I.

Vision : Saint Joseph College, a Catholic school, envisions an

evangelized and evangelizing community providing excellent
integral education and involvement in social transformation.

II. Mission : We commit to build the Saint Joseph College Educative

Family
(SJCEF) centered on Christ; to form every member into an
integral human person imbued with the gospel values, and
equipped with excellent quality education; and to be an
active
agent in making a humane society.

III. Core Values : God-centeredness, Excellence, Integrity, Service

Course Module for: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF (GE 1)

Course Description:

Understanding the Self is a fundamental course in the General Education Curriculum for tertiary
education. It is designed to help students understand the nature of identity including factors that
influence and shape personal identity.

This 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 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 on one’s self. It strives to meet this goal by stressing the
integration of the personal with the academic-contextualizing matters discussed in any appropriate and
accessible learning system and in everyday experiences of students-making for better learning,
generating 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.
 This course is divided into three major parts: The first seeks to understand the construct of the
self from various disciplinal perspectives: philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. The
second part explores some of the various aspects that makes up of the self, such as the biological or
physical, material and the more recent Digital Self. The third and final part identifies three areas of
concerns for young students: learning, goa-setting and managing stress. It also provides for the more
practical application of the concepts discussed in this course and enables them in developing self-help
plans for self-regulated learning and self-care.

GRADING SYSTEM:

Each student shall be assessed on the following:

Pre-Midterm/Pre Final Examination 30%

Midterm/Final Examination 30%

Quizzes/Assignments 20%

Online Participation and Projects 20%

TOTAL 100%

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the semester, the students must be able to:

1. Assess self from these various perspectives leading to the emergence of one’s self and
identity;
2. Grasp a better understanding of their personality, self and identity, along with the
knowledge of the influential forces which impact on these, such as gender, culture, family
and relationships;
3. Recognize personal experiences and identity multi-faceted self;
4. Express oneself to others by unpacking the self comfortably and without inhibitions; and
5. Apply and improve self-management skills in local, regional and national aspects.

“NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU INFERIOR WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT.”

-Eleonor Roosevelt
MODULE 1:
DEFINING THE SELF: Personal and Developmental Perspectives
on Self and Identity
Topics:

Lesson I: The Self from Various Philosophical Perspectives

Lesson II: Self, Society and Culture

Lesson III: Self as Cognitive Construct

Lesson I:

I. Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

1. Explain why it is essential to understand the self through the lenses of personal identity,
skills and talents, roles, values, personal core, and how they meet their psychological needs.
2. Describe and discuss the different notions of the self from the points-of-view of the various
philosophers across time and place.
3. Compare and contrast how the self has been represented in different philosophical schools.
4. Examine one’s self against the different views of self on the lessons provided.
 II. Introduction:

Before we even had to be in any formal institution of learning, among many things that we were
taught as kids is to articulate and write our names. Growing up, we were told to refer back to this name
when talking about ourselves. Our parents or significant others painstakingly thought about our names.
Should we be named after a famous celebrity, a respected politician or historical personality, or even a
saint or a famous biblical character? Were you named after one? Our names represent who we are. It
has not been a custom to adjust randomly pick a combination of letters and number (or even
punctuation marks) like Lm143!! to denote our being. Human beings attach names that are meaningful
to birthed progenies because names are supposed to designate us in the world. Thus, some people get
baptized with names such as “Precious,” “Beauty,” or “Lovely.” Likewise, when our parents call our
names, we were taught to respond to them because our names represent who we are. As a student, we
are told to always write our names on our paper, projects, or any output for that matter. Our names
signify us. Death cannot even stop this bond between the person and her name. Names are inscribed
even into one’s gravestone.

“You cannot truly love another until you know how to love
yourself.”
-E. Lee
Engage:

DO YOU TRULY KNOW YOURSELF?

Explore:

WORDS THAT DESCRIBE ME

Circle the words that describe you. Add additional words.
Other words that describe you:

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

If you’re searching for that one person that will change your life, take a look in
the mirror.
YOUR PERSONAL IDENTITY
“WHO ARE YOU?”
“Be the reason for your own happiness.”
― Vishwas Chavan

YOUR PERSONAL IDENTITY

“WHO ARE YOU?”
“It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”
― Roy Disney

A PORTRAIT OF YOURSELF
“Make the most of yourself.... for that is all there is of you.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

SETTING PRIORITIES ABOUT VALUES

 Regardless of how anyone else feels about me, I am going to choose to love
myself today.
Success Stories

Think about and write two or three of your success stories.

1. ___________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

3. __________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

What does this say about who you are and what’s important to you and “why” these success stories are
important to you?

____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

Explain:

The SELF from various Philosophical Perspectives

Philosophy

-study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence, especially in an academic
discipline.

-a particular theory that someone has about how to live or how to deal with a particular
situation.

-academic discipline concerned with investigating the nature of significance of ordinary and
scientific beliefs.

-investigate the legitimacy of concepts by rational argument concerning their implications,

relationships as well as reality, knowledge, moral judgement, etc.
✔ While the Pre-Socratic philosophers were concerned much about what the world is made up, all
these and all that, Socrates was more concerned on the philosophy that man should know
himself.
✔ His dictum, “Know Thyself”.
✔ He said that an “unexamined self is not worth living”.
✔ During Socrates time most men were not aware of who they were and the virtues that they were
to attain in order to preserve their souls for the afterlife.
✔ For Socrates, to live but die inside is the worst that can happen to anyone.
✔ For him, man is dualistic (made of body and soul). Meaning, all individuals have imperfect and
impermanent aspect of him and the body, while maintaining that there is also a soul that is
perfect and permanent.

✔ A student of Socrates. He supported the idea that man is a dual nature: body and soul.
✔ In addition, he added that there are three components of the soul: the rational soul, the spirited
soul and the appetitive soul.
✔ He said that justice can only be attained when the three parts are working harmoniously with
each other.
✔ The rational soul forge by reason and intellect has governed the affairs of the human person, the
spirited part which is the in charge of emotion should be at bay, and the appetitive soul is in
charge of base desires like eating, drinking, sleeping, and having sex are controlled as well.
✔ When such ideal harmony of the three components of the soul, then, the soul becomes just and
virtuous.

✔ Influenced by the ancient view of Socrates and Plato, infused his idea of man with the new found
doctrine of Christianity.
✔ He agreed that man is of bifurcated nature. One aspect of him dwells in the world and is
imperfect and continuously yearns to be with the Divine and the other is capable of resting
immortality.
✔ His famous line “My soul is restless until it rest in You.”

✔ He is considered the most imminent thirteenth century scholar and stalwart of medieval
philosophy to St. Augustine’s Christian view.
✔ He said that man is composed of two parts: matter and form.
✔ Matter or “hyle” in Greeks-refers to the common stuff that makes up everything in the universe
while form, “morphe” which refers to the essence of a substance or thing which differentiates us
from other animals and that is our soul which animates the body that makes us humans.
✔ The father of Modern Philosophy-conceived the idea that the human person is having a body
and a mind.
✔ He claimed that there is so much that we should doubt. There are many things we believe yet
they turned out to be false. If something is so clear and lucid as not to be even doubted, then
that is the only time when one should actually buy aa proposition.
✔ He claimed that the only thing that one cannot doubt is the existence of the self, for even if one
doubts oneself, that only proves that there is a doubting self, a thing that thinks and therefore,
that cannot be doubted.
✔ Thus, his famous cogito ergo sum “I think therefore I am”. The fact that one thinks should lead
one to conclude without a trace of doubt that he exist.
✔ Descartes claimed that the self is a combination of two distinct entities, the cogito, the thing that
thinks which is the mind and extenza or extension of the mind, the body.
✔ His view is that the body iss nothing else but a machine that is attached to the mind.
✔ He said that the mind is the thinking thing, that doubts, understands, affirms, conceives, denies,
imagines and perceives, etc.

✔ A Scottish philosopher who has a very unique way of looking at man.

✔ He is an empiricist who argues that one can only know what comes from the senses and
experiences. (Empiricism is the school of thought that expose the idea that knowledge can only
be possible if it is sensed and experienced). When one imagines the feeling of being in love for
the first time, that is still an idea.
✔ To Hume, the self is a unified, coherent self, a soul or mind, just like what other philosophers
believed. In reality, what one thinks is a unified self is simply a combination of experiences wit a
particular person.
✔ Thinking that the self is only impressions was problematic for Kant. He recognizes Hume’s
account that everything starts with perception and sensation of impression, however, for him,
the things that men perceive around them are not just ordinarily infused into the human person
without an organizing principle that regulates the relationships of these impressions.
✔ For Kant, there is necessarily a mind that organizes the impressions that men get from the
external world.
✔ Kant suggests that it is an actively engaged intelligence in man that synthesizes all knowledge
and experiences.

✔ Solves the body-mind dichotomy by denying the concept of an internal, non-physical self.
✔ For Ryle, what truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in his day-to-day life.
✔ He suggests that the “SELF” is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply the
convenient name that people use to refer to all the behaviors that people make.

✔ He says that the mind and body so intertwined that they cannot be separated from one another.
✔ For him, one cannot find any experience that is not an embodied experience. One’s body is his
opening towards his existence to the world. He doesn’t recognize dualism because for him, it is
nothing but misunderstanding.
✔ For him, the living body, his thoughts, emotions and experience are all one.
Elaborate:

The history of philosophy is replete with men and women who inquired into the fundamental
nature of the self. Along with the question of the primary substratum that defines the multiplicity of
things in the world, the inquiry on the self has preoccupied the earliest thinkers in the history of
philosophy: the Greeks. They were the ones who seriously questioned myths and moved away from
them in attempting to understand reality and respond to perennial questions of curiosity, including the
question of SELF.

Therefore, studying the different philosophical perspectives of this prominent theorists gives you
the opportunity to examine how your personal identity has been shaped by a variety of people and
experiences. You will also have the opportunities to think about and discuss their values, interests, hopes
for the future, as well as, their strengths and challenges. You learn about how your psychological needs
motivate and drive their behavior. You will learn critical knowledge about change and how important it
is in today’s workplace and situation to be adaptive and to embrace change as a personal and
professional growth experiences.

Evaluate:

Instruction: In your own words, state what “self” is for each of the following philosophers’. After doing
so, explain how your concept of “self” compatible with how they conceived of the “self.”

1. Socrate:

2. Plato:
3. St. Augustine:

4. St. Thomas Aquinas:

5. Descartes:
6. Hume:

7. Kant:

8. Ryle:
 9. Merleau-Ponty:

Criteria:

Content- 15

Grammar- 5

Organization of thoughts- 5

Total- 25pts

Submit your answers to: _________________________________

Due date: __________________________ Time: _____________

Lesson II

I. Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

1. Explain the relationship between and among the self, society, and culture.
2. Describe and discuss the different ways by which society and culture shape the self.
3. Compare and contrast how the self can be influenced by the different institutions in the
society.
4. Examine one’s self against the different views of self that were discussed in the class.

II. Introduction:

Across time and history, the self has been debated, discussed, and fruitfully or otherwise
conceptualized by different thinkers in philosophy. Eventually, with the advent of the social sciences, it
became possible for new ways and paradigms to reexamine the true nature of the self. People put a halt
on speculative debates on the relationship between the body and soul, eventually renamed body and
the mind. Thinkers just eventually got tired of focusing on the long-standing debate since csixth century
BC between the relationship of these two components of the human person. Thinkers just settled on the
idea that there are two components of the human person and whatever relationship these two have is
less important than the fact that there is a self. The debate shifted into another locus of discussion.
Given the new ways of knowing and the growth of the social sciences. It became possible for new
approaches to the examination of the self to come to the fore. One of the loci, if not the most important
axis of analysis is the relationship between the self and the external world.

Engage:

How do you believe in yourself that others don’t?

Explore:

In the famous Tarzan story, the little boy named Tarzan was left in the middle of the forest.
Growing up. He never had an interaction with any other human being but apes and other animals.
Tarzan grew up acting strangely like apes and unlike human persons. His behavior was shaped by his
external environment. In conclusion, our selves are truly products of our interaction with external
realities.

MYSELF THROUGH THE YEARS

Paste a picture of you when you were in elementary, in junior high school, senior high school,
and now that you are in college. Below the picture, list down your salient characteristics that you
remember.
After having examined your “self” in it different stages, fill out the table below.
 “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”
-Bernice Johnsonm

Explain:
 “We can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”
-Oprah Winfrey

Elaborate:
 The gendered self is then shaped within a particular context of time and space. The sense of self
that is being taught makes sure that an individual fits in a particular environment. This dangerous and
detrimental in the goal of truly finding one’s self, self-determination, and growth of the self. Gender has
to be personally discovered and asserted and not dictated by culture and the society.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

– Frederick Douglas

Evaluate:

Instruction: Answer the following questions cogently but honestly. Write your answers in the space
provided.

1. How would you describe yourself?

2. What are the influences of family in your development as an individual?

3. Think of a time when you felt you were your “true self.” What made you think you were truly
who you are during this time of your life?

4. Following the question above, can you provide a time when you felt you were not living your
“true self”? Why did you have to live a life like that? What did you do about it?

5. What social pressures help shape your self? Would you have wanted it otherwise?

6. What aspect of your self do you think may be changed or you would like to change?
Criteria:

Content- 15
Grammar- 5
Organization of thoughts- 5
Total- 25pts

Submit your answers to: _________________________________

Due date: __________________________ Time: _____________

Lesson III:
 I. Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. identify the different ideas in psychology about the “self”.
2. Create your own definition of the “self” based on the definitions from psychology.
3. Analyze the effects of various factors identified in psychology in the formation of the self.

II. Introduction:
As discussed in the previous lessons, every field of study, at least in the social sciences,
have their own research, definition, and conceptualization of self and identity. Some are similar
while some specific only in their field. Each field also has thousands of research on self and
identity as well as related or synonymous terms. The trend of the lessons also seems to define
the concept of the “self” from a larger context (i.e., culture and society) down to the individual.
However, it must be pointed out that modern researches acknowledge the contributions of each
field and this is not some sort of a nature vs. nurture, society/culture vs. individual/brain, and
other social sciences vs. psychology debate. Psychology may focus on the individual and the
cognitive functions, but it does not discount the context and other possible factors that affect
the individual. For students who take up psychology, discussions on theories, and development,
among others actually take at least one semester and there are still more to be learned about
the concept of “self”. This lesson provides an overview of the themes of psychology regarding
the said concept.

Engage:

‘You’ through other’s Eyes.

Explore:

This activity has two parts that try to compare how we look at ourselves against how people
perceive us depending on how we present ourselves to them. For the first part, list ten to fifteen (10-15)
qualities or things that you think define who you are around the human figure representing you.
 For the second part, in the space, write “I am ________________________(your name). Who
do you think I am based on what you see me do or hear me say?” (Let your friends, family members or
anybody who are with you now.)

Now, compare your answers in parts I and II. What aspects are similar and which are not? What
aspects are always true to you? What aspects are sometime true or circumstantial? What aspects do
you think are not really part of your personality? Write your answers below.
 My Unique Picture Album
Think about the people, places, and experiences in your life that are very special to you. This is where
you get your psychological needs met. Write two examples in each box of how you meet this particular
need.

Belonging Recognition

Self Esteem Safety

freedom fun

Take Note:

Responding to Change

● How do you feel about change? When you are being asked to change, mark where you fall on
the continuum between the descriptions.

bad ________________________________________________ good

annoyed ________________________________________________ excited
depressed ________________________________________________ enthused
anxious ________________________________________________ calm
tired ________________________________________________ energized
disinterested ________________________________________________ interested
discouraged ________________________________________________ optimistic
overwhelmed ________________________________________________ challenged

• Do you typically embrace or resist change?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Changes in Our Lives

Think about an important change you made in your life.

1. Describe the change.

2. What were you thinking going through the change?

3. How were you feeling before, during, and after you made the change?
 Change and Emotions

1. Why is change hard for most people?

2. Why is change easier for some people?

3. What strong emotions do people feel when they are asked to change?

“Make the most of yourself…for that is all there is of you.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Explain:

Consequently, there are various definition of the “self” and other similar or interchangeable
concepts in psychology…
Elaborate:

So, the self has many facets that help make up integral parts of it, such self-awareness, self-esteem,
self-knowledge, and self-perception. All parts of the self to enable people to alter, change, add, and
modify aspects of themselves in order to gain social acceptance in society and most all to be heathy in all
aspects of life as individual.

Evaluate:

Instruction:

Do a research and list ten (10) things to boost yourself-esteem or improve your self-concept.
Cite your sources. Analyze which of those tips are more likely to backfire and make someone conceited
or narcissistic and revise them to make the statements both helpful to the individual as well as society in
general.
Criteria:

Content- 15
Grammar- 5
Organization of thoughts- 5
Total- 25pts

Submit your answers to: _________________________________

Due date: __________________________ Time: _____________