MODULE 1

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

INTRODUCTION
This module discusses the directive to “Know Oneself”. This is intended to discover the students’ own
concepts and understanding about the “self” before formaly introducing them the different theories of the
“self”. It also includes reflection and activity to better explicate their propositions about their self-identity.

OBJECTIVES
After studying the module, you should be able to:
1. Discover oneself and others through the getting-to-know activity
2. Become aware of the different purposes to why we should study the course, “Understanding the
Self” (UTS)
3. Be able to answer the question, “Who am I?”

DIRECTIONS
There is only one lesson in this module. Read each carefully then answer the
activities to assess what learnings instilled as you go through each lesson. Submit your
output to the means we had discussed.

Lesson 1

INTRODUCTION TO SELF: “WHO AM I?"

 INTRODUCTION

The term 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 Saul McLeod (2008). Lewis (1990)
suggests that the development of a concept of self has two aspects:
1. The Existential Self
This is 'the most basic part of the self-scheme or self-concept; the sense of being separate and
distinct from others and the awareness of the constancy of the self' (Bee, 1992).
The child realizes that they exist as a separate entity from others and that they continue to exist
over time and space.
According to Lewis awareness of the existential self begins as young as two to three months old
and arises in part due to the relation the child has with the world. For example, the child smiles
and someone smiles back, or the child touches a mobile and sees it move.
2. The Categorical Self
Having realized that he or she exists as a separate experiencing being, the child next becomes
aware that he or she is also an object in the world.
Just as other objects including people have properties that can be experienced (big, small, red,
smooth and so on) so the child is becoming aware of himself or herself as an object which can be
experienced and which has properties.
The self too can be put into categories such as age, gender, size or skill. Two of the first
categories to be applied are age (“I am 3”) and gender (“I am a girl”).
In early childhood, the categories children apply to themselves are very concrete (e.g., hair color,
height and favorite things). Later, self-description also begins to include reference to internal
psychological traits, comparative evaluations and to how others see them.

THE CONCEPT OF SELF-IMAGE

How you see yourself does not necessarily have to reflect reality. Indeed a person with anorexia who is
thin may have a self-image in which the person believes they are fat. A person's self-image is affected by
many factors, such as parental influences, friends, the media etc.
Kuhn (1960) investigated the self-image by using The Twenty Statements Test.
He asked people to answer the question 'Who am I?' in 20 different ways. He found that the responses
could be divided into two major groups. These were social roles (external or objective aspects of oneself
such as son, teacher, or friend) and personality traits (internal or affective aspects of oneself such as
gregarious, impatient, and humorous).
The list of answers to the question “Who Am I?” probably include examples of each of the following four
types of responses:
1) Physical Description: I’m tall, have blue eyes...etc.
2) Social Roles: We are all social beings whose behavior is shaped to some extent by the roles we play.
Such roles as student, housewife, or member of the football team not only help others to recognize us but
also help us to know what is expected of us in various situations.
3) Personal Traits: These are the third dimension of our self-descriptions. “I’m impulsive...I’m
generous...I tend to worry a lot”...etc.
4) Existential Statements (abstract ones): These can range from "I’m a child of the universe" to "I’m a
human being" to "I’m a spiritual being"...etc.
Typically young people describe themselves more in terms of personal traits, whereas older people feel
defined to a greater extent by their social roles.

SELF-ESTEEM (The extent to which you value yourself)

Self-esteem (also known as self-worth) refers to the extent to which we like, accept or approve of
ourselves, or how much we value ourselves. Self-esteem always involves a degree of evaluation and we
may have either a positive or a negative view of ourselves.
High Self-esteem (We have a positive view of ourselves)
This leads to:

 Confidence in our own abilities

 Self-acceptance
 Not worrying about what others think
 Optimism

Low Self-esteem (We have a negative view of ourselves)

This leads to:

 Lack of confidence
 Want to be/look like someone else
 Always worrying what others might think
 Pessimism

Morse and Gergen (1970) showed that in uncertain or anxiety-arousing situations our self-esteem may
change rapidly.
Argyle (2008) believes there are 4 major factors that influence self-esteem.
1. The Reaction to Others
If people admire us, flatter us, seek out our company, listen attentively and agree with us we tend
to develop a positive self-image. If they avoid us, neglect us, tell us things about ourselves that
we don’t want to hear we develop a negative self-image.
2. Comparison with Others
If the people we compare ourselves with (our reference group) appear to be more successful,
happier, richer, better looking than ourselves we tend to develop a negative self-image BUT if
they are less successful than us our image will be positive.
3. Social Roles
Some social roles carry prestige e.g., doctor, airline pilot, TV presenter, premiership footballer
and this promotes self-esteem. Other roles carry a stigma. E.g., a prisoner, mental hospital patient,
refuse collector or unemployed person.
4. Identification
Roles aren’t just “out there.” They also become part of our personality i.e. we identity with the
positions we occupy, the roles we play and the groups we belong to.
LESSON 2
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF

INTRODUCTION
This module explains the different sociological perspective of the self. It discusses an understandable
view of the concepts and differences of the “I” and the “Me”. Discussions and activities are also included
in this module after each end of a lesson.

OBJECTIVES
After studying the module, you should be able to:
1. Differentiate the various views of the self.
2. Illustrate how these views are applied in real life.
3. Evaluate how the process of socialization creates the self.
4. Understand Mead’s perspective of the Social Self

INTRODUCTION

When you are asked the most difficult question, “Who are you?”, What is the first answer that you would
give? Most if not all would answer, “My name is; I live in; I’m ___ years old; My hobbies are; and so on.
Basically, you would give biological facts about who you are but from the perspective of sociology, you
genetic make-up and biology do not define who you really are because when you are born, society sees
you as “barbarians” with no sense of self at all.

DEFINITION OF SOCIOLOGY

Sociology is the scientific study of society, including patterns of relationships, social interaction, and
culture. It focuses primarily on the influence of social relationship on your attitudes and behavior. It is,
therefore imperative to have a deeper realization about the sociological perspective of the self for you to
be more sensitive and tolerant of people different from you.

1. The Self as Product of Modern Society

Modernity differs from all preceding forms of social order because of its dynamism, its deep
undercutting of traditional habits and customs, and its global impact. It also radically alters the
general nature of daily life and the most personal aspects of human activity. In fact, one of the
most distinctive features of modernity is the increasing interconnection between globalizing
influences and personal dispositions.
According to Manheim, author of the book Sociological Research and Philosophy, modernization
is the destruction of the self; in other words, modernization delocalizes the self. In pre modern
times, people’s significant decisions were not analyzed and thought of so much because choices
were already prescribed by their traditions and customs. In the modern societies, however, people
 frequently ask questions like what to do, who to be, and how to act. Look at your surroundings
and you will see people who are compelled to make significant choices from everyday questions
about clothing, appearance, and leisure to high-impact decisions about relationships, beliefs, and
occupations.
2. The Self as a Necessary Fiction

Nietzsche was interested in experience. His questions included “What kind of person would write
this?” “What are the concerns of someone who would believe this?” “What did the person who
wrote this suffer from?” Nietzsche believed that the only ‘real’ world we can be certain of is the
one we experience. He was deeply disturbed by human suffering and profoundly troubled by
human cruelty. An extension of these apprehensions was his interest in how to embrace this
physical life and live it to the fullest without denying the pain and uncertainty inherent in the
human condition.

Nietzsche used two methods of philosophizing: 1) the psychological, wherein he searched for
hidden motivation, and 2) the historical, through which he studied the development of concepts.
He wanted to know how a concept evolved and came to be accepted as a truth. In short, Nietzsche
was interested in motivation, both conscious and unconscious.

WHAT ARE NIETZSCHE’S NECESSARY FICTIONS?

They are beliefs that cannot be proven to be true and sometimes can be proven false, but are,
nonetheless, necessary to sustain life. They are convictions that satisfy the need for stability.
Nietzsche contends that all belief systems are ‘necessary fictions.’ They are fictions because they
cannot be proven. They are necessary because without them we would be rudderless in a world of
chaos.

For the psychoanalyst, a necessary fiction is, I propose, a narrative that helps the patient
understand their feelings, choices and behaviors. These fictions are necessary because people
need some sense of certainty in a world of constant change. Necessary fictions create meaning out
of the chaos of lived experiences. They are formulations about what feelings and behaviors mean
at a given time. One’s experiences can be organized into a coherent and inclusive story, but that
story cannot be proven. Hence it is illusory and temporary.

3. Postmodern View of the Self

Postmodernists argue that stable institutions in the ancient times such as families, the church, and
any other social institutions that used to blind communities and individuals do not have much
influence as how you perceive yourself now. This is do because in postmodern societies,
globalization, media, and technology as well as consumerism have a more effective influence on
how you construct yourself and culture.
It was mentioned in our earlier discussions that part of our mission is to discover our own
cohesive, whole or true self, but as postmodern humans by nature, you have no authentic self,
 meaning your self-identity keeps on changing, and being redefined by the kind of society you are
associated with. So, finding the true, cohesive self cannot be obtained in postmodern society.

4. The Self as an Artistic Creation

Artistic creation of oneself means giving one’s life a form and meaning that does not simply
follow established norms.
One chooses how to give form and meaning to their lives instead of allowing others to give form
and meaning to their lives. Moreover, this choice is continuous. One continuously gives their life
form and meaning anew. Whatever they choose in life, they choose over and over again to give it
form and meaning.
Life is not a one-way path; there are various detours, curves and occasional accidents. This
detours can actually present opportunities for yourself to be reconstructed or rewritten the best
way you want it to appear to the reader or to the viewer. The important thing is that you have
created yourself an identity as artistic creation.

MEAD AND THE SOCIAL SELF

George Herbert Mead, a sociologist from the late 1800s, is well known for his theory of the
social self, which includes the concepts of 'self,' 'me,' and 'I.' In this lesson, we will explore
Mead's theory and gain a better understanding of what is meant by the terms 'me' and 'I.' We will
also discuss the concept, derived out of Mead's work, of the looking-glass self.
Mead's work focuses on the way in which the self is developed. Mead's theory of the social
self is based on the perspective that the self emerges from social interactions, such as observing
and interacting with others, responding to others' opinions about oneself, and internalizing
external opinions and internal feelings about oneself. The social aspect of self is an important
distinction because other sociologists and psychologists of Mead's time felt that the self was
based on biological factors and inherited traits. According to Mead, the self is not there from
birth, but it is developed over time from social experiences and activities.

DEVELOPMENT OF SELF
According to Mead, three activities develop the self: language, play, and games.
Language develops self by allowing individuals to respond to each other through symbols,
gestures, words, and sounds. Language conveys others' attitudes and opinions toward a subject or
the person. Emotions, such as anger, happiness, and confusion, are conveyed through language.
Play develops self by allowing individuals to take on different roles, pretend, and express
expectation of others. Play develops one's self-consciousness through role-playing. During role-
play, a person is able to internalize the perspective of others and develop an understanding of how
others feel about themselves and others in a variety of social situations.
Games develop self by allowing individuals to understand and adhere to the rules of the activity.
Self is developed by understanding that there are rules in which one must abide by in order to win
the game or be successful at an activity.
TWO SIDES OF SELF: ME & I
According to Mead's theory, the self has two sides or phases: 'me' and 'I.'
The 'me' is considered the socialized aspect of the individual. The 'me' represents learned
behaviors, attitudes, and expectations of others and of society. This is sometimes referred to as
the generalized other. The 'me' is considered a phase of the self that is in the past. The 'me' has
been developed by the knowledge of society and social interactions that the individual has gained.
The 'I', therefore, can be considered the present and future phase of the self. The 'I' represents the
individual's identity based on response to the 'me.' The 'I' says, 'Okay. Society says I should
behave and socially interact one way, and I think I should act the same (or perhaps different),' and
that notion becomes self.
The 'me' and the 'I' have a didactic relationship, like a system of checks and balances. The 'me'
exercises societal control over one's self. The 'me' is what prevents someone from breaking the
rules or boundaries of societal expectations. The 'I' allows the individual to still express creativity
and individualism and understand when to possibly bend and stretch the rules that govern social
interactions. The 'I' and the 'me' make up the self.

“I” “Me”
 The response to the me  The social self
 The response of an individual to the  The organized set of attitudes of
attitudes of others others which an individual assumes
 The individual’s impulses  The accumulated understanding of the
 The self as the subject generalized others
 The knower  The self as an object
 The known
LESSON 3

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF

INTRODUCTION
This lesson explores the different constructions of the self from the various psychological theories.
Discussions and activities are also included in this module after each end of a lesson.
OBJECTIVES
After studying the module, you should be able to:
1. Compare how different theories conceptualize the “self”.
2. Gain an understanding of what the “self” means based on different psychological perspectives.
3. Create a visual representation of how one views his or her “self”

INTRODUCTION

The concept of the “self” has been studied by different disciplines in the social sciences and some other
related fields. Usually, whenever we talk about the “self”, it pertains to one’s personality, one’s physical
appearance and other attributes, how we see one’s self (self-concept), or how we would like to see
ourselves, among many others. Various psychological perspective offer different conceptualizations about
the self.

DEFINITION OF PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology comes from the Greek words “psych”, which means soul or mind, and “logos”, which
means the study of. Thus, psychology literally means the study of mind or soul. However, upon
established as a scientific discipline in 1879, psychology is now considered as the study of human
behavior and mental processes. Psychology, as a science, is concerned with how we develop our sense of
self over the course of its development. It also recognizes the different forces that help us shape how we
see, think and feel about ourselves.

THE SELF AS A COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION

In cognitive psychology the self is understood as contextual, or ecological, intertwining cognitive
capacities with social experiences and Bernard's analysis affirms the novel's narrative where the self
develops through cognitive and cultural interconnections.

ME-SELF AND I-SELF

William James (1890) distinguished two understandings of the self, the self as “Me” and the self as “I”.
This distinction has recently regained popularity in cognitive science, especially in the context of
experimental studies on the underpinnings of the phenomenal self. The goal of this paper is to take a step
back from cognitive science and attempt to precisely distinguish between “Me” and “I” in the context of
consciousness. This distinction was originally based on the idea that the former (“Me”) corresponds to the
self as an object of experience (self as object), while the latter (“I”) reflects the self as a subject of
experience (self as subject).
In most of the cases (arguably all) this distinction maps onto the distinction between the phenomenal self
(reflecting self-related content of consciousness) and the metaphysical self (representing the problem of
subjectivity of all conscious experience), and as such these two issues should be investigated separately
using fundamentally different methodologies. Moreover, by referring to Metzinger’s (2018) theory of
phenomenal self-models, I will argue that what is usually investigated as the phenomenal-“I” [following
understanding of self-as-subject introduced by Wittgenstein (1958)] can be interpreted as object, rather
than subject of experience, and as such can be understood as an element of the hierarchical structure of
the phenomenal self-model. This understanding relates to recent predictive coding and free energy
theories of the self and bodily self discussed in cognitive neuroscience and philosophy.

THE DIFFERENTIATED SELF

Murray Bowen, MD developed the self-differentiation theory which applies to human development and
family dynamics. His theory has two major parts. 1) “Differentiation of self is the ability to separate
feelings and thoughts. Undifferentiated people cannot separate feelings and thoughts; when asked to
think, they are flooded with feelings, and have difficulty thinking logically and basing their responses on
that. 2) Further, they have difficulty separating their own from others’ feelings; they look to family to
define how they think about issues, feel about people, and interpret their experiences.”

“Differentiation is the process of freeing yourself from your family's processes to define yourself. This
means being able to have different opinions and values than your family members but being able to stay
emotionally connected to them. It means being able to calmly reflect on a conflicted interaction afterward,
realizing your own role in it, and then choosing a different response for the future.” (Bowen Family
Therapy, http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/counseling/bowen.html)

REAL AND IDEAL SELF CONCEPTS

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic psychologist who agreed with the main assumptions
of Abraham Maslow. However, Rogers (1959) added that for a person to "grow", they need an
environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance (being seen
with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood).
Without these, relationships and healthy personalities will not develop as they should, much like a tree
will not grow without sunlight and water.
Rogers believed that every person could achieve their goals, wishes, and desires in life. When, or rather if
they did so, self-actualization took place.
This was one of Carl Rogers most important contributions to psychology, and for a person to reach their
potential a number of factors must be satisfied.
The development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. Carl Rogers believed that
for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence.
According to Rogers, we want to feel, experience and behave in ways which are consistent with our self-
image and which reflect what we would like to be like, our ideal-self.
The closer our self-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more consistent or congruent we are and the
higher our sense of self-worth. A person is said to be in a state of incongruence if some of the totality of
their experience is unacceptable to them and is denied or distorted in the self-image.
Incongruence is "a discrepancy between the actual experience of the organism and the self-picture of the
individual insofar as it represents that experience.

MULTIPLE VS UNIFIED SELF

No adolescent can fully understand the self instantly. He/ She needs to understand that the concept of
having the self as multiple or unified and true or false self. Coping with different selves may be difficult
task for adolescents. According to Winncott, these false self is used to hide and protect the true self. True
self is basically the real or the truth about yourself. Based on specialists, the perception of an individual
about themselves depend on the situation. Like for example, your behavior when you are inside of your
home versus when you are at outside. Because most of the time we all know that when we are inside of
our own house we can do all thing what we want even if the actions are not proper but when we are
outside for example attending on an event you will behave prim and proper or according to the rule – and
there the false self enters.
One more example is when you’re with your crush or special someone. You always tend to be nice, right?
You always want to be good looking – you fix yourself. But the truth is if you are alone or there is no
special event you do not care about yourself especially on your looks. You do not comb your hair, you do
not put make-ups, or even wear nice clothes right? In conclusion, adolescent display false self to impress
others.

TRUE VS FALSE SELF

While the true self is represented by our real feelings and desires, while the false self is a side of us that
has changed its behavior, repressed feelings and pushed needs aside in order to survive. We introduced
the idea of the onion – the true self at the center protected by outer layers of false self.

According to developmental psychologists like John Bowlby and D. W. Winnicott, children are much
attuned to their parents’ feelings and needs. They unconsciously recognize that they need their parents’
approval in order to survive, so strive to meet their needs as much as possible.

The true self – the child’s real feelings, needs, desires and thoughts – is pushed further and further inside
the onion. Of course, we still have all of these feelings, needs, desires and thoughts, it’s just that the
adapted false self dominates: it has to.

Although this striving is necessary in our younger years, it changes us. The false-self thought and
behavior patterns we develop during childhood stay with us as adults. While they used to be helpful, they
often become a hindrance as we get older and gain more independence.

While some psychologists view the true self as black and white (true self is good, false self is bad), others
maintain there are two types of false self: a healthy false self and an unhealthy false self.

THE SELF AS PROACTIVE AND AGENTIC

It has been known how people become more proactive or tend to make things happen instead of waiting
for those things to happen to them. This maybe the main reason why human creates a lot of experiences
and surrounded by a lot of beliefs and different perceptions towards certain things. Agency, which
generally means how you assess yourselves based on your capabilities and strengths plays a massive role
on how you deal with yourself and with all the aspects in life.
We tend to do things because of our own intention but we always anticipate of what the outcome would
be. We always thought of what will come next after we do such thing. Another is the forethought which is
closely related to the first one but with this, human anticipates what the consequences of their acts would
be. Through this, our actions were guided towards what people must really do and even for the future
events that could possibly happen. In our life, the normal routine of a normal people goes like this. Acts
upon the situation, but not until he/she knew what would the consequence of ever. While self reactiveness
distinguishes the right decisions from the incorrect one. Through this, people would merely know the
right way to react and to act upon the current situation they were into. It was like choosing what’s best for
you and what’s the right thing to do. Because you know that in everyone’s life, when you decide quickly
and without thinking deeply about it, it can turn out to be disruptive and affect more things.
Moreover, self-reflectiveness turns out to become the realization stage wherein we analyze the thoughts
and actions we made. Human aren’t just made to become agents and handle them because our functions
are one thing we examine thoroughly. Our self efficacy basically dictates how our minds would turn out
negatively or positively due to the thinking or beliefs which pushes us to believe that we are capable of
doing things which will enhance or hinder ourselves. By this, it also makes people know that they can
regulate their selves without asking for anyone’s help. It can already be done independently which helps
improve control the abilities and behavior we already have.

Lesson 4

THE SELF IN WESTERN AND ORIENTAL/EASTERN THOUGHT

INTRODUCTION

Since the 'discovery' of eastern philosophy by western explorers and scholars in the 18th and 19th
centuries CE, there has been an arbitrary division maintained, especially in colleges and universities,
between 'western philosophy' and 'eastern philosophy' as though these two systems present radically
different views of the world. There is no division between eastern or western philosophy when it comes to
the most basic questions of what it means to be a human being. The fundamental purpose of philosophy is
to find meaning in one's life and purpose to one's path, and there is no major difference between eastern
and western philosophy according to that understanding.

INDIVIDUALISM VERSUS COLLECTIVISM

Individualism stresses individual goals and the rights of the individual person. Collectivism focuses on
group goals, what is best for the collective group, and personal relationships.

An individualist is motivated by personal rewards and benefits. Individualist persons set personal goals
and objectives based on self. Individualistic workers are very comfortable working with autonomy and
not part of a team.

The collectivist is motivated by group goals. Long-term relationships are very important. Collectivistic
persons easily sacrifice individual benefit or praise to recognize and honor the team’s success. In fact,
being singled out and honored as an individual from the rest of the team may be embarrassing to the
collectivistic person.

An example of how individualism versus collectivism may play out at a university is related to academic
integrity. At a university in the United States where individualism is considered the norm, each individual
student is expected and generally required to do their own individual work. Sometimes this is confusing
to international students from a collectivistic society who come to a university in the United States. The
collectivistic expectation is that if another student with whom you have a personal relationship needs your
help, then you provide that help. A collectivistic student has a mandatory social obligation to help the
other student succeed. This higher collectivistic social obligation can be in direct violation of academic
integrity in an individualistic academic setting.

EASTERN AND WESTERN THOUGHTS

EASTERN
(CLASSICAL INDIAN AND CHINESE
PHILOSOPHIES)
Collectivism/Holistic
COSMOLOGICAL UNITY: The main point in
the journey of the life of the self as it goes toward
eternal realities that surround a person
The SELF views the universe in circular/cyclic
manner based on the perception of eternal
recurrence
In finding truth and meaning: “We”
Religion and Philosophy is One
The action is the extension of the Mind
Me – to be discovered by liberating from the false
“me” – attachment to material things
Systematic Approach – all events in the universe
are interconnected
Searching inside yourself by becoming a part of
the universe through meditation and right living
He truth given, and it does have to be proven
WESTERN
(GREEK AND JUDEO-CHRISTIAN
TRADITIONS)
Individualism/Fragmentary
dualistic
FEELING ONE SELF as an element of the
Divine:
Life is a service to God, money, business, etc.
The SELF’S linear view of the universe and life
based on the Christian philosophy where
everything has its beginning and end. Idea of the
self is LOGICAL, SCIENTIFIC AND
RATIONAL
It is the “I”
Religion is independent of Philosophy
Action is not necessarily a translation of the mind
Me – given, does not have to be cognizable
More focused on the individual events and the
role of person
Searching outside yourself – through research and
analysis
The truth needs to be proven

THE CONCEPT OF "SELF" IN CONFUCIAN THOUGHT

D. Klemme Barrytown, NY August, 1999, different cultural experiences have all produced conceptions of
self. This fact alone points to the human quest to understand what exactly it is that we are. Each of the
conceptions of self thus produced can be seen not as simply different, but as different perspectives of the
same reality. Since the human self is by many understood to be more than flesh and electrical impulses,
perhaps the diversity of such conceptions also points less to ignorance than to the complexity of the
human being.
But underlying the title of this paper is a fundamental and important philosophical question, which for
some often takes the misleading form: "Who am I?" The question does not so much aim at a request for a
species, or at an answer that provides information about material realities. After all, the answer "a human
being", or "a living entity", is very unsatisfying. The question can mean: ‘What am I to do?’ in a time of
crisis; or it can bring into question my personal environment, in which I used to exist and which now may
have come into question, such as in times of war. In such instances, I am not concerned so much with
what I am, literally, but with what I should be. Such a deep soul searching might bring to mind existential
"Angst".

In western thought the "problem of self’ might be traced back to Descartes (identity as a thinking
substance) and Locke (identity as bound up with memory). These two philosophers together produced on
the subject no more than 10 pages, while "contemporary elaboration of their theses fill department
libraries". But in the final analysis it may be said that those philosophers were concerned only with a
defense of the notion of reason. In any case, there are deeply held convictions of the nature of self that are
very different from those we ‘enlightened’ people hold. In some societies the self or one’s identity has
little or nothing to do with introspection, but instead is determined by one’s place in the larger context,
such as family and society. Next to such different framework, western thinking of self seems self-
oriented. But Ames, a well-known writer on Confucian thought, writes:

"It is often said that the western conception of self is "individualistic", perhaps excessively so. But insofar
as this refers to the obvious, namely the physical discernibly of individual human beings and some
rudimentary awareness that "I feel this and you don’t" (and vice versa), it is hard to understand what all
the fuzz is about. How could people not be individualistic?"

The Maori of New Zealand, for example, have just a firm grasp of their individuality as any westerner.
But their understanding of any action of any individual member is almost completely embedded in one’s
collective community. Any individual offense is felt by the whole community of which both the offender
and the offended are a part, and the action cannot be separated from that context.

Self or No-Self
What is really meant by the idea of "no self", is this: "If one had no selfish motives, but only the supreme
virtues, there would be no self. … If he serves selflessly, he does not know what service is [does not
recognize it as service]. If he knows what service is, he has a self… [to think] only of parents but not of
yourself… is what I call no self." (Zoku Kyuo dowa [Kyuo’s Moral discourses continued], 1835)

Hiroshi Minami, another writer on Confucian thought, notes that "[the concept of no-self] …is identical
with the spirit of service-above-self, where every spontaneous impulse is rejected as selfishness"

In Confucianism the quest for the human self, the search for what it is to be human in terms of substance
or no-substance, in terms of spirit or body, does not exist. The form which that question takes in
Confucius’ writings, is one of personality. Personality as such is not seen as inherently existing, but as
something that is being formed through upbringing and environment. In that, the human being is seen as a
social being. (Some have even used the term: Social animal). Accordingly, every person is born with four
beginnings, which do not encapsulate a concept of self as yet, but which together, if put in the western
framework of thinking, may be called ‘pre-self’, or ‘potential-self’:
• Heart of compassion – leads to Jen
• Heart of righteousness – leads to Yi
• Heart of propriety – leads to Li
• Heart of wisdom – leads to Chih

In this, Jen, Yi, Li and Chih, are the perfection of the virtues that exist in the human heart from the
beginning as potentials. A self as such would develop out of these, and develop through practice of the
corresponding virtues. Personality, in the Confucian perception, is an achieved state of moral excellence
rather than a given human condition. However, such achieved personality, or self, is not to be understood
as primarily an individual entity, as would be the tendency in western thinking. As with the Maori, the
Confucian concept of self also is deeply embedded within the family and society, and it is only in that
context that the self comes to be what it is.

In Confucianism, we find that most of its writings are dealing with this process, namely, to develop the
potential into actuality, and if one may speculate on reasons for such an understanding, one has to bear in
mind the background amidst which these ideas originated.

Self as a Potential for Selfishness

China, during the 6th century, had been for some time and was then in great political and moral turmoil,
and Confucius’ writings must be understood as arising within such circumstances. Confucius, therefore,
was not concerned with metaphysical speculation on good and evil, or with fates of the beyond, or with
the nature of the human being "in itself". He was concerned primarily with human happiness in the here
and now.

According to his own testimony, he grew up "without rank and in humble circumstances", which helped
him develop a deep concern for the common people. Of aristocrats, he had a very poor opinion. "It is
difficult to expect anything from men who stuff themselves with food the whole day, while never using
their minds in any way at all. Even Gamblers do something, and to that degree are better than these
idlers." Confucius was concerned with conviction, not with rank or titles. With his ideas, he was of course
at variance with those held by the nobility. Until then, the word chun tzu referred to a man of good birth.
"Such a person was a Gentleman by birth, and no one not born so could become a Gentleman, and no
gentleman could ever become less than one, no matter how vile his conduct might be." For Confucius, in
contrast, any man was a "gentleman" if his conduct were noble and unselfish. It may have been
Confucius’ negative experiences of the nobility, and the rigidity of understanding which clearly divided
them from workers, which led to the Confucian understanding of the self as something that has to be
developed, rather than something that is inherently given.

In Confucianism then, the self can never be static. If one stops to develop the virtues in one’s living,
one has already lost them all. To be human means to develop and to keep pursuing the virtues. In
the sage, this has ceased to be a conscious effort or decision. The dynamic has been integrated into
the nature of the self, and has become the self. It has become an unconscious way of being.

Summary
In our attempt to make explicit a concept of self in Confucian understanding, we have first shown how
our western understanding of the issue differs from that of other cultures. We have hinted that the
commonly understood selfishness inherent in western understanding may in fact be no different from that
of other cultures, including understandings of the Chinese and the Japanese. Following, we tried to clarify
somewhat a possible misunderstanding of the concept of "no-Self" in Confucianism, and went from there
to explain the Confucian concept of self as a social construct. This construct does not exist at birth, but is
being developed to the degree by which one lives according to the five Confucian virtues. We have
briefly shown that the issue of self in Confucianism takes the form of understanding how one is to
achieve these virtues, and have hinted at some of the discussion that is going on in that regard. Further, a
dialogue between Tillich and Hisamatsu showed the differences of approach. Finally, in what must be our
own interpretation, we have tried to define the Confucian self as a dynamic that aims at the perfection of
the virtues.

The concept of self in Confucianism is a topic that is relatively undeveloped. Whether this is because of
difficulties in approach, complexity of the issue itself, or because of the still existing gap between western
and eastern philosophical thinking; it seem to us that the question of "who am I" is an important one. This
short paper does not even begin to deal with the issues involved.

But, in our humble opinion, the "superior man" would learn from anything.

MODULE 3
MANAGING AND CARING
FOR THE SELF
LESSON 1

LEARNING TO BE A BETTER STUDENT

INTRODUCTION

Learning is considered to be a lifelong process. Learning does not seem to stop but rather continues as
long as we are alive. Although learning seems to be part of our everyday lives, a lot of people still seem to
find learning a challenging task. This especially goes for students who are left wondering why it is easy
for them to remember song lyrics after listening to the song just once or to familiarize themselves with
dance choreographies at the first practice, yet they cannot seem to comprehend lessons just as fast. Such
dilemma prompts them to think of strategies that can help them learn better. But before adapting any
strategy, one must first understand the learning process. So what happens when we learn?

THE LEARNING PROCESS

Learning is often defined as a relatively change in behavior and mental processes as a result of practice
and experience. There are many different learning types and approaches to learning. To learn effectively
it is important to tailor your study habits to your own needs and approach, this often means choosing
techniques that work for you and evaluating them from time to time to determine if you need to try
something new.

There are six interactive components of the learning process: attention, memory, language, processing
and organizing, graphomotor (writing) and higher order thinking. These processes interact not only with
each other, but also with emotions, classroom climate, behavior, social skills, teachers and family.

Attention
Paying attention is the first step in learning anything. It is easy for most of us to pay attention to things
that are interesting or exciting to us. It is difficult for most of us to pay attention to things that are not.
When something is not interesting to us, it is easier to become distracted, to move to a more stimulating
topic or activity, or to tune out.

The teacher’s job is to construct lessons that connect to the learner. Relating what is to be taught to the
students’ lives can accomplish this. Relate Romeo and Juliet, for example, to the realities in our
communities of prejudice, unfounded hatred and gang wars. Or relate today’s discrimination to The Diary
of Anne Frank, and hold class discussions of discrimination that students have personally experienced or
witnessed.

Physical movement can help to “wake up” a mind. When a student shows signs of inattentiveness and/or
restlessness, teachers can provide the student with opportunities to move around. Many students with
attention challenges actually need to move in order to remain alert. It is wise to find acceptable, non-
destructive ways for these students to be active. Responsibilities such as erasing the board, taking a
message to the office, and collecting papers can offer appropriate outlets for activity.

Memory
Memory is the complex process that uses three systems to help a person receive, use, store, and retrieve
information. The three memory systems are (1) short-term memory (e.g., remembering a phone number
you got from information just long enough to dial it), (2) working memory (e.g., keeping the necessary
information “files” out on the mind’s “desktop” while performing a task such as writing a paragraph or
working a long division problem), and (3) long-term memory (a mind’s ever expanding file cabinet for
important information we want to retrieve over time).

Children in school have to remember much more information every day than most adults do. Adults
generally have more specialized days – mechanics use and remember mechanical information, dentists
use and remember information about dentistry, and so on. On the other hand, school expects that children
become experts in several subjects – e.g., math, language, science, social studies, a foreign language, the
arts.

It is important to remember that when a student understands something, it does not guarantee that he will
remember it. For example, a person may understand a joke that he heard at a party on Saturday night, but
he may have trouble remembering it when he tries to tell it to his friends on Monday.

In order to enhance the likelihood that all students will elaborate on new information, teachers should
activate their prior knowledge and make new information meaningful to them. For example, a teacher
may ask second graders how to divide a pan of brownies evenly among the 20 students in the class, and
then connect their solution to the concept of equivalent fractions. Relating how algebraic equations need
to be equal or balanced on both sides to the benefits of dividing candy or cookies evenly between friends
also connects to prior knowledge.

Students who have difficulty with both short-term and working memory may need directions repeated to
them. Giving directions both orally and in written form, and giving examples of what is expected will
help all students. All students will benefit from self-testing. Students should be asked to identify the
important information, formulate test questions and then answer them. This tactic is also effective in
cooperative learning groups and has been shown by evidence-based research to increase reading
comprehension (NICHD, 2000).

Language
Language is the primary means by which we give and receive information in school. The two language
processing systems are expressive and receptive. We use expressive language when we speak and write,
and we use receptive language when we read and listen. Students with good language processing skills
usually do well in school. Problems with language, on the other hand, can affect a student’s ability to
communicate effectively, understand and store verbal and written information, understand what others
say, and maintain relationships with others.

Most students, especially those with weaknesses in written language, will benefit from using a staging
procedure for both expository and creative writing. With this procedure, students first generate ideas.
Next they may organize their ideas. Third, they may look at sentence structure. Then they examine their
spelling. Finally, they attend to mechanical and grammatical rules. It is also helpful for students to list
their most frequently occurring errors in a notebook and refer to this list when self-correcting.

All students will benefit from systematic, cumulative, and explicit teaching of reading and writing.

Students who have receptive language challenges such as a slower processing speed must use a lot of
mental energy to listen, and, therefore, may tire easily. Consequently, short, highly structured lectures or
group discussion times should be balanced with frequent breaks or quiet periods. Oral instructions may
also need to be repeated and/or provided in written form.

Cooperative Strategic Reading (Klinger, Vaughan, Hughes, Schumm, and Elbaum as referenced in
Marzola 2006) is another way to engage students in reading and at the same time increase oral language
skills. This tactic is ideal for promoting intellectual discussion and improving reading comprehension of
expository text in mixed-level classrooms across disciplines. Using this tactic, students are placed into
cooperative learning groups of four to six students of mixed abilities. The students work together to
accomplish four main tasks: (1) preview (skim over the material, determine what they know and what
they want to learn), (2) identify clicks and clunks (clicks = we get it; clunks = we don’t understand this
concept, idea or word), (3) get the gist (main idea) and (4) wrap up (summarize important ideas and
generate questions (think of questions the teacher might ask on a test). Each student in the group is
assigned a role such as the leader/involver/taskmaster, the clunk expert, the gist expert, and the
timekeeper/pacer (positive interdependence). Each student should be prepared to report the on the group’s
conclusions (individual accountability).

Broadening the way we communicate information in the classroom can connect all students more to the
topic at hand, and especially students with language challenges. Using visual communication such as
pictures and videos to reinforce verbal communication is helpful to all students, and especially to students
with receptive language challenges. Challenge students to invent ways to communicate with pictures and
other visuals, drama, sculpture, dance and music, and watch memory of key concepts increase and
classrooms come alive.

Organization
We process and organize information in two main ways: simultaneous (spatial)
and successive (sequential). Simultaneous processing is the process we use to order or organize
information in space. Having a good sense of direction and being able to “see” how puzzle pieces fit
together are two examples of simultaneous processing. Successive processing is what we use to order or
organize information in time and sequence. Concepts of time, dates, and order – yesterday, today, and
tomorrow, months of the year, mathematical procedures such as division and multiplication, word order
in sentences, and sentence order in paragraphs are examples of sequential processing. Students who are
good at successive organization usually have little or no trouble with time management and usually find it
easy to organize an essay in a sequence that is logical.

Students who have trouble with understanding spatial or geographical problems may need successive
verbal explanations given to them. They may benefit from writing written explanations and descriptions
of the information contained in charts, graphs or diagrams. Teachers should model this process for all
students.
Students who have trouble remembering sequences of information but who are strong in simultaneous
processing should benefit from graphic organizers, and making diagrams or flow charts of sequential
information such as events in history rather than the standard timeline. They may benefit from software
programs such as Inspiration that organize concepts and information into visual maps.

Practicing cooperative learning allows each student’s processing and organizing strengths to be utilized to
the benefit of the group. For example, those who are strong in simultaneous organization may create the
group’s chart, visual, or map, and those strong in successive organization may be the task step organizers,
the taskmasters, timekeepers and pace setters.

Graphomotor
The writing process requires neural, visual, and muscular coordination to produce written work. It is not
an act of will but rather an act of coordination among those functions. Often the student who seems
unmotivated to complete written work is the student whose writing coordination is klutzy. We have long
accepted that students may fall on a continuum from very athletic to clumsy when it comes to sports, but
we have not known until recently that some students are writing “athletes” while others writing klutzes.
Just as practice, practice, practice will not make a football all-star out of an absolute klutz, practice and
acts of will not make a writing all-star out of someone whose neurological wiring does not allow her to be
a high performing graphomotor athlete.

Students with handwriting difficulties may benefit from the opportunity to provide oral answers to
exercises, quizzes, and tests. Having computers in place for all children helps level the playing field for
the graphomotor klutz. Parents and teachers should be aware, however, that many children with
graphomotor challenges may also have difficulty with the quick muscular coordination required by the
keyboard.

Higher Order Thinking

Higher order thinking (HOT) is more than memorizing facts or relating information in exactly the same
words as the teacher or book expresses it. Higher order thinking requires that we do something with the
facts. We must understand and manipulate the information.

HOT includes concept formation; concept connection; problem solving; grasping the “big picture”;
visualizing; creativity; questioning; inferring; creative, analytical and practical thinking; and
metacognition. Metacognition is thinking about thinking, knowing about knowing, and knowing how you
think, process information, and learn.

All students will benefit from advance organizers that relate the big picture and the main concepts to be
covered. Also, all students should be explicitly taught how to build concept maps (graphic organizers that
connect all components of a concept, and may also connect one concept to another concept).

A person with metacognition also monitors and regulates how he learns. He can take a task and decide
how best to accomplish it by using his strategies and skills effectively. He knows how he would best learn
a new math procedure and which strategies he would use to understand and remember a science concept.
He understands the best way for him to organize an essay – whether he would be more successful by
using an outline, a graphic organizer or a mind map. He has mental self-management.
Psychologist Robert Sternberg lists six components of mental self-management:
1. Know your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Capitalize on your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses.
3. Defy negative expectations.
4. Believe in yourself (self-efficacy).
5. Seek out role models.
6. Seek out an environment where you can make a difference.

Ultimately, this is where we hope students who attend our schools will be upon graduation. As adults, we
should model our own metacognition, talk about metacognition, and give meaningful examples of
metacognition often and well.

Emotions
Emotions control the on-off switch to learning. When we are relaxed and calm, our learning processes
have a green light. When we are uptight, anxious, or afraid, our learning processes have a red light. In the
classroom, tension slams the steel door of the mind shut. Creating a non-threatening classroom
environment or climate where mistakes are welcomed as learning opportunities reduces tension, opens the
mind and increases the opportunity for learning.

The more teachers know about how learning takes place – how information is processed, manipulated and
created, the more we will know about what it looks like when it’s working and what it looks like when it
starts to break down. Then, rather than thinking a student isn’t motivated, teachers will look to see if it is
attention, memory, language, organizing, graphomotor or higher order thinking that needs an intervention.

Motivation
It is every teacher’s job to motivate every student. Learning more about the brain and the development of
the mind, studying new information on learning, making learning meaningful and learning about learning,
watching the learning process, monitoring closely for breakdowns, and celebrating the successes of every
student – these are our challenges as we create schools that honor diversity – the schools all children
deserve.

Brain and Behavior Changes

The brain consists of millions of neurons – the messengers of information. Neurons are specialized cells
in the body that receive stimuli both from the different parts of the body and from the outside
environment. They then transmit the information to the brain for processing and carry back the
information to specific parts of the body. All messages are carried via electrical or neural impulses.

For a long time, it was believed that as we aged, the connections in the brain became fixed, and then
simply faded. Research has shown that in fact the brain never stops changing through learning. Plasticity
is the capacity of the brain to change with learning.
Changes associated with learning occur mostly at the level of connections between neurons: New
connections form and the internal structure of the existing synapses change. Did you know that when you
become an expert in a specific domain, the areas in your brain that deal with this type of skill will grow?

For instance, London taxi drivers have a larger hippocampus (in the posterior region) than London bus
drivers. Why is that? It is because this region of the hippocampus is specialized in acquiring and using
complex spatial information in order to navigate efficiently. Taxi drivers have to navigate around London
whereas bus drivers follow a limited set of routes.
Plasticity can also be observed in the brains of bilinguals. It looks like learning a second language is
possible through functional changes in the brain: the left inferior parietal cortex is larger in bilingual
brains than in monolingual brains.

Plastic changes also occur in musicians brains compared to non-musicians. Gaser and Schlaug compared
professional musicians (who practice at least 1hour per day) to amateur musicians and non-musicians.
They found that gray matter (cortex) volume was highest in professional musicians, intermediate in
amateur musicians, and lowest in non-musicians in several brain areas involved in playing music: motor
regions, anterior superior parietal areas and inferior temporal areas.
Finally, Draganski and colleagues recently showed that extensive learning of abstract information can
also trigger some plastic changes in the brain. They imaged the brains of German medical students 3
months before their medical exam and right after the exam and compared them to brains of students who
were not studying for exam at this time. Medical students’ brains showed learning-induced changes in
regions of the parietal cortex as well as in the posterior hippocampus. These regions of the brains are
known to be involved in memory retrieval and learning.
Metacognition and Study Strategies

Metacognition, or thinking about how one thinks, is a useful skill for improving
comprehension and learning. It can be especially useful for review in advance of an
assessment . Once students learn how to monitor their own progress and apply specific review
strategies based on their needs, they are empowered to effectively and efficiently prepare for
assessments.

Students should establish a plan for how they want to study. Eliminating distractions helps
facilitate studying, so I suggest that they turn off their phones, find a quiet space, and use
paper and pencil rather than electronic devices. Encourage students to break their study into
manageable chunks. Setting up a plan for studying in advance reduces anxiety, so I start
reminding students to review for major tests four to seven days in advance.

Using the road map developed in class, students write out all the unknown information. This
step not only creates an actionable plan but often calms students’ test anxiety because they
have established that they already know some of the information. Laying out a timetable for
studying also ensures that students will have adequate time to seek assistance if they need it.
By reviewing in advance, they can identify areas where they need clarification and feedback.

Using of Specific Strategies

Often students believe that rote memorization is the only tactic for preparing for an
assessment. Remind students that many other strategies should be used along with their notes
and texts. I provide a list of different methods they can use to prepare, and we practice
several of them during class:

1. Discussion: Use notes and texts; explain the information to someone else as if he or she has no
prior knowledge of the topic.
2. Illustration: Create pictures, mind maps, and/or diagrams of the information. Use color and
creativity to spark creative ways to remember information.
3. Monologue: Tell yourself the information in the mirror.
4. Songs: Create a catchy tune to help remember important facts.
 5. Write it out: Rewrite all unknown information. Using various colors to organize ideas is helpful
for some students.
6. Connections: Write or draw connections between new information and facts/ideas that you
understand. Make connections to your own life or current events.
7. Videos: If there are relevant video clips about the topic, I post them on Google Classroom for
students to watch as part of their review process.

Encourage students to try each strategy at least once to help decide what works best for them
and to use more than one method to study.

SELF-REGULATED LEARNING

Self-regulated learning is a cyclical process, wherein the student plans for a task, monitors their
performance, and then reflects on the outcome. The cycle then repeats as the student uses the reflection to
adjust and prepare for the next task. The process is not one-size-fits-all; it should be tailored for
individual students and for specific learning tasks (Zimmerman, 2002).

The figure below illustrates the key steps of the process. These steps are performed by the student, but
instructors play a vital role in guiding and coaching students through each step. The bullet points below
provide additional information, and are drawn from Zimmerman (2002) and Zumbrunn et al. (2011).
1. Plan, set goals, and lay out strategies

This first step of the cycle may be overlooked by many students as they dive headlong into a task.
Encouraging students to establish a plan before they start working on a task will help them strategize
right from the start. Although students may see this as taking a step backward, it will ultimately help
them be more efficient with their time and effort.

 Analyze the learning task. Is this a task I've done before or something new? Does it
build off of a task I've done before? How much time will it take? How much focus will I
need?
 Set goals. How will I structure this task? What are the intermediate checkpoints and sub-
goals? Can I complete an outline with two weeks to go, and then a rough draft one week
prior to the due date? That would allow time to get extra help as needed.
 Plan strategies. Will I need resources from the library, a color printer, help from my lab
partners, or an appointment for office hours? Given my needs, when should I get started
on this task?
 Set expectations for the outcome. Given how much time I have available, my strengths
and weaknesses, and my current standing in the course, what type of outcome would I
like? Do I need to "ace" this, or is it OK if I can just complete it successfully?

2. Use strategies and monitor performance

In this phase, students carry out the plan that was outlined in the forethought phase. Ideally,
students can proceed with confidence because they have already established a detailed plan of
action.

 Use self-observation to reflect on the actions taken by the student and the effectiveness of
the results. For example, when I studied in a quiet location in the library, I completed the
reading more quickly than when I read at home.
 Because things don't always go smoothly, have students make a plan for what to do when
obstacles arise (Flanagan, 2014). For example, if I get stuck on the math in this
assignment, I will go to the TA's weekly help session.
 Prompt students to stick with the strategies, even though it may be tempting to revert
back to known (but ineffective) strategies. Unfamiliar approaches may feel inefficient at
first, but learning the method can be as important as learning the material.

3. Reflect on performance
Many students focus solely on the extrinsic outcome of their grade. While grades are important,
you can help students reflect on how they think they did on a particular assignment, and why. This
self-reflection can help them understand why they earned a certain grade and how to improve their
performance. Activities like an exam wrapper can solidify this process.

 Ask students to evaluate their own performance and their results. Students should compare
their performance to their original goal, rather than comparing themselves to others.
 Reflect on the effectiveness of strategies used. Did they select an appropriate strategy? Did
they follow through with the selected strategy?
 Encourage students to attribute poor outcomes to the effort made and/or the strategy used.
Students should be coached to not attribute failure to lack of ability.
 Help students manage their emotions, and in time, direct them toward productive lines of
thinking about how they can improve their performance. Even if their outcome is not what
they had hoped, they can still learn from the experience.
 A key part of this process is that students use this reflection to plan for the next task. How
will they adapt their planning, strategy, time management, and self-monitoring?
LESSON 2
SETTING GOALS FOR SUCCESS

INTRODUCTION

In each day that you go to school and attend classes, do you look forward to the things that you will be
learning on that day? Do you set things for you to accomplish? Or are you an aimless learner who go to
school without a prepared mindset and cares less whether you get to learn?

It is important for us to set goals for ourselves. Goals refer to the future valued outcomes (Locke &
Latham, 2006) that we plan and hope to achieve. These outcomes may set for a short-term (in a week or
within a span of several months) or long term (may take years) duration, and which may be related to
different aspects in life, such as academic, m
Career, family and/or relationships, financial, health, spiritual, or personal, among others. But no matter
what life aspect a goal may be anchored to, a strong link between one’s goals and behavior is evident.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOALS

Up until 2001, goals were divided into three types or groups (Elliot and McGregor (2001:
1. Mastery goals
2. Performance-approach goals
3. Performance-avoidance goals

A mastery goal is a goal someone sets to accomplish or master something such as “I will score higher in
this event next time.”

A performance-approach goal is a goal where someone tries to do better than his or her peers. This type
of goal could be a goal to look better by losing 5 pounds or getting a better performance review.

A performance-avoidance goal is a goal where someone tries to avoid doing worse than their peers such
as a goal to avoid negative feedback.

Why Set Goals in Life?

The truth is that some goals are achieved while others are not and it’s important to understand why.

Mark Murphy the founder and CEO of LeadershipIQ.com and author of the book “Hard Goals: The
Secret to Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be,” has gone through years of research in
science and how the brain works and how we are wired as a human being as it pertains to goal setting.

Murphy’s book combines the latest research in psychology and brain science on goal-setting as well
as the law of attraction to help fine-tune the process.
A HARD goal is an achieved goal, according to Murphy. Murphy tells us to put our present cost into the
future and our future benefit into the present.

What this really means is don’t put off until tomorrow what you could do today. We tend to value things
in the present moment much more than we value things in the future.
Setting goals is a process that changes over time. The goals you set in your twenties will most likely be
very different from the goals you set in your forties.

Whatever your age doesn’t really matter in the end, as long as you continually revisit your life goals and
work to update them.

What are the Benefits of Goal Setting?

Edward Locke and Gary Latham (1990) are leaders in goal-setting theory. According to their research,
goals not only affect behavior as well as job performance, but they also help mobilize energy which leads
to a higher effort overall. Higher effort leads to an increase in persistent effort.

Goals help motivate us to develop strategies that will enable us to perform at the required goal level.

Accomplishing the goal can either lead to satisfaction and further motivation or frustration and lower
motivation if the goal is not accomplished.

Goal setting can be a very powerful technique, under the right conditions according to the research.
(Locke and Latham).

According to Lunenburg (2011), the motivational impact of goals may, in fact, be affected by moderators
such as self-efficacy and ability as well.

Bandura’s Self-efficacy

Prof. Albert Bandura is one of the most highly cited academics in the world (Haggbloom et al., 2002).

Bandura’s scholarship has formed part of many enduring branches of psychology, including social
cognitive theory, reciprocal determinism, and social learning theory.

Our understanding of the human experience, behavior, and psychology has advanced significantly as a
result of Bandura’s work. Most notably, his research on social cognitive theory and the specific concept
of self-efficacy serve as the bedrock for much of our ongoing work as positive psychologists (Bandura,
2008).

4 WAYS TO BUILD SELF-EFFICACY

1. Mastery Experiences

There is no better way to start believing in one’s ability to succeed than to set a goal, persist through
challenges on the road to goal-achievement, and enjoy the satisfying results. Once a person has done
this enough times, they will come to believe that sustained effort and perseverance through adversity
will serve a purpose in the end; belief in one’s ability to succeed will grow.
In contrast, regularly achieving easy success with little effort can lead people to expect rapid results,
which can result in their being easily discouraged by failure (Bandura, 2008).

However, a child who doesn’t learn to overcome disappointment and draw upon their internal
resources to push through obstacles will miss out on opportunities to develop their self-efficacy.
Consequently, the child may be left under-equipped when it comes to handling the challenges that
await them in adulthood.

Experiencing failure is important so that we can build resilience. This is done by treating every
failure as a learning opportunity and a chance to reach competence via a different approach.

2. Social Modeling

Another way that a person can build self-efficacy is by witnessing demonstrations of competence by
people who are similar to them (Bandura, 2008). In this scenario, the person witnessing the display of
competence perceives aspects of their own identity in the actor. That is, the actor may be of a similar
age, ethnic background, sexuality, or gender as the observer (Bandura, 1997).

The observer, who witnesses the actor’s success through dedicated efforts, will be inspired to believe
that they, too, can achieve their goals.

When we consider the power of role modeling for inspiring self-belief, we can begin to understand
the importance of diverse representation in the media. In the past, one would have needed to find a
role-model in one’s immediate social surroundings. Now, through the internet and other digital
mediums, people (especially young people) are being exposed to many potential role-models.

If these viewers never see anyone like themselves displaying acts of competence across the various
domains of life (e.g., speaking in the media, competing in elite sports), they are denied the
opportunity to develop self-efficacy through this vicarious modeling and may be less likely than other
populations to pursue their ambitions.

3. Social Persuasion

When a person is told that they have what it takes to succeed, they are more likely to achieve success.
In this way, self-efficacy becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy (Eden & Zuk, 1995).

While not as powerful as mastery for strengthening self-efficacy (Bandura, 2008), being told by
someone we trust that we possess the capabilities to achieve our goals will do more for us than
dwelling on our deficiencies.

Therefore, a good mentor can boost self-efficacy not only through role-modeling but by serving as a
trusted voice of encouragement. They may also help their mentee to recognize opportunities in which
they can demonstrate competence (without being overwhelmed) and persuade them to step into the
ring.

Other works (beyond those of Bandura) have even investigated the role of self-talk for strengthening
self-efficacy and improving performance. For instance, one study found that tennis players who gave
themselves a motivational pep talk before practicing a particular swing performed significantly better
 than a group who did not give themselves a pep talk (Hatzigeorgiadis, Zourbanos, Goltsios, &
Theodorakis, 2008).

This finding suggests that we can verbally persuade ourselves to believe in our capabilities and
strengthen our self-efficacy.

4. States of Physiology

Lastly, our emotions, moods, and physical states influence how we judge our self-efficacy (Kavanagh
& Bower, 1985).

According to Bandura (2008), it is harder to feel assured of our ability to succeed when we feel
weariness and a low mood. This is especially true if we perceive these emotional and physiological
states to be indicative of our incompetence, vulnerability, or inability to achieve a goal.

Introspection and education can prevent these physical states from being interpreted negatively. For
example, when experiencing a personal or work-related failure, people can practice self-compassion.

At chronic levels, low mood can have a debilitating effect on self-efficacy and subsequent goal
achievement, as people with chronically low mood are likely to give up on goals sooner and
demonstrate a reluctance to even take up goals in the first place (Bandura, 2008).

Indeed, it’s been shown that while people suffering from depression still have goals, they hold more
pessimistic beliefs about their ability to achieve goals successfully and perceive that they have less
control over the outcomes of goals (Dickson, Moberly, & Kinderman, 2011).

In sum, changing negative misinterpretations of physical and affective states is key to build self-
efficacy (Bandura, 2008).

LOCKE’S GOAL-SETTING THEORY

In the late 1960s, Locke's pioneering research into goal setting and motivation gave us our modern
understanding of goal setting. In his 1968 article "Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and
Incentives," he showed that clear goals and appropriate feedback motivate employees. He went on to
highlight that working toward a goal is also a major source of motivation – which, in turn, improves
performance.
Locke's research showed that the more difficult and specific a goal is, the harder people tend to work to
achieve it.

In one study, Locke reviewed a decade's worth of laboratory and field studies on the effects of goal
setting and performance. He found that, for 90 percent of the time, specific and challenging (but not too
challenging) goals led to higher performance than easy, or "do your best," goals.
For example, telling someone to "try hard" or "do your best" is less effective than saying "try to get more
than 80 percent correct," or "concentrate on beating your best time." Likewise, having a goal that's too
easy is not motivating. Hard goals are more motivating than easy ones, because it feels more of an
accomplishment to achieve something you've worked hard for.
A few years after Locke published his article, Dr. Gary Latham studied the effects of goal setting in the
workplace. His results supported Locke's findings – that there is an inseparable link between goal setting
and workplace performance.

In 1990, Locke and Latham published their seminal work, "A Theory of Goal Setting & Task
Performance." In this book, they repeated the need to set specific and difficult goals, while outlining five
other characteristics for successful goal setting.

Dr. Gary Latham also studied the effects of goal setting in the workplace. Latham’s results supported
Locke’s findings and showed there is indeed a link that is inseparable between goal setting and workplace
performance.

Locke and Latham published work together in 1990 with their work “A Theory of Goal Setting & Task
Performance” stressing the importance of setting goals that were both specific and difficult.

Locke and Latham also stated that there are five goal-setting principles that can help improve your
chances of success.

1. Clarity
2. Challenge
3. Commitment
4. Feedback
5. Task Complexity

Clarity is important when it comes to goals. Setting goals that are clear and specific eliminate the
confusion that occurs when a goal is set in a more generic manner.

Challenging goals stretch your mind and cause you to think bigger. This helps you accomplish more.
Each success you achieve helps you build a winning mindset.

Commitment is also important. If you don’t commit to your goal with everything you have it is less likely
you will achieve it.

Feedback helps you know what you are doing right and how you are doing. This allows you to adjust
your expectations and your plan of action going forward.

Task Complexity is the final factor. It’s important to set goals that are aligned with the goal’s complexity.

How Can Goal-setting Improve Performance?

Goal-setting and task performance were studied by Locke & Latham, (1991). Goal setting theory is based
upon the simplest of introspective observations, specifically, that conscious human behavior is
purposeful.

Goal-setting theory, according to the research, states that the simplest and most direct motivational
explanation on why some people perform better than others is because they have different performance
goals.
Two attributes have been studied in relation to performance:
1. Content
2. Intensity

Difficulty depends upon the relationship someone has to the task. The same task or goal can be easy for
one person, and more challenging for the next, so it’s all relative. Given an adequate level of ability and
commitment, the harder a goal, the higher the performance. When humans take purposeful action, they set
goals in order to achieve them.

HOW GOAL SETTING MOTIVATES INDIVIDUALS

Research tells us that goal setting is important on both an individual and a group basis. Locke and Latham
have also shown us that there is an important relationship between goals and performance.
Locke and Latham’s research supports the idea that the most effective performance seems to be the result
of goals being both specific and challenging. When goals are used to evaluate performance and linked to
feedback on results, they create a sense of commitment and acceptance.
The researchers also found that the motivational impact of goals may be affected by ability and self-
efficacy, or one’s belief that they can achieve something.

It was also found that deadlines helped improve the effectiveness of a goal and a learning goal orientation
leads to higher performance when compared to a performance goal orientation.

Why is Goal Setting Important for Students?

Research done by Moeller, Theiler, and Wu (2012) examined the relationship between goal setting and
student achievement at the classroom level.

This research examined a 5-year quasi-experimental study, which looked at goal setting and student
achievement in the high school Spanish language classroom.

A tool known as LinguaFolio was used, and introduced into 23 high schools with a total of 1,273
students.

The study portfolio focused on student goal-setting, self-assessment and a collection of evidence of
language achievement.

Researchers used a hierarchical linear model, and then analyzed the relationship between goal setting and
student achievement. This research was done at both the individual student and teacher levels.

A correlational analysis of the goal-setting process as well as language proficiency scores revealed a
statistically significant relationship between the process of setting goals and language achievement (p
< .01).

The research also looked at the importance of autonomy or one’s ability to take responsibility for their
learning. Autonomy is a long-term aim of education, according to the study as well as a key factor in
learning a language successfully.

There has been a paradigm shift in language education from teacher to student-centered learning, which
makes the idea of autonomy even more important. Goal setting in language learning is commonly
regarded as one of the strategies that encourage a student’s sense of autonomy (Moeller, Theiler and Wu,
2012)

The results of the study revealed that there was a consistent increase over time in the main goal, plan of
action and reflection scores of high school Spanish learners. This trend held true for all levels except for
the progression from third to fourth year Spanish for action plan writing and goal setting. The greatest
improvement in goal setting occurred between the second and third levels of Spanish.

LESSON 3
TAKING CHARGE OF ONE’S HEALTH

INTRODUCTION

In today’s fast-paced life, we usually find ourselves trying to squeeze in a lot of workloads within a
limited time. We tend to be so busy with a lot of things that at the end of the day, we often find ourselves
feeling more exhausted than feeling accomplished.

But as they say, stress is always a part of life and without it, life would be dull and boring. Stress refers to
the body’s reactions to circumstances that are, realistically or perceptually, beyond one’s capacity. Stress
is often thought as arising from negative situations, such as family problems, loss of a loved one, broken
relationships, failing grades, and financial difficulties to name a few. However, things that we enjoy doing
at the same time, equally taxing and demanding, can also be a source of stress.

STRESSORS AND RESPONSES

A stressful situation — whether something environmental, such as a looming work deadline, or

psychological, such as persistent worry about losing a job — can trigger a cascade of stress hormones that
produce well-orchestrated physiological changes. A stressful incident can make the heart pound and
breathing quicken. Muscles tense and beads of sweat appear.

This combination of reactions to stress is also known as the "fight-or-flight" response because it evolved
as a survival mechanism, enabling people and other mammals to react quickly to life-threatening
situations. The carefully orchestrated yet near-instantaneous sequence of hormonal changes and
physiological responses helps someone to fight the threat off or flee to safety. Unfortunately, the body can
also overreact to stressors that are not life-threatening, such as traffic jams, work pressure, and family
difficulties.

Over the years, researchers have learned not only how and why these reactions occur, but have also
gained insight into the long-term effects chronic stress has on physical and psychological health. Over
time, repeated activation of the stress response takes a toll on the body. Research suggests that chronic
stress contributes to high blood pressure, promotes the formation of artery-clogging deposits, and causes
brain changes that may contribute to anxiety, depression, and addiction. More preliminary research
suggests that chronic stress may also contribute to obesity, both through direct mechanisms (causing
people to eat more) or indirectly (decreasing sleep and exercise).

Sounding the alarm

The stress response begins in the brain (see illustration). When someone confronts an oncoming car or
other danger, the eyes or ears (or both) send the information to the amygdala, an area of the brain that
contributes to emotional processing. The amygdala interprets the images and sounds. When it perceives
danger, it instantly sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus.

Command center

When someone experiences a stressful event, the amygdala, an area of the brain that contributes to
emotional processing, sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus. This area of the brain functions like
a command center, communicating with the rest of the body through the nervous system so that the
person has the energy to fight or flee.

The hypothalamus is a bit like a command center. This area of the brain communicates with the rest of the
body through the autonomic nervous system, which controls such involuntary body functions as
breathing, blood pressure, heartbeat, and the dilation or constriction of key blood vessels and small
airways in the lungs called bronchioles. The autonomic nervous system has two components, the
sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system
functions like a gas pedal in a car. It triggers the fight-or-flight response, providing the body with a burst
of energy so that it can respond to perceived dangers. The parasympathetic nervous system acts like a
brake. It promotes the "rest and digest" response that calms the body down after the danger has passed.

After the amygdala sends a distress signal, the hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system by
sending signals through the autonomic nerves to the adrenal glands. These glands respond by pumping
the hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) into the bloodstream. As epinephrine circulates
through the body, it brings on a number of physiological changes. The heart beats faster than normal,
pushing blood to the muscles, heart, and other vital organs. Pulse rate and blood pressure go up. The
person undergoing these changes also starts to breathe more rapidly. Small airways in the lungs open
wide. This way, the lungs can take in as much oxygen as possible with each breath. Extra oxygen is sent
to the brain, increasing alertness. Sight, hearing, and other senses become sharper. Meanwhile,
epinephrine triggers the release of blood sugar (glucose) and fats from temporary storage sites in the
body. These nutrients flood into the bloodstream, supplying energy to all parts of the body.
All of these changes happen so quickly that people aren't aware of them. In fact, the wiring is so efficient
that the amygdala and hypothalamus start this cascade even before the brain's visual centers have had a
chance to fully process what is happening. That's why people are able to jump out of the path of an
oncoming car even before they think about what they are doing.

As the initial surge of epinephrine subsides, the hypothalamus activates the second component of the
stress response system — known as the HPA axis. This network consists of the hypothalamus, the
pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands.

The HPA axis relies on a series of hormonal signals to keep the sympathetic nervous system — the "gas
pedal" — pressed down. If the brain continues to perceive something as dangerous, the hypothalamus
releases corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), which travels to the pituitary gland, triggering the
release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). This hormone travels to the adrenal glands, prompting
them to release cortisol. The body thus stays revved up and on high alert. When the threat passes, cortisol
levels fall. The parasympathetic nervous system — the "brake" — then dampens the stress response.

SOURCES OF COPING AND STRENGTH

Key Points

 Coping is the process of spending mental, conscious energy on dealing with problems in life.
Mechanisms used to cope with stress attempt to overcome or diminish the amount of stress
experienced.
 Coping mechanisms can be categorized into three broad types: appraisal -focused, which affects
thought associated with the stressor; problem-focused, which affects the stressor itself; and
emotion -focused, which affects the feelings associated with the stressor.
 Coping strategies can be either positive or negative. Positive or adaptive strategies decrease the
amount of stress perceived and experienced, while negative or maladaptive strategies diminish
symptoms of stress without addressing the real problem or disorder.
 Coping ability varies to the extent that a person perceives a situation as stressful (primary
appraisal) and decides he/she has the necessary resources to deal with what has been labeled
stressful (secondary appraisal).
 Coping-strategy selection varies among people and populations based on situational, sexual,
personal, and cultural differences.

Key Terms
 dissociation: A defense mechanism through which certain thoughts or mental processes are
compartmentalized in order to avoid emotional stress to the conscious mind.
 sensitization: The increase in behavioral response following repeated applications of a particular
stimulus.

COPING WITH STRESS

Coping is the process of spending conscious effort and energy to solve personal and interpersonal
problems. In the case of stress, coping mechanisms seek to master, minimize, or tolerate stress and
stressors that occur in everyday life. These mechanisms are commonly called coping skills or coping
strategies. All coping strategies have the adaptive goal of reducing or dealing with stress, but some
strategies can actually be maladaptive (unhealthy) or merely ineffective.

The term “coping” usually refers to dealing with the stress that comes after a stressor is presented, but
many people also use proactive coping strategies to eliminate or avoid stressors before they occur.
Personal choice in coping strategies is determined by personality traits and type, social context, and the
nature of the stressor involved.

COPING STRATEGIES

Appraisal-Focused Strategies
 Appraisal-focused strategies attempt to modify thought processes associated with stress. People
alter the way they think about a problem by approaching it differently or altering their goals and
values.
Problem-Focused Strategies
 Problem-focused strategies aim to deal with the cause of the problem or stressor. People try to
change or eliminate the source of stress by researching the problem and learning management
skills to solve it.

Emotion-Focused Strategies
 Emotion-focused strategies address the feelings associated with the stressor. People modify the
emotions that accompany stress perception by releasing, distracting, or managing their mental
state.

Adaptive vs. Maladaptive Strategies

 Coping strategies can also be positive (adaptive) or negative (maladaptive). Positive coping
strategies successfully diminish the amount of stress being experienced and provide constructive
feedback for the user. Examples of adaptive coping include seeking social support from others
(social coping) and attempting to learn from the stressful experience (meaning-focused coping).
Maintaining good physical and mental health, practicing relaxation techniques, and employing
humor in difficult situations are other types of positive coping strategies. Proactive coping is a
specific type of adaptive strategy that attempts to anticipate a problem before it begins and
prepare a person to cope with the coming challenge.

 Negative coping strategies might be successful at managing or abating stress, but the result is
dysfunctional and non-productive. They provide a quick fix that interferes with the person’s
ability to break apart the association between the stressor and the symptoms of anxiety.
Therefore, while these strategies provide short-term relief, they actually serve to maintain
disorder. Maladaptive strategies include dissociation, sensitization, numbing out, anxious
avoidance of a problem, and escape.

APPROACHES TO STRESS MANAGEMENT

Studies of stress have shown that it is caused by distinct, measurable life events deemed stressors. Life
stressors can be ranked by the median degree of stress they produce. This finding led to the belief that
stress was somehow outside of or beyond the control of the person experiencing stress. Further study into
this belief yielded a slightly different result.

While external stressors can produce valid and measurable stress in the body, this reaction is entirely
dependent on the appraisal formed by the stressed person. Not only does an event need to be perceived as
stressful, but the individual must also believe that the pressure of the event outweighs his/her ability to
cope. This theory of imbalance between demands and resources is now called the transactional model of
stress. Modern stress-management techniques were modeled from this idea that stress is not a
predetermined, direct response to a stressor but rather a changeable perception of deficiency on behalf the
individual. This precept allows stress to be controlled by the person and provides the basis for most stress
management techniques.

Conventional Methods
 Conventional methods of stress management are most popular in the Western world. These
methods are called conventional because most people are familiar with them and their effects on
stress. Some conventional methods of reducing stress include psychiatric therapy and anxiety-
reducing medications. Sometimes, the social support factor of therapy alone can be enough to lift
a person out of a debilitating state of stress. Conventional methods tend to face the stressor head-
on and adapt a person’s life to either avoid or abate a particular type of stress.

Alternative Methods
 Alternative methods of stress management have traditionally been popular in regions of the world
outside of the United States, but they continue to gain influence in the Western world. As with
alternative medicine, alternative stress therapies are not rooted in the scientific method, but rather
have non-evidence-based healing effects. These methods tend to focus on the person experiencing
stress, providing methods for mental reframing or management. Alternative methods such as
yoga, meditation, and visualization embrace the transactional model of stress by empowering the
stressed person to either view the situation differently or believe in their capability to cope. The
transactional model of stress is a framework that emphasizes one’s ability to evaluate harm,
threats, and challenges, and results in an enhanced ability to cope with stressful events.
Individuals focus on the nature of thought and stress, and are encouraged to develop heightened
security and positive thinking when it comes to stressful situations. Other alternative methods to
stress management include meditation, deep breathing and relaxation techniques, spending time
with nature, humor, spas and social activies, among many others.

Alternative stress management: Yoga is a popular alternative stress-management resource. In yoga teaching, the seven chakras
are believed to be the source and manifestation of all
stress and disease in the body.
Stress and Filipinos: The social and Cultural Dimensions of Stress

Culturally, we have different thresholds for these sounds. People who were born and bred in other
country, find the Philippines too “noisy”: the jeepneys, the arcade games in malls, even the way people
talk. Yet they have no problems tuning into hard rock music on their iPods.

Filipino sees a crowd and is delighted, “Uy, masaya.” Westerners crave privacy; the Filipino is stressed
by solitude. We’re not alone, of course, in finding pleasure in crowds and camaraderie. Culture adapts to
circumstances and we are only one of many countries with large dense populations that have learned to
live with the maddening crowds, complete with the noise. The Chinese, for example, refer to “merriment”
as re nao, the words for “hot” and “noisy.”

While we enjoy noise, we’re quite sensitive to olfactory assaults. Filipinos will claim some odors are so
bad they cause a stomachache. We sniff everything, from food to lovers, and the smells we find good, we
tend to indulge to an excess. No wonder aromatherapy’s taken off in the Philippines, as did those terrible
car fresheners and deodorizers.

Beyond these sensory stresses, we Filipinos do face many sources of stress, around work and livelihood
mainly. Farmers worry about drought and typhoons; urbanites go berserk with tyrannical bosses and
vicious gossipy office-mates.

Rural or urban, we all face the stresses of family, perhaps more so than in Western countries. We like to
say we are family-oriented, with relatives always on hand to help out. But the extended Filipino family
can be stressful too, with all its obligations. Overseas workers have a particularly difficult time with all
the expectations family members have back home.

Filipinos are resilient. In urban shanties where 15 people share 15 square meters of living space and yes,
on the surface, everyone seems happy. Chinese Asiaweek once had a cover story featuring Filipinos as the
happiest people in the world, unfazed by the most difficult of circumstances. One photo had a group of
men drinking away in the middle of knee-high floodwaters. But the scenes of smiling and laughing
Filipinos, singing and dancing (and drinking) away can be deceptive. Quite often, we deal with stress by
trying to be “happy.” Masaya is social camaraderie, it’s making cheer and quite often we do it precisely
because there have been unhappy events, stressful events. The best example is that of a death — our
wakes are notorious for its merry-making, but that, precisely, is part of our stress-coping mechanism.

Filipinos are aware of how dangerous it is to allow stress to consume us. We warn people about excesses
as a cause of illness, and that includes the excessive emotions generated by stress. The word dalamhati is
graphic, describing an inner sadness (from the Malay dalam, inside and hati, the heart or the liver,
believed to be seats of our emotions) that slowly consumes the person.

There are power dimensions to all this, such as those found in gender. Contrary to stereotypes about
women being more expressive, Filipinas are actually more prone to dealing with stressful situations
through tiis (endurance) and kimkim (repression). Check out the local scenes of merriment: it’s usually
men having a good time, bringing out the beer and toasting their problems away, while their women look
for ways to make ends meet. Men, too, are expected to keep their feelings in check, but more out of
masculine values of strength and stoicism. Men are generally not allowed to cry, much less to go into
hysterics; and this probably helps to explain why more men suffer from cardiovascular disease.
Many Filipinos will express their stress by complaining about recurring headaches, or abdominal pains,
accompanied by dizziness, nausea, fatigue. Doctors used to dismiss these as being all in the mind, but it
has become clear the physical pain and distress may be quite real, that the pent-up stress is expressed
through the body.

Filipinos is so attached to home and hearth that we even have a term namamahay, missing home, to
describe a range of symptoms, from insomnia to constipation that plagues us when we are away from
home. That’s stress too. And with men, given the cultural imperative of suppressing their distress, we
might expect nightmares, some with fatal endings.

ALL SAID, there’s a political economy of stress involved, meaning power relations shape the way one
experiences and expresses stress. Common sense tells us the poor suffer much more daily stress, from
battling the traffic while commuting, breathing in more of the toxic fumes, dealing with tyrannical bosses
and snake pit offices. Poor women are doubly burdened, having to deal with the tribulations of work, as
well as of the home, running after the needs of husband and children.

Public health analysts in Western countries have produced voluminous literature on how poverty interacts
with stress to cause illnesses and death. Earlier research tended to be simplistic, explaining high illness
and death rates among the poor as being due to their lack of access to good health care. But more recent
research has shown that the problems of poverty also relate to power and autonomy. The poor are less
healthy because they suffer more stress, not just from what I described earlier, but also from the inequities
in power. The poor are more prone to feeling helpless and will have less self-esteem — all that
contributes to a more rapid deterioration of health when confronted with stressors.

Men may be more prone to the problem of this “political economy of stress,” since they have to live up to
higher expectations of gender. A jobless man, for example, may be more adversely affected by stress
because of a loss of pride. Machismo also blocks him from taking up jobs that he thinks are beneath his
station. So he ends up drinking with the barkada, which is then interpreted as “resilience” and an ability
to be happy. His wife, meanwhile, will pick up odd jobs here and there, doing laundry, mending clothes;
ironically, that again generates stress for him, as he feels his masculinity threatened.

The macho imperatives around stress are inevitably tied to alcohol and drugs. Younger male Filipinos are
particularly vulnerable, given their struggles with identity, masculinity and self-esteem, unable to express
their frustrations and resentment. Drugs are one way of dealing with the stress, with all its attendant
problems. It’s significant though that the most abused drugs are metaphetamines, which are “uppers” or
stimulants. Again, the Filipino response to stress is to look for more stimulation. The nerve cells fire away
until, frayed and exhausted, the user develops paranoia (borrowed into Filipino as praning) and then
psychosis.

Others take out their frustrations through violent behavior. The phenomenon of the “amok”, favorite fare
for our tabloid newspapers, used to be the subject of racialized descriptions from Western
anthropologists, who thought that those belonging to the “Malay race,” including Filipinos, were
especially prone to going on a violent rampage, sometimes with hostage-taking.

The racial angle is total nonsense of course. Running amok has nothing to do with race. It’s, quite simply,
a person reaching the end of the line, or put another way, the bottom of the heap. It’s the poorest, most
disempowered men, who tend to run amok. A stressed rich man takes out his frustrations on those lower
in a pecking order; the amok has no one, not even the dogs at home, to vent his anger, so he turns to
random violence.
Sessions with psychiatrists or psychologists are more effective than drug treatments, but again, low
incomes may prevent many Filipinos from getting the “talking therapy” they need. That is why we need
to be able to tap what we already have in culture, looking into how families and communities can be
mobilized to help people with their stress.

Stress management is really helping people to dissect their own feelings, to understand where their
distress is coming from. The solutions may not always be easy — all the aromatherapy and meditation in
the world will not raise low wages.

But community action can help to make the stress more tolerable. Communities should be urged to create
their own safe spaces where people can seek some refuge. Filipino-style, such spaces need not be totally
quiet, but they do need to give some sense of safety, of sanity in a mad world. Filipino-style, too, we need
to think of how these therapeutic spaces might work out as places where people can engage in social
activities, without becoming more agitated. Alternatives could be offered: gardening, cross-stitching,
anything that calms the mind. You don’t need to be in the lotus position to meditate.

Ultimately, stress management is a matter of helping people to recognize that the world, which seems so
stressful, can also be a source of joy and pleasure, fulfillment and renewal. The therapies being dangled
around are really meant as appetizers, ways of inducing the depressed the person to garner enough
strength and courage to re-engage not just the world, but life itself.

TAKING CARE OF THE SELF: THE NEED FOR SELF-CARE AND COMPASSION

We sometimes use “self-care” as a proxy for “self-compassion.” But they’re actually different concepts.
Self-compassion is regarding yourself compassionately. Self-care, by contrast, is treating yourself
compassionately. The two terms sound interchangeable, but they contain a thinking versus
doing distinction.

This is important because people can go through the motions of self-care without having self-compassion.
Similarly, they can view themselves compassionately and still not take care of themselves. The two
concepts, though, need to work together. Self-care without self-compassion discharges a debt, usually
with suffering somewhere else. Self-care with self-compassion is a gift that doesn’t have to be earned or
repaid.

We Need Self-Care and Self-Compassion

Self-compassion lets us flourish because it keeps us from assuming we’re super humans or robots who
can do far more than we’d expect anyone else to. Rarely do we look at someone who’s sick, injured,
grieving, handling a crisis, or bitten off way more than they can chew and expect them to get it all done
perfectly with a smile on their faces. Yet that’s exactly what we expect of ourselves when going through
the same situations. Even when we can’t soldier on, we expect we should be able to. Self-compassion
takes the pressure off. It accepts demoralization, frustration, and melancholy and lessens all three. It helps
us practice true self-care, getting out of or renegotiating commitments I can’t possibly finish right now.

Here’s how to practice self-compassion:

1. Replace. Imagine someone you care deeply about, such as your four-year-old son, furry
companion, or best friend. Now, insert that individual into whatever hardship you’re dealing with.
2. Think. Ask what you’d expect of and from that person if they were in the situation you’re in.
3. Encourage. Based on your answers, consider what you would encourage that person to do and
what you would do for them if you could.
4. Return. Put yourself back in the situation.