Introduction to Personal Development
play (Positive Psychology Center in University of
There are three aspects or domains of human
development (Papalia and Feldman, 2012)
- Physical Development – Growth of the body,
brain, motor and sensory skills, and physical
health.
- Cognitive Development – Learning, speaking
understanding, reasoning, and creating.
- Psychosocial Development – Social interactions,
emotions, attitudes, self-identity, personality,
beliefs and values.
Human development is also influenced by the following:
1. Heredity
2. Environment
3. Maturation
IS IT PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT OR PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT?
Personality is about qualities, traits and characteristics
of a person.
Personal means belonging to a person, or those related
to or affecting a person.
What is Personal Development?
- Personal development may be defined as a process in
which persons reflect upon themselves, understand
who they are, accept what they discover about
themselves and learn or unlearn new sets of values,
attitudes, behavior and thinking skills to reach their
fullest potential as human beings.
Psychology and Personal Development
Psychology serves as a foundation for personal
development.
Humanistic Psychology
- Two school proponents:
Abraham Maslow -theorized the five stages of
human development based on hierarchy of
needs
- Carl Rogers - theorized that “the individual has
within himself the capacity and the tendency
latent if not evident, to move forward toward
maturity.”
Positive Psychology
- Current trend in personal development is hugely
influenced by positive psychology which is
founded in belief that people inherently desire
to lead meaningful and fulfilled lives, to
cultivate what is best within them, and to
enhance their experiences of love, work and
Pennsylvania).
- A happily lit bulb shines out in a gloomy
surrounding representing positive psychology.
- Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Personal Development in Adolescence
- Adolescence is the transition period between
childhood and early adulthood. In the Philippine
context, early adolescence happens between
ages of 10 and 13, middle adolescence is
between the ages of 14 and 16, and late
adolescence is between 17 and 20 years of age.
Adolescence starts with biological changes
called Puberty.
At this point, the adolescent becomes more
inquisitive about things like philosophy, religion
and politics.
Relationship with family and friends are also
affected by puberty during the adolescence.
Knowing One’s Self
Philosophical
- Self is the being, which the source of a person’s
consciousness.”
“The agent responsible for an individual’s
thoughts and actions.”
“an intangible identity”
“The outside of the physical realm of the
person.”
Psychological
- “Self is the essence of a person: his thoughts,
feelings and actions, experiences, beliefs,
values, principles and relationships.”
“Self is defined as the cognitive and affective
representation of one’s identity, it is described
in terms of human characteristics such as
behavior and thought.”
Sociological
- “Self is said to be defined by roles we take when
we relate with others.”

Religion/Spiritual
- “Self includes a person’s life purpose, meaning,
aspirations, and one’s relationship with a higher
being.”
Since our approach to personal development is
HOLISTIC, we will integrate the various definitions of
“SELF” from the different views but will give more
emphasis on its PSYCHOLOGICAL DEFINITION.
Personality
- Personality” is referred to as the set of
behaviors, feelings, thoughts, and motives that
identifies individuals.
- It is usually described as behavioral terms that
are observable and measurable.
C – onscientiousness
E - xtraversion
A - greeableness
N - euroticism
Ways to measure personality:
1. One by observing people’s behavior.
2. Personality tests
MBTI - Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
- Popular example of personality test.
Four Preferences of Individuals:
E or I (Extraversion or Introversion)
S or I (Sensing or Intuition)
T or F (Thinking or Feeling)
J or P (Judgement or Perception)

Personality refers to the unique and relatively enduring -

set of behaviors, feelings, thoughts and motives that
characterize an individual” (Feist & Rosenberg,2012).

According to Gordon Allport, “personality is a pattern of

habits, attitudes, traits that determines an individual’s
characteristics, behaviors and traits.”

NATURE, NURTURE AND ENVIRONMENT:

Personality is influenced by both:
 Nature (Heredity or genetic makeup)
 Nurture (Environment)

Trait – refers to individual/single characteristics.

Personality Trait- is a disposition to behave consistently

in a particular way. Characteristics behaviors and
feelings that are consistent and long lasting

Personality – broader term that comprises traits,

motives, thoughts, self-concept and feelings.

Trait theory is an approach in identifying the types of

personalities based on certain traits or attributes, which
vary from person to person.

BIG FIVE OR FIVE FACTOR MODEL

- Psychologists Costa and McCrae (1996)
developed a categorized scheme that described
personality. They discovered the existence of
five universal and widely agreed upon
dimensions of personality:

O – penness to experience