Lesson Knowing Oneself Understanding oneself during middle and

1 late adolescence

Self-Development
Self-development is taking steps to better yourself, such as by learning new skills or
overcoming bad habits. It also means efforts toward self-fulfillment, either through formal study
programs or on one's own.). We also call this personal development.
On the other hand, examining yourself, most specifically how you react on things, your
belief traits, and values is one of the most complicated things to do in the world. You have to
understand that it has to go on a process and not just a simple homework to be done.
This lesson will be of great help for you to rediscover yourself better. Let us start by
knowing some concepts of understanding one self.
Know Thyself
“An unexamined life is not worth living”, this is one of the famous lines once uttered by
one of the greatest philosophers of Ancient Greek in the person of Socrates.
Know Thyself is an old maxim or aphorism which in time has been used in varied literature
and consequently gained different meanings. One meaning is transcribed in The Suda.
“The Suda” is the encyclopedia of Greek knowledge in the 10 th century claiming that know
thyself is applied to those whose boasts exceed what they are and that it is a reminder for an
individual not to attend to the opinion of others.
In later years Thomas Hobbes discussed his own views about the maxim from which he
used the phrase “read thyself” in his famous work The Leviathan. He stressed that an individual
can learn more by studying others and that he/she can do this by engaging himself/herself to
reading book. However, Hobbes emphasized that a person learns more by studying oneself.
He further elaborates his views about know thyself from which he states that a man who
look into himself/herself and consider contemplating on what he/she did or what he/she think,
reason, hope and fear of etc. and to what grounds he/she feels all these can consequently learn
how to read and learn others’ thoughts and passions in similar occasions.
Thus, this statement leads us to the realization that knowing oneself is the open door that
leads us to knowing others better.
Other authors of other materials believe that know thyself is a moral epistemological
injunction. This suggests that the philosophy is the acquiring the skills of way of questioning or
challenging the person to gain careful understanding of oneself. It is a form of self-concern.

Self-Concept
Self-concept is the totality of our beliefs, preferences, opinions and attitudes organized in
a systematic manner, toward our personal existence. (Sincero, 2019).
This theory began as Rene Descartes, the Father of Modern Philosophy, proposed his
theory that a person’s existence depends on his/her perception. Rene Descartes states that mind
is the seat of consciousness. (Whittemore, 2019).
This means that it is in the mind that we know everything about ourselves like our
identify, passion, interest, feelings, intellect thus everything that we are comes from the mind.
Self-concept theory has a lot of suppositions regarding how people learn to judge
themselves. Among these Sincero named three aspects such as:
 Self-concept is learned. This explains that no individual is born with self-concept. A
person will soon develop this as he/she grows old. This means that self-concept can only be
acquired as soon as the person learns how to mingle with others and so this indicates that self-
concept is influenced by the person’s environment and can be a product of the person’s
socialization.
Self-concept is organized. This stresses out that one’s perception towards
himself/herself is firm. This means that a person may hear other people’s point of view regarding
himself/herself but will keep on believing that what he/she thinks of himself/herself is always the
right one. Change however, on one’s perceptions towards himself/herself may also be possible
but it takes time.
Self-concept is dynamic. As an individual grew older, he/she continues encounter
problems or challenges that may be reveal his/her self-concept in that particular time or
situation. A person will definitely respond to the scenario based on his/her own insights and how
he/she perceives himself/herself in the situation. Thus, self-concept undergoes development as
person goes through different experiences.
Aside from the philosophers above, Sigmund Freud who is a well-known psychologist,
neurologist and the creator of psychoanalysis, proposed that there are three layers within us
such as id, ego and superego that certainly play a vital role of how we think of ourselves. Let’s
tackle them one at a time. (Whittemore, 2019)
The Id. Freud explains that it is the seat of every man’s desire and want for it is driven by
pleasure principle. This is also the first part to develop for it is present from birth. Perhaps, you
have notice than an infant will cry if he/she wants to be fed to satisfy his/her hunger. The infant
would not give any reason why he/she wants food nor think if it’s already time to be fed. You
may have noticed also that babies do grab things and would want to get things on their hands
not minding if it hurts nor if it is important or not. All he/she wants is to get it for he/she wants to
have it. This is the nature of Id; however, this instinct is controlled by the ego and superego as
these aspects are developed in man’s life.
The Ego. This aspect operates according to reality which make it possible for the Id to
work in a more proper and satisfactory ways. The ego will give a more socially accepted means
of getting the desires and wants of a person. Ego will provide the person guidelines on how to
behave appropriately while the person fulfilled his/her pleasure. (Cherry, 2019).
This component of our personality takes place whenever we know within ourselves that
though we have satisfied our cravings for food or anything we desire to have we certainly
process it in our minds that we must do this by making our ways pleasant for others acceptance.
The Superego. This is the last component of personality which holds our moral
judgments or concept of right and wrong that are believed to be acquired from the family and
the environment. Freud believes that superego begin to manifest as a child turns 5. (Cherry,
2019).
This personality is developed as we learn the culture of distinguishing right from wrong
based on the set of guidelines and standards that are known to us which may probably imposed
to us by our parents, teachers of elders or the community we belong too itself. Therefore,
superego works in our lives in order to put directions in our way of living so that we may not be
able to hurt others as others would do the same towards us.