What Is Holistic Development?

The key phrase in this chapter that you have to pay attention
to is whole person, emphasizing the complete aspects of a person
or his totality. In order to understand what it means to perceive a
person as a whole organism, we will discuss philosophical theories
such as dualism and holism.

Mind and Body Dualism of Descartes

Rene Descartes, one of the modern philosophers of our

time, influenced much of mankind's thinking with his theory of
duality or understanding the nature of things in a simple, dual
mode. Hence, you are familiar with the separation of body and
spirit in western religion, and of the mind and body in the study of
human sciences, People perceive things as dual in character

More examples of these are the distinct male-female gender

Categorization or the yin and yang of eastern thought, although
western culture overemphasizes its either-or, black-white characteristics.
This is contrary to what eastern philosophers undertand
it to be that there is dynamism between two forces
in nature, and that each force is present in each other and will
never exist in its purest form. More examples can be thought of
to illustrate this, such as good-bad, racial purity, life-death, and
other points of view where things are taken in their absolutes or
extremes.

Holism and Gestalt

in 1926, General Jan C. Smuts, a South African statesman,
military leader, and philosopher, wrote about holism in his book
Holism and Evolution. He introduced the academic terminology
for holism as “the tendency in nature to form wholes which are
greater than the sum of the parts through creative evolution.”

Earlier in 1890, a German philosopher and psychologist,

Christian von Ehrehfels, and later on supported by psychologists
Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler of the Berlin
School, introduced the concept of gestalt. This is defined by
Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “something that is made of
many parts and yet is somehow more than or different from the
combination of its parts; broadly, the general quality or character
or something.” This theory continues to influence much of
psychology and education today.
An example of holism and gestalt is evident in music. A
symphony cannot be defined by one of its notes alone. Even the
clusters or sums of these different notes do not make up the whole
symphony nor characterize the whole symphony. The interaction
and fusion of the different notes in a symphony produce something
bigger and greater than the notes themselves. Another example is
a car. A car is made up of hundreds of different parts. Separately,
these parts do not represent the car, but when put together and
made to work with each other, these parts produce a new entity
entirely different from its parts.

The parallelism between a symphony, a car, and humans in

terms of being a unified entity follows the principle of holism. In
understanding humans, it is important to see the person in his
entirety and not his parts.

The Various Aspects of Holistic Development of Persons

When we consider a human person and what various aspects make up this complex organism, five
aspects come to mind:

Physiological- the physical attributes including the five physical senses;

Cognitive- the intellectual functions of the mind thinking, recognizing, reasoning, analyzing, projecting,
synthesizing, recalling and assessing;

Psychological- how thinking, feeling and behaving interact and happen in a person;

Social- the manner by which an individual interacts with other individuals or groups of individuals

Spiritual- the attribute of a person’s consciousness and beliefs, including the value and virtues that
guide and put meaning into a person’s life.

When you look at a person and try to understand this individual, it is always good to consider
these five aspects and what it is about this person that makes him or her unique from yourself and from
others. Understanding a person holistically means that one aspect cannot be seen in isolation from the
whole person.

For example, to judge a person because of a behavior alone is not balanced. One must see how the
interplay of all five aspects occurs within an individual. This holistic approach in viewing a person on
emphasized in education, medicine, spiritual development relationships, and in one person’s overall
wellness.

How do these five aspects interrelate and affect each other? The following example illustrates
this;
 For the past three nights, Therese has not been getting enough sleep from her usual eight hours
because of her fourth coming final exams. Today is the day of her final exams. She wakes up feeling
drowsy and with a headache. Her body feels like a ton, and she has to literally drag herself out of the
bed to get up and prepare for school. She takes a shower, dresses up quickly, by passes and ignore his
sister Christine, who is looking at her quizzically, and her parents at the breakfast table. Immediately,
the family gets affected by Therese’s behavior. Christine is thinking her sister having a bad mood; she
thinks Therese woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and therefore ignores her as well.

mom thinks she is uptight about the final exams, mentions about
it but was just given a stare by Therese who mumbles that she is
okay but just tense about the exams. Her dad simply looks at her,
gives some comforting words of support, and continues with his
breakfast.

In school, all the noise and chatter, and the pressure of

taking the finals so early in the morning agitated Therese. She is
not smiling today, which is very unlike her usual self. Her temper is
short, irritable, and she is giving nasty looks at people who continue
to annoy her. She goes over her notes and boot, tries to memorize
some phrases and concepts, but her throbbing headache mates
it. almost impossible to cram. She thought of taking some pain
reliever earlier, but decided a can of her favorite caffeine-loden
carbonated cola drink would help, but this is providing her very
little relief. She slams the book and lays her head on the table
Therese feels miserable. She feels unsure of herself and unhappy
She is tense and nervous. Her seatmate stays away from her,
although her seatmate tries to strike up a conversation, Therese
just moves her head in resporse However, deep inside, she knows
what is affecting her and tries to put things under control She

starts to pray silently, and when the bell rang she raises her head
and faces the day, and the final exams Although still feeling
drowsy, she calms herself down and mentally prepares for what
is up ahead.

Psychologists often refer to basic human drives as those that

are biologically related suacg as hnger and things, Affect, on the
other hand, is the various emotional experiences such as emotions,
moods and affective traits (Feist and Rove-berg 2012).

Feelings and Emotions

Feelings, moods, and emotions do not exactly mean one

and the same. Paul Ekman of the university of California identified
Six Basic emotions that human beings experience happiness,
sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. However, a recent
research study (2014) conducted by the Institute of Neuroscience
and Psychology at the University of Glasgow and published in a

journal, Current Biology, has concluded that there are only four
basic emotions, these are: happy, sad, afraid or surprised, and
angry or disgusted.

Emotion is taken from the Latin verb, movere, ween HHEans

to move or be upset or agitated. It is defined by Smith (1973) as a
descriptive term referring to variations in level of arousal, affective
state or mood, expressive movements, and attitudes (Sanchez,
Abad, and Jao 2012). In a state of strong emotion, the person’s
physical responses include faster heartbeat, profuse sweating
and dilation of eye pupils, higher blood pressure, and muscular
tremors, affecting the nervous system in general.

Are feelings the same as emotions? In an online article of

Scientific American titled Feeling our Emotions, the author
interviewed noted neurologist, Dr. Antonio R. Damasio (2005) about
the distinction between feelings and emotions, According to Dr.
Damasio, from a neuro-sciéntific approach, feeling arises from
the brain as it interprets an emotion, which is usually caused
by physical sensations experienced by the body as a reaction
to a certain external stimulus. An example of this would be the
emotion of being afraid, which Produces a feeling of fear.

As an example, imagine yourself Sitting alone inside a car

or taxi along EDSA during daytime. Traffic is bad and literally
crawling. Suddenly, you notice a man standing at a distance and
staring at you. Then he starts to walk toward your vehicle holding
a black bag strapped around his shoulder. Your mind begins to
race. You tell yourself your life or Property might be in danger or
this man might hurt you. Your body begins to react by sweating
and feeling cold. Your pulse beats faster as the man with the black
bag slowly approaches the direction of your vehicle, You notice he
is opening the bag and reaching out for something inside. you look
around and not even your driver seems to notice him except you.
You check on the door locks making sure they are secured, you
reach out for your cellphone, your hands are sweaty and shaking.
You feel like shouting for help. You begin to panic and begin to
shake the shoulder of your driver to take notice of the man coming
closer and closer.

Attitudes are a person’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions

about another person, object, idea, behavior, or situation. Attitude
is a result of a person’s evaluation of an experience with another
person, object, idea, behavior, or situation based on his or her
values and belief systems. Beliefs and certain values therefore,
affect the attitude of a person.

Behavior is a manifestation or acting out of the attitudes an

individual has. take a look at the following situation to illustrate
how attitude and behavior are related :

Riding an overcrowded MRT couch and experiencing

all sorts of physical sensations such as heat,
smell, and body contact can create an unfavorable
attitude that riding the MRT is an unpleasant and
abhorring experience. As a result, the individual
with this attitude will express this disgust by either
avoiding the MRT or totally shutting down and
becoming oblivious to the distasteful experience, or
become aggressive and unpleasant to other people
while onboard the train.

if this individual continues to ride the MRT with the same

attitude and corresponding behavior, other people will get affected
by this individual's behavior, who in turn, will oct out a similar
aggressive or uncivil behavior onboard the train. This may affect
other commuters and a chain reaction will follow.

Can attitudes be changed? Yes. There are ways to change

attitude. Behavior can change attitudes. If the person riding the
MART changes the way he or she behaves, like remaining calm,
smiling, and avoiding jostling and giving dagger looks at those that
irritate him or her, then that person's attitude about riding the
MRT will be different the next time he or she rides the train. if that
person can accept the fact that the train ride is not exactly a joyful
and pleasant ride, but not necessarily 2 life-threatening situation,
then that person can take an attitudinal change by preparing for
what is ahead and creating a more pleasant picture of the people
riding the MRT.

Values and Virtues

At the core of every person lies a system of beliefs

that adheres to the highest ideals of human existence.
These ideals create meaning and purpose in a person’s life
These ideals are called values. We will refer to values in
this chapter as the universal human values that transcenc
culture and race. There are different sets of values identified
by different people and organizations, depending on
what their order of priorities are, and what they intend to achieve.
These are not in conflict with each other, but rather, a ranking in
the order of importance over what set of values they prioritize.

The United Nations, for example, listed the following universal

values: peace, freedom, social progress, equal rights, and
human dignity. These values are enshrined in the Charter of the
United Nations and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Another example of values, this time for corporations and

organizations, is borrowed from Robert L. Dilenschneider, founder
of Dilenschneider Group. In an article he wrote for Huffington
Post titled Five Core Values for the Workplace, Dilenschneider
listed the following corporate values:

 integrity
 Accountability
 Diligence
 Perseverance
 Discipline

Shalom H. Schwartz, 4 psychologist and cross-cultural

researcher from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, conducted
a research which covered many different peoples and cultures to
identify the ten common values people have regardless of their
racial and cultural backgrounds. Schwartz wrote in his report, Basic
Human Values: Theories, Methods and Applications, the findings
of his research, which identified the ten basic values that can be
characterized by describing their central motivational goals. These
ten basic values are:

1. Self-Direction - independent thought and action;

choosing, creating, and exploring

2. Stimulation — excitement, novelty, and challenge in

life

3. Hedonism — pleasure and sensuous gratification for

oneself

4. Achievement - personal success through demonstrating

competence according to social standards

5. Power — social status and prestige, and control or

dominance over people and resources
6. Security — safety, harmony, and stability of society, of
relationships, and of self

7. Conformity — restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses

that are likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms

8. Tradition — respect, commitment, and acceptance of

the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provide the self

9. Benevolence — preserving and enhancing the welfare

of those with whom one is in frequent personal contact (the ‘in-group’)

10. Universalism — understanding, appreciation, tolerance,

and protection for the welfare of all people and of nature

The motivational goals that characterize the ten values he

identified were:

openness to change;
self-transcendence;
self-enhancement; and
conservation.