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• Sociology is a scientific study of social groups and human relationships, generating new insights into the interconnectedness between ourselves and other people.
• According to Charles Horton Cooley, we possess a looking-glass self: the people we interact become a mirror in which we view ourselves.
• Our self-identity or self-image is achieved through a threefold event which begins by conceiving an idea of how we present ourselves to others, then analyzing how others perceive us, and finally creating an image of ourselves.
• The self is an outcome of what we think others think about us.
• George Herbert Mead’s theory of the social self presents that the self has two divisions: the “I” and the “me”.
• The “I” is the subjective element and the active side of the self, pertaining to the spontaneous, and unique traits of the individual.
• The “me” is the objective element of the self, referring to the internalized attitudes and demands of other people and the individual’s awareness of those demands.
• Mead detailed the development of the self in a three-stage process: in the preparatory stage (0-3 years old), children have no sense of self, during the play stage (3 to 5 years old), the self emerges as children pretend to take the roles of specific people or significant others, and in the game stage (begins in the early school years; about 8 or 9 years old), children become concerned about and take into account in their behavior the generalized others which refer to the attitudes, viewpoints, demands and expectations of the society which include cultural norms and values we use as reference
• According to Gerry Lanuza (2004) in modern societies the attainment and stability of self-identity is freely chosen, it is no longer restricted by customs and traditions, offering infinite possibilities for self-cultivation, however, problems such as alienation and dehumanization of the self also appear which hinder the full development of human potentials.
• A need to discover the “authentic core” of the self for the individual to freely work towards self-realization emerged.
• While the individual seeks for solid and stable self-identity in modern society, the postmodern individual tries to avoid fixation and keep the options open for self-improvement.
• French sociologist Jean Baudrillard explains that postmodern individuals achieve self-identity through prestige symbols that they consume, the cultural practices of advertising and mass media greatly influence individuals to consume goods not for their primary value and utility but to give them a feeling of goodness and power when compared with others.
• The postmodern person has become an insatiable consumer and may never be satisfied in his life.
• Therefore, the self may be a never-ending search for prestige in the postmodern society.