SCIENCE 10

MIDTERMS
St. Augustine (by Merann N.)

Chapter 3: Developing the Whole Person

Mind and Body Dualism of Descartes

 Rene Descartes, a modern philosopher, theorized the duality or understanding the nature of things in a
simple, dual mode.
 Hence, you are familiar with the separation of body and spirit in western religion, and of the mind and
body in the study of human sciences.

Holism and Gestalt

Holism
• In 1926, General Jan C. Smuts, a South African statesman, wrote the book Holism and Evolution.
• He introduced the term holism as “the tendency in nature to form wholes which are greater than the
sum of the parts through creative evolution.”
Gestalt
• Earlier in 1890, a German philosopher and psychologist, Christian von Ehrehfels, introduced the
concept of gestalt.
• This is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “something that is made of many parts and yet is
somehow more than or different from the combination of its parts.”

5 Various Aspects of Holistic Development of Persons

1. Physiological or physical attributes including the five physical senses;
2. Cognitive or the intellectual functions of the mind;
3. Psychological or how thinking, feeling, and behaving interact and happen in a person;
4. Social or the manner by which an individual interacts with other individuals or groups;
5. Spiritual or the attribute of a person’s consciousness and beliefs, including the values and virtues.

Feelings and Emotions

• Paul Ekman of the University of California identified six basic emotions:
1. Happiness
2. Sadness
3. Fear
4. Anger
5. Surprise
6. Disgust
 However, a recent research study (2014) conducted by the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at
the University of Glasgow and published in a journal, Current Biology has concluded that there are only
four basic emotions:
1. Happy
2. Sad
 3. Afraid or Surprised
4. Angry or Disgusted
 Emotion is taken from the Latin verb, “movare”, which means “to move or be upset or agitated”.
 It is defined by Smith (1973) as a variations in level of arousal, affective state or mood, expressive
movements, and attitudes.
 In a state of strong emotion, the persons physical responses include faster heartbeat, profuse sweating
and dilation of eye pupils, higher blood pressure, and muscular tremors, affecting the nervous system in
general.

Are Feelings the Same as Emotions?

 According to neurologist, Dr. Antonio R. Damasio (2005), feeling arises from the brain as it interprets
an emotion, which is usually caused by physical sensation experienced by the body as a reaction to
certain external stimulus. An example of this would be the emotion of being afraid, which produces a
feeling of fear.

Attitudes and Behavior

 Attitudes are a person’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions about another person, object, idea, behavior,
or situation.
 Attitude is a result of a person’s evaluation of an experience with another person, object, idea, behavior,
or situation based on his or her values and belief system.
 Behavior is a manifestation or acting out of the attitudes an individual has.

Values and Virtues

 Values are ideals that create meaning and purpose in a person’s life.
 There are different sets of values identified by different people and organizations, depending on what
their order of priorities are, and what they intend to achieve.
 The United Nations, for example, listed the following universal values:
1. Peace
2. Freedom
3. Social Progress
4. Equal Rights
5. Human Dignity
 These values are enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
 Another example of values, this time for corporations and organizations, is borrowed from Robert L.
Dilenschneider, founder of Dilenscheider Group. In an article he wrote for Huffington Post titled Five
Core Values for the Workplace, Dilenschneider listed the following corporate values:
1. Integrity
2. Accountability
3. Diligence
4. Perseverance
5. Discipline
 Shalom H. Schwartz, a psychologist, in his report, Basic Human Values: Theories, Methods and
Applications, identified the ten basic values that can be characterized by describing their central
motivational goals. These ten basic values are:
1. Self-Direction – independent thought and action; choosing, creating, and exploring
2. Stimulation – excitement, novelty, and challenge in life
3. Hedonism – pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself
 4. Achievement – personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards
5. Power – social status and prestige, and control or dominance over people and resources
6. Security – safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self
7. Conformity – restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses that are likely to upset or harm others and
violate social expectations or norms
8. Tradition – respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or
religion provide self
9. Benevolence – preserving and enhancing the welfare of those with whom one is in frequent personal
contact
10. Universalism – understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and
of nature
 The motivational goals that characterize the ten values he identified were:
1. openness to change;
2. self-transcendence;
3. self-enhancement; and
4. conservation

VIRTUES
 Values are usually nouns, while virtues are adjectives that describe positive desirable qualities which
usually mirror a value it represents.
 Here are some examples:
VALUE VIRTUES
S
Peace Peaceful, calm
Integrity Reputable, responsible,
believable, honest, trustworthy
Love Loving, caring, compassionate,
gentle, affectionate
Respect Respectful, civil