PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Topic 2: PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Personal effectiveness means making use of all the personal resources – talents, skills, energy
and time, to enable you to achieve life goals.

Here are some skills that will greatly increase the efficiency of any person who owns them:
1. 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.
2. Self-confidence. It appears in the process of personal development, as a result of getting aware of
yourself, your actions, and their consequences. Self-confidence is manifested in speech, appearance,
dressing, gait, and physical condition. To develop it, you need to learn yourself and your capabilities,
gain positive attitude and believe that by performing right actions and achieving right goals you
will certainly reach success.
3. 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.
4. Managing stress. It helps combat stress that arises in daily life from the environment and other
people. Stress arises from the uncertainty in an unknown situation when a lack of information creates the
risk of negative consequences of your actions. It increases efficiency in the actively changing
environment.
5. 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.
6. Creativity. It allows you to find extraordinary ways to carry out a specific action that no one has
tried to use. It can lead to a decrease or an increase of costs, but usually the speed of action is greatly
increased when using creative tools.
7. 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. For generating ideas, you can use a method of mental maps, which allows you to
materialize, visualize and scrutinize all your ideas, which in turn contributes to the emergence of new
ideas. These are just some, but the most important personal effectiveness skills which make the
achievement of any goal easier and less

Topic 3: BUILD ON YOUR STRENGTHS AND WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESSES

Most failures emanate from weaknesses that are not recognized or probably recognized but not given
appropriate attention or remedy. This could be a weakness in communications, personality, or ability.
Instead of giving up or indulging in self-pity, take action. Go for speech lessons, get skills upgrading,
attend personality development sessions or whatever appropriate remedies to your perceived weakness.
Instead of simply focusing on your weaknesses, recognize your own talents and abilities, build on them,
utilize them to your greatest advantage. This is where you can build your name and popularity.
Handicapped people like Jose Feliciano and other blind singers did not brood over their physical
handicap. They recognized that they have a golden voice so they search for ways to enrich that talent and
now they have won international fame in the field of music. Source: Roldan, Amelia S. 2003. On
Becoming a Winner: A Workbook on Personality Development and Character Building. AR Skills
Development and Management Services (SDMS), Paraňaque City, Metro Manila.

There are three kinds of people in this world:

The first is the Moviegoer.This person watches the movies of their lives, admires some parts and
criticizes others. Aside from that, they do nothing else. All she says the whole day is, “I like this
thing and but I don’t like that thing.” The moviegoer feels she has absolutely no control on their
lives - -- except to comment about it. Moviegoers are the most pathetic, miserable people in the
world.
The second is the Actor. This person does not only watch the movie of her life. She actually
realizes she’s the Actor – and can control a big part of her life. She can actually make or break
the movie – by how she portrays her character.
Actors are a happy bunch, realizing they’re the start of the show and enjoy some level of control.
But many times, they wish the movie would end in another way – but realize that they have no
say in such things.
The third is the Scriptwriter. This person does not only watch and she doesn’t only act, but she
actually creates the entire movie from her mind. She determines what she will say, what she will
do, and how the movie will end. She realizes she has enormous control over her life, and sees to
it that the movie of her life will turn out beautiful. Do you merely watch your life go? Why? Or
do you act out a script that you feel has been handed to you? Or do you write the script and make
your life beautiful? By the way, the Producer of the movie is God. He tells you, “Make the
movie beautiful, and Iwill give you all that you need for success.

The Johari window model is used to enhance the individual’s perception on others. This model
is based on two ideas – trust can be acquired by revealing information about you to others and
learning yourself from their feedbacks.
Each person is represented by the Johari model through four quadrants or window pane.
Each four window panes signifies personal information, feelings, motivation and whether that
information is known or unknown to oneself or others in four viewpoints.

Topic 1: ASPECTS OF THE SELF

The self-concept is represented by several aspects of the self. It is conceived as collection of
multiple, context-dependent selves. This construct believes that context activates particular regions of
self-knowledge and self-relevant feedback affects self-evaluations.
ASPECTS OF YOUR DEVELOPMENT
1. Physical Self. Includes descriptions of your height, weight, facial appearance, and quality of skin, hair
and descriptions of body areas such as your neck, chest, waist, legs.
2. Intellectual Self. Include here an assessment of how well you reason and solve problems, your
capacity to learn and create, your general amount of knowledge, your specific areas of knowledge,
wisdom you have acquired, and insights you have.
3. Emotional Self. Typical feelings, feelings you seldom have, feelings you try to avoid, feelings you
specially enjoy, feelings from your past and present and feelings associated with each other.

Three Basic Composition Aspects of the Self of Individual

Physical or tangible aspects as they relate to the body
Intellectual and conscious aspects as they relate to the mind
Emotional and intuitive aspects as they relate to the spirit.

It may be important to some that their mind can be prominent and well educated. The mind is
important, as it is the part of the self that directs the other two aspects. The mind learns what to
do and communicates the information to the body and the feelings. What the mind believes, the
body manifests or acts on, and the emotions feel, or respond with. People store both healthy
and destructive thoughts and beliefs and responds to life's circumstances in the most prominent
manner. The mind provides access creativity and serenity which are necessary for such processes
as prayer, forgiveness, acceptance, and passion.
The human emotions are the most feared aspect of the self, as individuals are reluctant
and unprepared to manage them. Managing feelings is like trying to hold water in the palm of
your hand. They are illusive and deceptive. A decision made under emotional stress and
strain usually impacts emotions negatively. Negative emotions that are not managed are stored
and repressed. Repression is destructive to a content self since all feelings, not only negative
ones are stored away. Accessing feelings when they are needed now becomes difficult, leaving
the individual numb and hopeless
Topic 1: Developmental Stages of Life

Developmental Stage
1. Pre-natal

CHARATERISTICS - Age when hereditary endowments and sex are fixed and all body features,
both external and internal are developed
2. Infancy (birth – 2 years)

CHARATERISTICS - Foundation age when basic behavior are organized and many ontogenetic
maturation skills are developed.
3. Early Childhood (2-6 years)

CHARATERISTICS - Pre-gang age, exploratory, and questioning. Language and elementary

reasoning are acquired and initial socialization is experienced.
4. Late Childhood (6 – 12 years)

CHARATERISTICS - Gang and creativity age when self-help skills, social skills, school skills,
and play are developed
5. Adolescence Puberty – (Puberty – 18 years)

CHARATERISTICS - Transition age from childhood to adulthood when sex maturation and
rapid physical development occur resulting to changes in ways of feeling, thinking and acting.
6. Early Adulthood (18 – 40 years)

CHARATERISTICS - Age of adjustment to new patterns of life and roles such as spouse, parent
and bread winner
7. Middle Age (40 years to retirement)

CHARATERISTICS - Transition age when adjustments to initial physical and mental decline
are experienced

8. Old Age (Retirement to death)

CHARATERISTICS - Retirement age when increasingly rapid physical and mental decline

Developmental Stages: Middle and Late Adolescence

Three stages of Adolescence
1. Early adolescence stretches between ages 10 and 13. It is characterized with the onset of
puberty involving, many biological changes.
2. Middle adolescence begins from ages 14 to 16. There is an increased focus on peers.
3. Late adolescence, ages from 17-19, is marked by the final shift from preoccupation with
appearances and conformity to commitment to roles and responsibilities within the adult society
Developmental Tasks
• Robert Havighurst, a developmental theorist had
identified critical developmental tasks thought the life
span of a person.
Topic 2: The Challenges of Middle and Late Adolescence
- Erik Erikson (15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) has worked on Developmental
Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Social Development Theory.

CHALLENGES OF MIDDLE ADOLESCENCE

1. Physical Challenges
2. Cognitive Challenges
3. Emotional Challenges
4. Social Challenges

CHALLENGES OF MIDDLE ADOLESCENCE

Physical - Most males will have started their growth spurt - Males may have some
voice cracking
- Some males develop acne
- Physical changes maybe nearly complete for females - Most girls now have regular
periods
- Increasing interest in sexual
• Cognitive
–The brain continues to change and mature at this stage.
– Middle adolescents are abler to think abstractly, but they still may lack the ability
to apply it in the moment
- Adolescents are often characterized by impulsivity and high risk talking in an
attempt to feel good, to be accepted by pee group attractiveness

Emotional
- Emotional changes often characterized by feelings of anxiety and depression
- They tend to feel overly emotional - Mood swings are common among boys and girls
- Increase in anxiety may lead the adolescent to engage in other high-risk behavior
such as alcohol and drug abuse and gang involvement
 Social
Adolescents seek out peers who are also engaging in more activities with less adult
supervision
- Social circle expands during this time as they seem occupied interacting with
friends on social media sites
- Adolescents begin to explore with more adult-like behaviors such as making their
own decisions about spending money and leisure time, driving motorized vehicles,
using alcohol and tobacco which may have a variety of consequences including poor
performance at school

THE PASSAGE TO ADULTHOOD: CHALLENGES OF LATE ADOLESCENCE

Physical - Most girls have completed the physical changes related to puberty by age
15.
- Boys are still maturing and gaining strength, muscle mass, and height and are
completing the development of sexual traits.
Emotional - May stress over school and test scores.
- Is self-involved (may have high expectations and low self-concept).
- Seeks privacy and time alone. - Is concerned about physical and sexual
attractiveness.
- May complain that parents prevent him or her from doing things independently. -
Starts to want both physical and emotional intimacy in relationships. - Experiences
of intimate relationships
• Social - shifts in relationship with parents from dependency and subordination to
one
- that reflects the adolescent’s increasing maturity and responsibilities in the family
and the community,
- Is more and more aware of social behaviors of friends.
- Seeks friends that share the same beliefs, values, and interests. - Friends become
more important.
- - Starts to have more intellectual interests. - Explores romantic and sexual
behaviors with others.
- - May be influenced by peers to try risky behaviors (alcohol, tobacco, sex)
- Mental Development - Able to set goals and think in terms of the future.
- - Has a better understanding of complex problems and issues
- - Starts to develop moral ideals and to select role models