KNOWING ONESELF

Characteristics, Habits,
and Experiences
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE)
Direction: Please record the appropriate answer for each item, depending on whether
you Strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with it.
_____ 1. Overall, I am satisfied with myself.
_____ 2. At times I think I am no good at all.
_____ 3. I feel that I have a number of good qualities.
_____ 4. I am able to do things as well as most other people.
_____ 5. I feel 1do not have much to be proud of.
_____ 6. I certainly feel useless at times.
_____ 7. I feel that I'm a person of worth.
_____ 8. I wish I could have more respect for myself.
_____ 9. All in all, I am inclined to think that I am a failure.
_____ 10. I take a positive attitude toward myself.
For the positively worded statements
(1, 3, 4, 7, 10), the points are scored
one way:
•Strongly Agree = 3 points
•Agree = 2 points
•Disagree = 1 point
•Strongly Disagree = 0 point
For the negatively worded statements (2, 5,6, 8,
9) the points are scored in reverse:
•Strongly Agree = 0 point
•Agree = 1 point
•Disagree = 2 points
•Strongly Disagree = 3 points
 - 0 to 15 points: Low self-
esteem
- 16 to 25 points: Normal
self-esteem
- 26 to 30 points: High
self-esteem
Total up your points at the end of the
questionnaire. You will get a total score
between 0 to 30. The higher your score,
the higher your self-esteem likely is.
Some of the factors that may affect a person’s
“Self”

Self – the foundation of all human behavior.

It is our sense of identity and who we are as an
individual (James 1890; Mead 1934
Self-Esteem
• Is your evaluation of your own worth. It maybe
positive or negative.
• It is our internal assessment of our qualities and
attributes.

 We have healthy self-esteem when what we think,

feel, and believe about ourselves is honest and
realistic.
 Building and maintaining healthy self-esteem
depends on gathering evidence about what we are
like as a person.
Unhealthy self-esteem, can present itself in the
form of two extremes.
• Firstly, you can think too highly of yourself,
which can lead you to fall into
the trap of narcissism. When your self-esteem
is too high, you exaggerate your positive
traits or deceive yourself about your faults
and weaknesses.
• A narcissist may believe that his or her opinion
matters more than anyone else’s, based on the
self-perception that he or she is smarter than
• In contrast, when you have low self-esteem, you
underestimate, flat out or ignore your positive
characteristics.
• If you struggle with low self-esteem, then you
may tell yourself that you are stupid, lazy, boring,
selfish, inconsiderate, or generally a bad person
because of the things you think, say, and do.
Negative self-esteem is the opposite which is feeling distraught or
down and unaccepted by others.
According to Tafarodi and Swann (1995) there are many
factors to identify the level of self-esteem of an individual
and some of the major factors.
• Own appearance
• How satisfied you are in a relationship
• How you view your performance
Our self-esteem may change from time to time depending
on the situation we encounter in our daily life. Since it can
be partly a trait that someone can possess. It depends on
how you perceive the things coming your way.
Self-Efficacy
• It's a self-confidence in your ability to attain your
most significant goal.
• Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief
in his or her capacity to execute behaviors
necessary to produce specific performance
attainments (Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1997)
 The greater the likelihood of achieving a positive
outcome, the stronger the belief. For example, if you
want to get a better grade and are secure in your
belief, it will happen.
Self-efficacy vs. self-esteem

Self-esteem
• is the measure of how much you like or "esteem“ or admire
yourself, or how much you believe you are a decent and
worthwhile person.
• Is your overall sense of personal value and self
worth

Self-efficacy
• refers to your belief in your ability to succeed and perform well
in various areas of life, such as education, work, and
relationships (Syrett 2020).
Five (5) different ways that influenced self-efficacy, from the ideas of
Albert Bandura, a professor, and a psychologist.
a. Performance Experiences
• if you are good at achieving your specific goal, then you probably
think that you will achieve it again. When the opposite happens, if
you fail, you will often think that you will fail again.
b. Vicarious Performances
• if others achieved their goal or specific task, then you'll come to
believe that you will also achieve your goal.
c. Verbal Persuasion
• it is when people tell you whether they believe or not on what you
can do or cannot do. The effect of your self-efficacy will depend on
how that person matters to you.
d. Imaginal Performances
• When you imagine yourself doing well, then it will happen.

e. The Affective States & Physical Sensations

• if your mood or emotion (e.g., shame) and physical state (e.g.,
shaking) come together, it will affect your self-efficacy. If
negative mood connects with negative physical sensation, the
result will be negative. And if it is positive, most likely the
result will be positive.
Self and Identity
According to William James, a psychologist, the self is
what happens when “I” reflects upon “ME".

The self is both the I and the Me

The self is consisting of two categories:
• I-Self and the Me-Self.
The I-Self
• also referred to as the Thinking Self
• is the self that knows who you are as a person.
• It is the reflection of our soul or mind.
• It is subjective self that is aware of its own action.
- A sense of being agent or initiator of behavior
- A sense of being unique
- A sense of continuity
- A sense of Awareness
An example of the "I-Self" in action might involve a person
making a spontaneous decision based on their own desires,
preferences, or impulses, without much consideration for
external influences or social expectations.

For instance, imagine someone who loves painting. One

day, they feel a strong urge to express themselves
artistically, so they spontaneously decide to grab their
paintbrushes and start painting a picture that reflects their
current emotions and inspirations. In this scenario, the "I-
Self" is driving the person's actions. They are following
their inner desires and creative impulses, without
necessarily considering how their artwork will be
perceived by others or conforming to any external
Me-Self
• Is the self that is an object or the self you can describe

Divided into three sub-categories:

material self - refers to one’s physical attributes and material
possessions (Physical appearance)
social self - refers to the way we act in a situation or how
socialize with others (Social skills)
spiritual self - refers to our purpose, core values, conscience,
and moral behavior. (personality, character, defining values)
• Most beautiful and powerful form, most authentic.
Me-Self: The "Me-Self" refers to the
objective, socialized, and reflective aspect
of one's identity. It's the part of the self
that is shaped by social interactions,
societal norms, and the expectations of
others. The "Me" represents the self as
perceived from the perspective of society
and the roles and identities that are
assigned to an individual within a social
context.
Charles Taylor (1989) describes the self as a
reflexive project.
• Taylor agues, we often try to manage, discipline, refine,
improve, or develop the self. We work on our selves, as we
might work on any other interesting project. But what
exactly is it that we work on?
• Imagine for a moment that you have decided to improve
yourself. You might, say, go on a diet to improve your
appearance. Or you might decide to be nicer to your
mother, in order to improve that important social role. Or
maybe the problem is at work—you need to find a better
job or go back to school to prepare for a different career.
• How we see ourselves is geared toward improving ourselves
depending on a lot of factors.
Dan McAdam, a psychologist, reiterated that even there are many ways on
how we reflect to improve ourselves, it brings us back to these three (3)
categories:
1. Self as Social Actor
• We are portraying different roles and behaving for every type/set of people
in front of us since we all care about what people think about us. It is
practically for social acceptance.
2. Self as Motivated Agent
• People act based on their purpose. They do things based on their own
dreams, desires, and planned goals for the future. This, though, is not easily
identifiable since it is self-conceptualized, unless it was shared with us.
3. Self as Autobiographical Author
• He/she as the creator of his/her own entire life story. It is about how oneself
is developed from his/her past, up to the present, and what he/she will
become in the future.
Judgment and Decision Making
• As an individual, you are expected to act and decide on your own.

For instance, you applied for different courses in six (6) different universities,
and you were able to qualify in all. Now, how will you decide? To help you,
the idea of Bazerman and Moore in 2013 reiterated by Jhangiani that
suggests the Six Steps on How to Make a Rational Decision:
1. Define the Problem (select your most desired universities);
2. Identify the criteria necessary to judge the multiple options (list things to
be considered like location, facilities, prestige, etc.);
3. Weight the criteria (rank the criteria based on its importance to you);
4. Generate alternatives (the schools that accepted you);
5. Rate each alternative on each criterion (rate each school on the criteria
you have identified);
6. Compute the optimal decision
“A totally reasonable judgment or decision
requires a careful, systematic process.”