UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Garcia College of Technology

KaliboAklan
 Course Description

The course deals with the

nature of identity, as well
as the factors and forces
that affect the
development and
maintenance of personal
identity.
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The directive to know oneself has inspired counties and varied
ways to comply. Among the questions that everyone has had to
grapple with at one time or other is “Who am I?” At no other
period is this question asked more urgently than in adolescence –
traditionally believe to be a time of vulnerability and great
possibilities. Issues of self and identity are among the most critical
for the young.

This course is intended to facilitate the exploration of the issues

and concerns regarding self and identity to arrive at a better
understanding of one’s self. It strives to meet this goal by stressing
the integration of the personal with the academic – contextualizing
matters discussed in the classroom and in the everyday
experiences of students – making for better learning, generating a
new appreciation for the learning process, and developing a more
critical and reflective attitude while enabling them to manage and
improve their selves to attain a better quality of life.
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The course is divided into three major parts:
the first part seeks to understand the construct
of the self from various disciplinal
perspectives: philosophy, sociology,
anthropology, and psychology – as well as the
more traditional division between the East and
West – each seeking to provide answers to the
difficult but essential question of “What is the
self?” And raising, among others, the question:
“Is there even such a construct as the self?”

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The second part explores some of the various
aspects that make up the self, such as the
biological and material up to and including the
more recent Digital Self. The third and final part
identifies three areas of concern for young
students: learning, goal setting, and managing
stress. It also provides for the more practical
application of the concepts discussed in this
course and enables them the hands-on experience
of developing self-help plans for self-regulated
learning, goal setting and self-care.
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 Course Outline
1. The Self: Its Nature and Significance
2. The Self: Philosophical Perspective
3. Concepts of Self: Eastern Philosophy
4. The Self in the Allied Sciences
5. Physical Self: Image Matter
6. The Sexual Self
7. The Material Self
8. Moral Spiritual Development
9. The Digital self
10. Intellectual Development
11. Emotion: Nature and Management
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Some Reminders
Assessments and Expected Outputs
• Each module has expected outputs to be accomplished. These could take the form of participations in
discussion points, assignments, activity reflections and quizzes.
• Students are asked to submit these requirements in the allotted time frame.

Professor’s Email Availability and Policies

• Available via email daily, messenger and will try to respond as soon as possible (generally within 24-
48) hours. When emailing me, please place the course /section and the topic in the subject line of the
email. This will help me tremendously in locating and responding to your emails quickly.

Virtual Office Hours

• We will have our synchronous session through Google Meet to discuss questions related to weekly
readings and/or assignments. Class will be held upon determining our class schedule.
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Some Reminders
College Policy
• Upon enrolling this course, you are giving your consent to abide in the college rules and regulations stipulated in the student manual
regarding academic policies and its corresponding disciplinary sanction.
 
Communicating with the Teacher
• It is the responsibility of the students to communicate with their teacher during class orientation or first class meeting via online
regarding their issues or queries as soon as possible that may hinder them in participating in the set up given to accomplish the
course as well as questions on completion  of assigned tasks, activities or output and exams due to justifiable circumstances such as a
health problem, heavy workload, or any other reason. 

Plagiarism          
• Plagiarism is not allowed in the course. It is also stated on the University Policy.  You are expected to use your own words and ideas,
and to acknowledge every  source/s you use in making your output or required tasks.
 
Missed or Late Assignments
• Submit your output/ assignments/tasks on time. I am only allowing making up for Missed Assignments or Late Tasks for justifiable
reason/s but may have penalty or point deduction at my discretion.  Asking for an extension does not guarantee it will be granted.

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Some Reminders
Faculty Information

• E-mail: Ogladih09@gmail.com
• Contact number: 09380788483
• Synchronous Communication through google meet through through the link given in the
modules
• Please  contact me @ 8am-5pm- on weekdays ONLY on mobile; you can send me
questions through email and will respond as soon as possible, and follow the format in
contacting me through email or I will discard your inquiry.

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QUESTION & ANSWER
Clarifications

“Life is filled with unanswered questions, but it is the courage to seek those answers that
continues to give meaning to life.

J.D. Stroube, Caged by Damnation

tALk BaCk

self issues that bothers young people of

today
What am I?
Who am I?

Who shape
my I?

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 ACTIVITY Identity confusion or identity alteration
involve a sense of confusion about who a
person is.

GETTING TO Identity confusion happens when a person has

trouble defining the things that interest them

KNOW and in life, or their political or religious or social

viewpoints, or their sexual orientation, or their

REFLECTION professional ambitions.

As you introduce ourselves,

Think of your past, present and future. Past that is part of
who you are today, present to achieving your future. Future
of success.
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 Understanding the concept of self

ADD A FOOTER
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The notion of SELF

• In psychology, the notion of the self refers to a person's experience as a

single, unitary, autonomous being that is separate from others,
experienced with continuity through time and place. The
experience of the self includes consciousness of one's physicality as well as
one's inner character and emotional life.
The “I” vs. “ME”
• People experience their selves in two senses. The first is as an active agent who acts
on the world as well as being influenced by that world. This type of self is usually
referred to as the I, and focuses on how people experience themselves as doers.

• The second is as an object of reflection and evaluation. In this type of self,

people turn their attention to their physical and psychological attributes to contemplate
the constellation of skills, traits, attitudes, opinions, and feelings that they may have.
This type of self is referred to as the ME, and focuses on how people observe
themselves from the outside looking in, much like people monitor and contemplate the
competence and character of other people.
Prevalent issues in understanding self

1. is it acquired or learned?
The nature vs. nurture debate

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Prevalent issues in understanding self
1. is it acquired or learned? The nature vs. nurture debate

Nature refers to all of the genes and hereditary factors that influence who we are
—from our physical appearance to our personality characteristics. Nurture refers
to all the environmental variables that impact who we are, including our early
childhood experiences, how we were raised, our social relationships, and our
surrounding culture.

Do genetic or environmental factors have a greater influence on the self?

Do inherited traits or life experiences play a greater role in shaping one’s
SELF?

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Prevalent issues in understanding self

2. Is there a difference between

identity and self

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Prevalent issues in understanding self
2. Is there a difference between identity and self

Within the social sciences and humanities the terms ‘self’ and ‘identity’ are used in
very specific, yet inconsistent and contested ways. In general, ‘ identity’ is used to
refer to one's social ‘face’ – how one perceives how one is perceived by others.
‘Self’ is generally used to refer to one's sense of ‘who I am and what I am’ .

Both the concepts of self and identity evolve out of social interaction (Millward &
Kelly 2003), but because we are not merely ‘stamped out’ by society, we are active
participants in our own self/identity construction. 

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the major influences to SELF
the personal factors

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the major influences to SELF
the social factors

Reference role and

family
group status

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the major influences to SELF
the environmental factor

Religious forces
Demographic forces

Cultural forces
Economic forces

Technological forces
Political forces

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Challenges to self
1. Identity crises -a period of uncertainty and
confusion in which a person's sense of identity
becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their
expected aims or role in society.

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Challenges to self
1. Identity crises -a period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person's
sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected
aims or role in society.
2.Poor self-image - Poor self-image are the result
of accumulated criticisms that the person collected
as a child which have led to damaging their own
view of themselves. 

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Challenges to self
1. Identity crises -a period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person's
sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected
aims or role in society.
2. Poor self-image - Poor self-image are the result of accumulated criticisms
that the person collected as a child which have led to damaging their own view
of themselves. 
3. Negative stereotype - Negative stereotypes are traits
and characteristics, negatively valenced and attributed to a
social group and to its individual members.

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Challenges to self
1. Identity crises -a period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person's
sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected
aims or role in society.
2. Poor self-image - Poor self-image are the result of accumulated criticisms
that the person collected as a child which have led to damaging their own view
of themselves. 
3. Negative stereotype - Negative stereotypes are traits and
characteristics, negatively valenced and attributed to a social group and to its
individual members.
4.Narcissistic self - Narcissism is the pursuit of
gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of
one's idealised self image and attributes

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Challenges to self
1. Identity crises -a period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person's sense
of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected aims or
role in society.
2. Poor self-image - Poor self-image are the result of accumulated criticisms that
the person collected as a child which have led to damaging their own view of
themselves. 
3. Negative stereotype - Negative stereotypes are traits and
characteristics, negatively valenced and attributed to a social group and to its
individual members.
4. Narcissistic self - Narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or
egotistic admiration of one's idealised self image and attributes
5. The false self - The False Self is an artificial persona
that people create very early in life to protect themselves
from re-experiencing developmental trauma, shock and
stress in close relationships

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ACTIVITY
“On valuing”… a personal encounter

• Present a 5 minute video of yourself focusing on one of the challenges to

self presented (IDENTITY CRISIS, POOR SELF-IMAGE, NEGATIVE
STEREOTYPE, NARCISSISTIC SELF, THE FALSE SELF) and describe
your experiences of it. Focus on the current challenge and how is it
affecting the way you view your self and how others view you.

• Also, you may give your own personal triumph as how you are managing
this challenge to self by giving some coping tips i.e. management skills
you adapted to combat such challenge.

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 philosophical standpoints about the self

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Discerning the philosophy of self
WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY and specifically what is the
nature of PHILOSOPHY OF SELF?

Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of

knowledge, reality, existence, and it investigates the
legitimacy of concepts by rational arguments and much of
its concern is the fundamental nature of self.
The philosophy of self is the study of the many
conditions of identity that make one subject
of experience distinct from other experiences. The self is
sometimes understood as a unified being essentially
connected to consciousness, awareness, and agency.
Discerning the philosophy of self
THE PRE-SOCRATICS ERA

The Pre-Socratics era (Thales, Phytagoras,

Parmenides, Heraclitus, etc.) were concerned with
answering questions such as;

 What is the world really made up of?

 Why is the world the way it is?
 What explains the changes that happen around us
Discerning the philosophy of self
SOCRATES

The unexamined life is not worth living

The value of INTROSPECTION
The worst thing that can happen to anyone is to live
but die inside.

   
 
Self Knowledge    Ultimate Virtue    Ultimate Happiness
Discerning the philosophy of self
PLATO

The measure of a man is what he does with power

The IDEAL WORLD (Intelligible world) is the true world of

reality. The SENSIBLE WORLD (World of Matter) is a world
of becoming; it is a world of constant change.

The 3 components to the soul;

Rational soul – reason and intellect to govern affairs
Spirited soul – emotions should be kept at bay
Appetitive soul – basic drives/desire
Discerning the philosophy of self
ARISTOTLE
Man is a RATIONAL ANIMAL. RATIONAL SOUL – exists only in
man.

The self is "soul" force pro formed into a conscious awareness of

itself developing, of necessity, multitudes of qualities of
metaphysical mental awareness.

The 2 realms of existence:

1. the physical realm which is the human body substance

2. the metaphysical realm, i.e. soul, of the self's ability to actually
exist itself.
Discerning the philosophy of self
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Man cannot hope to find God unless he first finds himself

Augustine's sense of self is his relation to God, both in his recognition

of God's love and his response to it—achieved through  self-
presentation, then self-realization. Augustine believed one could not
achieve inner peace without finding God's love.

Man is capable of reaching perfection only if man keeps himself good.

For it is the goal of every human person is to attain this communion and
bliss with the Divine by living his life on earth in virtue.
Discerning the philosophy of self
MODERN PHILOSOPHY

RENE DESCARTES

I think therefore I am

Human person = body + mind

“there is so much that we should doubt”.. (methodical doubt)

The only thing that can can’t doubt is existence of self. The
thinking self is the soul. It is the non-material, immortal,
conscious being, independent of the physical laws of the
universe.
Discerning the philosophy of self
MODERN PHILOSOPHY

JOHN LOCKE

Man is born with a Blank Slate

His work on the self is most represented by the concept “Tabula

Rasa” which means a Blank Slate. He believed that the
experiences and perceptions of a person is important in the
establishment of who that person can become.

The value of human experiences in shaping the identification

and establishment of who the person is.
Discerning the philosophy of self
MODERN PHILOSOPHY

DAVID HUME

The self is a bundle of perception

“one can only know what comes from the senses and
the experiences”

the determining factor in human behavior is passion;

one must evaluate human actions according to the
criterion of “instrumentalism”—that is, whether an
action serves the agent’s purpose.
Discerning the philosophy of self
MODERN PHILOSOPHY

IMMANUEL KANT

The inner and outer self

The value of synthesis (i.e. the manifold of internal

observation, “the inner sense”)…. we need active intelligence
to synthesize all knowledge and experiences.

The self is not only personality but also the seat of

knowledge.. the mind is a complex set of abilities (functions).
‘I think’, the ‘empirical self-consciousness’.
Discerning the philosophy of self
MODERN PHILOSOPHY

GILBERT RYLE
I act therefore I am

What truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests

in his day-today life.

“The self is the way people behave”. The self is basically

our behavior. This concept provided the philosophical
principle, “I act therefore I am”. In short, the self is the
same as bodily behavior. 
Discerning the philosophy of self
MODERN PHILOSOPHY

PAUL CHURCHLAND
The self is the Brain

“self” is defined by the movements of our brain.. the context of

neurophilosophy.

to fully understand one’s behavior, one should understand the

different neurological movement of the brain that pertains to
different emotions, feelings, actions and reactions and how such
brain movements affect the body
Discerning the philosophy of self
MODERN PHILOSOPHY

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
The Self is an Embodied Subjectivity

The self is how one perceives it.

The idea of Phenomenology of Perception according to Merleau-Ponty
is divided into three (3) division, The Body, The Perceived World, and
the People and the world. The body both receives the experience as
well as integrates such experiences in the different perception. The
perceived world, which are the accumulation of the perception as
integrated by the experiences of the body. And the people and the
world that enable one to not only be able to integrate the other objects
in the world but also to be able to experience the cultural aspect and
relate to others.
ACTIVITY
argumentative essay

INSTRUCTION:

• Apply one of the following philosophical standpoints of self to the

concept “MAN & HIS RESPONSE TO PANDEMIC” by writing an
essay/argument about it. Your arguments should be focusing on the
application of the chosen philosophical standpoints (e.g. if man is
supposedly body and soul, how come there seemed to be heartless man
who enjoyed seeing the suffering of others?) and should be composing of
3 paragraphs ONLY, single space, ARIAL font, size 12.

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