LESSON 1.

THE SELF FROM THE physical, social, and psychological needs

PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIOLOGY and which maintain order and the values
of the culture.

SOCIOLOGY 5 Major Social Institutions

as the systematic study of society and social
interaction. The word “sociology” is derived from -Political
the Latin word socius (companion) and the -Education
Greek word logos (speech or reason). Which -Economic
together mean “reasoned speech” -Family
-Religion
-examination of human social relationships and
institutions. It is astoundingly diverse. THE SELF AS A PRODUCT OF
MODERN SOCIETY AMONG OTHER
three levels of sociology CONSTRUCTIONS

1. MICRO LEVEL Society has changed significantly through

- at the micro level, sociologists examine processes of modernization and these changes
the smallest levels of interaction; even in have affected the way individuals build up and
some cases, just “the self” alone. develop their self-identities.
- might include one-on-one interactions
between couples or friends. Or perhaps a PRE-MODERN SOCIETY
sociologist is interested in how a person’s - Individuals had very little choice about
perception of self is influenced by his or her where they preferred to live, which line of
social context. work they chose and whom they wanted to
2. MESO LEVEL marry.
-At the meso level, sociologists tend to - Individuals behaved according to rules and
study the experiences of groups and the traditions, the family and nearest
interactions between groups. environment provided people with social
-At the meso level, the focus shifts to the supervision and guidance on how to get
characteristics of specific networks, through life
groups, and organizations (i.e.,
collectivities). MODERN SOCIETY
- The meso-level refers to the connection, - With modernization, the living conditions
interaction and ongoing coordination of have improved and people’s choices and
numerous different social roles freedom about what to do with their lives
simultaneously. have increased.
3. MACRO LEVEL - Individuals today have little guidance on
At the macro-level of analysis, the focus is which options are the right ones or how
on the properties of large-scale, society- they should behave.
wide social interactions: the dynamics of - Therefore, in a modern society, where the
institutions, classes, or whole societies. rate of change is much faster than in
traditional societies, people need to be
SOCIETY constantly adjusting their behavior to the
· society is a large social grouping that newest information and ideas.
shares the same geographical territory and
is subject to the same political authority
and dominant cultural expectations.
· They have a set of institutions which
provide what they need to meet their
 A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO SELF -At one level, we can look at the patterns of
AND IDENTITY behavior of one individual over time and come to
-A sociological approach to self and identity know that individual. By pooling several such
begins with the assumption that there is a patterns across similar individuals, we can come
reciprocal relationship between the self and to know individuals of a certain type. At still
society (Stryker, 1980). another level, we can look at the patterns of
-The self-influences society through the actions behavior across individuals to see how these
of individuals thereby creating groups, patterns fit with the patterns of others to create
organizations, and institutions. And, reciprocally, larger patterns of behavior. It is these larger,
society influences the self through its shared inter-individual patterns that constitute social
language and meanings. structure.
-Society exists to serve individuals. It is in the
society that an individual is surrounded and SELF
encompassed by culture, as a societal force. It -Self emerges out of the mind, the mind as
is in the society again that he has to conform to arising and developing out of social interaction,
the norms, occupy statuses and become and patterned social interaction as forming the
members of group. basis of social structure (Mead, 1934).

1. SITUATIONAL APPROACH -The mind is the thinking part of the self. It is

covert action in which the organism points out
-The situational approach to self and society meanings to itself and to others. The ability to
sees society as always in the process of being point out meanings and to indicate them to
created through the interpretations and others and to itself is made possible by
definitions of actors in situations (Blumer, 1969). language, which encapsulates meanings in the
form of symbols.
-From this perspective, the inference is made
that individuals are free to define the situation in SELF-CONCEPT
any way they care to, with the consequence that - is generally thought of as our individual
society is always thought to be have no real perceptions of our behavior, abilities, and unique
organization or structure. characteristics. It is essentially a mental picture
of who you are as a person. Rosenberg (1979)
2. STRUCTURAL APPROACH defined the self-concept as the sum total of our
thoughts, feelings, and imaginations as to who
-Within this perspective, we do not see society we are.
as tentatively shaped. Instead, we assume that - Later conceptions elaborated and refined this
society is stable and durable as reflected in the view suggesting that the self-concept was made
“patterned regularities that characterize most up of cognitive components (given the collection
human action” (Stryker, 1980, p. 65). of identities) as well as affective components or
self-feelings including self-esteem (both worth-
-Patterns of behavior within and between based and efficacy-based self-esteem) (Franks
individuals have different levels of analysis, and & Marolla,1976; Stryker, 1980).
this is key to understanding the link between self - In general, the self-concept is the set of
and society. meanings we hold for ourselves when we look
at ourselves.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
SELF EVALUATION
- The patterned interrelationships among a set - The aspect of the self-concept that has
of individual and organizational statuses, as received a significant amount of attention
defined by the nature of their interacting roles. in sociological social psychology is the
evaluative part of the self-concept, better
 known as self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1979). GEORGE HERBERT MEAD: THE SOCIAL
SELF
-Two dimensions of self-esteem have been George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 –
identified: April 26, 1931)
• efficacy-based self-esteem – seeing - developed the Theory of Behaviorism to
oneself as competent and capable explain how social experience creates individual
personality (1962; orig. 1934 as cited by
• worth-based self-esteem – feeling that Maciones).
one is accepted and valued
- It recognized the environment as a
- Others have labeled the distinction “inner self- powerful influencing factor in shaping a
esteem” (being effective) and “outer self- person’s personality.
esteem” (acceptance by others) (Franks &
Marolla, 1976) - Self is a part of an individual’s personality
composed of self-awareness and self-
IDENTITY image. It is the product of social
-The overall self is organized into multiple parts experience.
(identities), each of which is tied to aspects of
the social structure. - Mead also stressed that social experience
-One has an identity, an “internalized positional is the exchange of symbols. People
designation” (Stryker, 1980, p. 60), for each of empathize using symbols.
the different positions or role relationships the
person holds in society.
- The social conception of the self-entails
-The identities are the meanings one has as a
that individual selves are the products of
group member, as a role-holder, or as a person.
social interaction and not the logical or
In examining the nature of interaction between
biological preconditions of that interaction.
identities of different persons, we can take It is not initially there at birth, but arises in
the process of social experience and
two different perspectives:
activity. Mind arises out of the social act of
communication
· Social structure – identities are
embedded is relatively fixed and people
play out the roles That are given to them. According to Mead, there are three activities
through which the self is developed:
· Agency – individuals can make or create
a role by making behavioral choices and LANGUAGE
decisions and engaging in negotiation and allows individuals to take on the “role of the
compromise as well as conflict. other” and allows people to respond to his or her
own gestures in terms of the symbolized attitude
THE SELF AND SOCIALIZATION of others.

The works of Charles Horton Cooley and PLAY

George Herbert Mead have been very useful in individuals take on the roles of other people and
understanding how the individual develops and pretend to be those other people in order to
modifies the sense of self as a result of social express the expectations of significant others.
interaction.
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.
George Herbert Mead is also well-known for Lesson 2. THE SELF IN VARIOUS
his concept of the “I” and the “me”. PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE -
According to Mead, the self has two sides. ANTHROPOLOGY
1. The "me" represents the expectations and
attitudes of others (the generalized other).
It is the organized set of attitudes of others
that the individual assumes. It is the
socialized aspect of the individual. It
represents the learned behavior, attitudes,
and expectations of others and the society.
The “me” is considered a phase of the self
that is in the past. The “me” has been
developed by the knowledge of society
and social interactions that the individual
has gained. ANTHROPOLOGY.
2. The “I” can be considered the present and -is the systematic study of humanity, with the
future phase of the self. It represents the goal of understanding our evolutionary origins,
individual’s identity based on response to our distinctiveness as a species, and the great
the “me.” The “I” is the response to the diversity in our forms of social existence across
“me” in the person’s individuality. It allows the world and through time. The focus of
the individual to still express creativity and Anthropology is on understanding both our
individualism and understand when to shared humanity and diversity and engaging
possibly bend and stretch the rules that with diverse ways of being in the world.
govern social interactions. “I’ is the - study of what makes us human.
existence in community comes before Anthropologists take a broad approach to
individual consciousness. One must understanding the many different aspects of the
participate in the different social positions human experience, which we call holism. They
within society and only subsequently can consider the past, through archaeology, to see
one use that experience to take the how human groups lived hundreds or thousands
perspective of others and thus become of years ago and what was important to them.
self-conscious.
SUBFIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
According to Mead, we cannot understand
who we are if we do not socialize. You can’t 1. ARCHAEOLOGY
identify yourself if you are a loner in your Archaeologists study human culture by
room. analyzing the objects people have made. They
carefully remove from the ground such things as
HOW MEAD MATTERS pottery and tools, and they map the locations of
-What others think of us, the perspective of houses, trash pits, and burials in order to learn
others we gain from being a part of the about the daily lives of a people. They also
conversation of gestures, are absolutely analyze human bones and teeth to gain
necessary for us to even have a sense of self. information on a people’s diet and the diseases
they suffered. Archaeologists collect the
-We think of ourselves as individuals, to be sure, remains of plants, animals, and soils from the
but we are only able to do so by virtue of being places where people have lived in order to
a part of a larger social community. understand how people used and changed their
natural environments. The time range for
archaeological research begins with the earliest
human ancestors millions of years ago and
extends all the way up to the present day. Like relate to each other. This can mean looking at
other areas of anthropology, archaeologists are how language works in all its different forms, and
concerned with explaining differences and how it changes over time. It also means looking
similarities in human societies across space and at what we believe about language and
time. communication, and how we use language in
our lives. This includes the ways we use
2. Biological Anthropology language to build and share meaning, to form or
Biological anthropologists seek to change identities, and to make or change
understand how humans adapt to different relations of power. For linguistic anthropologists,
environments, what causes disease and early language and communication are keys to how
death, and how humans evolved from other we make society and culture.
animals. To do this, they study humans (living
and dead), other primates such as monkeys and
apes, and human ancestors (fossils). They are
also interested in how biology and culture work The Self and person in contemporary
together to shape our lives. They are interested
in explaining the similarities and differences that
anthropology
are found among humans across the world.
Through this work, biological anthropologists ❖ SELF
have shown that, while humans do vary in their “self” is a dynamic process by which
biology and behavior, they are more similar to a human experience and identifies their
one another than different. specificity as a human in tension with being a
person. The self is an identification that
3. Cultural Anthropology negotiates the tension/opposition between being
Sociocultural anthropologists explore a person and being unique human. This
how people in different places live and uniqueness is formulated differently in different
understand the world around them. They want to cultures— it could be in terms of “self” as
know what people think is important and the consciousness, as soul, as mind (opposed to
rules they make about how they should interact body), as a unity of soul-spirit-body, as a unity
with one another. Even within one country or between oneself and another, as synonymous
society, people may disagree about how they with personhood, as opposite of the ways they
should speak, dress, eat, or treat others. are a person; and so on.
Anthropologists want to listen to all voices and
viewpoints in order to understand how societies ❖ PERSON
vary and what they have in common. “person” or personhood is a bundle of
Sociocultural anthropologists often find that the roles, norms of behavior, expectations,
best way to learn about diverse peoples and responsibilities, obligations that situate a human
cultures is to spend time living among them. being in social life. This bundle of roles, rules,
They try to understand the perspectives, responsibilities, obligations, etc, are “defined” by
practices, and social organization of other specific cultural criteria and principles that are
groups whose values and lifeways may be very primarily related to gender, sexuality, age, class,
different from their own. The knowledge they birth order, and other kinship identities, as well
gain can enrich human understanding on a as other identifications such as class and
broader level. division of labor. Thus, a person is the way a
human fulfills, enacts, negotiates, or struggles
4. Linguistic Anthropology with the diverse ways in which they are also a
Linguistic anthropologists study the person defined by social, legal, moral,
many ways people communicate across the economic, and political institutions.
globe. They are interested in how language is
linked to how we see the world and how we
 2 Aspects of Self by Joseph LeDoux
❑ Self-Concept – is what basically comes to
❖ Explicit Self- self that you are consciously your mind when you are asked about who
aware of. you are.
❖ Implicit Self- self that is not immediately
available to the consciousness. ❑ Self-Awareness – when we are aware of
our self-concept. It can keep you from
The Self as a Cognitive Construct doing something dangerous.

Self- the sense of personal identity and of who ❑ Self Esteem – our own positive or
we are as an individual. negative perception or evaluation of
ourselves.
1. William James was one of the earliest
psychologists to study the self and ❑ Deindividuation – the loss of individual
conceptualized the self as having two aspects. self-awareness and individual
✔ I – is the thinking, acting and feeling self. accountability ingroups.
✔ Me – is the physical characteristics as
well as psychological capabilities that ❑ Actual self – is who you are at the
make who you are. moment.

2. Carl Rogers theory of personality also used ❑ Ideal self – is who you like to be.
the same terms.
✔ I – the one who acts and decides. ❑ Ought self – is who you think you should
✔ Me – is what you think or feel about be.
yourself as an object.
✔ Ideal Self – is the person that you would The Self-Embedded in Culture
like yourself to be.
✔ Real Self – is the person you actually are. ▪ The ways of how the self is developed are
bound to cultural differences.
Note: When your real self and ideal self are very
similar you experience congruence, but when there is
a great inconsistency between your ideal and real
selves you experience incongruence.

3. Carver and Scheier identified two types of

self.
✔ Private Self – your internal standards and
private thoughts and feelings.
✔ Public Self – your public image commonly
geared toward having a good presentation The Self-Embedded in Culture
of yourself to others.
• The principles of how the mind works
cannot be conceived of as universal, but
Other Concepts Similar to Self that is as varied as the culture and
traditions that people practice all over the
❑ Identity – is composed of personal world (Cultural Anthropologists). The self
characteristics, social roles and is culturally shaped and infinitely variable.
responsibilities as well as affiliations that
define who one is. DISTINGUISHED TWO WAYS OF HOW THE
 SELF IS CONSTRUCTED (CULTURAL entails what is called self evaluation
PSYCHOLOGIST) maintenance theory, which states that we
can feel threatened when someone
▪ Independent Construct (Individualistic outperforms us, especially when that
Culture) person is close to us.
Internal Attributes – values and skills

▪ Interdependent Construct (Collectivist

Culture)
The essential connection between
individual to other people.

Note: Catherine Raeff (2010) believed that culture can

influence how you view: relationship, personality traits,
achievement, and expressing emotions

▪ One cannot fully discount the effects of

society and culture on the formation of the
self, identity and self-concept. Social interaction
always has a part to play in who we think we are.
This is not nature versus nurture but instead a
nature and nurture perspective.

▪ Under the theory of symbolic

interactionism, Goerge Herbert Mead
argued that the self is created and
developed through human interaction.
There are three reasons why self and
identity are social products.

1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing.

2. Whether we like to admit or not, we actually
need others to affirm and reinforce who we think
we are.
3. What we think is important to us may also
have been influenced by what is important in
our social or historical context.

▪ We learn about ourselves, the

appropriateness of our behaviors, as well
as our social status by comparing aspects
of ourselves with other people. The more
common types of comparing ourselves
with others are downward social
comparison, where we create a positive
self concept by comparing ourselves with
those who are worse off than us. Another
is the upward social comparison, which is
comparing ourselves with those who are
better off than us. Social comparison also