The Self, Society, and Culture

• Self - is separate, self-contained, independent, consistent, unitary, and private
• Separate - self is distinct from other selves; always unique and has its own identity
• Self-contained - self is independent because in itself it can exist; it does not require any other self for it to exist
• Consistent - self has a personality that is enduring and therefore can be expected to persist in quite some time
• Unitary - self is the center of experiences and thoughts that run through a certainperson
• Private - self is isolated from the external world; it lives within its own world
• Social Constructionist Perspective - our concern is to understand the vibrant relationship between the self and external reality
• Social Constructionist Perspective - argued for a merged view of the ‘person’ and their ‘social context’ where the boundaries of one cannot easily be separated
• Marcel Mauss - French Anthropologist; every self has two faces: personne and moi
• Moi - a person’s sense of who he is, his body, and his basic identity, his biological givenness
• Personne - composed of social concepts of what it means to be who he is; has much to do with what it means to live in a particular institution, family, religion, nationality, and how to behave given expectations and influences from others
• Language - something to do with culture; it is a salient part of culture and ultimately, has a tremendous effect in our crafting of the self.
• The unending terrain of metamorphosis of the self is mediated by language
• Mead - For him, a child conceptualizes his notion of “self” and “other” through language and role-play
• Vygotsky - For him, a child internalizes real-life dialogues that he has had with others, with his family, his primary caregiver, or his playmates
• Family

  - deemed as a given in understanding the self

  - will certainly affect us as we go through life

  - system of relationships

  - initiates a person to become that serves as the basis for the person’s progress
• gender - loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change, and development
• Nancy Chodorow

  - a feminist, argues that the way that little girls are given dolls instead of guns also reinforces the notion of what roles they should take and the selves they should develop
• Circumcision - plays another social role by initiating young boys into manhood
• Society

  - a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same geographical or social territory
• Culture

  - arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively
• Elements of Culture

  • Language
  • Symbols
  • Norms
  • Values
  • Beliefs
  • Cognitive Elements
• Language - a group of words or ideas having common meaning and is shared to a social situation
• Symbols - anything used to represent express and stand for an event/situation
• Norms - the rules and the guidelines which specify the behavior of an individual
• Values - the good idea and thinking of a person
• Beliefs - every sect within a culture having some of this for cultural refuge
• Cognitive Elements - thoughts which a person has to be able to survive existing social situation
• Charles Horton Cooley's Theory

  - a person develops the concept of self with the help of others
• Charles Horton Cooley's Theory - a person forms opinions of him unless and until he comes into contact with other people
• Charles Horton Cooley's Theory - opinions of himself on the basis of opinions held by others
• Looking Glass Self - a concept about understanding and constructing a view of oneself through other people's perception or views
• Three Principal Elements of Looking Glass Self

  - our perception of how we look to others

  - our perception of the judgement of how we look

  - our feelings about the judgement
• George Herbert Mead's Theory - the self is the person's distinct identity that is developed through SOCIAL INTERACTION
• George Herbert Mead - the self develops out of the child's communicative contact with other
• Mead stated that the self can be both subject and object to itself, it can be self-conscious as it can reflect upon itself