BSSW - GE 101 Module 2
BSSW - GE 101 Module 2
BSSW - GE 101 Module 2
G.E. 101
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
IBRAHIM A. ABDULHALIM
Major Module Developer
ALMA E. ISNAL
Contributor/Course Coach
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UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
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Module Developer/
ALMA E. ISNAL
Course Coach
INTRODUCTION
Across time and history, the self has been debated, became possible for new approaches to the examination
discussed, and fruitfully or otherwise conceptualized by of the self to come to the fore. One of the loci, if not the
different thinkers in philosophy. Eventually, with the most important axis of analysis is the relationship
advent of the social sciences, it became possible for new between the self and the external world.
ways and paradigms to re-examine the true nature of the
self. People put a halt on speculative debates on the What is the relationship between external reality and the
relationship between the body and soul, eventually self? In the famous Tarzan story, the little boy named
renamed body and the mind. Thinkers just eventually got Tarzan was left in the 9 middle of the forest. Growing up,
tired of focusing on the long-standing debate since sixth he never had an interaction with any other human being
century BC between the relationships of these two but apes and other animals. Tarzan grew up acting
components of the human person. Thinkers just settled strangely like apes and unlike human persons. Tarzan
on the idea that there are two components of the human became an animal, in effect. His sole interaction with
person and whatever relationship these two have is less them made him just like one of them. Disappointedly,
important than the fact that there is a self. The debate human person will not develop as human persons without
shifted into another locus of discussion. Given the new intervention. This story, which was supposed to be based
ways of knowing and the growth of the social sciences, it on real life, challenges the long-standing notion of human
persons being special and being a particular kind of being
in the spectrum of living entities after all our selves are
not special because of the soul infused into us. We may
be gifted with intellect and the capacity to rationalize
things but at the end of the day, our growth and
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development and consequentially, our selves are truly
products of our interaction with external reality.
ACTIVITY 2
ANALYSIS
DIRECTION: After having examined your "self' in its different stages, fill out the table below:
Similarities in all stages of my "self' Differences in my "self' across the Possible reasons for the differences
three stages of my life in me
PLEASE KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO WRITE ANYTHING ON THIS PAGE, YOU WILL BE PROVIDED
WORK SHEETS BY YOUR COURSE INSTRUCTOR FOR YOUR ANSWERS.
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The self, in contemporary literature and even common Social constructivists argue that the self should not be
sense, is commonly defined by the following seen as a static entity that stays constant through and
characteristics: "separate, self-contained, independent, through. Rather, the self has to be seen as something
consistent, unitary, and private" (Stevens 1996). By that is iri unceasing flux, in a constant struggle with
separate, it is meant that the self is distinct from other external reality and is malleable in its dealings with
selves. The self is always unique and has its own identity. society. The self is always in participation with social life
One cannot be another person. Even twins are distinct and its identity subjected to influences here and there.
from each other. Second, self is also self-contained and Having these perspectives considered should draw one
independent because in itself it can exist. Its distinctness into concluding that the self is truly multifaceted.
allows it to be self-contained with its own thoughts,
characteristics' and volition. It does not require any other Consider a boy named Jon. Jon is a math professor at a
self for it to exist. It is consistent because it has a Catholic university for more than a decade now. Jon has
personality that is enduring and therefore can be a beautiful wife whom he met in college, Joan. Joan was
expected to persist for quite some time. Its consistency Jon's first and last girlfriend. Apart from being a husband,
allows it to be studied, described, and measured Jon is also blessed with two doting kids, a son and a
Consistency also means that a particular self's traits, daughter. He also sometimes serves in the church too as
characteristics, tendencies and potentialities are more or a lector and a commentator. As a man of different roles,
less the same. Self is unitary in that it is the center of all one can expect Jon to change and adjust his behaviors,
experiences and thoughts that run through a certain ways, and even language depending on his social
person. It is like the Chief command post in an individual situation. When Jon is in the university, he conducts
where all processes, emotions, and thoughts converge. himself in a matter that befits his title as a professor. As a
Finally, the self is private. Each person sorts out husband, Jon can be intimate and touchy. Joan considers
information, feelings and emotions, and thought him sweet, something that his StUdents will never
processes within the self. This whole process is never conceive him to be. His kids fear him. As a father, Jon
accessible to anyone but the self. can be stern. As a lector and commentator, on the other
hand, his church mates knew him as a guy who is calm,
This last characteristic of the self being private suggests all-smiles, and always ready to lend a helping hand to
that the self is isolated from the external world. It lives anyone in need. This short story is not new to most of us.
within its own world. However, we also see that this We ourselves play different roles, act in differerit ways
potential clash between the self and the external reality is depending on our circumstances. Are we being
the reason for the self to have a clear understanding of hypocritical in doing so? Are we even conscious of our
what it might be, what it can be, and what it will be. From shifting selves? According to what we have so far, this is
this perspective then, one can see that the self is always not only normal but it also is acceptable and expected.
at the mercy of external circumstances that bump and The self is capable of morphing and fitting itself into any
collide with it. It is ever-changing and dynamic, allowing circumstances it finds itself in.
external influences to take part in its shaping. The
concern then of this lesson is in understanding the vibrant The Self and Culture
relationship between the self and external reality. This
Remaining the same person and turning chameleon by
perspective is known as the social constructionist
adapting to one's context seems paradoxical. However,
perspective. "Social constructionists argue for a merged
the French Anthropologist Marcel Mauss has an
view of 'the person' and 'their social context' where the
explanation for this phenomenon. According to Mauss,
boundaries of one cannot easily be separated from the
every self has two faces: personne and moi. Moi refers to
boundaries of the other" (Stevens 1996).
a person's sense of who he is, his body, and his basic
identity, his biological givenness. Moi is a person's basic
identity. Personne, on the other hand, is composed of the
social concepts of what it means to be who he is.
Personne has much to do with what it means to live in a
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particular institution, a particular family, a particular does not specify the subject and the object of love; there
religion, a particular nationality, and how to behave given is no specification of who loves and who is loved. There
expectations and influences from others. is simply a word for love, mahal, and the pronoun kita,
which is a second person pronoun that refers to the
In the story above, Jon might have a moi but certainly, he speaker and the one being talked to. In the Filipino
has to shift personne from time to time to adapt to his language, unlike in English, there is no distinction
social situation. He knows who he is and more or less, he between the lover and the beloved. They are one.
is confident that he has a unified, coherent self. However,
at some point, he has to sport his stern professorial look. Interesting too is the word, mahal. In Filipino, the word
Another day, he has to be the doting but strict father that can mean both "love" and "expensive." In our language,
he is. Inside his bedroom, he can play goofy with his wife, love is intimately bound with value, with being expensive,
Joan. In all this and more, Jon retains who he is, his being precious. Something expensive is valuable.
being Jon—his moi—that part of him that is stable and Someone whom we love is valuable to us. The Sanskrit
static all throughout. origin of the word love is "lubh," which means desire.
Technically, love is a desire. The Filipino word for it has
This dynamics and capacity for different personne can be another intonation apart from mere desire, valuable.
illustrated better cross-culturally. An overseas Filipino
worker (OFW) adjusting to life in another country is a very Another interesting facet of our language is its being
good case study. In the Philippines, many people gender-neutral. In English, Spanish, and other languages,
unabashedly violate jaywalking rules. A common Filipino the distinction is clear between a third person male and
treats road, even national ones, as basically his and so third person female pronoun. He and she; el and ella. In
he just merely crosses whenever and wherever. When Filipino, it is plain, "siya". There is no specification of
the same Filipino visits another country with strict traffic gender. Our language does not specify between male
rules, say Singapore, you will notice how suddenly law- and female. We both call it "siya".
abiding the said Filipino becomes. A lot of Filipinos has
anecdotally confirmed this observation. In these varied examples, we have seen how language
has something to do with culture. It is a salient part of
The same malleability can be seen in how some men culture and ultimately, has a tremendous effect in our
easily transform into sweet, docile guys when trying to crafting of the self. This might also be one of the reasons
woe and court a particular woman and suddenly just why cultural divide spells out differences in how one
change rapidly after hearing a sweet "yes." This cannot regards one self. In one research, if was found that North
be considered a conscious change on the part of the guy Americans are more likely to attribute being unique to
or on the part of the law-abiding Filipino in the first themselves and claim that they are better than most
example. The self simply morphed according to the people in doing what they love doing. Japanese people,
circumstances and contexts. on the other hand, have been seen to display a degree of
modesty. If one finds himself born and reared in a
In the Philippines, Filipinos tend to consider their territory particular culture, one definitely tries to fit in a particular
as a part of who they are. This includes considering their mold. If a self is born into a particular society or culture,
immediate surrounding as a part of them, thus the the self will have to adjust according to its exposure.
perennial "tapat ko, linis ko." Filipinos most probably do
not consider national roads as something external to who The Self and the Development of the Social World
they are. It is a part of them and they are a part of it, thus
crossing the road whenever and wherever becomes a no- So how do people actively produce their social worlds?
brainer. In another country, however, the Filipino How do children growing up become social beings? How
recognizes that he is in a foreign territory where nothing can a boy turn out to just be like an ape? How do twins
technically belongs to him. He has to follow the rules or coming out from the same mother turn out to be terribly
else he will be apprehended. different when given up for adoption? More than his
givenness (personality, tendencies, and propensities,
Language is another interesting aspect of this social among others), one is believed to be in active
constructivism. The Filipino language is incredibly participation in the shaping of the self. Most often, we
interesting to talk about. The way by which we articulate think the human persons are just passive actors in the
our love is denoted by the phrase, "Mahal kita." This, of whole process of the shaping of selves. That men and
course, is the Filipino translation of "l love you." The women are born with particularities that they can no
Filipino brand of this articulation of love, unlike in English, longer change. Recent studies, however, indicate that
men and women in their growth and development engage
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actively in the shaping of the self. The unending terrain of Self in Families
metamorphosis of the self is mediated by language.
"Language as both a publicly shared and privately utilized Apart from the anthropological and psychological basis
symbol system is the site where the individual and the for the relationship between the self pnd the social world,
social make and remake each other" (Schwartz, White, the sociological likewise struggled to understand the real
and Lutz 1993). connection between the two concepts. In doing so,
sociologists focus on the different institutions and powers
Mead and Vygotsky at play in the society. Among these, the most prominent
is the family.
For Mead and Vygotsky,
the way that human While every child
persons develop is with is born with
the use of language certain givenness,
acquisition and disposition
interaction with others. coming from his
The way that we process parents' genes
information is normally a and general
form of an internal condition of life, the impact of one's family is still deemed
dialogue in our head. as a given in understanding the self. The kind of family
Those who deliberate that we are born in, the resources available to us (human,
about moral dilemmas undergo this internal dialog. spiritual, economic), and the kind of development that we
"Should I do this or that?" "But if I do this, it will be like will have will certainly affect us as we go through life. AS
this." "Don't I want the other option?" And so cognitive a matter of evolutionary fact, human persons are one Of
and emotional development of a child is always a mimicry those beings whose importance of family cannot be
of how it is done in the social world, in the external reality denied. Human beings are born virtually helpless and the
where he is in. dependency period of a human baby to its parents for
nurturing is relatively longer than most other animals.
Both Vygotsky and Mead Learning therefore is critical in our capacity to actualize
treat the human mind as our potential of becoming humans. In trying to achieve
something that is made, the goal of becoming a fully realized human, a child
constituted through enters a system of relationships, most important of which
language as experienced in is the family.
the external world and as
encountered in dialogs with Human persons learn the ways of living and therefore
others. A young child their selfhood by being in a family. It is what a family
internalizes values, norms, initiates a person to become that serves as the basis for
practices,- and social beliefs this person's progress. Babies internalize ways and styles
and more through exposure that they observe from their family. By imitating, for
to these dialogs that will eventually become part of his example, the language of its primary agents of rearing its
individual world. For Mead, this takes place as a child family, babies learn the language. The same is true for
assumes the "other" through language and role-play. A ways of behaving. Notice how kids reared in a respectful
child conceptualizes his notion of "self' through this. Can environment becomes respectful as well and the
you notice how little children are fond of playing role-play converse if raised in a converse family. Internalizing
with their toys? How they make scripts and dialogs for behavior may either be conscious or unconscious. Table
their toys as they play with them? According to Mead, it is manners or ways of speaking to elders are things that are
through this that a child delineates the I from the rest. -possible to teach and therefore, are consciously learned
Vygotsky, for his part, a child internalizes real-life dialogs by kids. Some behaviors and attitudes, on the other hand,
that he has had with others, with his family, his primary may be indirectly taught through rewards and
caregiver, or his playmates. They apply this to their punishments. Others, such as sexual behavior or how to
mental and practical problems along with the social and confront emotions, are learned through subtle means, like
cultural infusions brought about by the said dialogs. Can the tone of the voice or intonation of the models. It is then
you notice how children eventually become what they clear at this point that those who develop and eventually
watch? How children can easily adapt ways of cartoon grow to become adult who still did not learn simple
characters they are exposed to? matters like basic manners of conduct failed in
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internalizing due to parental or familial failure to initiate The eldest man in a family is expected to head the family
them into the world. and hold it in. Slight modifications have been on the way
due to feminism and lesbian, gay, bisexual and
Without a family, biologically and sociologically, a person transgender (LGBT) activism but for the most part,
may not even survive or become a human person. Go patriarchy has remained to be at work.
back to the Tarzan example. In more ways than one, the
survival of Tarzan in the midst of the forest is already a Nancy Chodorow, a feminist, argues that because
miracle. His being a fully human person with a sense of mothers take the role of taking care of children, there is a
selfhood is a different story though. The usual teleserye tendency for girls to imitate the same and reproduce the
plot of kids getting swapped in the hospital and getting same kind of mentality of women as care providers in the
reared by a different family gives an obvious family. The way that little girls are given dolls instead of
manifestation of the point being made in this section. One guns or any other toys or are encouraged to play with
is who he is because of his family for the most part. makeshift kitchen also reinforces the notion of what roles
they should take and the selves they should develop. In
Gender and the Self boarding schools for girls, young women are encouraged
Another important aspect of the self is gender. Gender is to act like fine ladies, are trained to behave in a fashion
one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, that befits their status as women in society.
change, and development. We have seen in the past Men on the other hand, in the periphery of their own
years how people fought hard for the right to express, family, are taught early on how to behave like a man. This
validate, and assert their gender expression. Many normally includes holding in one's emotion, being tough,
conservatives may frown upon this and insist on the fatalistic, not to worry about danger, and admiration for
biological. However, from the point-of-view of the social hard physical labor. Masculinity is learned by integrating a
sciences and the self, it is important to give one the young boy in a society. In the Philippines, young boys
leeway to find, express, and live his identity. This forms had to undergo circumcision not just for the original,
part of selfhood that one cannot just dismiss. One clinical purpose of hygiene but also to assert their
maneuvers into the society and identifies himself as who manliness in the society. Circumcision plays another
he is by also taking note of gender identities. A wonderful social role by initiating young boys into manhood.
anecdote about Leo Tolstoy's wife that can solidify this
point is narrated below: The gendered self is then shaped within a particular
context of time and space. The sense of self that is being
Sonia Tolstoy, the wife of the famous Russian novelist taught makes sure that an individual fits in a particular
Leo Tolstoy, wrote when she was twenty-one, "1 am environment. This is dangerous and detrimental in the
nothing but a miserable crushed worm, whom no one goal of truly finding one's self, self-determination, and
wants, whom no one loves, a useless creature with growth of the self. Gender has to be personally
morning sickness, and a big belly, two rotten teeth, and a discovered and asserted and not dictated by culture and
bad temper, a battered sense of dignity, and a love which the society.
nobody wants and which nearly drives me insane." A few
years later she wrote; "It makes me laugh to read over
this diary. It's so full of contradictions, and one would
think that I was such an unhappy Woman. Yet is there a
happier woman than l?" (Tolstoy 1975)
This
account
illustrates
that our
gender
partly
determines
how we see ourselves in the world. Oftentimes, society
forces a particular identity unto us depending on our sex
and/or gender. In the Philippines, husbands for the most
part are expected to provide for the family.
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C. REFLECTION/RESPONSE-ACTION
NOTE: DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING ON THIS PAGE USE THE PROVIDED WORK SHEET FOR THIS LEARNING MATERIAL
ACTIVITY 3
APPLICATION
DIRECTION: Answer the following questions cogently but
honestly. Write your answers in the space provided.
3. Think of a time when you felt you were your 'true self."
What made you think you were truly who you are during
this time of your life?
PLEASE KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO WRITE ANYTHING ON THIS PAGE, YOU WILL BE PROVIDED
A WORK SHEET BY YOUR COURSE INSTRUCTOR FOR YOUR ANSWERS.
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Hi there! Now that you are about to end the learning material for this unit, let
me know something if you felt difficult in answering this module.
Write your feedback/thoughts on the space provided on the last part of this
learning material on Annex C
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WORK SHEET
ANNEX A
NAME: DATE: SCORE:
ANNEX A.1
ACTIVITY 1 My Self through the Years
DIRECTION: Paste a picture of you when you were in elementary, in high school, and now that you are In college.
Below the picture. List down your salient characteristics that you remember.
ANNEX A.2
ACTIVITY 2
DIRECTION: After having examined your "self' in its different stages, fill out the table below:
Similarities in all stages of my "self' Differences in my "self' across the Possible reasons for the differences
three stages of my life in me
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WORK SHEET
ANNEX B
C. REFLECTION/RESPONSE-ACTION
DIRECTION: Answer the following questions cogently but honestly. Write your answers in the space provided.
3. Think of a time when you felt you were your 'true self." What made you think you were truly who you are during this time
of your life?
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WORK SHEET
ANNEX B
4. Following the question above, can you provide a time when you felt you were not living your "true self'? Why did you have
to live a life like that? What did you do about it?
5. What social pressures help shape yourself? Would you have wanted it otherwise?
6. What aspects of your self do you think may be changed or you would like to change?
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WORK SHEET
ANNEX C
Providing you with this purposive learning material helps you catch up lessons you are
supposed to learn in actual face to face classroom setting.
Let me know if somehow this learning material has helped you learn about the lesson
discussed.
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