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PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT
First Quarter
Module 4: The Cognitive
Triangle

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 PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT
First Quarter
Module 4: The Cognitive
Triangle
 INTRODUCTION

This module is written in support of the K to 12 Basic Education

Program to ensure attainment of standards expected of you as a learner.

This aims to equip you with essential knowledge on The Cognitive

Triangle.

This includes the following activities/tasks:

Expected Learning Outcome - This lays out the learning outcome that you
are expected to have accomplished at the end of the module.

Pre-Test – This determines your prior learning on the particular lesson you
are about to take.

Discussion of the Lesson – This provides you with the important knowledge,
principles and attitude that will help you meet the expected learning
outcome.

Learning Activities – These provide you with the application of the knowledge
and principles you have gained from the lesson and enable you to further
enhance your skills as you carry out prescribed tasks.

Post-test – This evaluates your overall understanding about the module.

With the different activities provided in this module, may you find the
material engaging and challenging as it develops your critical thinking skills.

What I Need to Know

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 At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

 show the connections between thoughts, feelings and behaviors in

actual life situations.
(EsP-PD11/12DWP-Ic-2.3)

What I Know
A. Write TRUE if the statement is correct, and FALSE if it is
incorrect. Write your answers in your notebook.
_____1. Your thoughts, feelings, and actions do not interplay with
one another.
_____2. Automatic Negative Thoughts just seem to come into our
mind without any basis, which can make you sad,
hopeless, and angry.
_____3. The way to overcome these negative feelings is to challenge
your negative thoughts. Ignoring your negative thoughts
would drive them away.
_____4. When you recently encountered a sad experience such as
the death of a friend, your feelings generate happy
thoughts and that your body feels light.
_____5. Your bodily reactions influence your thoughts and feelings.
When you are tired, your body produces negative
thoughts and get easily irritated or about small things.
_____6. Engaging in meditation reduces unwanted thoughts and
your emotional attachment to the content of your
thoughts.
_____7. Increasing the behavior of exercise is not an intervention in
improving one’s emotions.
_____8. Positive thoughts produce positive emotions.
_____9. We create our own suffering by dwelling on negative
thoughts.
_____10.There are four main ways to change thoughts: reflection,
disputing irrational thoughts, being mindful, and
intentionally thinking about positive thoughts.
_____11. Reflection is when you think about your thinking.
_____12. The heart makes up thoughts to explain the way a person
is feeling.
_____13. Practicing gratitude produces positive thoughts.

_____14. Creating a space or acceptance, supportiveness,

understanding, empathy, and safety could best free a

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 person’s real emotions.
_____15. Unwanted thoughts are totally gone when you meditate.
_____16. As a team, taking control of your thoughts and emotions
is assigned of immaturity.

Key message
Life’s lessons are learned from difficult
experiences and you gain important life
skills from each obstacle conquered.

What’s In
Complete the sequence by answering the pattern shown
below. Copy the template below. Do it in your notebook:

EVENT THOUGHTS FEELINGS BEHAVIORS

“Something Happens” “I tell myself something” “I feel something” “I do something”

My best friend June is I tell myself, “Maybe I I feel sad and upset. I approached him
avoiding me. have done or said and apologized.
something offensive.

Are my thoughts accurate?

___________________________________________________________________________

Are my thoughts helpful?

___________________________________________________________________________

Am I falling into a Thinking Mistake trap*? (If so, which one)

___________________________________________________________________________

What could I say to myself that would be more accurate, positive, or helpful?
___________________________________________________________________________

How would I feel if I told myself this?

___________________________________________________________________________

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What’s New
Personal Recipe for Success with Reflection

Make your personal recipe for achieving personal goals.

Identify your goals and break it down into a recipe. Write it in
your notebook. Here are two samples of recipes:

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

INGREDIENTS:
1 TEASPOON OF IDEAS ½ CUP OF GOODWILL

1 PINCH OF POSITIVITY ¾ CUP OF IMAGINATION

1 LB OF LEADERSHIP 2 SPOONFULS OF TEAMWORK

3 TABLESPOONS OF CHALLENGE
1 CUP OF MARKET VISION

AND 1 BAG OF HOPE!

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 What is it
Relationship of Thoughts, Feelings and
Behaviors
Your thoughts, feelings, and actions interplay with one another. Your
thoughts determine your mood or emotions. You act upon what you think
and feel. Your way of thinking is influenced by your personal, familial
(family members), and social experiences, which not all may be positive.
These experiences contribute to the thought that we automatically think in
response to an experience. Let’s take a closer look on your automatic
negative thoughts (ANTs) or anxiety provoking thoughts that just seem to
come into our mind without any basis, which can make you sad, hopeless,

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and angry. Consider this example: You failed in a math quiz and your
automatic negative thought was, “I can’t do math. I’m just not good in this
course.” As a result, you feel sad about the result and afraid of the subject;
you also feel demotivated to study math lessons. Hence, you skip attending
the subject.

Further, you may also be nurturing ANTs unconsciously. The more

you believe them, the more pessimistic and unhappy you become. The more
you believe that you are dumb because you failed a math quiz, the more you
become anxious and afraid to learn the lessons. Or you do not have the
confidence to talk to your math teacher. More pitifully, such thoughts may
stop you from solving other problems.

Hence, the way to overcome these negative feelings is to challenge

your negative thoughts. Remember that ignoring your negative thoughts
would not drive them away. To be able to challenge your negative thoughts,
you need to acknowledge them first. In being aware of them, you will know
how they affect you. You can use your emotions to identify your negative
thoughts. Notice the thoughts that come to your mind when your mood
changes.

As your thoughts and feelings fuel your whole body, you will act
accordingly. Positive dispositions bring about good-natured feelings, which
are reflected in your facial expressions and your body movements.

Likewise, when you recently just encountered a sad experience such

as the death of a friend, your feelings generate sad thoughts, and you may
notice that your body feels heavy and that you move slowly. On the other
hand, pleasant feelings are raised when you receive a reward from your
parents for getting an excellent grade, or when you consciously think of
happy thoughts.

Open Happy Alive Good

confident joyous playful Calm
accepting thankful energetic Peaceful

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Free satisfied courageous Comfortable
sympathetic glad optimistic Pleased
interested important liberated Relaxed
satisfied delighted Free Blessed
Kind great wonderful Encouraged
Reliable fortunate thrilled Content
Love Interested Positive Strong
considerate concerned Eager Free
Caring affected intelligent Sure
sensitive intrigued determined Certain
Tender inquisitive earnest Unique
devoted curious Bold Secure
sympathy fascinated Brave Impulsive
Close engaged optimistic Solid
passionate absorbed confident Adventurous
Table: Eight Major Positive Feelings

Lastly, your bodily reactions influence your thoughts and feelings. When you
are tired, your body produces tardy thoughts and you may get easily
irritated or sad about small things.

Thus, the interplay of your thoughts, feelings, and actions

significantly affect your attitudes, behaviour, and personality. Further, this
influence is an underlying factor contributing to your uniqueness as a
person. When you take charge the way you think and deliberately choose
what thoughts to entertain, you control your emotions and how you express
them. An emotionally stable teenager knows how to let off emotional steam
in a socially acceptable manner. Taking control of your thoughts and your
emotions is an indicator that you are slowly maturing.

Read More
The Thoughts, Emotions and Behaviors Triangle
Changing behaviors

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 With this point of intervention you can help a person to engage in
behaviors which with have a positive effect on their emotional state and
thought processes.

How you change behaviors

Associations and Rewards are the two main interventions. With

rewards you reward desired behaviors while mostly ignoring negative
behaviors. With associations you train people to associate positive behaviors
with things they believe to be positive. For example, in beer commercials
they put attractive people in bathing suits in their ads to encourage you to
associate their product with attractive half-naked people. If successful, you
will feel the same positive feelings looking at their product as you do when
you think of half-naked attractive people. Tthis encourages you to engage in
the behavior of getting that product.

 Example for thoughts – If you encourage a client to engage in

behaviors which they are very likely to succeed at they will be
internally rewarded by their success. This success can then
encourage them to think “I can be successful” instead of “my goal
is hopeless.”
 Example for thoughts – engage in meditation. Engaging in
meditation reduces unwanted thoughts and your emotional
attachment to the content of your thoughts. Meditation is a
behavior which has dramatic positive effects on your stress and
therefore on your physical health. Medication has been shown to
increase your ability to experience positive emotions. This
behaviors increase your maximum happiness potential.
 Example for emotions (biological) – If you are able to encourage
someone to engage in exercise and proper nutrition you will be
able to help them improve their felt happiness. Some studies
have found exercise to be as effective as anti-depressants in
treating depression. Increasing the behavior of exercise therefore
is a way of intervening to improve emotions.
 Example for emotions (pharmacological) – You can also
encourage someone to engage in the behavior of taking an anti-
depressant. This behavior will improve the effects on their
emotions.

 Example of emotions and thoughts (relational) – Helping a

couple or a family to successfully communicate and interact with
each other will increase the feelings of security and attachment in
the relevant individuals. Healthy attachments (which are
relationships in which people are safe and supported when they

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 are authentically emotionally vulnerable and available) are
necessary for emotional wellness. Therefore changing the
interaction behaviors between people helps their emotions.
Incidentally, it will also change the stories that the people tell
themselves and others about their relationships. This changes
the way they think about their relationships. Positive thoughts
produce positive emotions.

Changing Thoughts

There is a famous quote that many people have taken credit for
(Thereau is where I got it) – “I have suffered much in my life… and most of it
never happened.” We create our own suffering by entertaining our negative
thoughts. The “what if” or the “I should have” thoughts are perhaps the
most damaging. If you can interrupt these useless and often irrational
thoughts you will not have to feel the negative emotions associated with
those thoughts.

How to change thoughts

There are four main ways to change thoughts: reflection, disputing

irrational thoughts, being mindful or focusing your attention on the present
moment, and intentionally thinking about positive thoughts or new ways of
narrating your lived experience.

 Example of disputing irrational beliefs – If you think “I will never

be able to do this task” you will feel hopeless and discouraged and
will be unlikely to engage in the behaviors necessary to complete
the task. Never is ironically almost never true. If you neglect this
negative mentality and replace it with a new one such as “I can
complete these steps which will lead me towards being able to
complete the task.” You will feel more hopeful and will be more
likely to engage in the desired behaviors.
 Example of reflections – when we think of something such as a
past event our minds immediately begins to pass automatic
judgments. These automatic judgments often result in automatic
behaviors and always result in automatic emotions. Reflection is
when you think about your thinking. The idea is to do your best to
avoid judging the thoughts. Judgments will inevitably arrive in
which case you curiously observe the judgments. When reflection
is well developed the person has the ability to calmly sit with
curiosity about the automatic thought which popped into their
head. In this state of curiosity they interrupt the automatic
behaviors and often can positively impact the automatic emotions
by reducing the degree to which they are consuming.
 Example of reflecting on emotions – the mind makes up
thoughts to explain the way a person is feeling. By reflecting on
emotions a person is free to watch the automatic thoughts and

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 then to change them if they are inaccurate. For example after
seeing a rattle snake on a trail a person’s rapid heart beat might
convince them that they are agitated with their hiking partner.
Upon reflection, they find that they are simply still holding fear
from the experience with the snake. This reflective ability will help
the person to behave better towards their friend. People who are
hungry often conclude that people in their environment are
annoying. Upon reflection, they would find that the annoyance is
internal and can’t be resolved by the behaviors of the people
around him/her.
 Mindfulness and living in the present moment – Mindfulness is
a state in which you are a open-minded curious observer of the
present moment. You look at the world as if you have never see it
before. You allow your senses to interact with the environment as if
it were novel and you had no knowledge of it. The past, the future,
judgments, knowledge, projections etc. are calmly noticed and the
person gently pulls their attention back to the present when such
things arise. Most of our suffering is in the past or the future “what
if…” or “I should have” …. by allowing your thought processes to
stay in the present, you reduce suffering while holding the
euphoria of the moment.
 Example of Creating new stories or intentionally focusing on
positives and/or solutions – Our reality is our perceptions. No
one perceives reality as it actually is. Reality is perceived through
our minds various filters. How can two people engage in exactly the
same experience and have opposite thoughts and feelings about
that experience? Often people in relationships get caught up in
repeating the negative stories they have or they continually think to
themselves about all the problems which exist. Intentionally
focusing on the positive narratives and on all the solutions
available will encourage people to feel more hopeful and to engage
in more relationship healing behaviors.
 Gratitude – Almost all religions encourage the practice of
intentionally considering that which you are grateful for. Practicing
gratitude allows a person to live within positive thoughts. This
produces positive and hope inspiring emotions.

Allowing Emotions

Emotions are changed by allowing them to be expressed in a safe and

supportive environment. I am hesitant to say “changing emotions” as this is
often an ineffective intention. The paradox is that by allowing sadness you

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allow happiness to return. It is not changing sadness or avoiding sadness
which facilitates wellness instead the process of allowing and accepting frees
us from the burden of unwanted emotions. What you resist will infinitely
persist.

How you allow emotions

For authentic emotions to free themselves from a person, it is best to

create a space of acceptance, supportiveness, understanding, empathy, and
safety. This means that while a person courageously shares their emotional
experience the listener focuses on understanding the felt experience of the
narrator while gently offering short reflections of emotional content to
display their attentiveness and understanding. Things for the listener to
avoid are: projecting your own emotions on the story, trying to ‘fix it’ with
behavioral suggestions, pulling the attention away from the speaker, passing
judgments, disputing the validity or ration of the story, and withdrawing or
avoiding full attention.

Trapped emotions impact behaviors

Often when an emotion is trapped and unattended to in the body a

person will engage in behaviors to try and remedy their emotional
discomfort. Addictions such as alcoholism are often a way to heal a person.
There are many techniques that people use to escape reality. Generally, the
reality that they are trying to escape is the mirrored experience of an
unresolved emotion. Expression of this emotion can relieve the need to
escape. This can change unwanted behaviors.

Emotions and secondary emotions with undesirable behaviors

We have unfortunately not been very supportive in letting males have

a full and authentic emotional life experience. Males (and females – more
now than before perhaps) are systematically trained to believe that ration =
maturity and emotions = immaturity or weakness. As such many people
have “anger problems” do largely to emotional immaturity – they are unable
to articulate to themselves or others how they are truly feeling. Males in
particular are known for articulating two emotions – “I am Angry” and “I am
frustrated”. This inability to isolate the true felt experience leads to an
exaggeration of the angry and frustrated feelings. Often the male (or female)
feels embarrassed, guilty, confused, insecure, sad, lonely etc… but these
emotions are unlikely to be resolved if they are being labeled by the term
‘angry.’ Allowing a space for people to have a richer emotional experience
allows them the ability to express their authentic feelings. By doing so the
person would have the ability to resolve the emotion. For example, if a
person learns that they are ‘guilty’ as opposed to ‘frustrated’ this insight
offers them a direction as to how they might overcome the unwanted
emotion. Without the ability to know one’s emotions are people often become
automatons… automatically behaving while creating irrational thoughts to
explain the emotional experience they are unable to comprehend. This

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confusion can create a terrifying feedback loop of explosiveness. Violent
“angry” people are often excessively lonely and sad.

Emotions and Existential struggles

As an emotion remains unresolved, often people will unconsciously try

to make meaning of an emotionally harmful experience by re-enacting the
scenarios which led to the unresolved emotions. For example, many people
who have avoided allowing themselves to feel the emotions related to an
abusive parent will later end up with a romantic partner who engages in the
same emotionally abusive behaviors. By allowing these emotions to be
authentically expressed the person can gain the insight needed to seek out
support from people who have undergone such.

Emotions and Relationships

When a relationship allows space for the individuals to be

authentically emotionally vulnerable and available a deeper sense of
intimacy created which affects the way the people think about their
relationship. People in securely attached relationships (relationships with
validating emotional expressiveness) think and feel more positive about
themselves.

People behave differently when they feel emotionally authentic and

people behave differently towards people who validate their being
emotionally authentic.

Key message
Thoughts, feelings and behaviors are
interconnected. By taking responsibility, you
can be powerful.

What’s More
 Independent Activity

Challenging Negative Thoughts

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 Think of all those negative thoughts. Once you are fully aware, you
may start challenging them. Answer the following questions in your
notebook:

1. What are your experiences that support such thoughts?

2. Are you confusing facts with your thoughts?
3. Are you only paying attention to the sad part of your
experience?
4. Are you expecting yourself to be perfect?

What I Have Learned

I have learned that:

o life's lessons are learned from difficult experiences and

you gain important life skills from each obstacle
conquered and;
o thoughts, feelings and actions interplay with one
another and they significantly affect our attitudes,
behaviour, and personality.

What I Can Do
Just because you have thoughts, doesn’t mean these are all true. Your
thoughts are guesses why something happened or about something that
might happen. Coming up with new thoughts will help you see a situation
differently. Study the graphic organizer at the back.

What happened?
My friend Emma hasn’t spoken to me as much as usual
over the past week.

Thinking

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 I thought: “Emma hasn’t talked
to me much this week. She must
be mad at me.”

Doing Feeling
Now, do it by yourself using this Cognitive Triangle. Give an event/ situation
you’ve experienced and recall what you felt, thought and did at that time.
Copy the graphic organizer provided below and fill in the information about
the experience. Do this in your notebook.

Feeling

Event

Thinking
Thinking Doing

Assessment
ASSESS ASPECTS OF YOUR DEVELOPMENT
Draw a large circle on a blank sheet of paper. Divide the circle into 8

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 segments. In each segment, write some descriptions of the different aspects
of yourself as follows:

1. Physical Self. Describe yourself. Try not to censor any thoughts which come
to your mind. Include descriptions of your height, weight, facial appearance,
and quality of skin, hair and descriptions of body areas such as your neck,
chest, waist, legs.

2. Intellectual Self. Include here an assessment of how well you reason and
solve problems, your capacity to learn and create, your general amount of
knowledge, your specific areas of knowledge, wisdom you have acquired, and
insights you have.

3. Emotional Self. Write as many words or phrase about typical feelings you
have, feelings you seldom have, feelings you try to avoid, feelings you
especially enjoy, feelings from your past and present, and feelings which are
associated with each other.

4. Sensual Self. Write how you feel as a sensual person. What sense do you
use most – sight, hearing, speaking, smelling, touching? How do you feel
about the different ways you take in information - through the eyes, ears,
mouth, nose, pores, and skin. In what ways do you let information in and
out of your body?

5. Interactional Self. Include descriptions of your strengths and weaknesses

in intimate relationships and relationships to friends, family, co-students
and strangers in social settings. Describe the strengths and weaknesses
which your friends and family have noticed. Describe what kind of son or
daughter, brother or sister you are.

6. Nutritional Self. How do you nourish yourself? What foods do you like and
dislike? What do you like and dislike about these?

7. Contextual Self. Descriptors could be in the areas of maintenance of your

living environment: reaction to light, temperature, space, weather, colors,
sound and seasons and your impact on the environment.

8. Spiritual Self or Life Force. Write words or phrases which tell about how
you feel in this area. This could include your feelings about yourself and
organized religion, reactions about your spiritual connections to others,
feelings about your spiritual development and history, and thought about
your metaphysical self. Think about your inner peace and joy. Think about
your spiritual regimen or routine.

RUBRIC FOR INDIVIDUAL WORK

Exemplary Sufficient Minimal Beginning

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 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Self- Student demonstrates Student demonstrates a Student demonstrates a Student demonstrates
disclosure / an in-depth reflection general reflection on, and minimal reflection on, and a lack of reflection on,
Depth of on, and personalization personalization of, the personalization of, the or personalization of,
Reflection of the theories, theories, concepts, and/or theories, concepts, and/or the theories,
concepts, and/or strategies presented in strategies presented in concepts, and/or
strategies presented in the course materials. the course materials. strategies presented
the course materials. Viewpoints and Viewpoints and in the course
Viewpoints and interpretations are interpretations are materials. Viewpoints
interpretations are supported. Appropriate unsupported or supported and interpretations
insightful and well examples are provided with flawed arguments. are missing,
supported. Clear, from personal Examples are not inappropriate, and/or
detailed examples from experiences, as provided or are irrelevant unsupported.
personal experiences applicable. to the assignment. Examples are not
are provided, as provided.
applicable.
Connection Student makes in-depth Student goes into some Student goes into little Student merely
to outside synthesis of thoughtfully detail explaining some detail explaining some identifies
experiences selected aspects of specific ideas or issues specific ideas or issues some general
experiences related to from outside experiences from outside experiences ideas or issues from
the topic and related to the topic and related to the topic and m outside experiences
makes clear Makes very few connections related to the topic.
connections between general connections between what is learned
what is learned from between what is learned from outside experiences
outside experiences and from outside experiences and the topic.
the topic. and the topic.
Connection Student makes in-depth Student goes into more Student goes into little Student identifies
to readings synthesis of thoughtfully detail explaining some detail explaining some some general ideas
selected aspects of specific ideas or issues specific ideas or issues or issues from
readings related to the from readings related to from readings related to readings related to
topic and makes clear the topic and makes the topic and makes the topic. Readings
connections between general connections general connections are only those
what is learned from between what is learned between what is learned assigned for the topic.
readings and the topic. from readings and the from readings and the
Includes reference to at topic. Includes reference topic.
least two readings other to at least one reading
than those assigned for other than those assigned
class. for class.
Connection Student synthesizes, Student synthesizes Student attempts to Student has difficulty
to class analyzes and evaluates clearly some directly synthesize some directly restating some
discussions thoughtfully selected appropriate ideas or appropriate ideas or general ideas or
& unit aspects of ideas or issues from the class issues from the class issues from the class
objectives issues from the class discussion as they relate discussion as they relate discussion as they
discussion as they relate to this topic. to this topic. relate to this topic.
to this topic.
Adapted from: http://www.d.umn.edu/~balbert/humandiversity/grading_rubric.html

WORKSHEET

Feeling
_________________________________________
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 _________________________________________
_________________________________________

Event

________________________
________________________
________________________

Thinking Doing

________________________ ________________________
________________________ ________________________
________________________ ________________________

References
Book:

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 Barbara Wong-Fernandez et.al. Personal Development
Reader (Quezon City: Sunshine Interlinks Publishing
House Inc., 2016).

Myreen P. Cleofe. Personal Development (Makati City: DIWA

LEARNING SYSTEMS INC., 2016).

Photo:
No Title. Accessed June 22, 2020,
https://www.incimages.com/uploaded_files/image/19
20x1080/getty_153081592_970647970450075_79973.
jpg

Online Source:

Thoughts Emotions Behaviors Triangle. Accessed June 22,

2020.
https://www.thoughtsfromatherapist.com/2012/07/
12/thoughts-emotions-behaviors-triangle/

Icons:
Fully Editable Icons. Accessed June 6, 2020,
https://www.allppt.com

Prepared by:
Shane Jay G. Fabugais

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