteem

a. The “looking glass self” ▪ overall opinion about your self
➢ people learn about themselves through other people

b. Introspection
Contributory factors:
➢ self-examination, analyzing yourself, looking at your a. Reactions we get from people
own personality and actions, and considering your b. how we compare people to ourselves
own motivations
c. Social roles
c. Social Comparison d. Identification
➢ We compare ourselves to other people around us

d. Self-perception
▪ Good: believing you can get high grades
➢ a person's view of his or her self or of any of the ▪ Bad: feeling you can’t pass the exam
mental or physical attributes that constitute the self
The Constitution of the Self
2. Interpersonal self
➢ can be referred as your public self
➢ this feature of the self allows social
communications
➢ Social roles: parts that a person plays
in different situations and with other
people
➢ Social norms: constitute the “unwritten
rules” that we have about how to act in
certain situations and with various
people in our lives
eg. Being quiet inside the class and noisy
in parties
3. Agent self
➢ executive function that allows for
actions
➢ this feature of the self allow us to make
choices and utilize our control in
situations and actions
➢ resides over everything that involves
decision making, self-control, taking
charge in situations and actively
responding
eg. Eating junk food over healthy food
 • There is no one definition of self.

• Understanding the self must

continue to expand beyond the
Part 1 self, to a larger selves

• We constantly define, and re-

define ourselves.

• Knowing one’s self is a unique

SUMMARY journey…a process of
discovery…a process of growth.