GNED 08 - UNDERSTANDING THE SELF BS Psychology AY 2021-2022 Prepared by: RC Jayme Jr.

, AM
Demonteverde & RMT Mitra

The Self from Various Perspectives

I. Objectives

After successfully completing the lesson you should be able to differentiate concepts of

interaction of an individual in society, trace the origin of sociological ideas in the development of

self, and analyze human behavior in different settings.

II. Topic Contents

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, the 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.

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GNED 08 - UNDERSTANDING THE SELF BS Psychology AY 2021-2022 Prepared by: RC Jayme Jr., AM
Demonteverde & RMT Mitra
 ● 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.

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

person'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
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GNED 08 - UNDERSTANDING THE SELF BS Psychology AY 2021-2022 Prepared by: RC Jayme Jr., AM
Demonteverde & RMT Mitra

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

During the span of his career, he wrote and published many articles and book reviews but

did not publish any book.

MEAD’s SOCIAL SELF

o Social Behaviorism is the approach used to describe the power of the environment in

shaping human behaviour.

o 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 society. This, he explained

through a set of stages which the person undergoes in the course of his development:

1. The PREPARATORY STAGE

o 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.

o At this stage, children’s behaviour is 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.

o 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 are

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.

STAGES EXISTENCE OF SELF CHARACTERISTICS

PreparatoryStage None Imitates another

Play Stage Developing Role-taking

Game Stage Present Generalized other

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

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GNED 08 - UNDERSTANDING THE SELF BS Psychology AY 2021-2022 Prepared by: RC Jayme Jr., AM
Demonteverde & RMT Mitra

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 are 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.

● The formation of the self is not the end of the process of socialization.

● It continues for as long as the person is alive.

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GNED 08 - UNDERSTANDING THE SELF BS Psychology AY 2021-2022 Prepared by: RC Jayme Jr., AM
Demonteverde & RMT Mitra

● The self may change based on life circumstances that have a strong impact on it. Events

such as the 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 socio psychological 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.

mean that there is a possibility that people develop self-identities based on the wrong perception

of how

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GNED 08 - UNDERSTANDING THE SELF BS Psychology AY 2021-2022 Prepared by: RC Jayme Jr., AM
Demonteverde & RMT Mitra

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 in real social interaction with 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

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, the most

important of which is the family.

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.

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GNED 08 - UNDERSTANDING THE SELF BS Psychology AY 2021-2022 Prepared by: RC Jayme Jr., AM
Demonteverde & RMT Mitra

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 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 forthe

original, clinical purpose of hygiene but also to assert their manliness in society.
 Circumcisionplays another social role by initiating young boys into manhood.

Gender has to be personally discovered and asserted and not dictated by culture and

society.

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GNED 08 - UNDERSTANDING THE SELF BS Psychology AY 2021-2022 Prepared by: RC Jayme Jr., AM
Demonteverde & RMT Mitra

III. Learning Activity

See our google classroom activities.

IV. Readings / Video

Powerpoint presentation during synchronous

time. V. Topic Requirements

Answer questions in the learning activit