SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF Introduction In this chapter, the self is presented contrary to the philosophical view whereby self is considered as having two components of the body and soul (or the body and mind). Self in this chapter is emphasized as social by nature. Beginning from birth, it continuously interacts with its external world that determines what it might be, what it can be and what it will be. Learning Outcomes At the end of the module, students should be able to: ● explain the basic concept of self as a product of social reality; ● describe how self is shaped by society and culture; and ● examine oneself relative to his/her external world. Self as a Social Construct • The self as a social construct is derived from the idea that society which takes part in its shaping is a social construction. • Through social interaction and active understanding of the social reality by collective actions of people, living together and their relationships become meaningful. • Through language, they privately and publicly utilize or share symbols within their interactions. This creates a pattern that shapes and influences who they are, how they behave and think. The Self and Society • Taking the forefront when Philosophy started to lose its fame in the area of understanding about the self, the discipline of Sociology asserts that humans cannot be understood apart from its social context. • Based on its idea, society is linked to the individual as they are inherently connected and dependent on each other. • An individual is capable of seeing through his/her experiences and the larger society called sociological imagination in which society creates opportunities for him/her to think and act as well as limiting his/her thoughts and actions. Sociological Theories of the Self A. The Looking Glass • Charles Cooley asserted that individuals Self by Charles Cooley develop their concept of self by looking at how others perceive them. • Using the view of others, Cooley denotes that understanding of self is socially constructed. • Through social interaction, one’s sense of self is mirrored from the judgments they receive from others to measure their own worth, values, and behavior. A. The Looking Glass Self by Charles Cooley 1. An individual in a social situation imagines how they appear to others. 2. That individual imagines others’ judgment of that appearance. 3. The individual develops feelings (of pride or shame) and responds to those perceived judgments. B. Theory of the SelfDevelopment by “Therapy” C. George Herbert Mead This song shows conflict between to people who tries to understand how each other feels but fail to do so. This shows how important it is to understand yourself and see things in another people’s • As a prerequisite of being able to understand the self, one has to develop self-awareness. This can be derived from looking at ourselves from the perspective of others. • For instance, we put ourselves into someone else’s shoes and look at the world through that someone’s perspective. • If social interaction is absent particularly in one’s early experiences, he/she will find difficulty in developing an ability to see him/herself as others would see him/her. 1. Preparatory Stage: Children in this stage are only capable of imitating actions of others (i.e. people they particularly in contact with such as their family members). They have no ability to imagine yet how others see things. 2. Play Stage: At this stage, children begin to try to take on the role of other person by acting outgrown up behaviors, dressing like adults, etc. 3. Game Stage: While children learn about several roles of others, they understand how these roles interact with each other in this stage. They learn to understand complex interactions involving different people with variety of purpose. 4. Generalized other: In this stage, children develop, understand and learn the idea of the common behavioral expectations of the general society. They are able to imagine how they are viewed by one or many. Mead pointed out that “self” in this stage is being developed. The Self and Culture • Being active participant in its social world, the self, through interaction, is made and remade. As it continuously interacts with others, society is continually changing and dynamic, so thus self. • Self being endlessly exposed to its social world and is subjected to its influences here and there. While the social world is changing and dynamic, being the same person across time and space therefore is illogical. • In this perspective, self is considered as multi-faceted. • Marcel Mauss and his contemporaries claimed that society is a result of a process whereby actions of humans is built upon everyday social continuity. As an Anthropologist and Sociologist, he asserted that self adapts to its everyday social condition • Marcel Mauss asserted that every self has two faces--the personne and moi. • MOI refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body and his basic identity, his biological givenness. It is a person’s basic identity. • PERSONNE is composed of the social concepts of what it means, to be who he is. It has much to do with what it means to live in a particular institution, a particular family, a particular religion, a particular nationality, and how to behave given expectations and influences from others. • Personne therefore shifts from time to time to adapt to his social situation (Alata, EJ et. al., 2018). Various personne can be illustrated across culture. • The language which has something to do with one’s culture has a tremendous effect in the crafting of the self. George Herbert Mead characterized the self as “I” and “Me”. • “I” is the opinion of ourselves as a whole. We respond the behavior of others as “I” or the Unsocialized self. • “Me” is the awareness of how others expect us to behave in a given situation which is also called as the Social Self. • Lev Vygotsky • a Russian psychologist, argues that social interaction comes before development; consciousness and cognition are the end product of socialization and social behavior. He also believed that the community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning." • Vygotsky stated that every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level: • (1) Social level l (Interpsychological) This is where social learning takes place because in this stage, they interact, connect and reach out to other people. • (2) In Individual level (Intrapsychological), after acquiring social learnings, the functions will appear a second time and, this time, more developed and thus, leading to cognitive development(self-reflection). Elementary mental functions. • Sensation • Hunger • Memory Higher mental functions • Language • Memory • Attention • Perception The Self in Families • • The first group that one interacts with and depend for the fulfilment of his/her needs is the family. t is also the main avenue for teaching young individuals the basic things that they need to learn in order to fit in the society. • These are all made possible by way of socialization whereby one learns basic ways of living, language, values, etc. by way of imitating or observation or teaching by an adult member of the family such as the mother and the father. • In this sense, the initial conception of selfhood for social survival and becoming a human person is learned in the • Gerry Lanuza, Filipino sociologist, he stated that in modern societies the attainment and stability of self identity is freely chosen. It is no longer restricted by customs and traditions. • In postmodern societies, self-identity continuously changes due to the demands of multitude of social contexts, new information technologies, and globalization. • Jean Baudrillard, he suggests that in postmodern societies, individuals achieve self-identity through prestige symbols that they consume. • The cultural practices of advertising and mass media greatly influence individuals to consume goods not for their primary value and utility but to give them a feeling of goodness and power when compared with others ACTIVITY • Write in ¼ sheet of paper a sentence about how do you think others see you.
