KNOWING THE

SELF
Chapter 1
Objectives

At the end of the lesson, you will be

able to

Learn more about yourself

Explain that knowing yourself can make you accept your
strengths and limitations, and deal with others better.
Share your unique characteristics, habits, and
experiences
 Bellwork

What is your understanding of the “Self”?

 Personal Development

Human nature is very complex. There is no single school of thought in any form of scientific
study which can completely and satisfactorily define human nature.
Human beings have the sole capacity to reflect upon itself, and in the process develop self-
awareness, become motivated, and then desire to grow and change for the better.

Personal development is a process in which the persons reflect upon themselves, understand
who they are, accept what they discover about themselves, and learn (or unlearn) new sets of
values, attitudes, behaviors and thinking skills to reach their fullest potential as human beings.

Personal development starts with knowing yourself.

 Defining the “Self”

The Self constitutes an individual’s personal identity with its typical ways of perceiving,
thinking, feeling, and behaving, as one is raised by his/her sociocultural environment and one’s
own conscious learning from experiences.
It encompasses one’s body, feelings, emotions, thoughts, values, and relationships

We will treat the self synonymously with one’s personality.

 Knowing Personality or the Self

Personality – came from the Greek word “persona” which means mask.

It refers to how an individual distinctly thinks and behaves in different situations and is
relatively stable across time.

In Psychology, it refers to the unique and relatively enduring set of behaviors, feelings,
thoughts, and motives that characterize an individual
(Feist and Rosenberg 2012)
 Knowing the Self

Some reasons why it is beneficial to get to know yourself:

❑ Knowing who you are, leads to accepting who you are. Once you’ve accepted who you are, you can be your true self.
❑ When you let your feelings and values drive your actions, you’re less likely to experience inner conflict and doubt
about doing the wrong thing.
❑ Understanding your likes and dislikes means you’ll be able to make better choices about everything; from what
shampoo to buy, to what direction to take in your next career move.
❑ You may have a stronger sense of self-control. By understanding what triggers negative feelings or behavior, you’ll be
able to say no to or resist bad habits.
❑ You’ll be more confident saying ‘no’, when you may have previously felt the social pressure to say ‘yes.’
❑ Your awareness of your own weaknesses and struggles can help you empathize with others.
❑ Being who you truly are makes your life richer, larger, and more exciting.
 Determining Personality Traits

Gordon Allport – a psychologist who espoused the uniqueness of each individual.

He focused on understanding and measuring personality in terms of traits,
which are the enduring and consistent dispositions of human beings.

Raymond Cattell – proposed that personality is made up of 16 basic dimensions and that
these 16 traits are the source or core of all human personality.
Surface traits – are those that are readily observable to others
Source traits - underlying traits that form the core of personality

These 16 source traits were adapted into an objective test called the
Sixteen Personality Factors (16 PF)
The results depend on the individual’s description of their own personality and behavior.
 Determining Personality Traits

Robert McCrae and Paul Costa (1992) narrowed down the 16 personality traits into five
categories called the Big Five or the Five-Factor Model. They believe that these traits
remain stable throughout a person’s lifetime, especially after 30 years old.

It became universal and widely agreed upon dimension of personality

called the Five-Factor Trait Theory

Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
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rsonality-traits
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 Personality Types

Personality Type – an integrated collection of personality traits that tend to characterize an

individual. A unique collection of several traits that tend to go together.

Myers-Brigss Type Indicator (MBTI) - a personality model that is based on four

preferences of individuals. It is a report of your psychological preferences in
how you make decisions and perceive the world around you.
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rsonality-traits
 Enneagram

Enneagram – is an Asian tool for knowing oneself and one’s personality type.
The authors of the framework, Riso and Hudson (1999), emphasized that as human
being, a person is both one’s personality/ego/self and a Higher Self/soul.

Generally the test distinguishes between one’s personality or ego self and one’s
deeper/higher self or Essence.

It helps us to be aware of our hidden or unconscious patterns of thoughts and

behaviors which tends to focus on certain aspects of an experience while leaving other
aspects in the dark.
 Origins of Personality:
Nature via Nurture

Personality is influenced by both nature (heredity or genetic make-up) or nurture

(environment)
There is no single gene that creates a trait. It is always a complex combination of
genes, environmental exposure and experiences, and cultural backgrounds.

Nature through nurture – a view which states that one may have the genes for singing well, but
unless this talent is nurtured it may not be evident in the individual.

Culture plays an important factor in one’s personality.

 The Self Theory Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers furthered delved into the role of the self in achieving one’s psychological well-
being. In his Person-centered Theory, he mentioned about 2 subsystems within the self:

Self –concept
- the way we consciously see ourselves
- it includes all aspects of our being that are perceived into awareness

Ideal self
- the self who you aspire to be
- it includes all attributes that you wish to have and strive for
 Self-Concept Clarity Carl Rogers

Some people already have a clear view of who they are as individuals. They are well aware of their
strengths and weaknesses, unique attributes, and even their aspirations.

This extent of knowledge can be measured through Self-concept clarity.

Self-concept clarity - the extent to which the content’s of an individual’s self concept are
clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and stable. (Campbell, et al., 1996)

Pros:
It allows people make better sense of themselves.
Importantly, it helps them define a greater purpose in life.

Study shows that having a higher self-concept clarity is positively correlated to one’s ability to regulate
emotions when dealing with good and bad feelings (Parise, Canzi, Olivari, & Ferrari, 2018)
 Knowing Oneself Through
Others

The most basic way to know oneself is through self-inquiry.

But asking a close friend or family about us is also a form of inquiry. This method of inquiry
considers two main players: (1) ourself and (2) other people.

A model that gives a visual representation of one’s level of self-awareness, personal

development, and relationships is the JOHARI WINDOW.

The Johari Window is a concept by American psychologists, Joseph Luft and Harrington
Ingham. This model can help you be more aware of your strengths and weaknesses.
 Strengths and Weaknesses

STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES

What are your unique characteristics?

Do you have good and healthy habits? What are these?

What experiences do you enjoy or even dislike?

Johari Window
Before you start to build and improve your relationships with other people and before
you can identify and set your career and life goals, you should know yourself well first.

Personal development starts with the self thus it is very important

for us to know ourselves very well.