UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

1. UNPACKING
THE SELF
Physical Self
Prepared by: Marites D.
Dumayas

2. FIND A PARTNER AND DISCUSS AND ANSWER
THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
1.What do I like about my body image?
2.What do I dislike and want to change
about my body image?
3.If I have to choose a body image, I
would
choose______________because________________.
4.What is your ideal man/woman?
(Physical attributes).
5.What does your body tell you about
yourself?

3. 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.
• in general, the body performs its functions least well during (1)
infancy and (2) old age.
• it is a tangible aspect of a person that can be directly observed or
examined.
• the body is a marvelous container and a complex, finely tuned
machine that we used to interface with our environments and
fellow beings.

4. Physical Self
Why do you think people
would want to spend
millions of money, go to
great lengths and endure
physical pain just to
change their physical self?

5. Obviously, many want to look
better, so they adhere to what they
believe is the standard of what is
beautiful and what is handsome.
In their efforts, they somehow get
acceptance, and this definitely
boosts their self esteem, which
was absent in their past physical
self.
Physical
Self

6. THE SELF AS
IMPACTED BY
THE BODY
Prioritizing yourself is self-love.

7. The Self as
impacted by the
body
Wilhelm Reich
Sigmund Freud
The body is highly dynamic in the
psychological functioning, and it plays a
critical role in storing and challenging the
bioenergy w/c is the basis of human
existence and experience.
The body is the core of human
experience and of the ego is foremost
body ego
# Eastern tradition gives importance
to the harmony of the body as the
vehicle for spiritual growth and self-
realization.

8. Who am I?
Physical Self
Our physical self is fundamental in answering the most
difficult question. “Who Am I?” We are sometimes guilty of
the fact that our first assessment of people is based on how
they look. Or worse, we let our physical appearance define
who we are. We have created a culture of how we do and
should look. The brand of our dress, the skin tone, our coca
cola shape, our height and even the makeup we use to
make us appear “beautiful” greatly affects how our self
esteem is formed.

9. SELF-ESTEEM
Self-esteem is all about how much we feel
we are worth and how much we feel other
people value us. If we have the positive
body image, we like and accept ourselves
the way we are even if we do not fit in
which the media “ideals.” On the other
hand feeling badly about the way we look
can be devastating to our overall self-
confidence, affecting multiple aspects of
our lives.

10. It is very important to reframe the
way we view, think, and talk about
our physical selves,
1.Recognize that you body is your own, no matter what
shape or size it comes in.
2.Identify which aspect of your appearance you can
realistically change and which you cannot.
3.If there are things about yourself that you want to change
and can, do this by making goals for yourself.
4. When you hear negative comments from within, tell
yourself to stop.
5.Try building your self-esteem by giving yourself a
complements everyday.
Here are some tips.

11. THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON BODY IMAGE AND SELF-ESTEEM
This is the Golden ratio or Perfect image by Stephen
Marquardt. If you have this golden ratio, you are considered
beautiful.

12. THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON BODY IMAGE AND SELF-ESTEEM
“Beauty is not one’s own but a reflection of one’s culture,” one author once said.
Different cultures have different definitions of what beautiful and what is not. For
instance, some tribes in Africa would consider a chubby, and plump body of women
of middle age beautiful, and they find skinny and slim women unattractive. For the
Westerners, sexy, skinny, and men with six packs abs are considered beautiful. But
because culture changes, our definition of beauty change as well. Because of some
universal metrics of beauty the surgical and non-surgical methods of altering
physical appearance are now widespread and routine, and is now a kind of
entertainment. Alternation of our physical bodies is shown through body piercing,
tattooing, scarification, and body painting. These are physical symbols that widely
reflect our self-identity. No culture has remained completely static. Because of
changes, we develop a multicultural self as well.

13. Beauty is the reflection of one’s
own culture
NECK STRETCHING CULTURE
THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON BODY
IMAGE AND SELF-ESTEEM
MUSLIM BEAUTY
A BAGOBO W/ BLACK TEETH
CULTURE
MASCULAR MAN W/
TATTOO

14. THE IMPORTANCE
of

15. KOREAN
Korean men and women like to pale because
historically, if you are tanned, it means that you are
peasant working outdoors as compared to people
who have pale skin, which represents luxury, wealth,
and lack of wrinkles. Another thing is to have double
eyelids. This type of surgery is one of the most
important surgeries in Korea, and it is done for men
and women to look more western. And lastly, to have
a V-line face, the essential beauty code. If you are a
Korean, you need to have much money to avail
yourself of the different kinds of surgery just to be
“beautiful”.

16. INDIA
Indians are known for their long, and soft hair.
India is one of the best countries when it
comes to hair and oil products. In India you
find not only colorful clothes, street food, and
historical monuments but also a variety of
fairness creams because of India’s colonial
past, the British Empire. Being fair means
having wealth, luxury, and most importantly a
status that commoners do not achieve in their
lifetime. Furthermore, if you are dark-skinned,
it means life is tough unlike having fair skin,
which means more success in life.

17. UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA
In terms of ethnicity and race, American
culture is quite intercultural. One of the
physical appearance that displays
American beauty is having big butts, as
always shown in their hip-hop music
videos. Many celebrities and television
personas have been fans of the plastic-
surgery industry. If you have bigger
lips, bigger boobs, and bigger butts,
sexy, skinny and flawless body you are
“beautiful”.

18. ENGLAND
The United Kingdom is the land of the kings and
queens. Basically, an ideal British beauty is the
beauty of the princesses. Beautiful women are
sexy and slim, and well-toned body are clearly
what the common woman do not appreciate. Big
butts and breasts have also been added to the
physical appearance of a beautiful women
influenced by American culture. UK women
according to research, spend about 474 days of
their lives applying makeup. UK is said to be the
highest consumer of makeup products.

19. THE ARAB WORLD
It consist of about 25 Arabic-speaking countries. Who is
beautiful in the Arab countries? Most women in the Arab
countries focus on being attractive through their eyes.
They say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul. Arab
women tend to spend a lot of money on expensive
makeup because they believe in keeping their skin
flawless over a long period of time. Arab women are
fond of enhancing their eyes with black kohl to make
them look more appealing and exotic. They also use
natural baths and products, such as Hamman Magbrabi,
a homemade bath that slays off all the dead skin and
helps reveal gorgeous, glowing skin, which is what
women aim for. Another is Halaiva a homemade natural
wax meant for removing body hair.

20. In the Philippines, most Filipinos adore women who have fair
skin, that is why whiteners are very much in demand in the
market. The colonial mentality of Filipinos dictates that black
is equivalent of being poor. Another is having long, straight
black hair, high bridged nose, and slanted eyes, to look more
Chinitas and Meztiza. Because of the influence of Korean
dramas and Hollywood celebrities, many Filipinos are trying
to copy what is considered beautiful and handsome through
modifying their physical appearance.
Philippines

21. One author said, Beauty is not one’s own but a reflection of one’s culture.”
Indeed, the above cultural implications of beauty are prominent in every
culture and have a tremendous influence on the way women and even men
are perceived. Mostly these perceptions that uphold an ideal of a beauty
are linked to sexual appeal and social status. That is why in the world of the
multicultural self we can but also want to go with the flow; hence our
physical bodies greatly influence how we develop and define our self-
concept.
Our physical beauty will fade as we aged, but not our inner beauty. All we
need is a strong self-esteem and a re-affirmation that we are beautiful and
handsome no matter what the corner of our globe are we in, and that we
can be beautiful forever.

22. Summary
Undeniably our physical image or physical self is a marvelous
creation. It is one of the core aspects of who we are as individuals.
Having an in-depth understanding of the physical self will help us
answer the most difficult question “Who Am I?” It is the fact that our
physical appearance, our face, and our body shape greatly influence
how we perceive others and ourselves. Every culture has its standard
metrics of beauty and the negative effects on people who cannot
cope with the metrics are very alarming. It is vital for us to show
appreciation of our own physical bodies by constantly respecting
and accepting our body image. True enough our physical self helps
us know who we really are.

23. Thank you!