LESSON 2: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIOLOGY

What is the self?

It is commonly defined by the following characteristics: “separate, self-contained,
independent, consistent, unitary, and private”.
 By separate, it is meant that the self is distinct from the other selves. The self is always
unique and has its own identity. One cannot be another person. Even twins are distinct
from each other.
 Second, self is also self-contained and independent because in itself it can exist. Its
distinctness allows it to be self-contained with its own thoughts, characteristics and
volition. It does not require any other self for it to exist.
 It is consistent because it has a personality that is enduring and therefore can be
expected to persist for quite some time. Its consistency allows it to be studied, described
and measured. Consistency also means that a particular self’s traits, characteristics,
tendencies and potentialities are more or less the same.
 Self is unitary in that it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a
certain person. It is like the chief command post in an individual where all processes,
emotions, and thoughts converge.
 Finally, the self is private. Each person sorts out information, feelings, and emotions,
and thought processes within the self. This process is never accessible to anyone but
the self.

This last characteristic of the self being private suggests that the self is isolated from the
external world. It lives within its own world. However, we also see that this potential clash
between the self and the external reality is the reason for the self to have a clear understanding
of what it might be, what it can be, and what it will be.
What is the relationship between external reality and the self? In the famous Tarzan
story, the little boy named Tarzan was left in the middle of the forest. Growing up, he never had
an interaction with any other human being but apes and other animals. Tarzan grew up acting
strangely like apes and unlike human persons. Tarzan became an animal, in effect. His sole
interaction with them made him just like one of them. Disappointedly, human persons will not
develop as human persons without intervention. We may be gifted with intellect and the capacity
to rationalize things but at the end of the day, our growth and development, our selves are truly
products of our interaction with external reality.
From this perspective then, one can see that the self is always at the mercy of external
circumstances that bump and collide with it. It is ever-changing and dynamic, allowing external
influences to take part in its shaping.

Social constructionists argue for a merged view of “the person” and their “local social
context” where the boundaries of one cannot easily be separated from the boundaries of the
other. Social constructivist argue that the self should not be seen as a static entity that stays
constant through and through. Rather, the self has to be seen as something that is in unceasing
flux, in a constant struggles with external reality and is malleable in its dealing with society.

The Self and Culture

Remaining the same person and turning chameleon by adapting to one’s

context seems paradoxical. However, the French Anthropologist Marcel Mauss
has an explanation for this phenomenon. According to Mauss, every self has two
faces: 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 persons’s basic identity.
Personne, on the other hand, 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 region, a particular nationality, and how
to behave given expectations and influences from others.

“The self is capable of morphing and fitting itself into any circumstances it
finds itself in.”

The Self and the Development of the Social World

So how do people actively produce their social worlds? How do children growing up
become social beings? How can a boy turn out to just be like an ape? How do twins coming out
from the same mother turn out to be completely different when given up for adoption? More than
his givenness, one is believed to be in active participation in the shaping of the self. Most often,
we think the human persons are just passive actors in the whole process of the shaping of
selves. That men and women are born with particularities that they can no longer change.

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

 Born: February 1863, Massachusetts, USA
 Graduated and taught grade school at
Oberlin College
 Enrolled at Harvard University (1887)
 During the span of his career, he wrote and
published many articles and book reviews but did
not publish any book.
 It was his students who put together his
numerous writings and edited them for publication.
 Died: Heart failure in 1931

MEAD’s SOCIAL SELF

 Social Behaviorism is the approached
used to describe the power of the environment in shaping human behaviour.
 He described the self as a ‘dimension of personality that is made-up of the
individual’s self-awareness and self-image’ (Macionis, 2012).
 According to Mead, the self cannot be separated from the society. This, he explained
through a set of stages which the person undergoes in the course of his development:
STAGES EXISTENCE OF SELF CHARACTERISTICS

Preparatory Stage None Imitates another

Play Stage Developing Role-taking

Game Stage Present Generalized other

1. The PREPARATORY STAGE

 Mead believed that a self, did not exist at birth. Instead, it develops over time. Its
development is dependent on social interaction and social experience.
 At this stage, children’s behaviour are primarily based on imitation. It was observed that
children imitate the behaviours of those around them. As these children grow, they
become familiar with the symbols (verbal and non-verbal) that people use in their
interactions. The symbols are the bases of communication.
 At the first stage, knowing and understanding the symbols are important for this will
constitute their way of communicating with others throughout their lives. (Schaefer,
2012)

2. The PLAY STAGE

 At this stage, skills at knowing and understanding the symbols of communication is
important, for this constitutes the basis for socialization. Through communication, social
relationships are formed.
 Now children begin to role play and pretend to be other people. Role-taking in the play
stage according to Mead, is the process of mentally assuming the perspective of another
person to see how this person might behave or respond in a given situation. (Schaefer,
2012)
 The play stage is significant in the development of the self. It is at this stage where the
child widens his perspective and realizes that he is not alone and that there are others
around him whose presence he has to consider.

3. The GAME STAGE

 Age: about eight or nine years and does more than just role-take
 The child begins to consider several tasks and various types of relationships
simultaneously. Through the learnings that were gained in stage two, the child now
begins to see not only his perspective but at the same time the perspective of others
around him.
 The child now has the ability to respond not just to one but several members of his social
environment.
‘generalized other’
  The term Mead used to explain the behaviour of the person when he sees/considers
other people in the course of his actions.
 Through the generalized other, the person realizes that people in society have cultural
norms, beliefs and values which are incorporated into each self. This realization forms
the basis of how the person may evaluate himself (self-evaluation).

MEAD’s Theory of the Self

 The self is not present at birth but begins as a central character in a child’s world.
Children see themselves as the center of their ‘universe’ and is having difficulty
understanding others around them.
 As they grow and mature, there is a change in the self. Begins to see other people and
is now concerned about people’s reactions. People around him, particularly his family,
play a major role in the formation of the self. They are the significant others who strongly
influence his development (Schaefer, 2012).

The “I” and “ME”

 He explained that the person’s capacity to see the self through others implies that the
self is composed of two parts, the I self and the Me self:
 I Self – When the person initiates or performs a social action, the self, functions as a
subject. This subjective element of the self is I.
Ex. I will go on a date. I will cook dinner tonight.
 Me Self – When the person takes the role of the other, the self functions as an object.
The objective element of the self is Me.
Ex. The choice for the best drawing was awarded to me.
 The formation of the self is not the end of the process of socialization.
 It continues for as long as the person is alive.
 The self may change based on life circumstances that have strong impact on it. Events
such as death of a loved one, disease or disability may reshape the self.
 Though a person may have no control over such events, he has control over how he
reacts and deals with it which is still an important aspect of the self (Macionis, 2012).

CHARLES HORTON COOLEY (1864-1929)

 an American sociologist
 made use of the sociopsychological approach to understanding
how societies work.
 Earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan and taught at the
same university as a sociology professor.
 Discussed the formation of the self through interaction (Human
Nature and the Social Order, 1902)
 People learn who they are through their social interaction with other
people. Although seeing oneself is based on contemplating one’s
 personal qualities, the view of the self is also significantly influenced by the impression
and perception of others.
He called this the looking-glass self or the self that is a product of social interaction.
Cooley believed that the process of developing a self has three phases:

1. People imagine how they present themselves to others.

ex. You dress-up elegantly for the prom.
You greet your teachers politely in the school’s hallway.
2. People imagine how others evaluate them.
ex. Others will see you as pretty and attractive by the way you fix yourself.
Others will see you as courteous and well-bred.
3. People develop some sort of feeling about themselves as a result of those
impressions.
ex. You may see yourself as confident or inferior.

It is noticed that Cooley in his three phases made use of the word imagine. This may
mean that there is a possibility that people develop self-identities based on the wrong
perception of how others see them. Wrong perceptions, however, can still change based on
positive social experiences.

I am not what I think I am

I am not what You think I am
I am what I think You think I am

ERVING GOFFMAN (1922-1982)

 A Canadian-American sociologist
 Known for his role in the development of Modern American
Sociology
 In his work, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life, he
wrote how he observed that people early in their social
interactions learned to slant their presentation of themselves in
order to create preferred appearances and satisfy particular
people.
 Impression management – the process of altering how the
person presents himself to others.
 He sees similarities of real social interaction to a theatrical
presentation. This is the reason for the label dramaturgical
approach to his view.
 Face-work – a phrase used to describe another aspect of the self. This was usually
observed in situations where face-saving measures are resorted to in the maintenance
of a proper image of the self in frustrating or embarrassing situations.

Self in Families
 While every child is born with certain givenness, disposition coming from his
parents’genes and general condition of life, the impact of one’s family is still deemed as a given
in understanding the self. The kind of family that we are born in, the resources available to us,
and the kind of development that we will have certainly affect us as we go through our life. As a
matter of evolutionary fact, human persons are one of those beings whose importance of family
cannot be denied. Human beings are born virtually helpless and the dependency period of a
human baby to its parents for nurturing is relatively longer than most other animals. Learning
therefore is critical in our capacity to actualize our potential of becoming humans. In trying to
achieve the goal of becoming a fully realized human, a child enters a system of relationships,
most important of which is the family.
 Imitation of Language and Behaviour
Without a family, biologically and sociologically, a person may not even survive or
become a human person. One is who he is because of his family for the most part.

Gender and the Self

Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change and
development. We have seen in the past years how people fought hard for the right to express,
validate, and assert their gender expression. Many conservatives may frown upon this and
insists on the biological. However, from the point of view of the social sciences and the self, it is
important to give one leeway to find, express, and live his identity. This forms part of selfhood
that one cannot just dismiss. One maneuvers into the society and identifies himself as who he is
by also taking note of gender identities.
Oftentimes, society forces a particular identity unto us depending on our sex and/or
gender. In the Philippines, husbands are expected to provide for the family. The eldest man in a
family is expected to head the family and hold it in. Slight modifications have been on the way
due to feminism and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activism but for the most
part, patriarchy has remained to be at work.
Nancy Chodorow, a feminist, argues that because mothers take the role of taking care of
children, there is a tendency for girls to imitate the same and reproduce the same kind of
mentality of women as care providers in the family. The way that little girls are given dolls
instead of guns or any other toys are encouraged to play with makeshift kitchen also reinforces
the notion of what roles they should take and the selves they should develop. In boarding school
for girls, young women encouraged to act like fine ladies, are trained to behave in a fashion that
befits their status as women in the society.
Men on the other hand, in the periphery of their own family, are taught early on how to
behave like a man. This normally includes holding in one’s emotion, being tough, fatalistic, not
to worry about danger, and admiration for hard physical labor. Masculinity is learned by
integrating a young boy in a society. In the Philippines, young boys had to undergo circumcision
not just for the original, clinical purpose of hygiene but also to assert their manliness in the
society. Circumcision plays another social role by initiating young boys into manhood.
The gendered self is then shaped within a particular context of time and space. The
sense of self that is being taught makes sure that an individual fits in a particular environment.
This is dangerous and detrimental in the goal of truly finding one’s self, self-determination, and
growth of the self. Gender has to be personally discovered and asserted and not dictated by
culture and the society.

Application:
Outcome Based Assessment: Create a timeline of how you develop your self in a
sociological perspective. This will be submitted next week.