Discovering The Self: The Physical Self

**CHAPTER 5: DISCOVERING THE SELF: THE PHYSICAL SELF** **PHYSICAL SELF** Although each person has a unique self-concept, physical characteristics are important. The person is a composite being made up of body and soul. The human body here is not the one studied in biology or anatomy, which is just...

**CHAPTER 5: DISCOVERING THE SELF: THE PHYSICAL SELF** **PHYSICAL SELF** Although each person has a unique self-concept, physical characteristics are important. The person is a composite being made up of body and soul. The human body here is not the one studied in biology or anatomy, which is just a material thing. The human person as a being is embodied subjectively. The body is an extension of the self. It is simple and complex being. If human being is given an environment of discipline and warmth, he will develop a feeling of security, self-confidence and the tendency to be a real self. He becomes conscious not just of the thing outside of himself but conscious of himself. The self is a combination of physical and psychological attributes that is unique in each person. The self is the person who knows himself that stem from self-contact and experiences with other people. He is one when can evolve from social interaction which, undergoes many changes in the course of a lifetime. The self is the physical self that can be interpreted in various ways. - **Physical self** is a concept of a person\'s perception or description of the self which includes the physical appearance. - **Physical self** is the condition, body attractiveness, strength, self-esteem along the overall score of physical self-esteem. - **Physical self-esteem** is the evaluation of the physical including the evaluation of both physical appearance and physical competence. - **Physical self-esteem** is likewise self-worth. Physical self is the physical qualities of a person. From the simple definition, it can be said that the physical self is the person who is a composite being that consists of body and soul. The person needs the body, a marvelous finely tuned machine that can interact with the environment and other persons. The physical self is the specific dimension, the tangible part that can be directed and examined. **William James**, aside from his idea of self-identification in the previous discussion considered the body as the initial source of sensation and important for the origin and maintenance of personality But James attests that the body must be subservient to the mind, that is if concentration can be fully found, not only to erase ordinary sensation also the most painful sensation. For instance, soldiers or boxers who are wounded do not notice the pain while in the battlefield or in the boxing ring only after the fighting is through. To James, it is because the body is an expressive tool of in dwelling consciousness and good physical health that makes up very part of the body of a healthy muscular person. It is the element of spiritual hygiene (James, 1889). **Sigmund Freud**, in his Psychoanalysis, maintains that construction of the self and personality make the body the core of human experience. To Freud, the ego is the first and foremost a body ego (1937). Another theorist, Wilhelm Reick who is most concerned with body, yet says that the mind and body as one and all psychological processes, are parts of physical body and that is important dynamic in all psychological processes. **Erik Erickson** attests that experiences are rooted in the ground- plan of the body. He expounded the role of the bodily organs that are Important particularly in the early stages of development of the person\'s life. Later in life the physical development and the intellectual capacity help determine if the person will acquire a sense of competence and to Select demanding roles in a complex society. For instance, healthy children when they grow bigger, faster wit stronger are more capable of learning complex skills. Erickson likewise is aware of the constant interplay of the body, psychological processes and the social forces. **Carl Gustav Jung**, in his **Analytical Psychology** did not deal clearly see the role of the body but chooses to direct his effort to just the psychology. He argued that physical process is important only to the extent they a represented in psychology. The physical body and the outside world can only be known as psychological experiences Jung is chiefly concerned with psychology itself and so he is leaving out the body and spirit. To him the body and spirit are only aspects of the reality of metaphysical as the spurt. **BF Skinner**, s behaviorist, attests that the body is of primary Importance. To Skinner\'s words personality and self are only explanatory fictions and all there is just the body. This is so because Skinner was never Interested in the body. He treats human being as an open box although not empty. The aforementioned explained the different forces or institutions that make impact on the development of the self. The succeeding discussions will expound the physical self in another dimension. Physical self is the being of a person that starts with the given truth that he is an individual being, a real tangible being, alive, concrete and in search for meaning and happiness by constant unfolding of his wealth of being. (Bernardo, 2016) The physical self is a being, an intellectual, social, moral, spiritual, aesthetic and sexual being (Fadiman, Frager, 2002). **THE INTELLECTUAL SELF** The person\'s rationality is the ultimate and most specific attribute that put him on all God\'s creations. He is not only the one capable of understanding the truth but likewise of sharing this truth to others. According to St Thomas a man who has an intellectual soul can perceive and understand. The self as a rationale being must think more consciously outside of himself and himself. An intellectual person can reason out logically and act by his goal he wishes to attain. He should think a thousand and one ways that could make his lite meaningful. He, through his thinking mind can design ways that would assure him of self-sustenance to survive safe and sound. To a person the fundamental way of survival is his reason. **THE CULTURAL SELF** A person lives in specific society in a given culture. His thinking and behaving are guided by his kind of culture. It is culture that molds a person and helps him actualize his possibilities. Culture humanizes a person. Culture encompasses all that a person thinks of and all that he ends as a member of a given society. The customs, beliefs, values and norms make up the person and in fact one is judged by his kind of culture. person who behaves well is admired and respected by people around him and in the end, he develops self-esteem. To Abraham Maslow, (2001) self-esteem relates to the feelings of self-worth because of self-awareness this competence, capabilities and values. **THE AESTHETIC SELF** Life is an art; hence a person must be an artist who can create an image that is a reflection of what he wants to be. A person\'s body is a wonderful creation. The radiance that comes from lovely thought, the zest of youth and good health together with good posture, proper exercise and balanced diet are bases of beauty in people. Posture is the proper position of the body when setting, walking standing even in lying down. Good grooming and appropriate choice of wardrobes, correct body size and weight add to the totality of beauty in the person. Beauty is an inner quality, a way of living, a manner of acting and way of looking (Santos, 1996) Generally people equate beauty with physical look. One should be aware that inner beauty should supersede outer beauty. To achieve true beauty, one should balance outer beauty with inner beauty together, and develop the ability to love and be loved by being aware of life. Beauty is likewise a state of the mind. It is a quality that should grow in its passing days and be developed till a lifetime. Outer beauty should be highlighted not just by proper behavior, and attractiveness but more so with poise, correct speech and graceful easy carriage. Inner beauty is the feeling that one is beautiful, but this feeling must start with one's awareness of his physical attributes, intelligence, happiness and social self-expression the very essence of an aesthetic being. **SELF-ESTEEM AND SELF-CONCEPT** The basis of beauty in a person is a body fit and healthy, image, and self-esteem. High self-esteem and proper awareness of self-concept are important characteristics of a person\'s happiness. Self-esteem pertains to global or overall evaluation of the self. Self-esteem is likewise self-worth or self-image. Self-concept is one\'s own specific evaluation of the self. People can make self-evaluation in various domains of their lives either academically, performance or appearance. In totality self-esteem is the global self-evaluation, while self-concept is the very own specific self-evaluation, The foundation of self-esteem and self-concept emerged from the quality of parent-child interaction in infancy and early childhood. For instance, children who had low self-esteem in childhood had experienced neglect or abuse in their relationship with their parents in their earlier development. However, children with high self-esteem had experienced secured attached relationship with their parents who nurtured their children with sensitive care giving (Santrock, 2012) In adolescents' self-esteem is strongly correlated with physical appearance than other aspects like scholastic competence, social acceptance and behavior. The association between perceived physical looks and self-esteem is not only true to adolescents but to all throughout life span from early childhood to middle age. **Strategies for Increased Self-Esteem** - There are five ways to improve self-esteem - Identify the reasons for low self-esteem and the domain of competence important to the self. - Provide emotional support and opportunities for social approval. - Take responsibility for one\'s own self-esteem. - Achieve personal goals Develop coping style. Adding to the improving self-esteem are emotional support and social approval which are powerful influence to self-esteem. Developing elf-confidence and believing that a person has the ability to do what it takes to improve self-esteem. Achievement can likewise improve one\'s self-esteem. For instance, self-esteem can be enhanced by direct teaching kills to the individual. Individuals develop higher self-esteem when they are aware how to carry out the important tasks to accomplish goals and They realize that by carrying out the task assigned to them they are mostly to reach their goals. Self-esteem always increases when a person who faces problem tries to cope with it instead of avoiding it. When trying to cope prevails a person usually faces the problem more realistically, honestly and not defensively. This process leads to favorable self-evaluative thoughts, which then lead to self-generated, self-approval and high self-esteem. (Santrock, 2014) **SELF-AWARENESS** Like any other schema, the self-concept can vary in its current cognitive accessibility. Self-awareness refers to the extent to which a person is currently fixing his/her attention on his/her own self-concept. When the self-concept becomes highly accessible because of one\'s concerns about being observed and potentially judged by others, one experiences the publicly induced self-awareness known as self-consciousness (Duval &Wicklund, 1972; Rochat, 2009). People are sure that they can remember times when their self-awareness were increased and they became self-conscious for instance, when they were giving a class presentation and they were perhaps painfully aware that everyone was looking at them, or when they did something in public that embarrassed them. Emotions such as anxiety and embarrassment occur in large part because the self-concept becomes highly accessible, and they serve as a signal to morair and perhaps change one\'s behavior. **PHYSICAL SELF AND SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS** Not all aspects of person\'s self-concepts are equally accessible at all times, and these long-term differences in the accessibility of the different self-schemas help create individual differences, For instance, in terms of one\'s current concerns and interests, one may know some people for whom the physical appearance component of the self-concept is highly accessible They check their hair every time they see a mirror, worry whether their clothes are making them look good, and do a lot of shopping in under to present themselves better. These signify that physical self and the view coming from others make an individual self-conscious. **Private self-consciousness** refers to the tendency to introspect about one\'s inner thoughts and feelings. People who are high in private self-consciousness tend to think about themselves a lot and agree with statements such as \"I\'m always trying to figure myself out\" and \"I am generally attentive to my inner feelings.\" People who are high on private self-consciousness are likely to base their behavior on their own inner beliefs and values-they let these inner thoughts and feelings guide their actions and they may, particularly strive to succeed on dimensions that allow them to demonstrate their own personal accomplishments (Lalwani Saruma Chin, 2009). **Public self-consciousness**, in contrast, refers to the tendency to focus on outer public image and to be particularly aware of the extent to which people are meeting the standards set by others. Those high in public self-consciousness agree with statements such as \"I\'m concerned about what other people think of me\" \"Before I leave my house, I check how I look,\" and \"I care a lot about how I present myself us others. These are the people who check their hair in a mirror they happened to pass by and spend a lot of time getting ready in the morning, they are more likely to let the opinions of others (rather than their own opinions) guide their behaviors and are particularly concerned with making good impressions on others Research has found cultural differences in public self-consciousness such that people from East Asian collectivistic cultures have higher public self-consciousness than de people from Western individualistic cultures. Steve Heine and his colleagues (Heine. Takemoto, Moskalenko, Lasaleta flenttch, 2008) found that when college students from Canada Western culture) completed questionnaires in front of a large mirror, they subsequently became more self-critical and were less likely to cheat much like the trick or treaters discussed earlier) than were Canadian students who were not in front of a mirror. However, the presence of the mirror had no effect on college students from Japan. This person-situation interaction is consistent with the idea that people from East Asian cultures are normally already high in public self-consciousness, in comparison with people from Western cultures. Thus, manipulations designed to increase public self-consciousness are less influential for them. Although the self-concept is the most important of all people\'s schemes, and although they (particularly those high in self-consciousness) are aware of their self and how they are seen by others, they cannot deny the fact that physical self and how others see them directly contribute to the development of their self-concept.