Lesson Sexuality as an Important

1 Component of One’s
Personality
In this module, you will learn that sexuality is a natural part of the life of a
human being. It is about being a man or a woman. Most important aspects are
masculine and feminine identification. Sexuality involves the name given at birth, the
toys played with, the garments worn, the buddies played with and the roles and
responsibilities included at home. It provides a sense of self-worth when sexual
understanding is learned.

What’s In

When you were in Grade 7, you learned that sexuality has a very important
role in one’s personality that influences who he/she is.

Personality Check

Put a check () in the column after each item to show you how you describe
yourself.

Statements Yes No
1. I show respect and affection for others.
2. I choose friends who share the same interest.
3. I find it easy to relax and express my feelings.
4. I idolize peers and media, role personalities as sources
for standards of behavior, dress and style.
5. I get along well with other people.

Guide Question:

What is the best way to improve your personality?

2
 What is It

In this activity, you will learn and understand sexuality as an important

component of one’s personality.

Sexuality is an essential part of what we do and who we are. It is the way in

which we experience and express ourselves as human beings. It is the entire
expression of an individual’s self-concept. Sexuality involves the physical, mental,
social, emotional and ethical aspects of one’s personality.

Sexuality is a natural and healthy part of life. It is everything about being a

male or female. It’s the most important aspect in masculine or feminine identification.
It involves the name given at birth, the toys played with, the garments worn, the
buddies played with, the roles and responsibilities at home. Sexuality provides a
sense of self-worth when sexual understanding is positive.

Gender and Human Sexuality

Gender is a social concept on how men and women should think, feel, and
act. It refers to femininity or masculinity of a person’s role and behavior as defined
by society.

Human sexuality is the quality of being male or female. It is the way in which
we experience and express ourselves as sexual beings. (Department of Education,
2013)

Gender and Sexuality are two issues that influence your life as a young
person. These two concepts have some significant impact on how you view yourself
and deal with other people, especially with the other sex. Sexual feelings are normal
and healthy. As a teen, you’ll experience a heightened desire to explore your
sexuality. This is completely healthy and normal. Remember that sexuality
encompasses our whole being. Managing sexually-related issues should be set up
on values particularly self-respect and respect for others.
 Below is a diagram showing healthy attitudes that can influence sexual
behavior.

SELF
 appreciates own body
 takes responsibility for own behaviors
 is knowledgeable about sexuality issues

FAMILY PEERS
 communicates  express love and
effectively with intimacy in appropriate
family ways
 Is able to express  have the skills to
love to family evaluate readiness for
members mature relationship
 performs duties  interact with both
and genders in appropriate
responsibilities at and respectful ways
home  respect both genders
in all aspects

The following are the key terms related to gender and sexuality:

Sex is the biological basis of being a male or female.

Gender is a social view on how men and ladies should think, feel, and act. It refers
to femininity or masculinity of an individual’s role and behavior.

Gender Equality grants man and woman equal enjoyment of human rights.

Gender Role refers to certain roles, characteristics, and expectations of how a

person should feel, think, and act as influenced by parents, peers, and society.

Sexuality is a basic part of what we do and who we are; it is the way in which we
experience and express ourselves as sexual beings. It is the entire expression of an
individual’s self-concept.
 A gender symbol is a way of representing a particular gender identity through
unique symbol.

Female Male

Female Male
 Lesson Dimension of Human
2 Sexuality
Sex is a major aspect of personality. It is closely related to emotional and
social development and can be best understood by connecting it to the total
adjustment of the individual in the family and society. The process of sexual
development begins from birth to adulthood thus it is a continuous developmental
process throughout life.

The purpose of gender and human sexuality education is to promote

wholesome family and interpersonal relationships. It aims to provide knowledge and
skills needed to establish and practice healthful behaviors. Finally, it aims to produce
students who are responsible and have a healthy sexuality.

What’s New

How I See Myself – How Others See Me

Listed below are characteristics which may or may not represent you. Rate
yourself using the icon in the box below. Once you are done, fold the paper in half
and ask your classmates, friends, parents, or neighbor to rate you. Write your answers
in your notebook.

 Yes, this is very much me!

X No, not me at all.
O Unsure.

Your Classmates, Friend,

Self-Rating
Parents, and Neighbors Rating
Characteristics Rating Characteristics Rating
Extrovert Extrovert
Selfish Selfish
Confidence Confidence
Aggressive Aggressive
Shy 6 Shy
Attractive Attractive
Good Listener Good Listener
Approachable Approachable
 After accomplishing this task, compare your response with the answers of
your classmates, friends, parents, or neighbor regarding your characteristics. Are
they the same? Do they see you as you see yourself? Reflect on this matter.

What is It

Sexuality involves the physical, mental, social, emotional, and ethical

dimensions of one’s personality.

7
Look at the illustrations below:
Ethical Self – the way you value relationships

8
Emotional Self – the way you feel about yourself and others.

Social Self – the way you interact with others.

Mental Self – the way you think as man or a woman.

 Physical Self – the way you look as a man or a woman.

Sexuality means you need to be aware of yourself better. As you get older,
you’ll experience a variety of social, emotional, and physical changes. As these
occur, you need an intensive knowledge on how to deal with your attitudes and
behavior.

how you
see
yourself

how you Sexuality how you

feel toward think of
about yourself yourself
yourself

how you
love
yourself

Sexuality refers to your attitudes and behavior towards yourself.

 Healthy sexuality means taking high sense of responsibility for all your
actions since this can affect self-esteem, decision-making, and behavior.

Sexuality can be best understood through the help of the people around you.
Sexuality refers to your perceptions, feelings, and behaviors towards others

how you see

others

how you think of others

Sexuality
towards others

how you feel about

others

how you love

others

The way you see yourself is influenced by many people. It is important to

maintain good relationships with others. They will support you and give you
confidence, provide companionship and will keep you from being lonely.

Healthy sexuality encompasses the following characteristics:

SELF- EXPERESSION
SELF- your way of showing
SELF- RESPECT your individuality in
SELF-LOVE KNOWLEDGESELF-
your regard for expressing yourself
your acceptance yourCONFIDENCE yourself as a as a man or as a
of yourself understanding ofyour awareness your worthwhile woman.
feelingsof the things that and youryou can person
do well
character
 Lesson Factors Affecting One’s
Attitude and Practices
3 Related to Sexuality and
Sexual Behaviors
Your sexuality is a natural drive from birth but there are different factors that
affect one’s attitude and practices related to sexuality and other sexual behaviors.

What’s In
Perfect Match!

Match the statement in column A with the dimensions of human sexuality in

column B. Write the letter of your choice in your activity notebook.

Column A Column B

1. It is the one that drives you to interact with others. a. emotional self

2. It is an anatomic aspect of man or woman. b. ethical self

3. It is considered as your morals or values regarding
c. mental self
relationships.
4. It is the way you think as a man or woman d. physical self

e. social self
5. It is the way you feel about yourself and others.
f. spiritual self

1
2
 What is It

Your sexuality is naturally driven within yourself from birth, but there are factors
that affect your points of view and practices in relation to your sexual manners. In this
section, we will help you understand the idea about the different aspects that affect
one’s attitude and practices related to sexuality and sexual behaviors.

Factors that affect one’s attitude and practices related to sexuality and sexual
behaviors:

Family. It is a factor that oftentimes determines your family values. Family, especially
the parents are usually the first mentors of your sexual identity. They teach
you about love, kindness and humility. Family’s relationship lays the
foundation of your personality, life options and total behavior. It can also affect
the strength of your social, physical, mental and emotional health. Making a
strong connection within your family is significant in nurturing yourself.

Values and expectations are just two ways that family could influence your
attitude and sexual behaviors. A family with defined values is able to withstand against
other people’s contrasting principles. You see how your parents interact with each
other, make choices and determine right and wrong to develop moral self in the family.
However, when you have a weak and or broken family, you may be astray and feel
difficult in making right decisions and correct actions. In some families, setting
expectations towards their children provide high regard of being successful and or
depression depending on how you manage and understand the set standards.

Culture. Cultural background can affect your values regarding sexuality. Sexual
identities and orientations, the contents of sexual behavior, and the social
consequences of these behaviors vary largely across cultural contexts.
Cultures all over the world recognized standards for individuals to match your
sex role prescriptions and feel psychologically well adjusted.

Culture looks at the entirety of any given society’s belief organization, laws,
customs, practices, language and attitudinal variables which makes people distinctive
from others. What happened when you are conditioned in the ways of a specific
culture? You start acting and behaving in ways that are suitable to such a culture. Your
dress sense, grooming, language, belief system and attitude become shaped to suit
into that society which causes you to become accepted by them. Just like for example,
some ladies like wearing tiny shorts are normal, while in others, it is forbidden because
of their family and religious beliefs. Some places allow males and females to mingle
freely in public places, but others do not. This has a great impact on how you adapt
the certain culture in your own community where you belong.

Peers. Like your family, your friends can also have an important impact on your views
on human sexuality. Peers are the one of important sources of knowledge
about sexuality, but they are not the most effective and efficient sources. As an
adolescent, you may begin to spend more time with peers – friends and
classmates in your age group. As a result, their values and beliefs may
influence you.
1
3
 Choosing your peers are important because they influence you every day.
During adolescence, this influence can be mainly tough as you spend more time away
from home and you become more conscious of different values and morals like beliefs
and about right and wrong. You feel the belongingness within your peers when you
actually do the same thing whatthey’redoing. You feel belong and accepted part of
society by exposure to other people, their behavior and values. This socialization is an
important part of growing up.

Media. Media plays a significant role in your lives as you regularly watch televisions,
listen to radio, search the internet read newspaper, etc. Television and
magazines are the main educational sources of youth’s sexual relationships.

Media plays a big role in shaping our sexuality because of how they portrait
figures of females and males in music videos, magazines, commercials, television and
many more. They create exaggerated standards which influence how you think in
yourself.

Family Media Culture

Peer

1
4
 What is It

In this activity, you will learn and understand the Personal Health Attitude and its
Influence to Sexual Behavior.

Attitudes are established way of thinking or feeling that are typically reflected in a
person’s behavior, for example, a positive attitude towards employing people with a disability.
Attitudes involve the interaction of beliefs, feelings and values, and a disposition to act in
particular ways. Our attitudes help us to define how situations are seen, as well as define what
is expected in behavior towards a situation, person or object.
Source: National Practice Standards for Mental Health Workforce, 2013

Aging naturally involves huge changes in physical, cognitive, and social dimensions.
Many of these changes, such as declining strength, difficulty remembering, or bereavement
from the death of friends and loved ones, are experienced as a kind of loss. Experiences of loss
can affect one's health negatively, but some people maintain a positive health attitude despite
these unwelcome events, which gives rise to a variety of positive health-related consequences.
Like any attitude, which comprises a summary evaluation, favorable or unfavorable, of a
concept, object, or situation, one's health attitude is the overall evaluation of one's own health
as excellent, good, fair, or poor.
Source: Encyclopedia, 2020

Sexual Behavior Standards are behaviors that have come to be accepted by society.

Gender and sexuality are two issues that affect your life as a teenager. These
two concepts have some of the greatest impact on how you view yourself and deal
with other people especially with the opposite sex. Sexual feelings are normal and
healthy. As a teen, you will experience a heightened desire to explore your sexuality.
This is completely normal and healthy. Just keep in mind that sexuality
encompasses our whole being. Managing sexuality-related issues should be
founded on values particularly self-respect and respect for others. (Source:
https://www.slideshare.net/iamcarloluna/mapeh-8-health-1st-quarter-gender-human-

15
DOUBLE STANDARD OF MORALITY

Boys and girls are given the impression of men being superior to women. In as
much as we would like to practice gender equality, the roles for human conduct and
human appropriateness are not alike for both sexes as practiced in most areas in the
Philippines. This is likely shown in the examples below:

A. Boys and men are permitted to stay out more and up to a later time than the
girls and women.
B. A philandering or immoral man is considered as demonstrating his manliness
or “pagkalalaki.” A philandering or immoral woman is considered as cheap,
bad, or “masamang babae.”
C. Women are expected to remain virgin until they marry, while it is generally
acceptable for men to have sexual experience before marriage.
D. Women are socially judged and legally penalized for adultery and for having
children out of wedlock.
E. Men who stay at home to do household chores instead of having jobs to earn
money for the family are considered by some as “under ‘d saya.”
F. Men showing weakness are considered girly.
G. Men are always be the last to say and decide on situation in the family.
H. Women are not allowed to display their breasts in public when nursing a baby.
I. Cooking foods is always delegated to women than men.
J. Engineering courses are seldom taken by the women.

16
 What I Can Do

In this activity, you are going to share your learnings in real life situations
about the valuing yourself.

Values are strong beliefs held by persons, families and group of people about
important issues. It is essential to know one’s own values, beliefs and attitudes, how
they influence on the rights of others and how to stand up for them. As you mature in
life, you shape your own values, which may be different from one another. Social
norms and standards can affect your sexual decision-making and behavior as it
influences values and behavior.
Source: Physical Education & Health Learner’s Material

Values are qualities or conditions that are important to a person. Complete

this survey by determining what you value in yourself. In your activity notebook, tick
on the appropriate box based on the importance you assign to each attribute.

Not Very
Important
Important Important

1. To be respected by my parents

2. To be respected by my friends

3. To have a positive image of myself

4. To have lots of friends

5. To do well in school

6. To give and receive love

7. To stay virgin until marriage

 Not Very
Important
Important Important
8. To build healthy relationships with
members of both sexes
9. To appreciate sexuality as factor of
personality
10.To make intelligent decisions
concerning sexual behavior

After completing this survey, what value/values you have observed is the
most important. Why?
References

Department of Education.1995. A Guidance Manual On the Growing Filipino

Adolescent III. Philippines;

Department of Education.2013. Physical Education and Health 8: Learners’ Manual.

Philippines: Vicarich Publication Company Inc.

Department of Education.2001. Reproductive Health. A&E NFE Accreditation &

Equivalency Learning Material.

The Wonder of Me, a poem by Bernadette Borja Rosaroso

19