SOCIAL SELF:

THE SELF, SOCIETY & THE CULTURE

SELF, GENDER, AND THE DEVELOPING
SOCIAL WORLD
AT THE END OF THE TOPIC, THE STUDENTS
WILL BE ABLE TO:

1. Identify and discuss the different views on social “self ”.

2. Compare and contrast how the self has been influenced by
society and culture.
3. Explain why is it necessary to understand the self through
these perspectives.
4. Demonstrate how various social views can be applied to
understand oneself.
 LEARNING GUIDE

• To help you deepen your learning about the lesson,

here are important questions to keep in mind:

1. WHAT ARE THE SOCAL AND CULTURAL FACTORS

THAT INFLUENCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF?

2. HOW IS THE SELF UNDERSTOOD IN RELATION TO ITS

SOCIETY AND CULTURE?

3. HOW DOES GENDER INFLUENCE THE DEVELOPMENT

OF THE SELF?
THE SELF
Self-knowledge
(self-concept)
Self-awareness
Self-esteem
Self-deception

Interpersonal self
Agent self
(public self)
(executive function
Self-presentation
Decision-making
Member of the
Self-control
groups R
Taking charge of
Relationship partner
situations
Social roles
Active responding
Reputation
THE SELF
Self is commonly
defined by the
following
characteristics such
as:

Private – whole
process is never Separate – distinct
accessible to anyone from other selves
but the self.

Unitary – center of all Self-contained and

experiences and Independent – it can
thoughts. exist itself

Consistent – acting
and developing on
the same way or
manner.
HOW IS THE SELF UNDERSTOOD IN
RELATION TO ITS SOCIETY AND
CULTURE?
 SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST
The study of self is for better understanding the
vibrant relationship between the self and external
reality.

The perspective is known as the social

constructionist.

The person and their social context cannot easily

separated from the boundaries of the other.

The self is always in participation with social life and

its identity subjected to influences here and there.

The self is truly multifaceted.

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WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP OF

EXTERNAL WORLD AND THE SELF?
THE EXTERNAL WORLD AND THE SELF

• Self-as-human being is a process in

time, being human is an active
process in the external world that
understands, interprets and
transforms. Being human (the self) is a
process from potentiality to actuality.

• This process is called Socialization or

an interactive process that helps us
to develop a sense of self.
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.net/topics.php?post_id=
20166

WHY IS SOCIALIZATION
IMPORTANT?
WHY IS SOCIALIZATION IMPORTANT?

• One example of why socialization is

important is from the story of Tarzan.
Tarzan grew up just like the apes and
other animals, which in effect he could
be considered as an animal as well. His
sole interaction with the apes and other
animals made him just like one of them.

• What do you think became of Tarzan if

he continued to live with apes and
animals? How would he see himself?

• This shows that Socialization is really

important in individual’s development.
 HOW IS THE SELF
FORMED AS THE SOCIAL
WORLD DEVELOPS?
SELF

•It is capable of morphing

and fitting itself into any
circumstances, it finds
itself in.
THE SELF AND CULTURE

Marcel Mauss’s two faces; personne and

moi
• Moi – refer to a person’s sense of who he is, his body
and his basic identity, his biological givenness.

• Personne – composed of the social concepts of what

it means to be who he is, it means to live in a
particular institution, a particular family, a particular
religion, a particular nationality and how to behave
given the expectations and influences from others.
THE SELF AND CULTURE

• Territory. This refers to the geographical location in which

we live in. The kind of resources, or people in which we
interact with shapes the social development of the
person. Filipinos tend to consider their territory as a part
of who they are.

• Personne. This refers to the social concepts of what it

means to be who we are. How we see ourselves in
relation to others. A person’s capacity to change his
personne is possible when faced with a foreign territory.
While he has difficulty following rules in the country. He
begins to learn to discipline himself when he is living in
another country, following its rules.
THE SELF AND CULTURE

• Language. This is considered to be the means of

communication, either written or oral, which
people uses words in structured and conventional
way. It is another interesting aspect of this social
constructivism; it is a salient part of culture and
ultimately, has a tremendous effect in our crafting
of the self.
THE SELF AND CULTURE

• Territory, Personne’ and Language

are all part of an individual’s social
constructivism.

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european-agenda-culture/
INTERACTIONISM AND ROLE TAKING

• Robert Mead, an American Sociologist explains

that humans develop through the social process
called interaction.

• He emphasized that while we have potentialities at

birth, it is only through contact with society that we
develop our humanity that manifested in the
personality and self-concept.
THE SELF AND THE DEV’T…CON’T

• The social conception of the self entails that

individual selves are the products of social
interaction and not the logical or biological
preconditions of that interaction.
• It is not initially there at birth, but arises in the
process of social experience and activity.
• Social act is relevant, not only to his theory of mind,
but to all facets of his philosophy.
• Mind arises out of the social act of communication.
INTERACTIONISM AND ROLE TAKING

• It is noted that the important

thing to be studied and
understood is how society
affects the individual and
shapes its personality or
“self-hood”.

• This has been

conceptualized by Mead as
Role Taking, refers to the
ability to imagine ourselves
in the social roles of others
and act them out in order Retrieved from
to be used and applied to https://sociologyfinalprojectas.weebly.com/the-
stages-of-role-taking.html
ourselves.
INTERACTIONISM AND ROLE TAKING

• Mead considers Role taking in three stages.

• —the imitative stage, play stage and the game
stage (Mead, 1934).
• The first stage suggests that the child will learn to imitate the
behavior of others from their immediate environment such
as parents or any close family members.
• Then, as the child become older, they move to play stage
in which they begin to act out the role of the adults they
interact.
• Finally, the game stage in which they learn to play the
game of society according to the rules and role obligations
given by the society.
INTERACTIONISM AND ROLE TAKING

• As the individual undergo to these stages, they will

initially have developed the concept of “I” and the
“me”.
• Mead differentiated the two wherein the “me” is
the social self in which it represents the socialized
self that acts in response to the demands of the
society.
• In contrast, the “I” is the response to the me or
represented by one’s natural drives and impulses,
talents and creative energies.
 INTERACTIONISM AND LOOKING
GLASS SELF

• According to the American Sociologist Charles H.

Cooley (1864-1929) the degree of personal insecurity you
display in public is determined by what you believe
other people might think of you. This concept is called
Looking Glass Self developed by Cooley.

• This concept states that a person’s self grows out of a

person’s social interactions with others. The perception
that we give to ourselves came from the way other
person view us. In reality, how we see ourselves does not
determine by who we really are but rather from our
belief on how others perceived us.
 INTERACTIONISM AND LOOKING
GLASS SELF

• The emphasis of this concept is that people shape their

“self-concept” based on their understanding of how
others perceive them. Self-image form through the
reflections of the responses and evaluations of others in
our environment.

• According to Cooley, the looking glass-self theory gives

the idea that when the people in our environment serve
as the “mirrors” that reflect images of ourselves. This
process has three steps. First, presentation, how we think
we are seen by others which affects how we present
ourselves in social world. Next is identification, in which it
is how we think others evaluate ourselves each time we
interact. Lastly, subjective interpretation, this is how we
feel about and deal with their judgement.
 SELF AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF
SOCIAL WORLD
• Vygotsky, similar to Mead believes that individuals
develop through the language acquisition and
interaction with others.

• As such, the human mind is treated as something

that is made, constituted through language as
experienced in the external world and as
encountered in dialogs with others.
THE SELF AND THE DEVELOPMENTOF
THE SOCIAL WORLD

• Mead believes that there are

three activities through which the
self is developed;

• Language,
• Play and
• Game

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social-world-on-branding/
THE SELF AND THE DEV’T…CON’T

• Language allows the individuals to take on the “role

of the other” and allows people to respond to his or
her own gesture in terms of the symbolized attitudes
of others.
• During Play, individuals take on the roles of other
people in order to express the expectations of
significant others.
• In the Game, the individual is required to internalize
the roles of all others who are involved with him or
her in the game and must comprehend the rules of
the game.
THE GENDER AND THE SELF

• Gender is the loci of the self that is subject to

alteration, change and development.

• It is set of characteristics that identifies the social

behavior of women and men and the relationships
between them, it also refers to the socially
differentiated roles, characteristics and
expectations attributed by culture to women and
men.
THE GENDER AND THE SELF

• It is important for an individual to express and live his

gender identity.

• The discovery of ones gender is a personal

process/revelation and not just dictated by culture
and society.

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THE GENDER …CON’T

• Women are encouraged to act like fine ladies, and

are trained to behave in a fashion hat beliefs their
status as women society;

• Men in the other hand, taught early on how to

behave like a man, normally includes holding
emotion, being tough, fatalistic, not to worry about
danger, and admiration for hard physical labor.
THE GENDER…CON’T

• Gender roles, expectations and perceptions both

women and men into situations that constrain their
capacity to do and capacity to be, hindering in
turn, their potentials to attain a full and satisfying life.

• The gender self is then shaped within particular

context of time and space, it has to personally be
discovered and asserted and not dictated by
culture and the society.
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HOW DO LIVING IN OUR FAMILIES

DEVELOP OUR SELF CONCEPT?
 SELF IN FAMILIES

• Our families, together with the different personalities in it, and

the exposure and resources within our grasp will affect us.

• Human beings are born virtually helpless and is dependent for

a certain period of time. Relying on being nurtured by their
parents or guardian.

• As a child grows, relating with family members allows him to

have his/her first socialization process and ways of knowing
how to relate with others.

• Thus, self-hood is develop within the context of the family. The

family, the way they nurture, or expose the child in many ways
can serve to progress the personhood of an individua.
REFERENCES

• Understanding the Self First Edition

• https://www.scribd.com/presentation
• https:www.slideshare.net