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WEEK 1: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF 

Introduction to Self Understanding  

Understanding oneself is essential to understand behaviors and beliefs that   

affects ourselves and others specifically in becoming effective and successful   
person in life, work, and relationship. Moreover, self-understanding (1) provides   
a sense of purpose; (2) leads to healthier relationships; (3) helps harness your   
natural strength; and (4) promotes confidence.   

This module will introduce you to the basic concepts of self and   
personality, and how they are related with each other. Self and personality 
characterized the way we define our existence, also these refers on how we organized our experiences 
that are reflected to our behavior. On the other hand, people have different ideas about themselves. These 
ideas represent the self of the person. Moreover, we behave in different ways in a given situation, but 
people also behave fairly stable in different circumstances. The relatively permanent pattern of behavior 
represents personality of the person. In details,   

Personality  

∙ ​The  etymological  derivative  of  personality  comes  from  the  word  “persona”,  the  theatrical  masks 
worn  by  Romans  in  Greek  and  Latin  drama.  Personality  also  comes  from  the  two  Latin  words 
“per” and “sonare”, which literally means “to sound through”.  
∙ ​Personality  have  no  single  definition  since  different  personality  theories  have  different  views  on 
how  to  define  it.  However,  the  commonly  accepted  definition  of  personality  is  that  it  is  a 
relatively  permanent  traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality 
to a person’s behavior (Roberts & Mroczek, 2008).  
∙ ​Personality  plays  a  key  role  in  affecting  how  people  shape  their  lives.  It  involves  the  complex 
relationship  of  people  with  their  environment,  how  they  cope  and  adjust  through  life,  and  how 
they respond to demands of physical and social challenges.  
∙ ​Personality  is  the  overall  pattern  or  integration  of a person’s structure, modes of behavior, attitudes, 
aptitudes,  interests,  intellectual  abilities,  and  many  other  distinguishable  personality  traits. 
Personality  is  the  conglomeration  of  the  following  components:  physical  self,  intelligence, 
character  traits,  attitudes,  habits,  interest,  personal  discipline,  moral  values,  principles  and 
philosophies of life.  

Determinants of Personality  

Personality refers to the total person in his/her overt and covert behavior. The determinants of 
factors of personality are as follows:  

∙ ​Environmental  Factors  of  Personality.  ​The  surroundings  of  an  individual  compose  the 
environmental  factors  of personality. This includes the neighborhood a person lives in, his school, 
college,  university  and  workplace.  Moreover,  it  also  counts  the  social  circle  the  individual  has. 
Friends,  parents, colleagues, co-workers and bosses, everybody plays a role as the determinants of 
personality.  

∙ ​Biological Factors of Personality. ​This further includes:   

1) ​hereditary factors ​or genetic make-up of the person that inherited from their parents. This 
describes the tendency of the person to appear and behave the way their parents are; 2) 
physical features i​ nclude the overall physical structure of a person: height, weight, color, sex, 
beauty and body language, etc. Most of the physical structures change from time to time, and 
so does the personality. With exercises, cosmetics and surgeries, many physical features are 
changed, and therefore, the personality of the individual also evolves; and 3) ​brain. ​The 
preliminary results from the electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) research gives 
indication that better understanding of human personality and behavior might come from the 
study of the brain. 
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∙ ​Situational  Factors  of  Personality​.  Although  these  factors  do  not  literally  create  and  shape  up  an 
individual’s  personality,  situational  factors do alter a person’s behavior and response from time to 
time.  The  situational  factors can be commonly observed when a person behaves contrastingly and 
exhibits different traits and characteristics.  

∙ ​Cultural  Factors.  ​Culture  is  traditionally  considered  as  the  major  determinants  of  an  individual’s 
personality.  The  culture  largely  determinants  what  a  person  is  and  what  a  person  will  learn.  The 
culture  within  a  person  is  brought  up,  is  very  important  determinant  of  behavior  of  a  person. 
Culture  is  complex  of  these  belief,  values,  and  techniques  for  dealing  with  the  environment 
which are shared among contemporaries and transmitted by one generation to the next.  

Personality Traits  

Personality  traits  reflect  people’s  characteristic  patterns  of  thoughts,  feelings,  and  behaviors. 
Personality  traits  imply  consistency  and  stability—someone  who  scores  high  on  a  specific  trait  like 
Extraversion  is  expected  to  be  sociable  in  different  situations  and  over  time.  Thus,  trait psychology rests 
on  the  idea  that  people  differ  from  one  another  in  terms  of  where  they  stand  on  a  set  of  basic  trait 
dimensions that persist over time and across situations.   

The  most  widely  used  system  of  traits  is  called  the  Five-Factor Model. This system includes five 
broad  traits  that  can  be  remembered  with  the  acronym  OCEAN:  Openness,  Conscientiousness, 
Extraversion,  Agreeableness,  and  Neuroticism.  Each  of  the  major  traits  from  the Big Five can be divided 
into  facets  to  give  a  more  fine-grained  analysis  of  someone's  personality.  In addition, some trait theorists 
argue  that  there  are  other  traits  that  cannot  be  completely  captured  by  the  Five-Factor  Model.  Critics  of 
the  trait  concept  argue  that  people  do  not  act  consistently  from  one  situation  to  the  next  and that people 
are  very  influenced  by  situational  forces.  Thus,  one major debate in the field concerns the relative power 
of people’s traits versus the situations in which they find themselves as predictors of their behavior.  

The Five-Factor Model of Personality  

Research  that  used  the  lexical  approach  showed  that  many of the personality descriptors found in 

the  dictionary  do  indeed  overlap.  In  other  words,  many  of  the  words  that  we  use  to  describe  people  are 
synonyms. Thus, if we want to know what a person is like, we do not necessarily need to ask how sociable 
they  are,  how  friendly  they  are,  and  how  gregarious  they  are.  Instead,  because sociable people tend to be 
friendly and gregarious, we can summarize this personality dimension with a single term. Someone who is 
sociable,  friendly,  and gregarious would typically be described as an “Extravert.” Once we know she is an 
extravert, we can assume that she is sociable, friendly, and gregarious.  

The most widely accepted system to emerge from this approach was “The Big Five” or “Five 
Factor Model” (Goldberg, 1990; McCrae & John, 1992; McCrae & Costa, 1987). The Big Five comprises 
five major traits shown in the Figure 2 below. A way to remember these five is with the acronym OCEAN 
(O is for Openness; C is for Conscientiousness; E is for Extraversion; A is for Agreeableness; N is for 
Neuroticism). The table below provides descriptions of people who would score high and low on each of 
these traits.  

Table 1. Descriptions of Personality Traits 

Big 5 Trait   Definition 

Openness   The tendency to appreciate new art, ideas, values, feelings, and 
behaviors. 

Conscientiousness   The tendency to be careful, on-time for appointments, to follow rules, 

and to be hard working. 

Extraversion   The tendency to be talkative, sociable, and to enjoy others; the 

 tendency to have a dominant style. 

Agreeableness   The tendency to agree and go along with others rather than to assert one 
owns opinions and choices. 

Neurotism   The tendency to be frequently experience negative emotions such as 

anger, worry, and sadness, as well as being itnerpersonally sensitive. 

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Table 2. ​Example behaviors for those scoring low and high for the big 5 traits  
Big 5 Trait   Example Behavior for LOW  Example Behavior for HIGH Scorers 
Scorers 

Openness   Prefers  not  to  be  exposed  to  Enjoys  seeing  people  with  new 
alternative  moral  systems;  types  of  haircuts  and  body 
narrow  interest;  inartistic;  not  piercing;  curious;  imaginative; 
analystica; down-to-earth  untraditional 

Conscientiousness   Prefers  spur-of-the-moment  Never  late  for  a  date;  organized; 

action  to  planning;  unrealiable;  hardworking;  neat,  persevering; 
hedonistic; careless; lax  punctual; self-disciplined 

Extraversion   Preferring  a  quiet  evening  Being the life of the party’ active; 
reading  to  a  loud  party;  sober;  optimistic; fun-loving; affectionate 
aloof; unenthusiastic 

Agreeableness   Quickly  and  confidently  asserts  Agrees  with  other  about  political 
own  rights;  irritable;  opinions;  good-natured;  forgiving; 
manipulative;  uncooperative;  gullible; helpful; forgiving 
rude 

Neurotism   Not  getting  irritated  by  sall  Constantly  worrying  about  little 
annoyances;  calm, unemotional;  things;  insecure;  hypochondrical; 
hardy; secure; self-satisfied  feeling inadequate 

Scores  on  the  Big  Five  traits  are  mostly  independent.  That means that a person’s standing on one 
trait  tells  very  little  about  their  standing  on  the  other  traits  of  the  Big  Five.  For example, a person can be 
extremely  high  in  Extraversion  and  be  either  high  or  low  on  Neuroticism.  Similarly, a person can be low 
in  Agreeableness  and  be  either  high  or  low  in  Conscientiousness.  Thus,  in  the  Five-Factor  Model,  you 
need  five  scores  to describe most of an individual’s personality. In the exercises part of this module there 
is  a  short  scale  to  assess  the  Five-Factor  Model  of  personality  (Donnellan,  Oswald,  Baird,  &  Lucas, 
2006). You can take this test to see where you stand in terms of your Big Five scores.  

Traits  are  important  and  interesting  because  they  describe  stable  patterns  of  behavior  that persist 
for  long  periods  of  time  (Caspi,  Roberts,  &  Shiner,  2005).  Importantly,  these  stable  patterns  can  have 
broad  ranging  consequences  for  many  areas  of  our  life  (Roberts,  Kuncel,  Shiner,  Caspi,  &  Goldberg, 
2007).  For  instance,  think  about  the  factors  that  determine  success in college. If you were asked to guess 
what  factors  predict  good  grades  in  college,  you  might  guess  something  like  intelligence.  This  guess 
would  be  correct,  but  we  know  much  more  about  who  is  likely  to  do  well.  Specifically,  personality 
researchers  have  also  found the personality traits like Conscientiousness play an important role in college 
and  beyond,  probably  because  highly  conscientious  individuals  study  hard,  get  their  work done on time, 
and are less distracted by  nonessential activities that take time away from school work. In addition, highly 
conscientious  people  are  often  healthier  than  people  low  in  conscientiousness  because  they  are  more 
likely  to  maintain  healthy  diets,  to  exercise,  and  to  follow basic safety procedures like wearing seat belts 
or  bicycle  helmets.  Over  the  long  term,  this  consistent  pattern  of  behaviors  can  add  up  to  meaningful 
differences  in  health  and  longevity.  Thus,  personality  traits  are  not  just  a  useful  way  to  describe  people 
you  know;  they  actually  help  psychologists  predict  how  good  a  worker someone will be, how long he or 
she will live, and the types of jobs and activities the person will enjoy.  

Who Am I?  

Have  you  ever  ask  yourself  the  question,  “Who  am I?”? Answering the question 'Who am I?' can 

lead  to  a  solid  self-concept  and  self-understanding.  For  many  people,  answering  this  question  isn't  very 
easy.  For  others,  a  solid  understanding  of  who  they  are  is  a  big  part  of  their lives. Understanding of who 
you  are  as  a  person  is  called  ​self-concept  ​and  understanding  what  your  motives  are  when  you  act  is 
called ​self-understanding​.  

In  definition,  ​self-concept  is  generally  thought  of  as  our  individual  perceptions  of  our  behavior,  
abilities,  and  unique  characteristics—a  mental  picture  of  who  you  are  as  a  person.For  example,  beliefs 
such ​ ​as "I am a good friend" or "I am a kind person" are part of an overall self-concept. 

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Self-concept  tends  to  be  more  malleable  when  people  are  younger  and  still  going  through  the  
process  of  self-discovery  and  identity  formation.  As  people  age,  self-perceptions  become  much  more  
detailed and organized as people form a better idea of who they are and what is important to them.  

According to the book ​Essential Social Psychology b​ y Richard Crisp and Rhiannon Turner:  

∙ ​The individual self consists of attributes and personality traits that differentiate us from other  
individuals. Examples include introversion or extroversion.  
∙ ​The relational self is defined by our relationships with significant others. Examples include siblings,  
friends, and spouses.  
∙ ​The collective self reflects our membership in social groups. Examples include British, Republican,  
African-American, or gay.  

At  its  most  basic,  self-concept  is  a collection of beliefs one holds about oneself and the responses 

of  others.  It  embodies  the  answer  to  the  question  "Who  am  I?".  The  lesson  to  follow  will  facilitate 
learning about the self, and self concept.   
ACTIVITY # 1: The Mini-IPIP (International Personality Item Pool Representation of the NEO 
PI R) Scale (20 points) 

This section aims to reinforce your understanding of the topics covered in   
Week 1 through the activity below.   

Instructions: Below are phrases describing people’s behaviors. Please use the   
rating scale below to describe how accurately each statement describes you.   
Describe yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be in the   
future. Describe yourself as you honestly see yourself, in relation to other   
people you know of the same sex as you are, and roughly your same age.   
Please read each statement carefully and put a number from 1 to 5 next to it to   
describe how accurately the statement describes you. ​Answer the guide questions at the end of the  
activity.  

1 = Very inaccurate  

2 = Moderately inaccurate  

3 = Neither inaccurate nor accurate  

4 = Moderately accurate  
5 = Very accurate   

1. _____ Am the life of the party (E)  

2. _______ Sympathize with others’ feelings (A)  

3. _______ Get chores done right away (C)  

4. _______ Have frequent mood swings (N)  

5. _______ Have a vivid imagination (O)  

6. _______Don’t talk a lot (E)  

7. _______ Am not interested in other people’s problems (A)  

8. _______ Often forget to put things back in their proper place (C) 

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9. _______ Am relaxed most of the time (N)  

10. ______ Am not interested in abstract ideas (O)  

11. ______ Talk to a lot of different people at parties (E)  

12. ______ Feel others’ emotions (A)  

13. ______ Like order (C)  

14. ______ Get upset easily (N)  

15. ______ Have difficulty understanding abstract ideas (O)  

16. ______ Keep in the background (E)  

17. ______ Am not really interested in others (A)  

18. ______ Make a mess of things (C)  

19. ______ Seldom feel blue (N)  

20. ______ Do not have a good imagination (O)  

Scoring: The first thing you must do is to reverse the items that are worded in the opposite direction. In  
order to do this, subtract the number you put for that item from 6. So if you put a 4, for instance, it will  
become a 2. Cross out the score you put when you took the scale, and put the new number in representing  
your score subtracted from the number 6.  

Items to be reversed in this way: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20  

Next, you need to add up the scores for each of the five OCEAN scales (including the reversed numbers  
where relevant). Each OCEAN score will be the sum of four items. Place the sum next to each scale  
below.  

__________ Openness: Add items 5, 10, 15, 20  

__________ Conscientiousness: Add items 3, 8, 13, 18  

__________ Extraversion: Add items 1, 6, 11, 16  

__________ Agreeableness: Add items 2, 7, 12, 17  

__________ Neuroticism: Add items 4, 9,14, 19  

Compare your scores to the norms below to see where you stand on each scale. If you are low on a trait, it  
means you are the opposite of the trait label. For example, low on Extraversion is Introversion, low on  
Openness is Conventional, and low on Agreeableness is Assertive.  
middle,   
19–20 Extremely High,    8–10 Low,   

17–18 Very High,    6–7 Very low, ​4–5 Extremely low 

14–16 High,   

11–13 Neither high nor low; in the 

GED 101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Guide Questions: ​Answer the following questions in an essay form with a maximum of 300 words. Write  
your  answers  in  a  clean  sheet  of  paper.  Take  a  photo  and turn it in using GED 101 group chat via FB (10  
points each).  

1. How do you describe your scores on Mini IPIP Scale? Do you think the results are accurate? 
Why?​ ​2. Do you think personality changes through time? How?  
3. Discuss how we develop our personality.  
4. Differentiate personality from self.  
5. How will you answer the question, “Who am I?”?  

References/Sources:  
Personality Traits. Edward Diener and Richard E. Lucas. Accessed July 25, 2020. 
https://nobaproject.com/modules/personality-traits#discussion-questions  
Self-Understanding & Self-Concept: How We Perceive Ourselves. Natalie Boyd. Accessed July 25, 2020. 
https://study.com/academy/lesson/self-understanding-and-self-concept.html  
Personality. Accessed July 25, 2020.   
https://sg.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/148426/12/12_chapter%205.pdf  
4 Reasons Why Self-understanding is Essential. Kee’s Blog. Accessed July 25, 2020. 
https://intuitivehaven.com/4-reasons-why-self-understanding-is-essential/  
Self and Personality. National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Accessed July 
25, 2020. ​http://www.ncert.nic.in/NCERTS/l/lepy102.pdf  
What Is Self-Concept? The Psychological Exploration of "Who Am I?". Kendra Cherry. Accessed July 
25, 2020. ​https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-concept-2795865  

END OF WEEK 1  

 Well done on finishing Week 1!   
WHAT COULD YOU LEARN NEXT?  
Week 2: THE SELF ACCORDING TO PHILOSOPHY