This document provides an overview of understanding personality and self-awareness. It discusses developing self-awareness and assessing your personality across four areas: physical, mental, social, and emotional. It also defines self-esteem and self-concept, and discusses factors that shape personality development such as heredity, environment, and an individual's response to their environment. The document provides tips for improving self-concept, including recognizing strengths and weaknesses, emphasizing strengths, changing negative self-messages, and seeking positive relationships.

1. Unit 1, Part 1:
Understanding
Yourself
©Jenison International Academy
Melissa Rodgers

2. BEFORE YOU BEGIN:
• Take notes!
• See link in the Unit Zero folder to see how to
take Cornell Notes.
• WHY? This will help you study for the unit
exam and the final exam at the end of the
semester.
• Also, in online learning you may need to
read something several times to learn the
materials

3. Developing Self Awareness
Personality is the sum total of all the special
characteristics that make you an unique
individual. Your appearance, interests, values,
and abilities are all part of your personality.
Your personality is an expression of who you
are and how you feel about yourself. Your
personality is reflected in your behavior toward
other people. It will grow and change
throughout your lifetime and will affect all areas
of your life.

4. Assessing parts of your personality
4 Areas of your Personality:
Physical - refers to your body, health,
actions, and appearance.
How you can improve: good nutrition,
exercise, good grooming, poise, self control

5. Assessing parts of your personality
Mental - how you think, how you use
your brain. Are you meeting your full
potential? How do you know?
How you can improve: reading,
writing, tools your learn in school

6. Assessing parts of your personality
Social - the way you act and feel
around others
How you can improve: treat others with
respect, do not gossip, be optimistic
towards others, overlook faults, good
manners

7. Assessing parts of your personality
Emotional - how you deal with feelings
and frustrations
Improvements: liking yourself most of the
time, be realistic about your abilities

8. Self Esteem and Self Concept
Self-esteem: is a feeling that you are
important, that you are valued and respected,
how you FEEL about yourself.
Self-concept / self image: is the mental
image you have of yourself, how you SEE
yourself.
Your own self concept is affected by many
outside factors: family, friends, boss, school,
neighborhood, religion, peers, media, etc.

9. Improving Your Self Concept
1. Recognize your strengths
and weaknesses accept
them as a part of you.
Work on those weaknesses
that have potential to change
and improve.

10. Improving Your Self Concept
2. Emphasize your strengths
concentrate on what you do well to
build self-confidence. Build on what
you can do successfully. “Focus on
your strengths!”

11. Improving Your Self Concept
3. Message to ourselves:
restate negative messages to
make them positive.

12. Improving Your Self Concept
4. Seek positive people and
ask for their help. Avoid
negative people.

13. What shapes the development of
your personality
Heredity- the characteristics we have
that have been passed from one
generation to the next. This includes
our physical characteristics for
example; hair and eye color, height,
intelligence, and other abilities.

14. What shapes the development of
your personality
Environment - the people and places
that surround us as we grow. Our
environment begins shaping us the day
we are born. Our environment consists of
family, friends, school, and community.
Our attitudes, interests, values, and
beliefs are all influenced by our
environment.

15. What shapes the development of
your personality
Response to environment - the choices
you make based on what you gained from
both heredity and your environment.
Heredity + Environment + Response =
Unique Individual