Developing the

Whole Person
 Activity:
Assess Aspects of your Development
On your notebook, draw a large circle. Divide
the circle into 8 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.
 Write about the eight segments of your
development.
• What are the words or phrases which
represent aspects about yourself which you
like?
• What are the items which you consider to
be weaknesses or areas for improvement?
• What words which are neutral
or factual, such as “5 feet 4
inches tall, 120 pounds”? Do
some categories have more
minus than plus areas?
The larger proportion of minus to plus
areas you have, the more effort will be
needed to achieve positive self-esteem.
If the vast majority of your minus
responses are in one or two areas, your
self-esteem is likely to be good but has a
few self-estimates which need to be
improved.
Name some ways in which
you can improve the minus
areas and further enhance the
positive aspects.
Aspects of the Self
• The self-concept is represented by several
aspects of the self.
• An individual is composed of three basic
but very different aspects of the self. They
are the
–Physical or Tangible Aspects
–Intellectual and Conscious Aspects
–Emotional and Intuitive Aspects
1. Physical or Tangible Aspects
Many individuals put a strong
emphasis on the physical aspect of the
self. The body is tangible, obvious, and
we respond to it easily. More time and
money is spent on enhancing the
physical component than either of the
other two aspects.
2. Intellectual and Conscious Aspects
It is the part of the self that directs
the other two aspects. The mind learns
what to do and communicates the
information to the body and the feelings.
What the mind believes, the body
manifests or acts on, and the emotions
feel, or respond with.
3. Emotional and Intuitive
Aspects
The human emotions are the
most feared aspect of the self, as
individuals are reluctant and
unprepared to manage them.
Managing feelings is like trying to
hold water in the palm of your
hand. They are illusive and
deceptive. A decision made under
emotional stress and strain usually
impacts emotions negatively.
Negative emotions that are not managed are
stored and repressed. Repression is
destructive to a content self since all
feelings, not only negative ones are stored
away. Accessing feelings when they are
needed now becomes difficult, leaving the
individual numb and hopeless.