The Self, Society, and Culture
 SEPARATE
 THE SELF IS DISTINCT FROM OTHER SELVES
 THE SELF IS ALWAYS UNIQUE AND HAS ITS OWN IDENTITY
 ONE CANNOT BE ANOTHER PERSON
Self-contained and Independent
The Self in itself can exist
In its distinctness it allows to be self-contained with
its own thoughts, characteristics, and volition
It does not require other selves for it to exist
Consistent
Has a personality that is enduring and therefore can
be expected to persist for quite some time
Its consistency, therefore, allows it to be studied,
described, and measured
Unitary
Center of all experiences and thoughts that run a
person
It is like the chief command post in an individual
where all processes, emotions, and thoughts
converge
Private
Each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions,
and thought ,processes within the Self.
The whole process is never accessible to anyone but the
Self.
Self is always changing and dynamic, allowing external
influences to take part in its shaping.
Social Constructionist Perspective
Argues for the merged view of the person and their social context
One cannot easily be separated from the boundaries of the other
The Self is always in participation with social life and its identity
and subjected to influences here and there
The Self is multi-faceted
The Self is capable of morphing and fitting itself into any
circumstance it finds itself in
Marcel Mauss
French Anthropologist
Explained that the Self has two faces:
Personne
Composed of the social concept of what it means to be who he is.
Has much to do with what it means to live in a particular institution,
e.g. family, religion, nationality, etc. and how to behave given the
expectations and influence of the others
 Moi
A person’s sense of who he is, his body
and his basic identity, his biological
giveness
A person’s basic identity
 CULTURE
An expansive set of material and symbolic processes such as world,
environment, context, cultural systems, social systems, social
structures, institutions, practices, policies, norms, and values that
give form and direction to our behavior.
Not a stable set of values that reside inside people
Located in the world in patterns of ideas, practices, institutions,
and artifacts
Product of human activity
Each individual’s activity as well as thoughts, feelings, and actions
of those who came before the person
Dynamic
 CULTURE
Constantly invented, accumulated, and changed overtime
Selves are dynamic in that change as the various cultural content
that engage in change
If one finds himself born and reared in a particular culture, one
definitely tries to fit in a particular mold.
If a self is born in to a particular society or culture, the self will have
to adjust according to its exposure
The Self and the Development of the
Social World
Language
A salient part of culture
Has tremendous effect in crafting the Self
One of the reasons culture divide accounts for the differences on how one
regards one’s self.
Unending metamorphosis of the Self
oMediated by language
Language both publicly shared and privately utilized symbol system is the site where the
individual and the social make and remake each other. (Schwarts, White, Luts, 1993)
 Lev Vygotsky
Believed that the child internalizes real-life dialogues that
he has with others, with his family, his primary caregiver, or
his playmates. They apply this to their mental practical
problem solving.
Notice how children become what they watch and they
can easily adopt ways of cartoon characters they are
exposed to.
 The Self in Families
The impact of family is deemed given in understanding the Self.
The kind of family a person is born in and the resources available to them
(human, spiritual, and economic) affect the kind of development that person will
go through in life.
Human persons learn ways of living and their selfhood in a family
It is what family initiates the person to become and serves as the basis for that
person’s progress
A person will internalize the ways and styles they view from their family
A person is who he is because of his family
 Gender and the Self
Gender
Loci of the Self subject to alteration, change and development.
People fought and fights hard for the right to express, validate, and
assert their gender expression
Partly determines how a person sees themself in the world
Often times, society forces a particular identity depending on a
person’s sex and/or gender