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Understanding The Self: Module 2 Contents/ Lessons

The document discusses various sociological perspectives on the development of self-identity, including Mead and Cooley's theory that the self is formed through social interactions rather than innate traits, and the concept of the "I" and "me" representing one's unique traits versus social roles. It also examines postmodern views that self-identity can change due to social contexts and technologies, and how people may pursue prestige and status through consumption rather than focusing on needs or purpose.

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Guki Suzuki
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1K views

Understanding The Self: Module 2 Contents/ Lessons

The document discusses various sociological perspectives on the development of self-identity, including Mead and Cooley's theory that the self is formed through social interactions rather than innate traits, and the concept of the "I" and "me" representing one's unique traits versus social roles. It also examines postmodern views that self-identity can change due to social contexts and technologies, and how people may pursue prestige and status through consumption rather than focusing on needs or purpose.

Uploaded by

Guki Suzuki
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Document: Module 2/ Week 2


Level: College IT/ HRS 1 -1
Teacher: Mr. Michael AS. Enaje

Module 2 Contents/ Lessons

1 The Self from Various Perspectives


∙ Sociology

LESSON 1 THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES (SOCIOLOGY)

REFLECTION ON THE SELF AS A PRODUCT OF SOCIETY

Nowadays, self-identity is important for an individual to understand the self


within him. The basic idea about self development is that, “The self is not present
at birth, rather, it develops while growing through social experiences”. There are
theories and concepts describing how self develops for us to understand the self
and others.

1|UNDERSTANDING THE SELF


According to the theory of Mead and Cooley, the self is not dependent
on biological predisposition; rather, it is a product of social interaction. It means
that; relating to the basic idea, self is not present at birth or it doesn’t comes
from our parents or ancestor’s trait. But it is a product of social interaction. Base
on my experience, my father has short tempered as well as my brother, but I, I
can manage my temper and stay calm. I think I developed this trait through
interaction with people with good temper like my friends around me. Another
idea from Cooley, about the looking glass. For example, base on my
experience, I’m always with my parents before and I have viewed myself as a
mirror of them. Like being good, being wise, and determined to live a life are
some traits I like the most that they have.

Next is the theory of the social self. The I and the me. “I” is the response to
“me”, which is the active side of the self that represent the spontaneous and
unique traits of an individual. While the “me” is the social self. Me is the
internalization of roles which derive from such symbolic processes as linguistic
interaction. The I and the me have dynamic relationship with one another and
once it has reunited, the self can attain its full development. So, I can say that
the “I” is my response to the the social side of myself which is the “me”. For
example, from socialization, i learned that the attitude that I must apply to one
environment should be strong, therefore the “I” of myself will respond to allow
myself to show the attitude that I must show. It is clear that the relationship of
these two will result in the development of the self.

Another concept according to Gerry Lanuza about our modern society


that we have freedom in choosing our self-identity. While in the postmodern
societies, our self-identity continuously change due to the demands of multitude
of social context, new information technologies, and globalization. It means that
we can freely choose what identity we want to have for self-cultivation but
there are some problems that may arise. For instance, the limitation of close
interaction if we choose not to socialize because that’s the identity we
developed. Another concept from a sociologist Jean Baudrillard, individual
achieve self-identity through prestige symbols and we consume goods that will
give us a feeling of goodness instead of choosing our needs. It’s one of the
major problem about self-identity in our postmodern society because we tend
to compare the social class we have from other people just to feel good. We
keep on finding more because we can never be satisfied in life. In my opinion,
this is the reason why many people are doing crime just to afford something
they want. Also, I’ve noticed that in today’s world, most of the dreams of many
people are; to have prestige car, house, million dollar or in short to become rich.
But we definitely forgot what’s the real reason of our life. Unfortunately, most of
us forgot who really we are as a human being because they were blinded by
golds. Searching for self-identity is indeed challenging, we maybe have a
choice but can we really choose the right one?

2| UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

Activities:
PART 1: Discuss the theory of Mead and Cooley about the

self. PART 2: Explain the concept of the theory of the social

self.

PART 3: Discuss the point of view of the theory from Gerry Lanuza.

PART 4: Learning Bank: (Summary of learning) Please write down about what you
have learned in this topic/ lesson.
3|UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

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