Module of GE 111 Final

SOUTH EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, INC.
National Highway, Crossing Rubber, Tupi, South Cotabato
GENERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

___________________________________________________
LEARNING MODULE
FOR
GE 111: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
_____________________________________________________
WEEK 13
GE 111: Understanding the Self

Page - 1 - of 45
COURSE OUTLINE
COURSE CODE : GE 111

TITLE : Understanding the Self
TARGET POPULATION : All students
INSTRUCTOR : MR. DEXTER S. ESPINO
Overview:
Introduction and concern issues of self and identity for a better and proper way of
understanding one s self. Integration of personal daily experiences of the students with their
learning experiences inside the classroom to encourage them to improve themselves for a
better quality of life.
Enables to understand the construct of the self from various disciplinal perspectives:
philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and psychology including the more traditional division
between East and the West. It deals also with some of the various aspects that make up the
self like the biological self, the material self, the spiritual self, the political self, and the digital
self. Provides a discussion on some issues or concern for young students these days, which
are learning, goal setting, and stress. The new skills for practical application of the concepts
learned that aim to help them become better and significant individuals of our society.
General Objective:
To help the students understand the nature of identity including factors that
influence and shape identity.
The following are the topics to be discussed
Week 13 WHO AM I IN THE CYBERWORLD?
Week 14 LEARNING TO BE A BETTER LEARNER
Week 15 DO NOT JUST DREAM, MAKE IT HAPPEN
Week 16 LESS STRESS, MORE CARE
Week 17 SELF CARE THERAPY
Instruction to the Learners

Each chapter in this module contains a major lesson involving the Disciplinal
Perspectives, Aspects of Self, Physical and Sexual self, and Learning to be a Better
Learner.The lesson are characterized by continuity, and are arranged in such a manner that
the present unit is related to the next unit. For this reason, you are advised to read this
module. After each unit, there are exercises to be given. Submission of task will be given
during your scheduled class hour.
GETTING STARTED:
Three, facts, one fiction
Construct four sentences that should start with I am_________________. Three of the
four sentences should be true about yourself. You can talk about your characteristics,
strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, personalities, and behaviour. One statement
should be a lie- something that just made up about yourself. Make an activity more fun by
making your classmates believe that the statement is true.

Page - 2 - of 45
WEEK 13
WHO AM I IN THE CYBERWORLD? (DIGITAL SELF)
Introduction
These days, more people are becoming active in using the Internet for research,
pleasure, business, communication, and other purposes. Indeed, the Internet is of great
help for everyone. On the other hand, people assume different identities while in the
cyberspace. People act differently when they are online and offline. We have real identity
and online identity.
Abstraction
The number of people who are becoming more active online continues to increase
worldwide. More than half of the population now uses the Internet. It has only been 25 years
since Tim Berners-Lee made the World Wide Web available to the public, but in that time,
the Internet has already become an integral part of everyday life for most of the world s
population. The Philippines is among one of the countries with the most active Internet users
(We are Social and Hootsuite n.d.).
Almost two-thirds of the world s population now has mobile phone.

More than half of the world s web traffic now comes from mobile phones.
More than half of all mobile connections around the world are now broadband.
More than one in five of the world s population shopped online in the past 30
days.
Media users in the Philippines grew by 12 million or 25% while the number of mobile social
users increased by 13 million or 32%. Those growth figures are still higher compared to the
previous year. More than half the world now uses a smartphone.

Page - 3 - of 45
Figure 1. Growth of world digital users in 2016 compared to 2015.
Based on Figure 1, the number of digital users worldwide increases. More people are becoming
interested and devoted in using the Internet of various activities. In the Philippines, adolescents are
among the most avid users of the Internet.
Figure 2. Percentage of mobile internet users from different age groups in the
Philippines.
Online identity is actually the sum of all our characteristics and our interactions while partial
identity is a subset of characteristics that make up our identity. Meanwhile, persona is a
partial identity we create that represents ourselves in a specific situation.

Page - 4 - of 45
Selective Self-presentation and Impression Management
According to Goffman (1959) and Leary (1995), self-presentation is the process of

controlling how one is perceived by other people and is the key to relationship inception
and development. To construct positive images, individuals selectively provide information
about them and carefully cater this information in response to other s feedback.
Anything posted online should be considered public no matter what our privacy
setting are. Let us say, a student wrote online about how much he hated another student in
school, and started bullying him online. Does it matter if the student said, Well, this is
personal account? Even if the student wrote it in a private account, it can become public
with a quick screen capture and shared with the world. Personal identity is the interpersonal
level of self which differentiates the individual is identified by his or her group memberships.
Belk (2013) explained that sharing ourselves is no longer new and has been practiced
as soon as human beings were formed. Digital devices help us share information broadly,
more than ever before. For those who are avid users of Facebook, it is possible that their
social media friends are more updated about their daily activities, connections, and thoughts
than their immediate families. Diaries that were once private or shared only with close
friends are now posted as blogs which can be viewed by anyone. In websites like Flickr or
Photobucket, the use of arm s-length self photography indicates a major change. In order
family albums, the photographer was not often represented in the album (Mendelson and
Papacharissi 2011), whereas with arm s-length photos, they are necessarily included (e.g.,
selfies and groupies). In addition, the family album of an earlier era has become more an
individual photo gallery in the digital age. As Schwarz (2010) mentioned, we have entered
an extraordinary era of self-portraiture. Blogs and web pages have been continuously used
for greater self-reflection and self-presentation for one sixth of humanity. As a result,
researchers and participants become concerned with actively managing identity and
reputation and to warm against the phenomenon of oversharing (Labrecque, Markos, and
Milne 2011; Shepherd 2005; Suler 2002; Zimmer and Hoffman 2011). Sometimes people
become unaware of the extent of information they share online. They forget to delineate
what can be shared online and what should not. Furthermore, it provides a more complete
narration of self and gives people an idealized view of how they would like to be
remembered by others (Van Dijck 2008). Many teenagers, as well as some adults, share
even more intimate details with their partners like their passwords (Gershon, 2010). This
could be an ultimate act of intimacy and trust or the ultimate expression of paranoia and
distrust with the partner.
Because of the conversation of private diaries into public revelations of inner secrets,
the lack of privacy in many aspects of social media make the users more vulnerable, leading
to compulsively checking newsfeeds and continually adding tweets and postings in order to

Page - 5 - of 45
appear active and interesting. This condition has been called fear of missing out. People
would like to remain updated and they keep on sharing themselves online because it adds a
sense of confidence at their sharing and self-disclosure online is the so-called disinhibition
effect (Ridley, 2012; Suler, 2004). The lack of face-to-face gaze-meeting, together with
feelings of anonymity and invisibility, gives people the freedom for self-disclosure but can
also flame others and may cause conflict sometimes. The resulting disinhibition causes
people to believe that they are able to express their true self better online than they ever
could in face-to-fce contexts (Taylor, 2002). However, it does not mean than there is a fixed
true self. The self is still a work in progress and we keep on improving and developing
ourselves every single day. Seemingly self-revelation can be therapeutic to others
especially if it goes together with self-reflection (Morris et al. 2010). But it does appear that
we now do a large amount of our identity work online. When the Internet constantly asks us:
Who are you? and What do you have to share? , it is up to us if we are going to provide
answers to such queries every time we use the Internet and to what extent are going to
share details of ourselves to others.
In addition to sharing the good things we experience, many of us also share the bad,
embarrassing, and sinful things we experience. We also react and comment on negative
experiences of others. Sometimes, we empathize with people. We also argue with others
online. Relationships may be made stronger or broken through posts online. Blogs and
social media are the primary digital fora on which such confessions occur, but they can also
be found in photo- and video- sharing sites where blunders and bad moments are also
preserved and shared (Strangelove, 2011). Why confess to unseen and anonymous others
online? In Foucault s (1978, 1998) view, confessing our secret truths feels freeing, even as
it binds us in a guilt-motivated self-governance born of a long history of Christian and
pre-Christian philosophies and power structures.
According to Foucault (1998), confession, along with contemplation, self-examination,
learning, reading, and writing self-critical letters to friends, are a part of the technologies of
the self through which we seek to purge and cleanse ourselves.
Despite the veil of invisibility, writers on the Internet write for an unseen audience
(Serfaty, 2004). Both the number and feedback of readers provide self-validation for the
writer and a certain celebrity (O Regan, 2009). Confessional blogs may also be therapeutic
for the audience to read, allowing both sincere empathy and the voyeuristic appeal of
witnessing a public confession (Kitzmann, 2003).
Consequently, we should have a filtering system to whatever information we share
online, as well as to what information we believe in, which are being shared or posted online.
We should also think well before we post or share anything online in order to prevent conflict,
arguments, and cyberbullying and to preserve our relationships with others
Gender and Sexuality Online

Page - 6 - of 45
According to Marwick (2013) while the terms sex , gender , and sexuality are
often thought of as synonymous, they are actually quite distinct. The differences between
the common understandings of these terms and how researchers think about them yield key
insights about the social functioning of gender. Sex is the biological state that corresponds
to what we might call a man or a woman . This might seem to be a simple distinction,
but the biology of sex is actually very complicated. While sex is often explained as
biological, fixed, and immutable, it is actually socially constructed (West and Zimmerman,
1987). Gender, then, is the social understanding of how sex should be experienced and how
sex manifests in behaviour, personality, preference, capabilities, and so forth. A person with
male sex organs is expected to embody a masculine gender. While sex and gender are
presumed to be biologically connected, we can understand gender as sociocultural specific
set of norms that are mapped onto a category of sex (Kessler and McKenna, 1978; Lorber,
1994). Gender is historical. It is produced by media and popular culture (Gauntlett 2008;
Van Zoonen, 1994). It is reinforced through songs, sayings, admonition, slang, language,
fashion, and disclosure (Cameron, 1998; Cameron and Kulick, 2003), it is deeply ingrained.
Gender is a system of classification that values male-gendered things more than female
related things. This system plays out on the bodies of men and women, and in constructing
hierarchies of everything from colors (e.g., pink vs. blue) to academic departments (e.g.,
Math vs. English) to electronic gadgets and websites. Given this inequality, the
universalized male body and experience is often constructed as average or normal, while
female-gendered experiences are conceptualized as variations from the norm (Goffman,
1977).
Sexuality is an individual expression and understanding of desire. While like gender, this
is often viewed as binary (homosexual or heterosexual), in reality, sexuality is often
experienced as fluid.
Performing Gender Online
Theorist Judith Butler (1990) conceptualized gender ass performance. She explained
that popular understanding of gender and sexuality came to be through discourse and social
processes. She argued that gender was performative, in that it is produced through millions
of individual actions, rather than something that comes naturally to men and women.
Performances that adhere to normative understandings of gender and sexuality are allowed,
while those that do not are admonished (for example, a boy throwing like a girl ) (Lorber,
1994). In the 1990 s many Internet scholars drew from Butler and other queer theorists to
understand online identity. According to the disembodiment hypothesis, Internet users are
free to actively choose which gender or sexuality they are going to portray with the
possibility of creating alternate identities (Wynn and Katz, 1997). The ability of users of
self-consciously adapt and play with different gender identities would reveal the choices

Page - 7 - of 45
involved in the production of gender, breaking down binaries and encouraging fluidity in
sexuality and gender expression.
Recently, social media has been celebrated for facilitating greater cultural participation
and creativity. Social media sites like twitter and YouTube have led to the emergence of a
free culture where individuals are empowered to engage in cultural production using raw
materials, ranging from homemade videos to mainstream television characters to create
new cultures, memes, and humor. At its best, this culture of memes, mash-ups, and creative
political activism allows for civic engagement and fun creative acts. While Digg, 4chan, and
Reddit are used mostly by men, most social network site users are women; this is true in
Facebook, Flickr, Live Journal, Tumblr, Twitter, and YouTube (Chappell 2011; Lenhart,
2009; Lenhart et al. 2010). But mere equality of use does not indicate equality of
participation. While both men and women use Wikipedia, 87% of Wikipedia contributors
were identified as male (LaVallee, 2009). Male students are more likely to create, edit, and
distribute digital video over YouTube or Facebook than female students.
However, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found no discernible differences in
user-generated content by gender except remixing, which was most likely among teen girls
(Lenhart et al. 2010). One explanation for these differences is that user-generated content is
often clustered by gender. Researchers have consistently shown that similar numbers of
men and women maintain a blog about 14% of Internet users (Lenhart et al. 2010). While
the number of male and female bloggers is roughly equivalent, they tend to blog about
different things. Overwhelmingly, certain types of blogs are written and read by women (e.g.,
food, fashion, parenting), while others (e.g., technology, politics) are written and run by men
(Chittenden, 2010; Hindman, 2009;Meraz, 2008). Although the technologies are the same,
the norms and mores of the people using them differ.
Setting Boundaries To Your Online Self: Smart Sharing
The following guidelines will help you share information online in a smart way that will
protect yourself and not harm others. Before posting or sharing anything online, consider the
following.
Is this post/story necessary?
Is there a real benefit to this post? Is it funny, warm-hearted, teachable-or am I just

making noise online without purpose?
Have we (as a family or parent/ child) resolved this issue? An issue that is still being
worked out at home, or one that is either vulnerable or highly emotional, should not
be made public.
Is it appropriate? Does it stay within the boundaries of our family values?

Page - 8 - of 45
Will this seem as funny in 5, 10, or 15 years? Or is this post better suited for sharing
with small group of family members? Or maybe not at all?
Rules to Follow
Here are additional guidelines for proper sharing of information and ethical use of the
Internet according to New (2014)
Stick to safer sites.
Guard your password.
Limit what you share.
Remember that anything you put online or post on a site is there forever, even if
you try to delete it.
Do not be mean or embarrass other people online.
Always tell if you see strange or bad behaviour online.
Be choosy about your online friends.
Be patient
ACTIVITY #1
APPLICATION AND ASSESSMENT

Create Work.
In an illustration board, make a slogan or a poster about being a responsible Internet user.
Use coloring materials to improve your output.
Criteria Points
Content 25
Creativity 15
Cleanliness 10
Total 50
End of 13th week

---------------------------------------------Nothing Follows--------------------------------------

Page - 9 - of 45

___________________________________________________
LEARNING MODULE
FOR
_____________________________________________________
WEEK 14
2020

Page - 10 - of 45
WEEK 14
LEARNING TO BE A BETTER LEARNER
Introduction
Knowing the self is not enough. Since who you are is partly made up of your
choices, you must also have the ability to choose especially to be a better you . In the
school setting, your knowledge of yourself should at least enable you to become a better
student.
This lesson will present several techniques that can adapt depending on your situation
and preferences to make you a better learner. Learning should not just mean studying for
your quizzes and exams in school. Learning could also occur outside the confines of a book
or classroom, like when you want to acquire a new move in your favourite sport, or the skills
for a certain hobby, among others. Furthermore, the techniques here are not the only
techniques available and months or years from now, new ways on how to study better will
be discovered or rediscovered. What is important at this moment is that you learn how to
learn things
The idea falls under the concept of metacognition. Metacognition is commonly defined as
thinking about thinking (Livingston, 1997; PapaleontiouLouca, 2003). It is the awareness,
metacognition enables the person to adapt their existing knowledge and skills to approach a
learning task, seeking for the optimum result of the learning experience (American Institute
for Research, 2010).
Metacognition is also not limited to the thinking process of the individual. It is also
includes keeping one s emotion and motivations while learning in check
(Papaleontiou-Louca, 2003). Some people learn better when they like the subject, some
when they are challenged by the topic, and others if they have a reward system each time
they finish a task. The emotional state and the motivation of a person then should also be in
the preferred ideal state for that person in order to further facilitate his or her learning.
As seen from the above mentioned definitions, metacognition basically has two aspects:
(1) self-appraisal and (2) self-management of cognition (Paris and Winnograd, 1990 in
Papaleontiou-Louca, 2003). Self-appraisal is your personal reflection on your knowledge
and capabilities while self-management is the mental process you employ using what you
have in planning and adapting to successfully learn and accomplish a certain task (Paris
and Winnograd, 1990 in Papaleontiou-Louca, 2003). Similar concept, usually called
elements of metacognition, are metacognitive knowledge or what you know about how you
think, the metacognition regulation or how you adjust your thinking processes to help you
learn better.
Under metacognitive knowledge, there are several variables that affect how you know or
assess yourself as a thinker. First is the personal variable, which is the evaluation of your

Page - 11 - of 45
strengths and weaknesses in learning. Second is the task variable, which is what you know
or what you think about the nature of the task, as well as what strategies the task requires.
Lastly, strategy variable refers to what strategies or skills you already have in dealing with
certain tasks (American Institute for Institutes, 2010).
However, it must be noted that in order to make self-appraisal and self-management
work, you must have an accurate self-assessment- you must be honest about you know and
capable of in order to find ways to utilize your strengths and improve on your weaknesses
(Schoenfield, 1987 in Papaleontiou-Louca, 2003).
Going back to the activity, review your MAI results and your answers during the analysis.
Do you feel that the results do not represents you? Rather than dismissing the test or the
results if you feel any incongruence to your perception, try to analyse if your answers were
accurate and think of the specific instances when you were learning something. Think also
of various factors that make that learning experience successful and enjoyable for you,
including your emotions and motivations at that certain period.
By doing the above reflection, you are actually utilizing metacognitive skills. According to
Waterloo Student Success Office (n.d.), the following are other skills that can help you in
exercising metacognition:
1. Knowing your limits. As mentioned earlier, one cannot really make any significance
advancement in using metacognitive skills without having an honest and accurate
evaluation of what you know and what you do not know. Knowing your limits also looks at
the scope and limitations of your resources so that you can work with what you have at the
moment and look for ways to cope with other necessities.
2. Modifying your approach. It begins with the recognition that your strategy is not
appropriate with the task and/or that you do not comprehend the learning experience
successfully. Recognizing, for example, that you are not understanding what you are
reading, you should learn to modify your strategy in comprehending your material. You
might want to read and reread a page in five-minute intervals instead of trying to finish the
material in one setting. You may want to make a summary or code for yourself instead of
using keywords or highlighting sections of what you are reading.
3. Skimming. This is basically browsing over a material and keeping an eye on

keywords, phrases, or sentences. It is also about knowing where to search for such terms.
For example, you might want to look at the Introduction first or the Abstract. The Table of
Contents can also provide you with an overview of the whole material. This technique works
best when you want to get an idea about the contents of reading material, when you are
trying to read through several materials in a limited time frame, or when you want to focus on
certain details, among others.

Page - 12 - of 45
4. Rehearsing. This is not just about repeatedly talking, writing, and/or doing what you
have learned, but also trying to make a personal interpretation or summary of the learning
experience. One of the fun ways to do this is by imagining yourself being interviewed about
your task. As you try to convey what you have learned from the resources, you also insert
your opinions or other personal take on the matter. Just be sure that the key concepts are
well understood and still in-line with the source material even with multiple rehearsals.
5. Self-Test. As the name implies, this is trying to test your comprehension of your
learning experience or the skills you have acquired during learning. While some materials
already come with tests like this book, you can still create tests for yourself. You can make
essay questions or definition of terms test while you are reading or watching a material. You
can challenge yourself in completing a task successfully, maybe in a given period of time-
for example doing 50 free throws with at least 90% success rate. Self-test does not only
focus on what you have learned but also on how you learned it. After the experience, you
should also ask questions like, What strategies did I use? How successful were my
learning strategies? How can I further improve my learning skills?
Other strategies that you need to develop include asking questions about your methods,
self-reflection, finding a mentor or support group if necessary, thinking out loud (though you
have to be considerate of others also when doing this), and welcoming errors as learning
experiences. For clarification, welcoming errors does not mean seeking them or
consciously making them as much as possible. It means when you commit mistake, you do
not dismiss it as insignificant or you do not try to avoid responsibility of the results. You must
process them to learn every lesson that can take about yourself, about the topic, and other
people or things. By having a more positive attitude toward mistakes, you will also have the
courage to venture into new and unknown learning experiences that may one day interest
you.
Using these strategies, you can at least identify four types of metacognitive learners
(Perkins 1992 in Cambridge International Examination 2015). First, the tacit learners are
unaware of their metacognitive processes although they know the extent of their knowledge.
Second, the aware learners know some of their metacognitive strategies but they do not
plan on how to use these techniques. Third, strategic learners, as the name implies,
strategize and plan their course of action toward a learning experience. Lastly, the
reflective learners reflect on their thinking while they are using the strategies and adapt
metacognitive skills depending on their situation.
As you may have noticed already, the goal of metacognition is the student to be a
self-regulated learner. Education should not be limited by the capabilities of the teacher, the
content of school textbooks, the four corners of the classroom, and the duration of the
academic year or course. You should have the capability to study things on your own as well
as accurately evaluate your progress.

Page - 13 - of 45
This is one of the benefits of using metacognitive techniques and strategies. Another
benefit is the compensation and development of cognitive limitations of the learner because
the student is now aware of his/her capabilities. Various researchers also showed significant
improvement in academic performance in any subject and across age range. The student is
also enabled to transfer knowledge from one context into another (Cambridge Internationa
Examination, 2015).
Other tips that you can use in studying are the following (Queensland University of
Technology Library n.d.)
1. Make an outline of the things you want to learn, the things you are reading or doing,
and/or the things you remember,
2. Break down the task in smaller and more manageable details.
3. Integrate variation in your schedule and learning experience. Change reading material
every hour and do not put similar topics together (e.g. try studying English then Mathematics
instead of English then Filipino together). Also include physical activities in your planning.
4. Try to incubate your ideas. First, write your draft without doing much editing. Let the ideas
flow. Then leave your draft at least overnight or around 24 hours-some even do not look at it
for a week- and do something else. After a given period, go back to your draft or prototype
and you might find a fresh perspective about it. Sometimes, during incubation, you suddenly
have ideas coming to you. Write them down in a notebook first and do not integrate them
into draft yet. Review what you have written when the incubation period is done.
5. Revise, summarize, and take down notes, then reread them to help you minimize
cramming in the last minute, especially when you have a weakness in memorizing facts and
data. Some people are motivated when the deadline is very close-tomorrow- for instance-
and they just review the day before some evaluation or exercise. If you are that kind of
person, you may still motivate yourself and have that feeling of urgency at the last minute
but by using the aforementioned techniques, your cramming need not to be a desperate
attempt to learn but only as a way to energize your brain as you make a final review of the
things you have already been studying for a week or so before.
6. Engage what you have learned. Do something about it. On a reading material for example,
highlight keywords and phrases, write your opinions about the matter on a separate
notebook, or create a diagram or concept map. Some people also learn best by copying the
key paragraphs word for word. You may want to look for other definitions and compare or
contrast materials. Use your new knowledge during discussions-just do something about it.

Page - 14 - of 45
ACTIVITY #2
Scenario: You are about to study for your final examination and it is as if the universe
conspired for a heavy finals week, all your subjects provided at least three new reading
materials and topics one week (7 days) before the examination period. Create a diagram or
schedule using at least five of the metacognitive strategies, skills, and studying techniques
mentioned in this lesson on how you would prepare for the next seven days before your final
examinations.
Criteria Points
Content 15
Organization 10
Creativity 5
Total 30
End of 14th week

---------------------------------------------Nothing Follows--------------------------------------

Page - 15 - of 45

___________________________________________________
LEARNING MODULE
FOR
_____________________________________________________
WEEK 15

Page - 16 - of 45
WEEK 15
DON T JUST DREAM, MAKE IT HAPPEN
Introduction
Jack Canfield is an epitome of success. He has authored seven books listed in the
Guinness Book of World Records as New York Times Bestseller, beating Stephen King
(Macmillan, 2017). These books are: Chicken Soup for the Soul Series; The Success
Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be; The Power of Focus;
The Aladdin Factor; Dare to Win; You ve Got to Read This Book; and The Key of Living the
Law of Attraction. Jack Canfield Training Group; founder and former chairman of The
Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprise; and was invited to a thousand radio and television
programs worldwide (Canfield, 2017).
One of Canfield s features quotes about success is: By taking the time to stop and
appreciate who you are and what you have achieved-and perhaps learned through a few
mistakes, stumbles and losses- you actually can enhance everything about you.
Self-acknowledgement and appreciation are what give you the insights and awareness to
move forward toward higher goals and accomplishments (Brown, 2016).
We will learn more about Canfield s quote through Albert Bandura s self-efficacy
theory, Dweck s mindsets theory, and Locke s goal setting theory.
Abstraction
Albert E. Bandura s Self-efficacy
Biography
The concept of self-efficacy was introduced by Albert Bandura in an article entitled
Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioural Change published in
Psychological Review in 1977. The article also became an instant classic in psychology
(Kendra, 2017).
Albert E. Bandura was born in Mundare, Alberta on December 4, 1925. He was the
youngest of six children. He grew up with parents who put great emphasis on the value of
family, life, and education.
Bandura took a summer job in Alaska after high school graduation. He then took an
introductory psychology course at the University of British Columbia as a working student. In
three years time, he graduated with The Bolocan Award in Psychology in 1949. He earned
his master s degree from the University of Lowa in 1951 and his PhD in Clinical Psychology
in 1952. He had a postdoctoral position at the Wichita Guidance Center before accepting a
position as a faculty member at Stanford University in 1953, where he still works at present.

Page - 17 - of 45
The Bobo Doll Experiment
In the 1950s, Dr. Bandura had a study known as the Bobo Doll Experiment. In this
experiment, the sample children were presented with new social models of violent and
nonviolent behaviour toward an inflatable redounding Bobo doll. The result were: the group
of children who saw the violent to the doll. This experiment has proven right the hypothesis
that social modelling is a very effective way of learning. Dr. Bandura introduced the social
learning theory that focuses on what people learn from observing and interacting with other
people. Bandura s social cognitive theory states that people are active participants in their
environment and are not simply shaped by the environment.
To date, as an active faculty member of Stanford University, Dr. Bandura continues to
do researches such as self-efficacy, stress reactions, and effects of modelling on human
behaviour, emotion, and thought. He has received many awards and honorary degrees due
to his works (The Great Canadian Psychology Website, 2008).
Dr. Bandura was named the most influential psychologist of all time. His theories gave
major contribution to the field of Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Education. He was
elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1974. He was
awarded by APA for his distinguished scientific contributions to psychology. In 2015, Dr.
Bandura was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Barack Obama (Kendra,
2017).
Summary of Self-efficacy Theory
Weilbell (2011) summarized Albert Bandura s self-efficacy theory

Self-efficacy theory is based on the assumption that psychological procedures serve
as a means of creating and strengthening expectations of personal efficacy.
Self-efficacy theory distinguishes between expectations of efficacy and response-outcome
expectancies. According to Weibell (2011), outcome expectancy is a person s estimate
that a given behaviour will lead to certain outcomes. An efficacy expectation is the the
conviction that one can successfully execute the behaviour required to produce the
outcomes. Although a person may expect a certain activity to lead to a particular outcome,
they may lack the motivation to perform the action, doubting their ability to do so. Outcome
and efficacy expectations are differentiated because individuals can believe that a particular
course of action will produce certain outcomes. However, if they entertain serious doubts
about whether they perform the necessary activities with such information, it does not
influence their behaviour.
Self-efficacy typically comes into play when there is an actual or perceived threat to
one s personal safety, or one s ability to deal with potentially aversive events. Increasing a

Page - 18 - of 45
person s self-efficacy increases their ability to deal with a potentially averse situation. For
example, experimental studies on the treatment of adults with ophidiophopia (fear of snake)
have demonstrated that raising levels of self-efficacy is an effective technique to help them
cope with threatening situations. Percceived self-efficacy mediates anxiety arousal.
Weibell (2011) stated that Dr. Bandura defined self-efficacy as people s beliefs about
their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over
events that affect their lives. He identified acts of people with high assurance in their
capabilities, such as:
1. Approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered;

2. Set challenging goals and maintain strong commitment to them;
3. Heighten or sustain efforts in the face of failures or setback;
4. Attribute failure to insufficient effort or deficient knowledge and skills which are
acquirable; and
5. Approach threatening situations with assurance that they can exercise control over
them.
In contrast, people who doubt their capabilities
1. Shy away from tasks they view as personal threats;
2. Have low aspirations and weak commitment to goals they choose to pursue;
3. Dwell on personal deficiencies, obstacles they will encounter, and all kinds of adverse
outcomes, rather than concentrating on how to perform successfully;
4. Slacken their efforts and give up quickly in the face of difficulties;
5. Are slow to recover their sense of efficacy following failure or setbacks; and
6. Fall easy victim to stress and depression.
Dr. Bandura described four main sources of influence by which a person s self-efficacy is
developed and maintained. These are:
1. Performance accomplishments or mastery experience;
2. Vicarious experiences;
3. Verbal or social persuasion; and
4. Physiological (somatic and emotional) states.
Dr. Bandura identified that mastery experiences or personal performance

accomplishments are the most effective ways to create a strong sense of efficacy.
Successes build a robust belief in one s personal efficacy. Failures undermined it,
especially if failures occur before a sense of efficacy is firmly established. Vicarious
experiences through observance of social models also influence one s perception of self-
efficacy. The most important factor that determines the strength of influence of an observed
success or failure on one s self-efficacy is the degree of similarity between the observer

Page - 19 - of 45
and the model.
Seeing people similar to oneself succeed by sustained effort raises observers beliefs
that they, too, possess the capabilities to succeed, given the comparable activities. By the
same token, observing others who fail despite high efforts lowers observers judgments of
their own efficacy and undermines their efforts. The impact of modelling on perceived
self-efficacy is strong influenced by perceived similarity to the models. The greater the
assumed similarity, the more persuasive is the models successes and failures. If people
see the models as very different from themselves, their perceived self- efficacy is not much
influenced by the models behaviour and the results it produces.
Verbal or social persuasion also affects one s perception of self-efficacy. It is a way of
strengthening people s belief that they have what it takes to succeed. Verbal or social
persuasion can provide a temporary boost in perceived ability. When it is effective in
mobilizing a person to action, and their actions lead to success, the enhanced self-efficacy
may become more permanent. People who are persuaded verbally, that they possess the
capabilities to master given activities, are likely to mobilize greater effort and sustain it than if
they harbour self-doubts and dwell on personal deficiencies when problems arise. This
increases their chances of success. Unfortunately, it is more difficult to instill high beliefs of
personal efficacy by social persuasion alone than to undermine it since unrealistic boosts in
efficacy are quickly disconfirmed by disappointing results of one s effort (Weibell)
People also rely on their somatic or emotional states when judging their capabilities.
Stress and tension are interpreted as signs of vulnerability to poor performace. Fatigue,
aches and pains, and the mood also affect perception of ability. Dr. Bandura notes, however,
that it is not the intensity of the emotional or physical reaction that is important, but rather,
how it is perceived and interpreted. People with a high sense of self-efficacy may perceive
affective arousal as an energizing facilitator of performance, whereas those who are beset
by self-doubts regard their arousal as debilitator (Weibell, 2011).
Since most human motivation is cognitive generated, self-belief of efficacy is an
important factor in human motivation. Beliefs of self-efficacy work in coordination with
component skill and incentive to engage, self-efficacy plays an important role in determining
what activities a person will choose to engage, in, how much effort they will expend, and
how long that effort will be sustained when things get tough (Weibell, 2011).
Dr. Albert Bandura s quotes about self-efficacy (Kendra, 2017) are as follows:
Self-efficacy is the belief in one s capabilities to organize and execute the
sources of action required to manage prospective situations. From Social
Foundations of Thought and Action; A Social Cognitive Theory, 1986.
If efficacy beliefs always reflected only what people can do routinely, they would
rarely fail but they would not set aspirations beyond their immediate reach nor
mount the extra effort needed to surpass their ordinary performances. From
Encyclopaedia of Human Behavior, 1994 .

Page - 20 - of 45
Self-belief does not necessarily ensure success, but self-disbelief assuredly
spawns failure. From Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control, 1997.
By sticking it out through tough times, people emerge from adversity with a
stronger sense of efficacy. From Encyclopaedia of Human Behavior, 1994.
People s belief about their abilities have a profound effect on those abilities.
Ability is not a fixed property; there is a variability in hoe you perform. People who
have a sense of self-efficacy bounce back from failure; they approach things in
terms of how to handle them rather than worrying about what can go wrong.
From Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control, 1996.
Carol S. Dweck s Fixed and Growth Mindset Theory

Biography
Carol S. Dweck is the author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. She was
born on October 17, 1946. She graduated from Bernard College in 1967 and earned her
PhD from Yale University in 1972. She taught at Columbia University, Harvard University,
and University of Illinois before joining Stanford University in 2004.
She is one of the leading researchers in the field of motivation and is a Lewis and
Virginia Eaton Professor and Psychology at Stanford University. Her research focused on
why people succeed and how to foster success. She has been elected as one of the
outstanding scholars in Social Sciences at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Her works has been featured in different publication like The New Yorker, Time, The New
York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston (Mindset 2006-2010).
Dr. Dweck has received the following awards (Stanford profiles)

Book award for Self-Theories, World Education Federation (an organization of the
United Nations and UNICEF, 2004)
Donald Campbell Career Achievement Award in Social Psychology, Society for
Personality and Social Psychology (2008)
Award for Innovative Program of the Year, Brainology (2008)
Ann L. Brown Award for Research in Developmental Psychology, University of Illinois
(2009)
Klingenstein Award for leadership in Education, Klingenstein Center, Colombia
University (2010)
Thorndike Career Achievement Award in Educational Psychology, American
Psychological Association (2010)
Beckman Mentoring Award, Columbia University (2011)
Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological Association
(2011)

Page - 21 - of 45
Gallery of Scientist, Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (2011)
James McKeen Cattell Lifetime Achievement Award, Association for Psychological
Science (2013)
Distinguished Scholar Award, Society for Personality and Social Psychology (2013).
Fixed and Growth Mindset
Dr. Dweck s contribution to social psychology relates to implicit theorist of intelligence

with her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success published in 2006. Dr. Dweck
described people with two types of mindset. People who believe that success is based on
their innate abilities have a fixed theory of intelligence, and goes under fixed mindset. On
the other hand, people who believe that success is based on hardwork, learning, training,
and perseverance have growth mindset. According to Dr. Dweck, individuals may not
necessarily be aware of their own mindset, but their mindset can still be discerned based on
their behaviour. It is especially evident in their reaction to failure. Fixed mindset individuals
dread failure because it is a negative statement on their basic abilities, while growth-mindset
individuals do not mind or fear failure as much because they realize their performance can
be improved and learning comes from failure. These two mindsets play an important role in
all aspects of a person s life. Dr. Dweck argues that the growth mindset will allow a person
to live a less stressful and more successful life (Upclosed, 2017).
In an interview with Dr. Dweck in 2012, she described the fixed and growth mindset as:
In a fixed mindset, students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents are
just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that s that, and their goal becomes to look
smart all the time and never look dumb. In the growth mindset, students understand that
their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence.
They don t necessarily think everyone s the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they
believe everyone can get smarter if they work for it (Upclosed, 2017).
Individuals with growth mindset are more likely to continue working hard despite
setbacks while individuals with fixed mindset can be affected by subtle environmental clues.
For examples, children given praise such as good job , you are smart are more likely to
develop a fixed mindset, whereas, if given compliments like good job, you worked very
hard are likely to develop a growth mindset. In other words, it is possible to encourage
students to persist despite failure by encouraging them to think about learning in a certain
way (Upclosed 2017).

Page - 22 - of 45
Edwin A. Locke s Goal Setting Theory
Biography
Edwin A. Locke is intentionally known for his research on goal setting. He was born on
January 5, 1938. He is Dean s Professor (Emeritus) of Leadership and Motivation at the
Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park. He
received his BA from Harvard in 1960 and his PhD in Industrial Psychology from Cornell
University in 1964 (Locke 2017).
He has published more than 300 chapters, notes, and articles in professional journals
on such subjects as work motivation, job satisfaction, incentives, and the philosophy of
science. He is also the author/editor of 12 books, including The Selfish Path to Romance:
How to Love with Passion and Reason (Platform Press); Study Methods and Study
Motivation (Ayn Rand Bookstore, 2008); Goal Setting; A Motivational Technique That Works
(Prentice Hall 1984, with G. Latham); A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance
(Prentice Hall 1990, with G Latham); New Developments in Goal Setting and Task
Performance (2013, with G. Latham); Handbook of Organizational Behavior (Blackwell,
2000; Second Edition, Wiley, 2009); The Prime Movers: Traits of the Great Wealth Creators
(Second Edition, Ayn Rand bookstore, 2008); and Postmodernism and Management; Pros,
Cons and the Alternative (JAI: Elsevier, 2003). A recent survey found that Locke s goal
setting theory (developed with G. Latham) was ranked number one in importance among 73
management theories. His work has been supported by numerous research grants, and he
has served as consultant to research firms and private businesses (Locke, 2017).
Dr. locke has been elected a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the
American Psychological Society, The Academy of Management, and has been a consulting
editor for learning journals. He was a winner of the Outstanding Teacher- Scholar Award at
the University of Maryland, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the Society for
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the Career Contribution Award from the Academy
of Management (Organizational Behavior Division), and the James McKeen Cattell Fellow
Award from the American Psychological Society. He is also a writer and lecturer for the Ayn
Rand Institute and is interested in the application of the philosophy of objectivism to
behavioural sciences (Locke, 2017).
Goal Setting Theory

The goal setting theory was first studied by Dr. Locke in the middle of 1960s. He
continued to do more studies in relation to his theory. In 1996, he published another article
entitled Motivation through Conscious Goal Setting. The article is about his 30 years of
research findings on the relationship between conscious performance goals and

Page - 23 - of 45
performance on work tasks. The basic contents of goal setting theory are summarized in
terms of 14 categories of findings discussed in the article (Locke, 1996).
Locke (1996) first described that the approach of goal setting theory is based on what
Aristotle called final casuality; that is, action caused by a purpose. It accepts the axiomatic
status of consciousness and volition. It also assumes that introspective reports provide
useful and valid data for formulating psychological concepts and measuring psychological
phenomena (e.g. purpose, goal, commitment, self-efficacy). He then discussed the
attributes of goal and his 14 research findings.
Goal Attributes
Goal have both an internal and an external aspects. Internally, they are ideas (desires
ends); externally, they refer to the object or condition sought (e.g., a job, a sale, a certain
performance level). The idea guides action to attain the object. Two broad attributes of goals
are content (the actual object sought) and intensity (the scope, focus, and complexity,
among others of the choice process). Qualitatively, the content of a goal is whatever the
person is seeking. Quantitatively, two attributes of content, difficulty, and specifically, have
been studied (Locke, 2017).
14 Research Findings
A research was made by Locke (2017) under the article Motivation Through Conscious
Goal Setting. The research has the following findings:
1. The more difficult goal, the greater the achievement.

The linear function assumes, however, that the individual is committed to the goal
and possesses the requisite ability and knowledge to achieve it. Without these,
performance does drop at high goal levels.
2. The more specific or explicit the goal, the more precisely performance is regulated.
High goal specifically is achieved mainly through quantification (e.g., increase sales
by 10%) or enumeration (e.g., a list of tasks to be accomplished). Thus, it reduces variance
in performance, provided that the individual can control his or her performance. This is not to
say that specificity is always desirable (it may not be in some creative innovation situations),
but only that it has certain effects.
3. Goal that are both specific and difficult lead to highest performance.
Especially relevant here are the many studies that compared the effect of specific
hard goal such as do your best. People do NOT actually do their best when they try to do
their best because, as a vague goal, it is compatible with many different outcomes, including

Page - 24 - of 45
those lower than one s best. The aspect of intensity that has been most studied in goal
setting research is that of goal commitment the degree to which the person is genuinely
attached to and determined to reach the goals.
4. Commitment to goal is most critical when goals are specific and difficult.
When goals are easy or vague, it is not hard to be committed to it because it does not
require much dedication to reach easy goals, and vague goals can be easily redefined to
accommodate low performance. However, when goals are specific and hard, the higher the
commitment is being required, which results to better performance.
5. High commitment to goals is attained when:

a. the individual is convinced that the goal is important;
b. the individual is convinced that the goal is attainable (or that, at least, progress can be
made toward it).
These are the same factors that influence goal choice. There are many ways to convince a
person that a goal is important:
In most laboratory setting, it is quite sufficient to simply ask for compliance after
providing a plausible rationale for the study
In work situations, the supervisor or leader can use legitimate authority to get initial
commitment.
Continued commitment might require additional incentives such as supportiveness,
recognition, and reward.
Financial incentives may facilitate commitment and performance, except when rewards are
offered for attaining impossible goals. Here, performance actually drops. Participation by
subordinates in setting goals (i.e., joint goal setting by supervisor and subordinate) leads to
higher commitment than curtly telling people what to do with no explanation, but it does not
lead to (practically significant) higher commitment than providing a convincing rationale for
an assigned goal.
Self-set goals can be highly effective in gaining commitment, although they may not
always be set as high as another person would assign.
Commitment can be enhanced be effective leadership. Relevant leadership techniques
include:
Providing and communicating an inspiring vision;
Acting as role model for the employees;
Expecting outstanding performances;

Page - 25 - of 45
Promoting employees you embrace the vision and dismissing those who reject it.
Delegating responsibility ( ownership ) for key tasks;
Goal setting itself can be delegated for capable, responsible employees;
Expressing (genuine) confidence in employee capabilities;
Enhanching capabilities through training; and
Asking for commitment in public
Self-efficacy refers to task-specific confidence and is a key component of Badura s

(1986) social cognitive theory. Bandura showed that self-efficacy can be raised by
enactive mastery, persuasion, and role modeling- all referred to above. In
organizational settings, enactive mastery can be assured by providing people with
needed experience and training and also by selecting people based on their skills
and abilities. Persuasion may include not only verbal expressions of confidence but
also giving people information regarding what task strategies to use. The
effectiveness of role modeling depends on the attributes of the model and on the
person observing the model.
6. In addition to having a direct effect on performance, self-efficacy influences:

a. The difficulty level of the goal chosen or accepted;
b. Commitment to goals;
c. The response to negative feedback or failure; and
d. The choice of task strategies
People with high self-efficacy are more likely to set high goals or to accept difficult,
assigned goals, to commit themselves to difficult goals, to respond with renewed efforts to
setbacks, and to discover successful task strategies. Thus, the effects of self-efficacy on
performance are both direct and indirect (through various goal processes). Additionally, goal
choice can be influenced through role modelling.
Feedback. For people to pursue goals effectively, they need some means of checking or
tracking their progress toward their goal. Sometimes this is self-evident to perception, as
when a person walks down a road toward a distant but visible town. In such cases,
deviations from the path to the goal are easily seen and corrected. However, take note that
this is in contrast with a sales goal, whose attainment requires scores of sales over a period
of many months. Here, some formal means of keeping score is needed so that people can
get a clear indication if they are moving fast enough and in the right direction.
7. Goal setting is most effective when there is feedback that shows progress in relation to
the goal.
When provided with feedback or their own performance or that of others, people often

Page - 26 - of 45
spontaneously set goals to improve their previous best or beat the performance of others
simply as a way of challenging themselves, but this is not inevitable. The goal set may be
higher or lower than the performance level previously achieved. The effect of performance
feedback (knowledge of score) depends on the goal set in response to it.
8. Goal setting (along with self-efficacy) mediates the effect of knowledge of past
performance on subsequent performance.
When people receive negative performance feedback, they are typically unhappy and
may also experience doubts about their ability. Those who can sustain their self-efficacy
under such pressure tend to maintain or even raise their subsequent goals, retain their
commitment, intensify their search for better strategies, and thereby improve their
subsequent performance. Those who lose confidence will tend to lower their goals,
decrease their efforts, and lessen the intensity and effectiveness of their strategy search.
According to Bandura, changes in self- efficacy after experiencing failure may be affected by
the types of casual affirmative statements people make.
9. Goals affect performance by affecting the direction of action, the degree of effort exerted,
and the persistence of action over time.
The directive aspect is fairly obvious. A person who has a goal to maximize quality of
performance will focus more attention and action on quality than on, for example, quantity or
speed. When there is conflict between two or more goals, performance with respect to each
goal may be undermined. Effort is roughly proportional to the judged difficulty of the goal-
which is why difficult goals ordinarily lead to higher performance than easy goals.
Persistence refers to directed effort extended over time. Harder goals typically lead to more
persistence than easy goals, because, given the commitment, they take longer to reach and
may require overcoming more obstacles. These mechanisms operate almost automatically,
or at least routinely once a goal is committed to, because most people have learned (by
about the age of 6) that they want to achieve something they have to: pay attention to it to
the exclusion of other things, exert the needed effort, and persist until it is achieved.
10. Goal Stimulate planning in general. Often, the planning quality is higher than that which
occurs with goals. When people possess task or goal-relevant plans as a result of
experience or training, they activate them automatically when confronted with a
performance goal. Newly learned plans or strategies are most likely to be utilized under the
stimulus of a specific, difficult goal.
People recognize that goals requires plans and seek either to use what they already

Page - 27 - of 45
know or to make a new plans when they want to reach goals. Sometimes such plans are
quite pedestrian. For example, to attain difficult quantity goals, people may simply sacrifice
quality-a common trade-off which everyone is familiar with. When people are given training
in a new strategy, they do not always use it consistently unless they must in order to attain
goals that cannot otherwise be attained. When tasks are complex, a number of new issues
arise. Direct goal mechanisms are less adequate than in the case of simple tasks for
attaining the goal, (Compare, for example, the efficacy of effort alone in leading to high
performance when doing push-ups versus playing chess.) The path to the goal is less clear,
and there may be no relevant prior experience or training which they can fall back on. In
such cases, people are forced to discover new strategies; sometimes they do this poorly
especially if the goals are specific and difficult. The reason appears to be that under this
type of pressure, tunnel vision inhibits effective search procedures.
11. When people strive for goals on complex tasks, they are least effective in discovering
suitable task strategies if:
a. They have no prior experience or training on the task;
b. There is high pressure to perform well; and
c. There is high time pressure (to perform well immediately).
Goals as mediators. Goals, along with self-efficacy, might mediate the effects of values
and personality on performance. There is a firm support for goals and self-efficacy as
mediators of feedback. Feedback is most effective in motivating improved performance
when it is used to set goals. Feedback alone is just information. To act based on information,
people need to know or decide what it means-that is, what significance it has. In a
goal-setting context, this means knowing what good or desirable score is from a bad or
undesirable score. If no such judgment is made, the feedback will probably be ignored.
Similarly, participation seems to motivate performance to the extent that it leads to higher
goals, higher self-efficacy, or higher commitment. More recent studies have shown evidence
for goals plus self-efficacy as a mediator of personality and charismatic leadership. In other
words, these variables affect performance through their effects on goals and self-efficacy.
12. Goals (including goal commitment), in combination with self-efficacy, mediate or partially
mediate the effects of several personality traits and incentives on performance,
The logic behind this model is that goals and self-efficacy are the immediate regulators
of human action, and these goals and self-efficacy, therefore, reflect the individual s
assessment of the value of incentives and of the applicability of values and traits to specific
situations.
Self-management. Goal-directed actions and choices are not necessarily imposed or
even encouraged by environments (e.g., organizational demands). People have the choice

Page - 28 - of 45
to manage their own lives by setting their own purposes and working to achieve them.
13. Goal-setting and goal-related mechanisms can be trained and/or adopted in the
absence of training for the purpose of self-regulation
Affect. Emotion is a type of automatic, partly subconscious, psychological estimate

of the relationship of things to oneself. More precisely, emotions are the form in which one
experiences automatized value judgments-judgements of objects, events, and situations (as
consciously and/or subconsciously perceived and understood) according to the standard of
one s value. Events and situations seem as threatening to one s value give rise to negative
emotions (e.g., fear, anxiety, dissatisfaction), whereas events and situations seen as
furthering one s values produce positive emotions (e.g., happiness, satisfaction, love). In
goal-setting context, the immediate value standard is one s goal; that is, the level of
performance desired or sought. Thus, goal achievement leads to satisfaction, while goal
failure leads to dissatisfaction. At first glance, there is an interesting and non-intuitive finding
that pertains to the relation of goals to satisfaction. High goals lead to less performance
satisfaction, on the average, then easy goals.
14. Goals serve as standards of self-satisfaction, with harder goals demanding higher
accomplishment in order to attain self-satisfaction then easy goals. Goals can also be used
to enhance task interest reduce boredom, and promote goal clarity. When used to punish or
intimidate people, however, goals increase stress and anxiety.
Goal-setting dilemmas. If hard or difficult goals lead to higher performance and lower
satisfaction than easy goal, there is obviously a problem of how to get people (or oneself) to
be both happy and productive. There are obvious benefits and penalties of trying for too little
in life as well as for trying too much. Obviously, the key principle here is personal context.
Life goals must be based on what you really want out of life (not on what other people want
for you) and your true capabilities. If you want to pursue challenging goals, these goals do
not have to be attained at all once, but can be pursued over an extended time period. Lower
sub-goals can set as steps to a longer term and higher goal. Partial success can be credited
by others and oneself. Failure can be treated or framed as a learning experience, not as
proof of incompetence. New skills can be acquired as needed, and jobs can be chosen,
when possible, to match your aspirations and abilities.

Page - 29 - of 45
ACTIVITY #3
Direction: On each designated box, draw your envisioned Future Self . Who would you be
five, ten and twenty years from now? Then answer the questions that follows.
1. Five years from now
2. Ten years from now
3. Twenty years from now

Page - 30 - of 45
Analysis
Answer the following questions:
1. Who are you or what would you become:
a. In five years
b. In ten years
c. In Twenty years
2. What are your motivation for your envisioned self:

a. In five years
b. In ten years
c. In twenty years
3. What is your perception on goal setting?
End of 15th week

---------------------------------------------Nothing Follows--------------------------------------

Page - 31 - of 45

___________________________________________________
LEARNING MODULE
FOR
_____________________________________________________
WEEK 16

Page - 32 - of 45
WEEK 16
LESS STRESS, MORE CARE
Introduction
The American Psychological Association (2017) has these statements about stress:
Stress is often described as a feeling of being overwhelmed, worried, or run-down. Stress
can affect people of all ages, genders, and circumstances and can lead to both physical and
psychological, and behavioural changes. Some stress can be beneficial at times, producing
a boost that provides the drive and drive and energy to help people get through situations
like exams or work deadlines. However, an extreme amount of stress can have health
consequences and adversely affect the immune, cardiovascular, neuroendocrine and
central nervous system.
Since stress is inevitable to life, we have to learn how to handle and cope up with it.
More so, we have to be familiar with other approach to a healthy lifestyle, which is self-care.
Abstraction
Stress and Human Response
The American Institute of Stress (AIS) has distinguished different types of stress and the
human response to it.
Hans Selye defined stress as the body s nonspecific response to any demand, whether it is
caused by or results in pleasant or unpleasant stimuli. It is essential to differentiate between
the unpleasant or harmful variety of stress learned distress, which often connotes disease,
the eustress, which often connotes euphoria. Eustress is stress in daily life that has positive
connotations, such as marriage, promotion, baby, winning money, new friends, and
graduation. On the other hand, distress is stress in daily life that has negative connotation
such as divorce, punishment, injury, negative feelings, financial problems, and work
difficulties (AIS, 2017).
During both eustress and distress, the body undergoes virtually the same nonspecific
responses to the various positive or negative stimuli acting upon it. However, eustress
causes much less damage than distress. This demonstrates conclusively that it is how an
individual accepts stress that determines ultimately whether the person can adapt
successfully to change (AIS, 2017).
Selye hypothesized a general adaptation or stress syndrome. This general stress
syndrome affects the whole body. Stress always manifest itself by a syndrome, a sum of
changes, and not by simply one change (AIS, 2017).

Page - 33 - of 45
The general stress syndrome has three components:
1. The alarm stage- represents a mobilization of the body s defensive forces. The body is
preparing for the fight or flight syndrome. This involves a number of hormones and
chemical excreted at high levels, as well as an increase in heart rate, blood pressure,
perspiration, and respiration rate, among others.
2. The stage of resistance- the body becomes adaptive to the challenge and even begins to
resist it. The length of this stage of resistance is dependent upon the body s innate and
stored adaptation energy reserves and upon the intensity of the stressor. Just as any
machine wears out even if it has been properly maintained, the same thing happens with
living organisms-sooner or later they become the victim of this constant wear and tear
process.
3. The exhaustion stage- the body dies because it has used up its resources of adaptation
energy. Thankfully, few people ever experience this last stage.
Stress diseases are maladies caused principally by errors in the body s general adaptation
process. They will not occur when all the body s regulatory processes are properly checked
and balanced. They will not develop when adaptation is facilitated by improved perception
and interpretation. The biggest problems with derailing the general stress syndrome and
causing disease is an absolute excess, deficiency, or disequilibrium in the amount of
adaptive hormones. For example, corticoids, Adrenocorticotropic Hormone (ACTH), and
growth hormones are produced during stress. Unfortunately, if stress is induced chronically,
our defense response lowers its resistance since fewer antibodies are produced and an
inflammatory response dwindles (AIS, 2017).
In the article Understanding Stress Response of the Health Harvard Journal (2017), it
further discussed chronic stress and human body response;
Chronic stress is unpleasant, even when it is transient. A stressful situation-whether

something environmental, such as a looming work deadline, or psychological, such as
persistent worry about losing a job- can trigger a cascade of stress hormones that produces
well-orchestrated physiological changes. A stressful incident can make the heart pound and
breathing quicken. Muscles tense and beads of sweat appear
This combination of reactions to stress is also known as the fight-or-flight response

Page - 34 - of 45
because it evolved as a survival mechanism, enabling people and other mammals to react
quickly to life-threatening situations. The carefully orchestrated yet near-instantaneous
sequence of hormonal changes and physiological responses helps someone to fight the
treat off or flee to safety. Unfortunately, the body can also overreact to stressor that are not
life-threatening, such as traffic jams, work pressure, and family difficulties. Over time,
repeated activation of the stress response takes a toll on the body. Research suggests that
chronic stress contributes to high blood pressure, promotes the formation of artery-clogging
deposits, and causes brain changes that may contribute to anxiety, depression, and
addiction. More preliminary research suggests that chronic stress may also contribute to
obesity, both through direct mechanisms (causing people to eat more) or indirectly
(decreasing sleep and exercise) (Health Harvard, 2017).
The stress response begins in the brain. When someone confronts an oncoming car or
other danger, the eyes or ears (or both) send the information to amygdala, an area of the
brain that contributes to emotional processing. The amygdala interprets the images and
sounds. When it perceives danger, it instantly sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus
(Health Harvard, 2017).
When someone experiences a stressful event, the amygdala, an area of the brain that
contributes emotional processing, sends a distress signal of the hypothalamus. This area of
the brain functions like a command center, communicating with the rest of the body through
the nervous system so that the person has the energy to fight or flee. (Health Harvard,
2017).
The hypothalamus is a bit like a command center. This area of the brain communicates
with the rest of the body through the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary
body functions like breathing, blood pressure, heartbeat, and the dilation or constriction of
key blood vessels and small airways in the lungs called bronchioles. The automatic nervous
system has two components, the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic
nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system functions like a gas pedal in a car. It
triggers the fight-or-flight response, providing the body with a burst of energy so that it can
respond to perceived dangers .The parasympathetic nervous system acts like a brake. It
promotes the rest and digest response that calms the body down after the danger has
passed (Health Harvard, 2017).
After the amygdala sends a distress signal, the hypothalamus activates the sympathetic
nervous system by sending signals through the automatic nerves to the adrenal glands.
These glands respond by pumping the hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline)
into the bloodstream. As epinephrine circulates through the body, it brings on a number of
physiological changes. The heart beats faster than normal, pushing blood to the muscles,
heart, and other vital organs. Pulse rate and blood pressure go up. The person undergoing
these changes also starts to breathe more rapidly. Small airways in the lungs open wide.
This way, the lungs can take in as much oxygen as possible with each breath. Extra oxygen

Page - 35 - of 45
is sent to the brain, increasing alertness. Sight, hearing, and other senses become sharper.
Meanwhile, epinephrine triggers the release blood sugar (glucose) and fats from temporary
storage sites in the body. These nutrients flood into the bloodstream, supplying energy to all
parts of the body (Health Harvard, 2017).
Techniques to Counter Chronic Stress

Several techniques to counter chronic stress were presented in the same article (Health
Harvard, 2017).
1. Relaxation response. Dr. Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute
for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, has devoted much of his career
to learning how people can counter the stress response. These include deep abdominal
breathing, focus on a soothing word (such as peace or calm), and visualization of tranquil
scenes, repetitive prayer, yoga, and tai chi.
Most of the research using objective measures to evaluate how effective the relaxation
response is at countering chronic stress have been conducted in people with hypertension
and other forms of heart disease. Those results suggest the technique may be worth trying,
although for most people it is not a cure at all. For example, researchers at the
Massachusetts General Hospital conducted a double-blind, randomized controlled trial of
122 patients with hypertension, ages 55 and older, in which half were assigned to relaxation
response training and the other half to a control group that received information about blood
pressure. After eight weeks, 34 of the people who practiced the relaxation response- a little
more than half- had achieved a systolic blood pressure reduction of more than 5 mm Hg,
and were therefore eligible for the next phase for the study, in which they could reduce
levels of blood pressure medication they were taking. During that second phase, 50% were
able to eliminate at least one blood pressure medication- significantly more than in the
control group, where only 19% eliminated their medication.
2. Physical Activity. People can use exercise to stifle the buildup of stress in several ways.
Exercise, such as taking a brisk walk shortly after feeling stressed, not only deepens
breathing but also helps relieve muscle tension. Movement therapies such as yoga, tai chi,
and qi gong combined with fluid movements, with deep breathing, and mental focus, all of
which can induce calm.
3. Social Support. Confidants, friends, acquaintances, co-workers, relatives, spouses, and

companions all provide a life-enhancing social net, and may increase longevity. It is not
clear why, but the buffering theory holds that people who enjoy close relationships with
family and friends receive emotional support that indirectly helps to sustain them at times of
chronic stress and crisis.

Page - 36 - of 45
The Culture Dimension of Stress and Coping
Ben Kuo (2010) reviews studies on cultural dimensions of stress and coping. His study,
Culture s Consequences on Coping: Theories, Evidences, and Dimensionalities,
published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology had the following findings:
Stress and coping research constitutes one of the most intensively studied areas within
health, social, and psychological research because of its broad implications for
understanding human well-being and adaptation. Early thesis on stress and coping, the
interwoven relationship of culture and stress responses was implicated, conceptually. The
thesis postulated that a person s internalized the perceived appropriateness of coping
responses. Accordingly, these cultural factors delimit the coping options available to an
individual in the face of stress. As follows, stress and coping are universal experiences
faced by individuals regardless of culture, ethnicity, and race, but members of different
cultures might consider and respond to stressors differently with respect to coping goals,
strategies, and outcomes.
Kou s study identified and revealed compelling evidence for cultural variations and
specificities on coping based on theoretical and empirical findings generated over the last
two decades cultural coping research. Based on the broad problem-versus-emotion
focused coping nomenclature, repeated studies have pointed to the prevalence of
emotion-focused, indirect, passive, or covert, internally target or secondary
control coping among individuals of Asian backgrounds, as well as, to a lesser extent,
among individuals of African and Latino backgrounds. Specifically, the avoidance,
withdrawal, and forbearance coping methods are common among African-Americans and
African-Canadians. Additionally, spiritual and religious coping and coping through family
support are common among individuals of Latino/Latina backgrounds (Kuo, 2010).

Page - 37 - of 45
ACTIVITY #4

Self- Care Plan
Direction: Design your own self-care plan for the whole school year. Write it in one
whole sheet of paper.
Criteria Points
Content 15
Organization 10
Creativity 5
Total 30
End of 16th week

---------------------------------------------Nothing Follows-----------------------------------

Page - 38 - of 45

___________________________________________________
LEARNING MODULE
FOR
____________________________________________________
WEEK 17

Page - 39 - of 45
WEEK 17
SELF- CARE THERAPY
A positive way to occur stress is self-care therapy, Nancy Apperson (2008) of Northern
Illinois University has provided steps for self-care:
1. Stop, breathe, and tell yourself: This is hard and I will get through this one step at a
time. During an unexpected event or crisis, we are faced with dealing with the new reality
and it takes time to incorporate what happened into our everyday lives. Identify the steps
you need to take first, write them down and focus on each step one at a time. If you look at
everything you have to do, you will become overwhelmed. Remember you can only do one
thing at a time and focus exclusively on that one thing.
2. Acknowledge to yourself what you are feeling. All feelings are normal so accept whatever
you are feeling. Once you recognize, name and accept your feelings, you feel less out of
control. You can then find a comfortable place to express your feelings.
3. Find someone who listens and is accepting. You do not need advice. You need to be
heard. Sharing our story is how to begin to accept whatever happened and integrate it into
our new reality. It may be that you just need to let go of your expectations of how things
should be and talking about your feelings and beliefs is the beginning of that process.
4. Maintain your normal routine as much as possible. Making everyday decisions- deciding
to get dressed, doing the dishes, or going to work-gives you a sense of control and feels
comforting as it is a familiar activity. Be realistic with what you can do and remember
everything right now will take you longer to do. Avoid making major decisions based on the
stress you feel right now.
5. Allow plenty of time for a task. You will not be as productive as you normally are. Accept
how much you are able to do right now and recognize it will not be this way forever. During
periods of extreme stress. Prolonged stress, or after a crisis, your ability to concentrate and
focus on tasks is diminished and it will take time for your concentration to return so give
yourself extra time and be gentle and accepting of yourself and what you can do.
6. Take good care of yourself. Remember to:

Get enough rest and sleep. Sleep at least six hours and not more than nine hours.
If you are having difficulty sleeping, listen to peaceful or slow music and/or do
progressive relaxation before you go to sleep. Sleep helps your body heals and
strengthens our immune system.

Page - 40 - of 45
Eat regularly and make healthy choices. Skipping meals, particularly breakfast,
contributes to fatigue, mood swings, and poor concentration. Healthy food
choices (not high in simple sugars) maintain blood sugar level, energy, and
concentration of the body.
Know your limits and when you need to let go. Some problems are beyond our
control. If something cannot be changed, work at accepting it for what it is, I just
need to accept it, For things within your control, remember that change takes
time. If you are holding on and need to let go, journal about it.
Identify or create a nurturing place in your home. A rocking chair, a nice view, and
a soothing music are important components to a nurturing place. Twenty minutes
of spending in a rocking chair reduces both your physical pain and anxiety. It is
like giving yourself a hug. Music and nature sounds nurture our being and lifts our
spirit.
Practice relaxation or meditation. Go to your nurturing place and listen to guided
relaxation tapes. Time spent in meditation or prayer allows your mind and body to
slow down and let go the stress. Take a mental vacation in the midst of stress by
relaxing your body, shutting your eyes, and visualizing yourself in your favourite
vacation spot or quiet haven.
Escape for a while through meditation, reading a book, watching a movie, or
taking short trip.
Self-Compassion Therapy
Self-compassion is another way to counter stress. Kristin Neff (2012) has discussed
self-compassion in her article, The Science of Self-Compassion.
Self-Compassion entails being warm and understanding toward ourselves when we
suffer, fail, or feel inadequate, rather than flagellating ourselves with self-criticism. It
recognizes that being imperfect and experiencing life difficulties is inevitable, so we soothe
and nurture ourselves when confronting our pain rather than getting angry when life falls
short of our ideals. We clearly acknowledge our problems and shortcomings without
judgment, so we can do what it is necessary to help ourselves. We cannot always get what
we want. We cannot always be who we want to be. When this reality is denied or resisted,
suffering arises in the form of stress, frustration, and self-criticism. When this reality is
accepted with benevolence, however, we generate positive emotions of kindness and care
that help us cope. Self-compassion recognizes that life challenges and personal failures are
part of being human, an experience we all share. In this way, it helps us to feel less desolate
and isolated when we are in pain,

Page - 41 - of 45
Self- Compassion Phrases
Neff provided self-compassion phrases when feeling stress or emotional pain, perhaps
when you are caught in a traffic jam, arguing with a loved one, or feeling inadequate in some
way. It is helpful to have a set of phrases memorizes to help you remember to be more
compassionate to yourself in the moment. You can take a deep breath, put your hand over
your heart, or gently hug yourself (if you feel comfortable doing so), and repeat the following
phrases:
This is a moment of suffering

Suffering is part of life
May I be kind to myself
May I give myself the compassion I need
These phases capture the essence of the three components of self-compassion. The first
phrase helps to mindfully open to the sting of emotional pain. (You can also just simply say
This is really hard right now or This hurts .) The second phrase reminds us that suffering
unites all living begins and reduces the tendency to feel ashamed and isolated when things
go wrong in our lives. The third phrase begins the process of responding with self-kindness
rather than self-criticism. The final phrase reinforces the idea that you both need and
deserve compassion in difficult moments. Be experimental with the phrases. Other phrases
that may feel more authentic in a given situation are: May I accept myself as I am, May I
forgive myself. Or May I learn to accept what I cannot change. (Neff, 2012)
Self-Compassion and Emotional Well-being

One of the most consistent findings in the research literature is that greater
self-compassion is linked to less anxiety and depression. Of course, a key feature of
self-compassion is the lack of criticism, and self-criticism is known to be an important
predictor of anxiety and depression. However, self-compassion still offers protection against
anxiety and depression when controlling for self-criticism and negative effect. Thus,
self-compassion is not merely a matter of looking on the bright side of things or avoiding
negative feelings. Self-compassionate people recognize when they are suffering, but are
kind toward themselves in these moments, acknowledging their connectedness with the rest
of humanity. Self-compassion is associated with greater wisdom and emotional intelligence,
suggesting that self-compassion represents a wise way of dealing with difficult emotions.
For instance, self-compassionate people engage in rumination and think suppression less
often than those in low self-compassion. They also report greater emotional coping skills,
including more clarity about their feelings and greater ability to repair negative emotional
states. Self-compassion appears to bolster positive states of being as well. By wrapping
one s pain in the warm embrace of self-compassion, positive feelings are generated that

Page - 42 - of 45
help balance the negative ones (Neff, 2012).
Self-Compassion, Motivation, and Health
Research supports the idea that self-compassion enhances motivation rather than
self-indulgence. For instance, while self-compassion is negatively related to perfectionism, it
has no association with the level of performance standards adapted for the self.
Self-compassionate people aim just as high, but also recognize and accept that they cannot
always reach their goals. Self-compassion is also linked to greater personal initiative- the
desire to reach one s full potential. Self-compassionate people have been found to have
less motivational anxiety and engage in fewer self-handicapping behaviors such as
procrastination than those who lack self-compassion. In addition, self-compassion was
positively associated with mastery goals (the intrinsic motivation to learn and grow) and
negatively associated with performance goals (the desire to enhance one s self-image)
found on the study of Deck in 1986. This relationship was mediated by the lesser fear of
failure and perceived self-efficacy of self-compassionate individuals. Thus, self-
compassionate people are motivated to achieve, but for intrinsic reasons, not because they
want to garner social approval. (Neff, 2012).
Self- Compassion versus Self- Esteem
Research indicates that self-compassion is moderately associated with trait levels of

self-esteem as one would expect, given that both represent positive attitudes toward the self.
However, self-comparison still predicts greater happiness and optimism as well as less
depression and anxiety when controlling for self-esteem. Moreover, the two constructs differ
in terms of their impact on well-being. Also, self-esteem had robust association with
narcissism while self-compassion had no association with narcissism. In contrast to those
with high self-esteem, self-compassionate people are less focused on evaluating
themselves, feeling superior to others, worrying about whether or not others are evaluating
them, defending their viewpoints, or angrily reacting against those who disagree with them.
Self-esteem is thought to be an evaluation of superiority/ inferiority that helps to establish
social rank stability and is related to alerting, energizing impulses and dopamine activation.
While self-esteem positions the self in competition with others and amplifies feelings of
distinctness and separation, self-compassion enhances feelings of safety and
interconnectedness (Neff, 2012).

Page - 43 - of 45
Self- Compassionate Letter
An example of self-compassion exercise is the self-compassionate letter. This exercise
has been used in therapeutic programs. Below are the steps in doing the
self-compassionate letter exercise as provided by Neff (2012):
1. Candidly describe a problem that tends to make you feel bad about yourself, such as a
physical flaw, a relationship problem, or failure at work or school. Note what emotions come
up- shame, anger, sadness, fear- as you write.
2. Next, think of an imaginary friend who is unconditionally accepting and compassionate;
someone who knows all your strengths and weaknesses, understands your life history, your
current circumstances, and understands the limits of human nature.
3. Finally, write a letter to yourself from that perspective. What would your friend say about
your perceived problem? How would your friend remind you that you are only human? If
your friend were to make any suggestions, how would they reflect unconditional
understanding?
4. When you are done writing, put the letter down for a while and come back to it later. Then
read the letter again, letting the words sink in allowing yourself to be soothed and comforted.
Less Stress, Care More

We should be in control of the stress that confronts us every day. Otherwise, when we
are overwhelmed by stress, it can be detrimental to our health. Self-care and
self-compassion are two ways to positively confront stress. We should love and care for self
more and more each day.
ACTIVITY #5
Application and Assessment
Direction: Make a self-compassionate letter and make a reflection paper about it.
Criteria Points
Content 15
Organization 10
Language 5
Total 30
End of 17th week

---------------------------------------------Nothing Follows--------------------------------------

Page - 44 - of 45
Page - 45 - of 45

Module of GE 111 Final

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Module of GE 111 Final

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Module of GE 111 Final

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SOUTH EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, INC.

National Highway, Crossing Rubber, Tupi, South Cotabato

GENERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

GE 111: Understanding the Self

COURSE CODE : GE 111

Instruction to the Learners

Three, facts, one fiction

GE 111: Understanding the Self

WHO AM I IN THE CYBERWORLD? (DIGITAL SELF)

Almost two-thirds of the world s population now has mobile phone.

GE 111: Understanding the Self

GE 111: Understanding the Self

According to Goffman (1959) and Leary (1995), self-presentation is the process of

GE 111: Understanding the Self

Gender and Sexuality Online

GE 111: Understanding the Self

Performing Gender Online

GE 111: Understanding the Self

Setting Boundaries To Your Online Self: Smart Sharing

Is this post/story necessary?

Is there a real benefit to this post? Is it funny, warm-hearted, teachable-or am I just

Is it appropriate? Does it stay within the boundaries of our family values?

GE 111: Understanding the Self

Stick to safer sites.

Guard your password.

Limit what you share.

Do not be mean or embarrass other people online.

Always tell if you see strange or bad behaviour online.

Be choosy about your online friends.

APPLICATION AND ASSESSMENT

End of 13th week

GE 111: Understanding the Self

GENERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

GE 111: Understanding the Self

GE 111: Understanding the Self

3. Skimming. This is basically browsing over a material and keeping an eye on

GE 111: Understanding the Self

GE 111: Understanding the Self

GE 111: Understanding the Self

APPLICATION AND ASSESSMENT

End of 14th week

GE 111: Understanding the Self

GENERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

GE 111: Understanding the Self

GE 111: Understanding the Self

Summary of Self-efficacy Theory

Weilbell (2011) summarized Albert Bandura s self-efficacy theory

GE 111: Understanding the Self

1. Approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered;

Dr. Bandura identified that mastery experiences or personal performance

GE 111: Understanding the Self

GE 111: Understanding the Self

Carol S. Dweck s Fixed and Growth Mindset Theory

Dr. Dweck has received the following awards (Stanford profiles)

GE 111: Understanding the Self

Fixed and Growth Mindset

Dr. Dweck s contribution to social psychology relates to implicit theorist of intelligence

GE 111: Understanding the Self

Goal Setting Theory

GE 111: Understanding the Self