KNOWING AND

UNDERSTANDING
ONESELF DURING MIDDLE
AND LATE ADOLESCENCE
At the end of the lesson, you should be able
to:
1. explain about self-concept: personal
strengths and development needs;
2. demonstrate talent/skills; and
3. Reflect on the importance of knowing
oneself in dealing with others and in
increasing efficiency
Socrates once said, “To
know thyself is the
beginning of wisdom.”
What does this quote
mean?
Knowing yourself is beyond knowing your
favorites. It is a longterm process and you
may need to meet the world for you to find
yourself.
When you know who you are and clearly
understand what you want, you have a better
chance of discovering on how to reach your
own success, happiness and personal
fulfillment in relationships.
 SELF-CONCEPT INVENTORY
Take a look at your own self-concept and answer the following
self-concept inventory in your journal. Give yourself a rating
using the scale: 0 = very weak; 1 = weak; 2 = somewhat weak
or somewhat strong; 3 = strong; 4 = very strong

___1. I have strong sex appeal.

___2. I am proud of my physical figure.
___3. I am physically attractive and beautiful/handsome.
___4. I exude with charm and poise.
___5. I am easy to get along with.
___6. I can adjust to different people and
different situations.
___7. I am approachable; other people are at
ease and comfortable with me.
___8. I am lovable and easy to love.
___9. I am a fast learner, can understand with
one instruction.
___10. I am intelligent.
___11. I have special talents and abilities.
___12. I can easily analyze situations and make right
judgments.
___13. I can be trusted in any transaction.
___14. I have a clean conscience and carry no guilty
feeling.
___15. I have integrity and good reputation.
___16. My friends and classmates can look up to me as
a model worth emulating.
___17. I can express my ideas without difficulty.
___18. I talk in a persuasive manner that I can easily get
people to accept what I say.
___19. I can express my ideas in writing without difficulty.
___20. I am a good listener.
___21. I am emotionally stable and not easily rattled when
faced with trouble.
___22. I am logical and rational in my outlook and decisions.
___23. I feel and act with confidence.
___24. I am a mature person.
Guide Questions: Look at the results of your self-
concept inventory. Copy and answer the following
questions in your journal.
1. In what areas do you consider yourself strong
(with score 14-16 or somewhat weak (score of
10-13) and very weak (below 10)?
___________________________
2. Are there qualities you consider as your
weakness but other people consider as your
strength? What are these? ________________
There is indeed a big
difference between what you
see in yourself (real self-
image) and what is projected
in the eyes of others (your
social image).
KEEP THIS IN MIND
SELF-CONCEPT
Self-concept is the way people think
about themselves. As a global
understanding of oneself, self-
concept shapes and defines who we
are, the decisions we make, and the
relationships we form.
Self-concept is our individual perceptions of our
behavior, abilities, and unique characteristics—a
mental picture of who you are as a person. Self-
concept (1) is unique to the individual; (2) can be
positive or negative; (3) has emotional,
intellectual, and functional dimensions; (4)
changes with the environmental context; (5)
changes over time; and (6) has a powerful
influence on one’s life.
Humanist psychologist, Carl Rogers
believed that there were three
different parts of self-concept:
Self-image, or how you see yourself.
Each individual’s self-image is a mixture
of different attributes including our
physical characteristics, personality
traits, and social roles. Self-image
doesn't necessarily coincide with reality.
Self-esteem, or how much you value yourself. A
number of factors can impact self-esteem,
including how we compare ourselves to others
and how others respond to us. When people
respond positively to our behavior, we are more
likely to develop positive self-esteem. When we
compare ourselves to others and find ourselves
lacking, it can have a negative impact on our self-
esteem.
Ideal self, or how you wish you
could be. In many cases, the
way we see ourselves and how
we would like to see ourselves
do not quite match up.
According to Carl Rogers, the
degree to which a person's self-
concept matches up to reality is
known as congruence and
incongruence.
A person’s ideal self may not be
consistent with what actually
happens in the life and experiences
of the person. Hence, a difference
may exist between a person’s ideal
self and actual experience. This is
called incongruence.
Where a person’s ideal self and actual
experience are consistent or very similar, a
state of congruence exists. The
development of congruence is dependent
on unconditional positive regard. Rogers
believed that for a person to achieve
selfactualization they must be in a state of
congruence
Why is self-concept
important?
Knowing who you are will help you feel that
you have worth and value in this world.
When you can accept yourself for who you
are, it will be easier for others to accept you,
too. Learning about yourself can help you
develop lasting relationships with others as
well as help you make choices that will
direct your life in the path you want to go.
The Benefits of Self-Concept
Happiness. You will be happier when
you can express who you are.
Expressing your desires will make it
more likely that you get what you want.
 Less inner conflict. When your outside
actions are in accordance with your
inside feelings and values, you will
experience less inner conflict
Better decision-making. When you know
yourself, you are able to make better
choices about everything, from small
decisions like which sweater you’ll buy to big
decisions like which partner you’ll spend
your life with. You'll have guidelines you can
apply to solve life’s varied problems.
Self-control. When you know yourself, you
understand what motivates you to resist bad
habits and develop good ones. You'll have the
insight to know which values and goals activate
your willpower.
Resistance to social pressure. When you are
grounded in your values and preferences, you
are less likely to say “yes” when you want to say
“no.”
Tolerance and understanding of others.
Your awareness of your own foibles and
struggles can help you empathize with
others.
 Vitality and pleasure. Being who you truly
are helps you feel more alive and makes
your experience of life richer, larger, and
more exciting.
PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS
Personal effectiveness means making
use of all the personal resources –
talents, skills, energy and time, to
enable you to achieve life goals.
Experience includes knowledge and skills that
we acquire in the process of cognitive and
practical activities. Knowledge is required for
setting goals, defining an action plan to achieve
them and risk assessment. Skills also determine
whether real actions are performed in accordance
with the plan. If the same ability is used many
times in the same situation, then it becomes a
habit that runs automatically, subconsciously.
Here are some skills that will
greatly increase the efficiency of
any person who owns them:
Determination. It allows you to focus
only on achieving a specific goal
without being distracted by less
important things or spontaneous
desires. It may be developed with the
help of self-discipline exercise.
Self-confidence. It appears in the
process of personal development, as a
result of getting aware of yourself, your
actions and their consequences.
Selfconfidence is manifested in speech,
appearance, dressing, gait, and physical
condition.
Persistence. It makes you keep moving forward
regardless of emerging obstacles – problems,
laziness, bad emotional state, etc. It reduces the
costs of overcoming obstacles. It can also be
developed with the help of self-discipline
exercise.
Managing stress. It helps combat stress that
arises in daily life from the environment and other
people.
Problem-solving skills. They help cope with the
problems encountered with a lack of experience.
It increases efficiency by adopting new ways of
achieving goals when obtaining a new
experience.
Creativity. It allows you to find extraordinary
ways to carry out a specific action that no one
has tried to use.
Generating ideas. It helps you achieve
goals using new, original,
unconventional ideas. Idea is a mental
image of an object formed by the
human mind, which can be changed
before being implemented in the real
world.
Activity 1. Copy and answer these questions in your
activity notebook.
1. Why is knowing yourself important?
2. When you think about your relationships, what do you
think is more important: IQ (your intellectual ability) or EQ
(your ability to recognize, manage and understand
emotions)? Explain.
3. What does personal effectiveness mean to you?
4. How can you achieve personal effectiveness?
PERFORMANCE TASK1.
I’M PROUD OF MY TALENT / SKILL Reflect on
the talent or skill (dancing, singing, cooking,
drawing, public speaking, writing, critical thinking
and the like) you are most proud of and share it.
You have two options on how to flaunt it. Choose
only one based on your available resources