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Ateneo de Naga University

College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department of Philosophy

COURSE INFORMATION

Course Title : UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Credit/No. of Units :3
Duration/Term : First Semester, 2019-20
Number of Hours : 3 hour/week for 18 weeks (54 hours/semester)
Schedule :
Room :
InstructorS : Michael Roland F. Hernandez

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.

The directive to Know Oneself has inspired countless 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 believed 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, gen-
erating 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.

The course is divided into three major parts: The first part seeks to understand the con-
struct 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 difficulty but essential question of “What is the self?” And raising,
among others, the question: “Is there even such a construct as the self?”

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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This course includes the mandatory topics on Family Planning and Population Educa-
tion.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the course, the students will be able to:

The Self from Various Perspectives

1. Discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from various disciplinal
perspectives;
2. Compare and contrast how the self has been represented across different disciplines and per-
spectives;
3. Examine the different influences, factors, and forces that shape the self;
4. Demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the development of one’s self and
identity by developing a theory of the self.

Unpacking the Self

1. Explore the different aspects of self and identity;

2. Demonstrate critical, reflective thought in integrating the various aspects of self and identity;
3. Identify the different forces and institutions that impact the development of various aspects of
self and identity;
4. Examine one’s self against the different aspects of self discussed in class

Managing and Caring For the Self

1. Understand the theoretical underpinnings for how to manage and care for different aspects of
the self;
2. Acquire and hone new skills and learning for better managing of one’s self and behaviors;
3. Apply these new skills to one’s self and functioning for a better quality of life.

Number of Hours: 3 hours every week for 18 weeks or 54 hours in a semester

Grading Requirements:

The student’s grade for this subject will be determined as follows:

Class Participation – 40% • The student is expected to participate in all class activities such
as quizzes, recitation, assignments, group dynamics, reflection
papers, reporting, etc., and to submit things accordingly as de-
manded.
• It is expected that a student will report in class AS IF HE WERE
THE TEACHER.
Prelim and Midterm Ex- • The prelim and midterm exams are objective written assess-
ams – 30% ments of how the students have mastered the theories and how
their detailed knowledge of each theory can be integrated into a
holistic and profound knowledge that exhibits mastery of the
highest level.
• The topics to be covered in the midterm exams are already given
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in the course outline. It is the responsibility of the student to en-

sure that he comes to this exam well-prepared.
Final Requirement – 30% • The final paper requirement is done by the student on the inte-
grating question “How do the different perspectives, theories
etc., help in developing a Theory of the Self?” This paper must be
submitted on May 11, 2017 in the afternoon.
• This paper must be orally presented by the student to the two
(2) teacher-trainors as a panel who will examine the claims the
student has made in his work. The venue will be the official
classroom.
• The oral presentation-examination consists of a 15-minute peri-
od—8 minutes allotted for presentation and 7 minutes for ques-
tion and answer.
• This final requirement must exhibit a profound integration of all
the learnings the student has on this subject. He must be able to
correctly explain the concepts employed in his paper and must
display a holistic, well-integrated grasp of these concepts.
• A rubric will be provided to guide the student in this final re-
quirement, both for the final paper and the oral presentation.
The grade percentage will be 50% for the written output and
50% for the oral examination.
• The final paper must meet all the required criteria proper to a
formal, academic, scholarly paper. The usual mode of documen-
tation followed is that of The Chicago Manual for Writers (16th
edition) or the Kate Turabian system.

The success and fruitfulness of each session largely depends on the readiness and will-
ingness of students to engage in discussion, which is manifested in recitation and class partici-
pation. Thus, every student is assumed, at the very least, to have read and studied beforehand
the text assigned for the day. It goes without saying that every student comes to class with the
text ready at hand, especially since the class will always refer to actual passages in the text.
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Course Outline

Topics Objectives Text Date

1. • Introduction • John Chaffee. (2013). “Who are Week 1
• Philosophical Theories of the You? Consciousness, Identity and
Self the Self.” In The Philosopher’s
• The Artichoke vs the Avocado Way: Thinking Critically about
Views of the Self Profound Ideas. 4th Edition. Boston:
• Socrates, Plato, [Aristotle], Pearson. 101-169.
Augustine, [Thomas Aqui- • Mitchell, H. B. (2011). Roots of
nas], Descartes, Locke, Hume, Wisdom: A Tapestry of Philosoph-
Kant, [Nietzsche], Freud, ical Traditions. 6th ed.
Ryle, Churchland and Mer- Wadsworth: Cengage Learning. 116
leau-Ponty – 148.
2. • Sociological Theories of the • George H. Mead, Mind, Self, Socie- Week 2
Self ty from the Standpoint of a Social
• The Self as a product of mod- Behaviorist, ed. Charles Morris
ern society (Chicago and London: The Univer-
• The Social Self according to sity of Chicago Press, 1972).
G.H. Mead • G. Lanuza, “The Constitution of
the Self” in Randy David (ed.), in
Nation, Self and Citizenship: An
Invitation to Philippine Sociology
(Pasig: Anvil, 2004).
3. • Anthropological Theories • Clifford Geertz, “The Impact of the Week 3
• The Self and Person in Con- Concept of Culture on the Concept
temporary Anthropology of Man” and “Person, Time and
• The Self embedded in culture Conduct,” in The Interpretation of
Cultures: Selected Essays (New
York: Basic Books, 1973), 33-54.

Prelims
4. • Psychological Theories • Albert Bandura, “Social Cognitive Week 4
• The Self as a Cognitive Con- Theory of Personality,” in Pervin
struction and John (eds.), Handbook of Per-
• William James’ Theory of the sonality Theory and Research, 2nd
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Self edition (Guilford Press, 1994), 134-

• Me-Self; I-self 194.
• Global vs. differentiated mod- • T. Csordas, “Self and Person,” in
els Bode (ed.), Pscyhological Anthro-
• Real and Ideal Self-concepts pology (Praeger, 1999), 331-350.
• Multiple vs. Unified Selves • S. Harter, “Historical Roots of
• True vs. False Selves Contemporary Issues involving the
Self-Concept,” in Bracken (ed.)
Handbook of Self-Concept: Devel-
opmental, Social and Critical Con-
siderations (John Wiley and Sons,
Inc., 1996), 1-37.
• Harry Triandis, “The Self and So-
cial Behavior in Differing Cultural
Contexts” in Psychological Review
Vol. 96, No. 3, (1989), 506-520.
5. • The Self in Western and Ori- • T. Johnson, “The Western Concept Week 5
ental/Eastern Thought of Self,” (91-138) and T. Wei-Ming, MW
• Individualistic vs. Collective “Selfhood and Otherness in Confu-
Self cian Thought,” (231-251) in
• The Western Construction of Marsela (ed.) Culture and Self”
the Self Asian and Western Perspectives
• The Eastern Construction of (Tavestock Publications, 1985).
the Self: Hinduism, Bud-
dhism, Confucianism
6. • Physical Self • Margo, DeMello, “Beautiful Bod- Week 6
• The Self as Embodied ies,” 173-188; and “Fat and Thin M
• The impact of culture on body Bodies,” 189-205 in Body Studies:
image and self-esteem An Introduction (London and New
• Concepts of beauty York: Routledge, 2014).
7.
Midterms
8. • Sexual Self • R. Feldman, Understanding Psy- Week 7
• Philosophical Sexology chology, 8th ed. (McGraw Hill,
• Secondary sex characteristics 2006); Module 33 “Understanding
and the human reproductive Human Sexual Response” (369-
system 375); Module 35 “Diversity of Sex-
• Human sexual behavior ual Behavior” (379-385); Module 36
‘Sexual Difficulties” (389-391).
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• Chemistry of love, lust and at- • Helen Fisher, Chapters 3 and 4,

tachment “Chemistry of Love” and “Web of
• Phases of sexual response Love: Lust, Love, and Attachment,”
• Sex and Gender in Why We Love: The Nature and
• [Mandatory] Sexually Trans- Chemistry of Romantic Love (New
mitted Diseases York: Henry Holt and Company,
2012), 51-98.
• Methods of Contraception
(natural and artificial) • Lugue and De Leon, Textbook on
Family Planning (Rex, 2001).
• Wolfson, “The Chemistry and
Chimera of Desire” (2010).
9. • Material/Economic Self • Dittmar, H., “The Individual Cen- Week 8
• Consumer Culture and the tered Approach: Material Posses-
sense of self and identity sions as Parts of the Extended Self”
(41-64); “Possessions as Symbolic
Expressions of Identity” (95-121),
in The Social Psychology of Mate-
rial Possessions: to Have is to Be?
(St. Martin’s Press, 1992).
10. • Spiritual Self • Demetrio, Fernando and Zialcita, Week 9
• Religion and religious prac- “The Soul” (95-97); “One is not
tices Enough,” (99-101) in The Soul Book
• Beliefs in the supernatural (GCF Books, 1991).
• The concepts of soul or spirit • V. Frankl, Part 2: Basic Concepts of
• Rituals and ceremonies Logotheraphy, in Man’s Search for
• Religion, Magic, Witchcraft Meaning: An Introduction to Logo-
therapy (1959), 149-210.
• Haviland et al., “Spirituality, Reli-
gion and the Supernatural,” in The
Essence of Anthropology (Thom-
son Wadsworth, 2007), 289-206.
• M. Kawada, “Bayad sa Dili Naton
Kaipon: A Visayan Ritual of Offer-
ing to the Spirits,” in Ushiyima and
Zayas (eds.), Binisaya Nga Kin-
abuhi (Visayan Life) (CSSP Publi-
cations, 1996), 213-240.
• Magos, A., “The Ideological Con-
text of Ma-aram Practice in Mar-
iit,” in The Enduring Ma-aram Tra-
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dition: An Ethnography of Kinaray-

a Village in Antique (New Day
Publishers), 46-62.
• R. Sosis, “The Adaptive Value of
Religious Ritual,” in Angeloni
(ed.), Annual Editions: Anthropol-
ogy 10/11, 33rd ed. (McGraw Hill,
2010), 133-137.
• Stein and Stein, “Ritual,” in The
Anthropology of Religion, Magic
and Witchcraft (Prentice Hall,
2011), 77-102.
11.
Prefinals
12. • Political Self • MS Diokno, “Becoming a Filipino Week 10
• Developing a Filipino Identi- Citizen,” in Perspectives in Citi-
ty: Values, Traits, Community zenship and Democracy (17-38)
and Institutional Factors and
• Establishing a Democratic • ML Doronilla, “An Overview of Fil-
Culture ipino Perspectives in Citizenship
and Democracy” (69-112), (UP
Third World Studies Center, 1997).
• F. Zialcita, “Barriers and Bridges to
a Democratic Culture,” in Perspec-
tives on Citizenship and Democra-
cy (UP TWSC), 39-68.
13. • Digital Self • Belk, “Extended Self in a Digital Week 11
• The Self and Other in Cyber- World,” Journal of Consumer Re-
Space search 40, no. 3 (2013): 477-500.
• I, Me, Myself and my user ID • Ellison et al., “Managing Impres-
Online Identity sions Online: Self-Presentation
• Selective Self-Presentation Processes in the Online Dating En-
and Impression Management vironment,” Journal of Computer
• Impact of online interactions Mediated Communication 11
on the self (2006): 415-441.
• Boundaries of the self online: • Gibbs et al., “Self-Presentation in
private vs. public; person- Online Personals: The Role of An-
al/individual vs. social identi- ticipated Future Interactions, Self-
ty online; gender and sexuali- Disclosure and Perceived Success
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ty online in Internet Dating,” Communica-

tions Research 33, no. 2 (2006):
152-172.
• Walther, “Selective Self-
Presentation in Computer Mediat-
ed Communication: Hyperpersonal
Dimensions of Technology, Lan-
guage and Cognition,” Computers
in Human Behavior 23, 2538-2557.
• Gonzales &Hitchcock, “Mirror,
Mirror on my FB Wall: Effects of
Exposure to FB on Self-Esteem,”
Cyberpsychology, Behavior and
Social Networking (2010).
14. • Learning to be a Better Stu- • J. Dunlosky et al. “Improving Stu- Week 12
dent dent’s Learning with Effective
• What happens during Learn- Learning Techniques: Promising
ing? Brain and Behavior Directions from Cognitive and Ed-
Changes ucational Psychology,” Psychologi-
• Metacognition and Study cal Science in the Public Interest
Strategies 14, no. 1 (2013): 4-58.
• Self-Regulated Learning • B. Zimmerman, “Becoming Learner:
Self-Regulated Overview,” Theory
into Practice 41, no. 2 (2002): 64-
70.
15. • Setting Goals for Success • E. Locke, “Setting Goals for Life •
• The importance of goals and Happiness,” in Snyder and
• Albert Bandura’s Self- Lopez, Handbook of Positive Psy-
Efficacy, Dweck’s Mindset chology (Oxford UP, 2002), 299-
(growth vs. fixed) 312.
• Locke’s Goal Setting Theory • Urdan, “Achievement Goal Theory:
Past Results, Future Directions,”
Advances in Motivation and
Achievement Vol. 10, 99-141.
16. • Taking Charge of One’s • K. Neff, “The Science of Self Com- •
Health/Stress Management passion,” in Germer and Siegel
• Stressors and Responses (eds.) Compassion and Wellness in
• Sources of coping and Psychotherapy (New York: Guil-
strength ford Press, 2012), 79-92.
• Michael Tan, article at
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• Stress and the Filipinos: the http://pcij.org/stories/stress-and-

social and cultural dimensions the-filipino/
of stress • Submission of Final Paper Re-
• The need for self-care and quirement (Written Copy)
compassion
Last week
PRESENTATION OF FINALS REQUIREMENT