WHAT IS PHYSICAL SELF?

✓ refers to the body that includes basic parts such as head, neck, arms, and legs
✓ made up of other organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, and muscles
✓ Physical self-concept is the individual’s perception of themselves in areas of physical ability
and appearance. Physical ability refers to an individual’s physical strength and endurance, while
appearance refers to attractiveness and body image.

THE CONCEPTS OF PHYSICAL SELF (JOHN JAZIL)

Wiiliam James

- Considered body as original source of sensation and necessary for the origin and maintenance of
personality.
- It is an element of spiritual hygiene of supreme significance

SIGMUND FREUD

- In psychoanalytic school, construction of the self and personality makes the body and the core
of the human experience.

WILHELM REICH

- argued that mind and body are one.

- all psychological processes, he postulated, are a part of physical processes, and vice versa.

ERIK ERIKSON

- the role of bodily organs is significant in the early developmental stages of a person’s life. Later
in life, the development of physical and intellectual skills helps determine whether the individual
will achieve a sense of competence and ability to choose demanding roles in a complex society.

CARL JUNG

- argued that the physical body and the external world can be known only as physical experiences

B.F. SKINNER

- says that the role of the body is of primary importance

10 STAGES OF LIFE SPAN (SAEID)

Overview (Physical Self)

✓ In general, the body performs its functions least well during (1) infancy and (2) old age.
✓ Physical efficiency generally peaks in early adulthood and declines into the middle age.
✓ Physical development and growth during childhood continues at a slow rate compared with
rapid rate of growth in babyhood.
✓ One of the crucial stages of development is the adolescence stage.
✓ It is a tangible aspect of the person that can be directly observed and examined.
 ✓ Adolescence – begins with the onset of puberty. This stage is characterized by rapid physical
changes that include the maturation of the reproductive system.

LIFE SPAN – development from conception to death (not only birth but from the fertilization stage)

According to Elizabeth B. Hurlock in her book entitled, “Developmental Psychology (A Life-Span

Approach, Fifth Edition):

10 Stages of Life Span

1) PRENATAL – Fertilization to the birth

2) INFANCY – Birth to 2 weeks of life
3) BABYHOOD – 2 weeks of life to 2nd year
4) EARLY CHILDHOOD – 2 to 6 years old
5) LATE CHILDHOOD – 6 to 10 or 12 years old
6) PUBERTY – 10 or 12 to 14 years old
7) ADOLESCENCE – 14 to 18 years old
8) EARLY ADULTHOOD – 18 to 40 years old
9) MIDDLE ADULTHOOD – 40 to 60 years old
10) LATE ADULTHOOD – 60 years old to death

CONCEPTS OF BEAUTY (BEAUTY STANDARDS – DARLENE)

HOW DO YOU DEFINE BEAUTY?

- Beauty is not constant. Culture affects the definition of beauty.

• In Egyptian art, beauty is portrayed in women with slim, high waist, narrow hips, and long black
hair.

• Women with full figures and rounded hips were considered beautiful during the
Renaissance period.
• Some tribes (e.g., Africa) during the medieval age consider chubby, fat, or plum women
beautiful.
- But there are countries in Africa where they consider plum women as sexy but
all for the wrong reasons. In men, when you have a chubby/fat wife it symbolizes
a trophy. If the wife is fat, it means the husband is rich. You have enough money
to feed your wife. So other families, force their wives to eat a lot of food to
become fat for it to become more marriageable, eligible, or bachelorette.

• Some tribes in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia considered flat noses to be the most
attractive.
- The reason why we have flat noses is because of evolution. We
live near the equator, so we need a flat nose to breathe properly.
In other countries with thin air, they need a more pointed nose to
breathe. As for our color, we are Morena/Moreno, for our
protection from our hot climate and to easily adapt to our
weather temperature.

✓ Standards of Beauty have changed over time based on changing cultural values.

✓ All cultures have, more or less, the same concept of standards of beauty.
 - We have similarities in terms of standards of beauty. These are the 4 Standards
of Beauty:
1. Clean and unblemished skin (no marks; but now there’s a new trend:
freckles. So, most have done body modification and putting face
freckles.)
2. Thick shiny hair
3. Well-proportioned bodies (either fat or slim, but proportioned)
4. Symmetrical faces
✓ Beauty is considered important throughout history. This is because these features
indicate youth, health, good genes, and fertility (wider hips = easy to give birth)
✓ Beauty is important in all societies. Attractive people have a lot of advantages in life.
Studies have shown that men and women who are physically attractive have more
opportunities such as job promotion and income.
✓ How we present ourselves affects how people assist us.
✓ Beauty is from within. Above all things physical, it is more important to be beautiful on
the inside.

FACTORS AFFECTING PHYSICAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (FERLINE)

Nature or Nurture?
Nature – Socio-biologists, psychologists, and others in the natural sciences argue that behavior
traits can be explained by genetics.
Nurture – Sociologists, anthropologists, and others in the social sciences argue that human
behavior is learned and shaped through interaction.
Factors:
1) HEREDITY (NATURE)
✓ biological process of transmission of traits from parents to offspring
✓ the sex and other physical traits are determined by the combination of (1)
chromosome and (2) genes during fertilization (the union of the two cells: Egg
and Sperm)
Chromosomes – thread-like tissues that carry the genes, and are usually found in
pairs. We have 23 pairs of chromosomes (46 in total; half from the mother and half
from the father).
Two (2) Types:
1) Autosomes or trait chromosomes (22 pairs)
2) Gonosome or sex chromosomes (the X and Y)
 Genes – basic carriers of hereditary traits
✓ can be classified into:
1. Dominant (strong genes)
2. Recessive (weak genes)

2) ENVIRONMENT (NURTURE)
✓ refers to the factors to which the individual is exposed after conception to death
which includes learning and experience
✓ factors such as diet, nutrition, and diseases play an important role in physical
development.

SELF-ESTEEM (HAZRAT)

“We all know that self-esteem comes from what you think of you, not what other people think of you” –
Gloria Graynor

What is Self-esteem?

✓ It is how we value and perceive ourselves. It is based on our opinions and beliefs
about ourselves.
✓ A person’s overall evaluation of his or her own worth.

How Self-esteem affects people?

✓ Self-esteem impacts decision-making process, relationships, emotional health, and

overall well-being.

Changing of Features – People from different cultures have opted to change their features in an
attempt to meet cultural standards of beauty, as well as their religious and/or social obligations.
They modify and adorn their bodies as part of the complex process of creating and re-creating their
personal and social identity to be accepted by society and to be able to accept themselves.

Three Types of Self-Esteem:

1) Inflated Self-esteem – people hold high regard for themselves. Better than the other to point
of underestimating them.
 2) High Self-esteem – this is a positive self-esteem, which makes the person satisfied with
themselves.

3) Low Self-esteem – this person does not value themselves and does not trust their possibilities.

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF POOR BODY IMAGE (CYFREDZ)

Body Image – refers to how individuals perceive, think, and feel about their body and physical
appearance.

Appearance – everything about the person that others can observe such as height, weight, skin
color, clothes, and hairstyle.

▪ Through appearances, people show others the kind of person they are.
▪ IMPORTANT NOTE: You need to feel good about yourself – to be body positive.
BODY IMAGE VS SELF-ESTEEM

✓ Body image is based on our perception of our body and physical appearance ONLY.
Body image can affect our self-esteem. If we have a negative body image, we’ll have
low self-esteem.

• Younger women and girls tend to have poor body image. It also happens to men, but it is more
common in women.
• Body image can affect both the adolescent’s physical and psychological well-being.

CAUSES OF POOR BODY IMAGE

1) Emphasis on thin ideal body

2) Bullying and peer pressure
3) Media

EFFECTS OF POOR BODY IMAGE

1) Body Dissatisfaction
2) Depression
3) Low Self-esteem
4) Eating disorder
a. Bulimia (Attached photo of the Binge Purge Cycle)
b. Anorexia Nervosa – It can cause death. Mostly afflicts females between ages 12 to
40. Men may also develop it.
5) Body Modification
Forms of Body Modification:
✓ Tattooing
✓ Permanent makeup
✓ Body piercing
✓ Cosmetic surgery (e.g., liposuction)