SOCIOLOGY

• Sociology is a social science that studies human societies, their interactions, and the processes that preserve and change them.
• Sociology is the study of human relationships and institutions
• SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF THE SELF

  1. The Self as Product of Modern Society Among Others
  2. Self as Necessary Fiction
  3. Post-modern View of the Self
• The Self as Product of Modern Society Among Others

  • With modernization, the self becomes a “delocalized” self which is free to seek its own identity; defining religion, theological tradition; free from customary constraints hence, deviating from the traditional way of life.
• Clifford Geertz (1973) believes that the struggle for one's individuality is only possible in modern society where religiotheological traditions are gradually replaced by rational and scientific calculations; and the intimate personal affiliations are replaced by exceedingly impersonal associations brought about by urbanized way of life.
• Conditions of the Self in the Modern Society

  1. The newfound freedom threatens the very authenticity of the self (e.g. love)
  2. Alienation (Marx) – human beings haunted by the very images they have created
  3. Objectification of the body (e.g. medicalpractice)
  4. Dehumanization of self
• Self as Necessary Fiction

  Self is nothing more than a metaphor, a representation of something abstract; symbolic.

  A true given self is not what unites these experiences, but it is the presumed unity of these experiences that gave rise to a concept of the self.
• Post-modern View of the self

  Self is a product of modern discourse that is historically and socially imprisoned by what is acceptable by norms.

  According to N. Green, self is “digitalized” in cyberspace, a virtual version of who we are.
• The following are the manifestations of the Post-modern view of the self:

  1. Information technology dislocates the self, thus, self is “digitalized” incyberspace.
  2. Global migration produces multicultural identities.
  3. Post-modern selves are“pluralized” selves .
• Social Construction of the Self:

  A.4 Rewriting the Self as an Artistic Creation

  A.5 Self Creation and collective identity

  A.6 Self Creation and the struggle for cultural recognition
• Rewriting the Self as an artistic Creation

  Nietzsche states that the unity of the self is not pre-given but accomplished through conscious effort - transform self through beautiful work of art.

  Rorty: contingencies of selfhood – conceal the “ugly” by reinterpreting the overall aesthetic contours of the self
• Self Creation and collective Identity

  Memory and forgetting are most important powers in recreating a person's identity.

  Such memories of the past include pain, triumph, etc. Such experiences of the past can be linked with social transformation.

  Selves obtain their nature from cultural traditions, embodied in various social institutions.
• Self Creation and the struggle for cultural recognition

  Self creation is necessarily grounded on collective solidarities.

  We create ourselves by struggling with cultural hassles then owning the created self.

  We hide the ugly part of our cultural nature.
• The quest or search for self-identity is a product of modern society but this is complicated by the socio-cultural sensibilities of postmodernity
• The self constantly lives in this paradox: to pursue self creation within pre-given, not willfully chosen social circumstances.
• Mead’s Theory of Self

  B.1 Mead’s Three Stages of Development of Self

  B.2 The Looking-Glass Self: Our Sense of Self is Influenced by Others’ Views of Us

  B.3 Social Comparison Theory: Our Sense of Self Is Influenced comparisons with Others
• George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) is an American sociologist best known as a founder of American pragmatism, a pioneer of symbolic interaction theory, and as one of the founders of social psychology.
• Mead's theory of the self maintains that the conception a person holds of himself/herself in his/her mind emerges from social interaction with others.
• Mead’s Three Stages if Development of Self

  Stage 1: The PREPARATORY STAGE

  Stage 2: The PLAY STAGE

  Stage 3: The GAME STAGE
• Stage 1: The PREPARATORY STAGE

  The first stage, it starts from the time we are born until we are about age two. In this stage , children mimic those around them.
• Stage 2: The PLAY STAGE

  Form about age two to six, children are in the play stage. Children play pretend and do not adhere to the rules inorganized games like patintero or basketball (Rath 2016)
• Stage 3: The GAME STAGE

  From about age seven onwards. Children begin to understand and adhere to the rules of games. They can begin to play more formalized games because they begin to understand other people’s perspective- or the perspective of the generalized other.
• The concept of looking glass self states that part of how we see ourselves come from our perception of how others see us (Cooley , 1902)
• The Looking-Glass Self: Our sense of self is influence by others’ views of us

  Proponent American Sociologist Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)
• If we are repeatedly labelled and evaluated by others, the Self-labeling may occur.
• Social Comparison Theory: Our sense of Self is Influenced by comparison with OthersSocial Comparison(Buunk & Gibbons, 2007, VanLange 2008)

  Self-concept and self-esteem are also heavily influenced by the process of Social Comparison
• Social Comparison

  Occurs when we learn about our abilities and skills, about the appropriateness and validity of our opinions and about our relative social status by comparing our own attitudes, beliefs and behaviors with those of others.