Module 3

Anjelo Ambi (160089(

Back when I was a kid, I was the kind of person who does not really take stuff personally. I do not get easily offended and think of what people said merely as jokes. This went on throughout my Pre-school and Elementary life until I reached grade 3. I had classmates who could best be described as bullies because they always love to pick on others during breaks and PE sessions. One fateful day, the bullies decide to have me as their next target doing PE. While I was struggling to do circuit training during that time such as push-ups and planks, they stood in front of me and yelled “Oy Supot ka ba?” repeatedly because of my inability to perform push-ups  The rest of the class burst in laughter and also started to call me Supot. This experience was emotionally scarring for me and I went back home feeling down because of the humiliation I endured that day. I eventually realized the meaning of the term “Supot” and it is a more insulting way of saying people are weak or different. As such I acquired the mindset that my classmates look down upon me and perceive me as someone who’s inferior and this lead me to really dread that word “Supot” for the rest of my elementary life

            From a Gender based perspective, it is expected by society that men in general should present themselves as being physically capable and aggressive. The media itself caters to this stigma as seen in Men’s magazine covers which portray the ideal man as being muscular and aggressive which reeks of masculinity. While it can’t be avoided that some men prefer something else such as being academically inclined or are more artistic. These people are usually seen as frail and weak. As such, these people are potential victims of ridicule because they fail to appeal to the image society has dictated upon them and as result are looked down upon. So I realized probably the reason the bullies call other students Supot is that through this tactic of intimidation they would be able to show off their masculinity to everybody in the school.

      Another concept that I would like to pick up is the sense of well-being.  I find myself having different interests and hobbies as opposed to my peers and as such the term “Supot” developed a new meaning which is someone who doesn’t get along with the majority or what is “uso” back then similar to hipster. For example, during P.E. when the teacher told us to play basketball, I refused to join a team because I’ve never really liked basketball as a sport which led to me being called supot again by my classmates. Fed up with that name, I forced myself into playing along with my classmates even if the things they are doing aren’t really what I want. This went on for a few months until I eventually decided to stop it and do the things that I really want because that is what makes me happy. I realized there that it doesn’t really matter in the end what other’s think of me as a person because the most important thing that matters is that I am happy with who I am and what I am doing.

            Lastly, the term supot has already made me reflect upon who I am as a person. Since being insulted supot back in grade school made me think something is wrong with me either emotionally or physically. I spent a lot of time contemplating on different thoughts on what am I doing with my life and if others are actually right. This led me to become more mature as a person by thinking beyond the insults and terms that my peers have set upon be and not view it as a way of putting me down but instead as a way of improving myself as a person.

 Sources:

Grotevant, H., & Cooper, C. (1985). Patterns of interaction in family relationships and the development of identity exploration in adolescence. Child Development, 56, 415-428.

Hermans, Hubert J.M. Human Development in Today’s Globalizing World: Implications for Self and Identity. 2015.

Module 3

“Don’t go with those kinds of people.” This was a statement that was heavily emphasized by my parents especially during late grade school. I often questioned this statement because it limited my friendships in the past. They expected me to befriend people who would not negatively affect my academics and my development. Rowdy classmates and foul mouthed people were usually the kinds of people my parents told me to avoid at that time. They wanted to inform me about how my peers’ influences can significantly affect my formation and how it would carry over to my teenage years and into adulthood. This statement is something that I adhere to even now. I was also able to better appreciate this statement after learning about the various concepts about understanding the self.

The first concept that helped me appreciate this statement is the concept of crowds. A crowd is a social construct of similarly stereotyped individuals in which certain norms are followed by its members. During grade school, my parents did not want me to follow detrimental norms in the grade school school crowd such as staying up late and spending several hours playing computer games. In a way, this helped me because I was able to focus more on my priorities such as academics and other productive activities. But this also prevented me from connecting to the people that follow the norms that my parents told me to stay away from. 

The second concept is the concept of identity agents and the role of the parents as identity agents. In this concept, the parents can act as the identity agent: people who interact with the youth in order to help develop their identities. According to Schacter and Ventura, parents incorporate cultural belief systems in developing the identities of their children. Aside from developing a healthy identity for their children, they want them to conform to social norms and ideologies such as following the law, responsible citizens, etc. In relation to the statement, my parents do not want me to grow up being different to society’s ideal person. They want me to become a normal person as a boy and as a student and kept me away from the wrong parts of crowds. Bad influences especially from peers are one of the things that prevents me from becoming the person my parents want me to become. 

The third concept, individuation, complements the concept of identity agents. As a teen, the self differentiates from the ideal self that the parents tried to mold it into. Conflicts arise and the person slowly loses his dependence on the parents. Healthy individuation is an important part of the formation process which results to a stronger and differentiated self, unique from the parents. According to Grotevant and Cooper, the individual must have connectedness (open mindedness and respect for others’ ideas) and individuality (self assertion and distinctiveness) in order to achieve healthy individuation. This was true for me because as I got older, I went through what seems like a healthy individuation that allowed me to further explore my self and explore different opportunities by being unique. Because I practiced this healthy individuation, I was more critical when dealing with crowds and peer pressure especially in high school which prevented me from being affected by bad influences. It also taught me to be more critical of the values that my parents instilled in me in my childhood by retaining what is best for me and removing those that limit me.

To sum up, the statement helped protect me from detrimental influences in my childhood years. Even though it limited my connections with other people in the grade school crowd, it protected the foundation for the further development of my self in adolescence. As I matured, I was able to be more critical because of individuation which allowed me to remove the values and norms that limited me and keep those that are worth keeping.

Sources:

Grotevant, H., & Cooper, C. (1985). Patterns of interaction in family relationships and the development of identity exploration in adolescence. Child Development, 56, 415-428.

Schacter, E., & Ventura, J. (2008). Identity agents: Parents as active and reflective participants in their children’s identity formation. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 18(3), 449-476.

Jethro Vera Cruz (162086)

SA 21 Blog 3

Jonathan Lee

As children, there were probably plenty of things we were told and reminded that led us to do things the way we did. And, among those sayings, there were some that had such a profound effect on us that they have shaped our thoughts and actions as we grow up. It can be related to how we should act around people, how we should dress, think, speak, etc.. Our personality and wellbeing at present may be linked those expressions that triggered certain memories of our younger days.

Personally, one of those expressions that had a huge impact on my character as a person is the expression “Don’t cry!” or “Wag kang iiyak!”, that has been repeatedly said by my parents, my teachers, and peers. My parents started saying this to me back when I was in kindergarten, as it was a way for me to be more masculine. They say this to me whenever I was “about to cry”, such as in times of failures, like in exams or quizzes, when I get injured or wounded, or whenever I get humiliated by people.  As I grew up, this is the image of a man that my parents wanted me to portray. They wanted me to be a tough guy, one who does not easily get swayed by emotions, but rather, should be brave and dependable.

As I grew up, I never questioned how my parents thought of this aspect of crying; it was simply something I accepted because I always thought that it was for my own good. As the years went by, I can say that I have become a tough person who puts his emotions aside. It was never an option for me to cry whenever I’m faced with a difficulty or failure, or even show signs of weakness or giving up. They made me believe that being tough made someone a “man”.

However, at the same time, I could remember the struggle between how I should portray myself in public versus how I really feel. Looking back, there have been times when I actually cried, but I had to be alone in my room where no one would see me. I remember the time when I rushed to my room and cried since I failed my math finals in grade 4. I remembered the time when I had an ankle sprain and I cried in my room after my parents attended to me. I remembered that crying actually made me feel better afterwards. I just had to hide it so that my parents won’t call me a “coward” or “feminine”. It was a difficult situation, indeed, when you really felt like crying but you couldn’t simply because you’re not supposed to, out of fear of being insulted. Regardless, it was something I got used to.

Now, with all that is being taught to me about sexuality and personalities, I have learned to be more open-minded about masculinity. For instance, more people have been saying that "It is okay (or even good) for men to cry". To be honest, there are times that I start to question my parents’ perception of masculinity, such that I thought that the “tough” image is becoming outdated in today’s open and interconnected world. Also, the fact that it might be hard to open up to my parents when I’m faced with difficulties is another issue since I’m expected to keep them to myself. There had to be a compromise, and eventually, I could now share my feelings much more openly now as a young adult. With this, I won’t say that what my parents taught me was wrong because they have their own context in doing so.

Sources:

Hermans, Hubert J.M. Human Development in Today’s Globalizing World: Implications for Self and Identity. 2015.

Kahneman. The Characters of the Story. 2011.

Goffman, E. (1991). The presentation of self in everyday life. In J. Henslin (Ed.), Down to Earth Sociology (pp. 98-108). New York, NY: The Free Press.

Foucault, M. (1986). The cultivation of the self. In The Care of the Self (Vol. 3 of the History of Sexuality, pp. 37-69). NY: Pantheon Books.

Module 3: 'Wag kang umiyak, lalaki ka

Rodriguez, John Carlo D. 161713

When I showed weakness, my parents usually told me it was not manly. When I cried, they would say, “‘Wag kang umiyak, lalaki ka.” When I overreact to something, they say “‘Wag kang ganyan. Mga bakla lang gumagawa niyan.” When I would throw tantrums as a child, they would say only girls are allowed to be sensitive. To sum up these words they told me, they basically said it was girly to be weak. As a result, I ended up concealing a lot of my interests from them. In a way, it influenced my openness towards people. I feel that it is not as easy for me to open up to people because of these statements I heard growing up. This can be connected to something Dr. Grovetant discovered in his research. He and his colleagues conducted a study wherein he analyzed the effect of one’s different interactions on the development of a person’s identity. Results stated that mother-son and father-son had the biggest effect on the subject’s development. In other words, interactions in the family have the biggest impact on a person’s growth. This proves that the most basic unit of a community has the biggest impact on the development of a person. The impact of this statement in my life can also be connected to the psychosocial stages of Erikson, specifically the stage of inferiority versus industry. It is in this stage that a child learns to tame his imagination and impulses, and please the people around him. If adults especially parents support the child's efforts, his sense of competence develops. In the event that adults do not support the child, developing feelings of inferiority may be possible. My difficulty opening up to others may be attributed to this psychosocial stage being disrupted and uncompleted in my life. Because of the insufficient support my parents had for certain things I did, it might have caused a complication in my development. Finally, one other concept my experience can be connected with is gender stereotypes. According to our lecture, society tends to give men a stereotype as being hunters,powerful and demanding. This view given by society might have influenced then and given them that mindset. If it weren’t for the friends and teachers I had growing up, I might have ended up developing the same mindset as my parent. These peers are what taught me that deviance is a what makes a person beautiful and not simply conforming to the general consensus of what beauty is. Turning 20 this year, I have learned to be more understanding of everything. In this instance, I learned to be more understanding of my parents. I figured that no matter how skewed their views may be, they only wanted the best for me.

Sources:

Grotevant, Harold D., and Catherine R. Cooper. “Patterns of Interaction in Family Relationships and the Development of Identity Exploration in Adolescence.”Child Development, vol. 56, no. 2, 1985, p. 415., doi:10.2307/1129730.

Stages we act on as students and gamers

  Jonathan Lee My idea of well-being is being happy, healthy, and content. It is when you strike a balance between work and leisure, when you’re not too stressed out, when you’re just calm and relaxed. It is when you feel that everything is “just right”. In a situation when we are far from family and friends, it is a normal response for us to feel lonely and homesick at first, as the new environment takes some time to get used to. There are just so many things that we find unfamiliar and uncertain, and therefore, we become afraid, hesitant, or even helpless in our situation. When we find ourselves in trouble, there is no family that we’ll go back to for advice, nor friends who we know will support us. We’re on our own, and it’s a scary thing to think about. Our well-being becomes shaky, and if we cannot adapt well to this new situation, our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors may even get worse. There are several ways to cope with this difficulty, and thereby maintain our high sense of well-being. One is by socializing and being open-minded. By socializing with a group of people, we feel part of a greater good and thereby feel a sense of camaraderie and connection. Being open-minded enables us to relate to other people’s thoughts and experiences, as well as being able to share our own thoughts and emotions. According to Hubert Hermans, our relationships can be classified into two main categories: homophilic or heterophilic. Homophily is the concept where people are more likely to interact with others who share fairly similar interests and traits, while heterophily is with other who have different interests. Both have their advantages and drawbacks, but regardless, we must find a balance between both to have meaningful relationships. (Hermans 2015) I am more comfortable with homophilic relationships, as it is much easier to communicate and understand people’s wants and desires, hence it is easier to relate with them compared to a heterophilic relationships. With this, if I were to go to college far away from my family, one of the things I would want to bring with me is a basketball. To be honest, there could have been many other thing I could have said instead of a basketball, but this is a very sentimental possession. Basketball has been my hobby since I was a child, and I’ve made many new friends by playing basketball with them. Having something you are familiar with and doing what you enjoy back home would be very important to me as I adjust to this new and unfamiliar environment, since it allows me to meet new friends with the same interest. It also helps cope with my homesickness and encourages me to be physically active during the day. If I continue to dwell in the sadness brought by the absence of my loved ones, I might not be able to function properly. With this, I might fall into a trap, a sense of hopelessness that things are not getting any better. According to Williams’s “Mind, Body, and Emotion”, this is where one’s depression might progress. This degree of negative thoughts might become so great that even fleeting sadness might trigger severe negative thoughts. (Williams 2007) If I find myself in trouble in college, whether it be in academics or between friends, I might think of missing my family, and this might lead to a spiraling down of emotions. All my attention will be focused on that. Unfortunately, this rumination may not be very effective in dealing with this unhappiness, as it only leads to more overthinking and speculation which might make us even more miserable. Williams mentioned that an alternative to rumination is by living in the present moment, being mindful, and being aware of one’s surroundings as they arise. It is when one not only thinks about the surroundings, but feels and experiences them. With this, one thing I would bring back home to my family is a photo book of my journey through college. Many people say that photographs have always been a way to store and share memories that are worth reminiscing, but more importantly, they show that we are experiencing our surroundings now, and that we are open in seeing what a new environment, such as college life, has to offer. Instead of dwelling on the absence of my loved ones, taking photographs gives me a new perspective on my thoughts. It makes me realize that my surroundings are not as bad as I thought, and the present is just as welcoming. Moreover, it makes me realize that being away from home is another opportunity for me to explore a different setting and to be motivated to gain new insights as I go on with college. When I bring my photographs back home, I am instead reminded of how meaningful college life has been, and I’d want to share with my family that I have indeed enjoyed college. Coming up with these objects to bring with me and bring back to home is not very easy for me. As what Kahneman said, we activate both our intuition (System 1) and deep reasoning (System 2) in making choices like these. As I have mentioned, I could have chosen more practical objects in this list, such as my phone, laptop, pen, etc., which would rather be intuitive, but upon careful thought, I would be able to gain more insight about myself if I’d say I’d also bring with me a basketball, for example. This activity has been an exercise to make me think beyond the obvious. It helped me realize how there are many objects I see everyday that I take for granted, or objects that I quickly just neglect nowadays, such as a photo album, that may one day just be the unexpected means to maintain happiness and well-being in ways I may have not known. References: Hermans, Hubert J.M. Human Development in Today’s Globalizing World: Implications for Self and Identity. 2015. Kahneman. The Characters of the Story. 2011. Williams. Part I: Mind, Body, and Emotion. In The mindful way through depression: Freeing yourself from chronic unhappiness (pp. 11-49). 2007

Jack Rodriguez Well-being is what your school counselor asks you upon first entering the Ateneo in attempt to get rid of your jitters. Well-being is what a friend brings up when you have not seen each other in a long time. Well-being is the first thing your parents ask when they call about your first few weeks in your school far far far far away from home. Well-being is the one thing we ask ourselves to sustain in our daily grind though have we really thought to ask what well-being even is? Being in High School back then and living through the best years of my life, I never really gave it any thought. I was always in the company of my confidants and never had a minute of feeling uncomfortable. After 4 of the best years, I finally had to leave home. Unacquainted with the real world, I assumed that 4 more great years were in store though in hindsight, I realize my mistake. Hubert Hermans classifies our relationships into 2 types: homophily which states we are more drawn to people of the same interests and personality and heterophily which states we yearn for interaction with those not similar to us (Hermans 2015). Entering college clueless, I was baptized in a pool of fire. I never knew how difficult it was to find people with the same tastes. Only later in life did I realize how much I needed homophilic relationships to survive. Going back to my first question, I believe well-being is the state of happiness, being satisfied and being comfortable where you are and in your own skin. Being away from home truly makes you realize how much is missing. The unfamiliarities of a new environment certainly do not bode well for our well-being though in time, I believe all problems to one’s well being will come to pass. Being in a new environment, there are 2 things we need to insure. We need to insure that no one worries about us and that we do not forget that problems will be resolved in time. In SA21, we were asked to think of an object to send to our families to let them know you are fine and keep one with us for ourselves to give us a reminder everyday to live optimistically.  In the process of finding an answer, our mind goes through different phases. According to Kahneman in her book, 2 systems exist in the mind called System 1 which operates automatically and System 2 which allocates attention to thinking and rationalizing (Kahneman 2011). When asked about what objects I would send to my folks from my new environment and something I would take with me, my System 1 immediately directed me to the obvious answers. Instinct first told me I should send my family local delicacies because my family loves food and take my cellphone with me because no one in their right mind and in this day and age would leave their phones at home. Then I realized, that answer did not simply satiate me. There was something lacking with just feeding my family random dessert items and relying on my phone to sustain me in my unfamiliar environment. Questions like “What if this was not the best thing to give my folks?” and “Would this choice make me feel happiest?” came up while making a choice. The numerous ambiguous questions I had could not simply be answered on impulse. Having no clear choice for my 2 objects, I let my system 2 take over. Usually, when System 1 runs into difficulty, “it calls on System 2 to support more detailed and specific processing” that may solve the problem at hand (Kahneman, 2015). After a while, things started to become clearer. I asked more and more until I arrived at these 2 objects in the picture above. First of all, I would send back the magician tarot card my best friend gave me. Back in high school, my friend explained to me that the cards he gave to each of us in a “barkada” signified bonds that will last a lifetime. According to him, the magician card represented wanting to achieve something and having the self-power to achieve it. He told me that though the powers of the cards weren’t real, it would never let me forget that there will always be people who will believe in my power to achieve my goals. Giving my friend back his card, I would assure him I haven’t forgotten his promise and that I would eventually get back the card in person. Second, I would take my lucky guitar pick with me. This was my very first guitar pick and whenever I could not play something properly, I always had this trusty pick to play songs perfectly. This pick was there for me in the darkest of times. During my worst moments, I took my pick and played until I had no more repressed emotions lingering within me. Having this guitar pick with me at all times, I would assure myself I would always have it to get up when I’m at my worst, no matter where I went. Having would also allow me to play any song, no matter what guitar I used. According to Kahneman’s Peak-end Rule, we judge our experiences according to what we felt its peak and when it ended (Kahneman, 2011). After deep introspection, I feel that these 2 objects have the power to expose my innermost emotions. So many happy moments and times of grief are engraved onto these items. Above all else, these are items that remind us that there was a time in your life that things were great, when your well-being was alright. These items like the items I own are a constant reminder that there is hope. We must never forget that all problems, no matter how tough, will resolve itself in time.   References: Hermans, Hubert J.M. Human Development in Today’s Globalizing World: Implications for Self and Identity. 2015. Kahneman. The Characters of the Story. 2011.  

Jethro Vera Cruz

If I’m in a new environment such as college and far faaaar away from my family and friends from home, the two objects that I have chosen have significant sentimental value from my past experiences at home and at college. They evoke pleasant emotions caused by the memories and remind me of the place that they respectively belong to. Furthermore, the process of choosing these objects helped me reflect about the role of emotions in my idea of well being. 

Object 1 is something that I am willing to send back to home. I chose my ID from last year. As something that I wear almost all the time, it has seen most of my experiences in my first year of college. I chose it because it has been through what I been through which is a good element in choosing which object I wanted to send back. Additionally, it has my picture from the start of the school year which represents the start of my time in the new environment. Even the dirt and stains on the ID lace and the scratches on the ID jacket also contain some sentimental value. Moreover, the dirt, scratches and stains each represent parts of my experiences in first year. 

On the other hand, object 2 is something from home that I would bring with me to college. I chose the chair that I have been using for at least the past 13 years. I have similar reasons as to why I decided to choose this object. This chair was usually in my room or the living room where many of the up and down experiences of my time at home occurred. Even though the chair is now a bit small for me, I would still use if I take it with me to my dorm. The first memories that would come to mind when I think about the chair would be playing video games with my childhood friends and sitting there while being in the room with my family waiting for new year when I was around 7. The chair is one of the objects that I possess for the longest time and best represents my childhood.

Moreover, Kahneman’s peak-end rule affected how I chose the two objects. According to this rule, people judge experiences based on how they felt at its peak and at its end. In the case of object 1, my ID, the end of my first year of college experience triggered strong emotions which I can still feel again, although to a lesser degree, whenever I think about that time. These mixture of happy, sad, and fulfilling emotions are the sum of all the new friendships, hardships and memories. No other object triggered emotions that strong  by the end of first year which helped me chose my ID. For object 2, the chair, it was involved in my peak happy emotions and pleasant memories of my experiences at home as mentioned above. 

After going through the process of choosing these two objects, I noticed the difference in which things or actions triggered certain emotions for me when I was much younger at home compared to where I was in my first year of college. In my time at home simple things such as being rewarded or being punished by my parents triggered happy and sad emotions respectively. Because of this I had to do things to impress my parents such as performing well in academics in order to be rewarded. In contrast to my first year of college, fulfilling things such as making my friends happy evoked happy emotions. 

In order to promote well-being, I have to be aware of which actions or things would trigger certain emotions and how I should react when that emotion is evoked. For me, well being is having correct knowledge of which sound stimuli would trigger these emotions along with having sound responses to these emotions. Knowing these stimuli involves looking into one’s own experiences and knowing more of the self. Gross mentioned the importance of regulating emotions because it affects a person’s actions. An example of properly regulating emotions is to calm down when angry or upset instead of directing the anger to other people. Incorrect knowledge of these stimuli can lead to unsafe and violent stimuli and responses to certain emotions. This results to an unstable mental health which can affect others.

Everyone is exposed to stimuli that triggers emotions everyday. Inappropriate reactions to such stimuli can affect a person socially. The person may not function properly because of how society treats him. This can ultimately disrupt society if the people do not have a healthy emotional well-being. 

Gross, J.J. (2008). Emotion regulation. In M. Lewis, J.M. Haviland-Jones, and L.F. Barrett (eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 497-512). New York: The Guilford Press.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Life as a story. In Thinking, fast and slow (Ch. 36, pp. 386-391). New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 

Anjelo Ambi

What does term well-being mean for me? The definition of Well-being itself is relative as to how a person perceives it. For me I envision Well-being as a state of harmony and happiness in which I’m fully able to synchronize with the energy of my surroundings. Being in a state of well-being means that I am happy with the situation that I’m in and that I emit a positive vibe to my surrounds due to immense satisfaction I experience whenever I achieve this state

For Starters, I admit that I’m not really the most out-going and sociable person. My sheltered upbringing and exposure to video games are partially to blame with this inability of mine to properly adjust myself in society. I struggle at times to relate with my peers who are more interested with fashion and sports which are directly contrasting my own interest in video games and history. As a result, my self-introversion made me come off as awkward and quirky in conversations. In spite of these “personal hindrances”, this hasn’t stopped me from appreciating the diverse and constantly changing society. The various ideals, trends, and norms that arise captivates me to the point that I desire to explore the world, specifically society and its people, in hopes of fully experiencing the cultural diversity and the endless possibilities of who we can be and what we can do with our lives. Because of this I never waste the chance to try something new, explore different places, and meet different people in hopes of widening my perspective

            Given the scenario painted upon me wherein I imagine myself in a vastly different environment without knowing anything and anyone. I’m only given the chance to bring an object with me to this new place and another one to act as a souvenir to my family. I see this as an opportunity to assess how my own perception of the changes in society in relation to my own set of ideals and beliefs.

            For the first object I decided to bring with me a family picture throughout my endeavor in this unfamiliar landscape. Why do you ask I chose to bring a family picture rather than something more useful like a cellphone? I highly cherish my family for all the emotional support and unconditional love I undeservingly received from them. This unique set of people who have been part of my life since the beginning has a significant role in my development as a person. The picture serves as reminder of how much they love me which will give me strength when I’m out there and prevent me from falling into a state of depression. This wasn’t really a difficult choice for me to make since I firm upholder of the term “family comes first”. This could be seen as part of the Filipino Culture which is more centered on the family in comparison to other cultures. Filipinos in general are also more emotional and sentimental when it comes to life rather than being pragmatic which could partially explain why I act this way and value my family since I was raised in a Filipino Household. Also the picture of the family will also act as an anchor to who I really am and remind me of my true identity while adapting to the change that will undergo as I traverse the new setting. This is similar to how the Chinese maintain their cultural identity as stated in Herman’s “Human

Development in Today’s Globalizing World” in which the Starbucks store in the Forbidden City is removed which in a sense desecrates the cultural heritage the Forbidden City represents in the midst of the modernizing world.

As a  my souvenir for my family, I decide to bring home a book  which will serve as a reflection of my experience in that new environment and as a way of sharing what I have seen and learned during my time away from them. The Book serves as a way of giving my family a glimpse of the new culture that I found in that new environment. In terms of choosing gifts, I think of how it will be useful to others and how long will the gift last in the hands of others. I myself admit that wasn’t an easy choice to make since when it comes to bringing things back, I tend to desire to choose a lot of items that I plan to give to my family in hopes completely bringing the culture along with me back home. However given the limitations of only bringing back one item, I am required to carefully weigh in the different options that are available to me and choose which one is the best item to bring back home. I think a book is the most appropriate souvenir because not only will give them more knowledge with the other side but also widen their perspective with things as such how do people of others cultures behave and what ideals and values they uphold in their society rather than have me family be contained by the Filipino Culture and not fully experiencing the diversity of the societies.

              Family has been the most important thing for me but it doesn’t mean that I have to completely deny the concept of change. Well-being is something that cannot last forever since the conditions of the environment and society change over time which leads to Well-being being inevitable interrupted. Since it is an inherent trait for society to change throughout the flow of time, I myself must explore and learn to adapt to society as it shifts from one form to another. By learning to change myself, I can regain my sense of well-being and be content with how I am doing in life.

  References

Kahneman, D. (2011). The characters of the story. In Thinking, fast and slow (Ch. 1, pp. 19-30. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Hermans, H. Human development in today’s globalizing world: Implications for self and identity. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015.

 Williams, M., Teasdale, J., Segal, Z., & Kabat-Zinn, J. (2007). Part I: Mind, Body, and Emotion. In The mindful way through depression: Freeing yourself from chronic unhappiness (pp. 11-49). New York: The Guilford Press.

Ambi #Worksheet1 #Ambi

Vera Cruz #worksheet1

Lee #worksheet1

Rodriguez #rodriguez #worksheet1