Personal Development
Quarter: 1
Unit 1: Self-Development
Lesson 1: Knowing Oneself- Strengths and Limitations
Self-Development
Self-development is a process of discovering oneself by
realizing one's potentials and capabilities that are shaped over time
either by studying in a formal school or through environmental
factors. Along this realization, an individual encounters gradual
changes deep within him/her that may help him/her overcome
unacceptable practices or traits which lead him towards positive
change for his growth or self-fulfillment. It is also called personal
development.
According to Cambridge Dictionary, self-development is the
act of deciding for yourself how to improve your skills and taking
action to do this.
On the other hand, examining yourself, most specifically how
you react to things, your belief, traits, and values is one of the most
complicated things to do in the world. You must understand, though,
that it is not that simple. In fact, it follows a process.
Know Thyself
According to the philosophical point of view, “An unexamined
life is not worth living”, this is one of the famous lines once uttered
by one of the greatest philosophers of Ancient Greek, Socrates.
Know Thyself is an old maxim or aphorism which in time has
been used in varied literature and consequently gained different
meanings. One of its meanings is recorded in the Greek
encyclopaedia of knowledge called “The Suda”.
Thomas Hobbes also discussed his own views about the maxim
from which he used the phrase “read thyself” in his famous work The
Leviathan. He stressed that an individual could learn more by
studying others and that he/she can do this by engaging
himself/herself to reading books. However, Hobbes emphasized that
a person learns more by studying oneself.
He further elaborated his views about know thyself from which
he stated that a man who investigates himself/herself and considers
contemplating on what he/she did or what he/she thinks, reasons,
hopes and/or fears and to what grounds he/she feels all these can
consequently learn how to read and learn others’ thoughts and
passions in similar occasions.
Thus, this statement leads us to the realization that knowing
oneself is the open door that leads us to knowing others better.
Authors of other materials related to this idea believe that
‘know thyself’ is a moral epistemological injunction. This suggests
that the philosophy is acquiring the skills of way of questioning or
challenging the person to gain careful understanding of oneself. It is
a form of self-concern.
Self-Concept
Self-concept is one’s abstract and general idea about
him/herself particularly toward his/her unique personality and
his/her own perception about his/her set of values, point of views
and behavior.
This theory began as Rene Descartes, the Father of Modern
Philosophy, proposed his theory that a person’s existence depends
on his/her perception. Rene Descartes stated that mind is the seat of
consciousness.
This means that it is in the mind that we know everything about
ourselves like our identity, passion, interest, feelings, and/or
intellect, thus everything that we are comes from the mind.
Self-concept theory has a lot of suppositions regarding how
people learn to judge themselves. Among these, Sincero named
three aspects such as:
Self-concept is learned. This explains that no individual is born
with self concept. A person will soon develop this as he/she grows
old. This means that self concept can only be acquired as soon as
the person learns how to mingle with others and so this indicates
that self-concept is influenced by the person’s environment and can
be a product of the person’s socialization.
Self-concept is organized. This stresses out that one’s
perception towards him/her is firm. This means that a person may
hear other people’s point of view regarding him/her but will keep on
believing that what he/she thinks of himself/herself is always the
right one. Change in one's perceptions towards him/her, however,
may also be possible but it takes time.
Self-concept is dynamic. As an individual grows older, he/she
continues to encounter problems or challenges that may reveal
his/her self-concept in that particular time or situation. A person will
definitely respond to the scenario based on his/her own insights and
how he/she perceives himself/herself in the situation. Thus,
self-concept undergoes development as the person goes through
different experiences.
Aside from the philosophers above, Sigmund Freud who is a
well-known psychologist, neurologist and the creator of
Psychoanalysis Theory and the father of psychoanalysis, proposed
that there are three components of personality within us: the Id, Ego
and Superego that certainly play a vital role of how we think of
ourselves. Let’s tackle them one by one.
The Id. Freud explained that man's personality is driven by
pleasure principle. This means that the nature of Id is to satisfy
man's desire without thinking much of the situation. This nature is
being developed at a young age or present from birth.
Example: An infant will cry if he/she wants to be fed to satisfy
his/her hunger. Definitely, an infant cannot exactly explain what
he/she really wants. Also, infants do grab things and would want to
get things on their hands not minding if they hurt or if they are
important or not. All they want is to get them for they want them.
This is the nature of Id, when the Id wants it, the rest are no
longer important. However, this instinct is controlled by the ego and
superego as these aspects are developed in man’s life later on.
The Ego. This is the second component of the personality that is
developed at approximately the age of three. This operates
according to reality which makes it possible for the Id to work in a
more proper and satisfactory ways. The ego will give a more socially
accepted means of getting the desires and wants of a person
without getting to hurt others feelings. In other words, it is the job of
the ego to provide a man some guidelines on how to behave
accordingly while he fulfills his pleasure. This component of our
personality is manifested whenever we try to satisfy our cravings
without compromising our self-image to others.
The Superego. Freud believed that this aspect of man begins to
manifest as a child turns 5. This is the last component of personality
which holds our moral judgments or concept of right and wrong that
are believed to be acquired from the family and the environment.
This personality is developed as man learns the culture of
distinguishing right from wrong based on the set of guidelines and
standards that are known to people which might have been probably
imposed by the people in the community like parents, teachers,
elders or the community as a whole. Therefore, superego directs a
man’s life in order for him to avoid hurting others
Source:
https://depedtambayan.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/personal
development_q1_mod1_knowingoneselfstrengthsandlimitations_v2.
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