COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES- DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

THE SELF FROM THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

JUNIOR A. AMODO, LPT

INSTRUCTOR
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

THE SELF IN SOCIOLOGICAL

PERSPECTIVE

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

THE SELF IS NOT PRESENT AT

BIRTH.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

What concept
of the SELF can
you formulate
from the story of
Tarzan?

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

NATURE versus NURTURE

NATURE NURTURE
• is influenced by genetic • generally taken as the
inheritance and other influence of external
biological factors. factors after conception,
e.g., the product of
exposure, life experiences
and learning on an
individual

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

THE SELF
AND
THE CULTURE
Understanding the Self
Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

MARCEL MAUSS
• The self has two faces:
➢ Moi which refers to a person’s
sense of who he is, his body, and his basic
identity as well as his biological givenness;
and
• ➢ Personne which is composed of the
social concepts of what it means to be
who he is
Understanding the Self
Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

The SELF and the CULTURE

Moi Personne
“ I am…” When in the court, he
A lawyer can be defensive
A husband As a husband, intimate
and sweet
A father As a father, strict but
loving

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

The CULTURE
• refers to the cumulative deposit
of knowledge, experience,
beliefs, values, attitudes,
meanings, hierarchies, religion,
notions of time, roles, spatial
relations, concepts of the
universe;

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

The CULTURE

• “that of a complex whole which

includes knowledge, beliefs,
arts, morals, laws, customs, and
any other capabilities and habits
acquired by [humans] as a
member of the society”

EDWARD B. TAYLOR
Understanding the Self
Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

The CULTURE
• Culture is the meeting point of Sociology and Anthropology in
terms of self understanding.
• ➢ Sociology: is defined as the “scientific study of human life,
social groups, whole societies and human world whose
subject matter is our own behavior as social beings in
relationship with many other people” (Giddens et. al, 2016 as cited by Palean et.
al, 2018).

• ➢ Anthropology: “is the inclusive study of the human race, its

culture, and society and its physical development” (Heacock, 2009 as
cited by Palean et. al, 2018).

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

TYPES OF CULTURE

1. MATERIAL CULTURE
- refers to the physical objects,
resources, and spaces that people
use to define their culture.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

TYPES OF CULTURE

2. NON-MATERIAL CULTURE
- refers to the nonphysical ideas that
people have about their culture.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

The CULTURE
• Culture can influence how you, your
coworkers, and the families you serve view:
• ❑ Relationships: Culture influences how
you enter into and maintain relationships.
• ❑ Personality traits: Culture influences
whether and how you value traits like
humility, self-esteem, politeness, and
CATHERINE RAEFF assertiveness.
Developmental Psychologist

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

The CULTURE
• ❑ Achievement: Culture influences how
you define success and whether you value
certain types of individual and group
achievements.

• ❑ Expressing emotions: Culture influences

how and whether you consider feelings
CATHERINE RAEFF public or private.
Developmental Psychologist

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

THE SELF AND THE

DEVELOPMENT OF THE
SOCIAL WORLD

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

CHARLES HORTON COOLEY

• The LOOKING GLASS SELF
• The people whom a person interacts with become a
mirror in which he views himself.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD-

I and ME
• The “I” is the subjective element and the active side
of the self.
• The “I” is the response of the individual to the “Me”.
• The “Me” is the objective element of the self.
• It represents the “internalized” attitudes,
expectations, and demands of other people.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD-

I and ME
• The full development of the self is attained when
the “I” and the “ME” are united.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025
• Mead’s Development Stages of the Self
the self is developed with the presence
of individuals and by learning to
interpret situations by “taking on the
role of the other.”
• This is done through stages:
• ➢imitation (gestures, words),
• ➢play (specific roles),
• ➢games (multiple roles), and
➢generalized other (role of the group).
GE ORGE H E R B E R T M E A D
Understanding the Self
Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

Mead’s Stages of Development

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

LEV VYGOTSKY
➢ believed that social interaction plays a
critical role in children's learning.

➢ His theory talks about development,

social interaction, language and
culture.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

LEV VYGOTSKY
➢ The Zone of Proximal Development.
"is the distance between the actual development
level as determined by independent problem
solving and the level of potential development as
determined through problem solving under adult
guidance or in collaboration with more capable
peers.“

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025
THE SELF

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

LEV VYGOTZKY

Lower Mental Higher Mental

Functions Functions

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

LEV VYGOTZKY

Lower Mental SOCIAL Higher Mental

Functions INTERACTION Functions

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

GERRY LANUZA
➢ In modern societies the attainment and stability of self-
identity is freely chosen.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

JEAN BAUDRILLAD
➢ Individuals achieve self-identity through prestige symbols
that they consume.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

THE SELF AND THE FAMILY

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

THE FAMILY

• The Family played a very significant role

in the early stage of socialization.
• They instilled in us the ideas of “ought
and ought nots” in our limited minds as
children which in turn would affect our
behavior as well as our decision making
later in life.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

THE FAMILY

• The impact of family, for instance, is still

deemed as a given in understanding the
self.
• In becoming a fully realized human being,
one enters system of relationships and
first of which is the Family.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

The SELF and the

GENDER

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

GENDER
Gender is a term that refers to social or cultural
distinctions associated with being woman, man, or
neither that may or may NOT correspond to one’s
biological sex.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

SELF and GENDER

➢For example, in the Philippine Setting:

➢Husbands are expected to provide for the

family; and wives are expected to take care
of the kids and do household chores.
➢Color blue is for boys and color pink is for
girls.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

THE SELF FROM THE

EASTERN AND WESTERN
THOUGHTS

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025
THE SELF FROM THE EASTERN AND WESTERN
THOUGHTS

❑Self-construction is a form of
cultural activity (Raeff (2006) as cited by Palean
et. al, 2018).
❑As a cultural activity, it is important to
understand about the concept of
cultural relativism

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

THE SELF FROM THE EASTERN AND WESTERN

THOUGHTS

• Cultural relativism refers to not judging a

culture to our own standards of what is right
or wrong, strange or normal. Instead, we
should try to understand cultural practices
of other groups in its own cultural context.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025
KEY DIFFERENCES OF EASTERN AND WESTERN
THOUGHTS

• The Western culture is that of individualism

while the
Eastern culture is more of the collectivism.

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy
1st Semester I AY 2024-2025

YOU are what you believe

yourself to be
_Paulo Coelho_

Understanding the Self

Department of Social Sciences and
Philosophy