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The Self from the

Various Perspectives
Learning Outcomes:
1. Identify the sociological perspectives about the self;
2. Demonstrate critical and reflective thinking in showing different aspects of
the self; and
3. Examine yourself using Charles Horton Cooley’s Looking Glass Self Theory.
George Mead’s
Social Self
• Sociologist
• SELF is not biological but social
• SELF is something that is developed through
social interaction.
• SELF is developed as one grows and ages.
• Self in the case of GENIE, a girl who was
confined in a room until she reached the age
of 13. She was found when she was already
13 years old; she did not know how to walk
and speak.
George Mead’s
Social Self
• She had no development of the SELF
• Even though her body developed
normally according to her age, but she
had not developed her “self ” because
of her isolation from the world.
• SELF is constructed by directly
engaging in the world through
interaction and through reflections on
those interactions.
George Mead’s Social Self
• SELF has 2 parts: 1. Self-awareness and 2. Self-image
• SELF is develops through social interaction, which
involves the exchange of symbol (language) –
understanding of symbols involves being able to take the
role of another.
• ROLE OF PLAYING- process by which one takes on
the role of another by putting oneself in the position of
the person with whom she or he interacts.
- Individual develops a concept of self. By putting oneself in
the position of others, one is able to reflect upon oneself.
George Mead’s
Social Self
• SELF – to “ wear other people’s shoes”
• SELF is not inborn
3-Stages of Development
1. Preparatory Stage- a child imitates the behavior of
his or her parents.
2. Play Stage- child playing the role of others.
3. Game Stage- child comes to see himself or herself
in the perspective of other people.
-aware of the relationship to other people and
place in their roles in order to appreciate his or her
particular role in the game.
“I” AND “ME” SELF
• “I” – is the phase of the SELF that is unsocialized and spontaneous.
- It is the acting part of the self, an immediate response to other people.
- It represents the self that is free and unique.
- It is the subjective part of the Self.

• “ME” – is the self that results from the progressive stages of role playing or role taking and the
perspective one assumes to view and analyze one’s own behaviors.
- It is the organization of the internalized attitude of others.
- It represents the conventional and objective part of the self.
“I” AND “ME” SELF
• “I” – is the response of the organism to the attitude of others.
- It allows the individual to still express creativity and individualism and understand when to
possible bend and stretch the rules that govern social interactions.

• “ME” – is the organized set of attitudes of others which one assumes.


- It is the socialized aspect of the individual.
- It represents learned behaviors, attitudes, and expectations of others and society.
- It is developed through the knowledge of society and social interactions that the individual
has experienced.
“ GENERALIZED OTHERS”
• An organized community and social group which
gives the individual his or her unity of the self.
• The attitude of the generalized other is the attitude
of the entire community.
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY’S:
LOOKING-GLASS SELF
• is a social psychological concept.

• The Self is developed as a result of one’s perceptions of the other people’s opinions.
• The Self, which is essentially an individual’s awareness of one’s social or personal identity is a
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT.
• The Self is built through social interaction which involves 3- Steps:
1. People imagine how they must appear to others.
2. They imagine the judgement on that appearance.
3. They develop themselves through the judgement of others.
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY’S:
LOOKING-GLASS SELF
• People imagine not only how others see them and their actions but also how
others judge what they see, whether with approval, doubt, or hostility.
• It is made up of FEELINGS about other people judgement of one’s behavior.
• SOCIAL SELF- is the central element of the society.
“ The imaginations which people have of one another are the solid facts of
society.”
• SELF develops in relation to the perception of others.
• It should be serve only as the guide for reflection and should not be taken to end
up living in accordance with other people’s expectations.
✓ is the cognition that involves
traits, states, and behaviors.
✓Assessment of the self by the
self.
PRIVATE SELF ✓“ I AM GENEROUS, and I
AM AMBIDEXTROUS” show
ones knowledge of his or her
attributes that differentiate
him or her from the others.
PUBLIC SELF
❖cognition concerning the generalized other’s view of the self.
❖Assessment of the SELF by generalized other.
❖“ PEOPLE THINK I AM RELIGIOUS” “ PEOPLE THINK I AM
CORRUPT” – shows one’s relation with others and the role one
assumes in that relationship.
COLLECTIVE SELF
cognition concerning a view of the self that is
found in memberships in social groups (family,
co-workers, tribe, professional organizations.
“FEMINIST”
SOCIAL
IDENTITY
THEORY
-Henri Tajfel
SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY

 The person’s sense of who he or she is according to his or her membership to a


certain group.

GROUP MEMBERSHIP
Social Identity Theory
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
• Postmodernism is not a philosophy but more a report on the
mindset of western in the latter half of the 20th century.

• In the postmodernist view, SELF is not the creator of meaning


not the center or starting point of sociological inquiry.

• French Philosopher Michael Faucault , THE SELF is lso seen


as a product of modern discourse that is socially and historically
conditioned. (David, 2002).
• MUTLIPHRENIA - refers to the many as different
voice speaking about “WHO WE ARE and WHAT
WE ARE” . (kumpare, family man, ninong,
neighbor)
• PROTEAN- a self-capable of changing the
Four basic constantly to fit the present conditions.
postmodernist - is a manifestation that people do not have a
ideas about the true stable self.
self • DE-CENTERED- a belief that there is no self at
Anderson (1997) all. The self is constantly being redefined or
constantly undergoing change. We are what we
are described to be.
• Self-in-relation- humans do not live their Iives in
isolation but in relation to people and to certain cultural
contexts.
• The self is shaped by outside forces. The self is socially constructed, what
defines a person are the norms, values, languages, arts, and culture of
society.
• For postmodernists, people have no fixed identities which are separable
from their surroundings and which remain the same even though certain
characteristics and conditions may change.
• In traditional society, a person's status is determined by his or her role; in
modern society, by his or her achievement; and in postmodern society, by
fashion or style.
• As style and fashion change, a person adapts to these changes or is left
with identity in question. All that matter is now (Wade, 1999). Foucault
describes it as "the self that turned into a text, a complex narrative of
accomplishments suffused with discourses”. The self is a text written from
moment to moment according to the demands of a multitude of social
contexts.
Lyon (1997) argued that the predicament of the
self in postmodern societies is complicated by
the advent of electronic-mediated virtual
interactions of cyber selves and the spread of
information technology.
The postmodern social
condition is dominated by This phenomenon disrupts the self from
two realities: the rise of
new media technologies, the traditional constraints of time and
and the dominance of space, addition, Green (1997) posited
consumerism. that the self is "digitalized”.
In Cyberspace, in the essay "Email and Memory, the consequences of
digitalization of the self-appear thus:
“Every little piece of information that you post on internet-the
message you write, the websites you the files you download, the email
address you contact, the book, tapes, CDs, and airplane tickets you
order on the internet, and the credit card numbers you give--all these
become raw data from which someone out there can piece together an
identity, a virtual version of who you are."
ERVING GOFFMAN'S
PRESENTATION OF
SELF IN EVERYDAY LIFE
American sociologists of the 20th
century, introduced a theory, which
he referred to as the
dramaturgical model of social
life.
 Social Interaction = theater and people to actors on a stage where
each plays a variety of roles (Crossman, 2018).
 In this theory, he posited the idea that as people interact with one
another they are constantly engaged in impression management-a
process in which people regulate and control information in social
DRAMATURGICAL interaction.
MODEL OF  This can only be realized when all people involved in the interaction
SOCIAL LIFE are working to ensure that all parties have the same definition of the
situation, that is, each person understands what is meant to happen in
that situation, what to expect from the others involved, and how one
should behave.
 This model of SOCIAL LIFE assumes that personalities are not static
because they change to suit the situation. Goffman used the imagery
of theater in order to portray the nuances and significance of face-to-
face social interaction.
 SELF is a product of the dramatic interaction between actor and
audience. The self is made up of the various parts that people play,
and a key goal or social actors is to present their various selves in
ways that create and sustain particular impressions to their different
audiences.
In theater, people play the part of either an actor/performer or an audience. The actor is the one who gives
meaning to himself or herself, to others, and to the situations.

He or she has all the creative and destructive information about the situation or the performance.

The members of the audience are those who largely accept the definition of the situation or the
performance delivered or presented by every actor they do not have the destructive information about the
performance.

They are constantly attribute meaning to the performance actors.

The performance refers to all the actions n to the (individual) in a particular situation in front of the
audience.
 This performance delivers impression to others information confirming
the identity of the actor situation. The objective of the performance is to
create impression about the actor, the setting can be an office, a room, a
restaurant, and any other places.
 Different settings mean different audiences which then require the actor
to adjust his or her performances depending on the setting. The
appearance consists of fixed attributes like gender, age, citizenship, but it
also includes clothing, props and other things.
 THE MANNER refers to the displayed behaviors such as being generous, honest, patriotic
courteous, and many others.
 The audience will be confused and upset if there is inconsistency between appearance and
manner. In this scenario, like in real life, everyday interactions happen in three regions, each
with different impact on a person's individual performance.
 These are the front stage, the back stage, and the off stage. The front stage is the region
where actors perform and act in conformity with the expectations of the audience. The back
stage is the region where actors behave differently. It is a place where actors act their natural
selves with no roles to portray and no audience to impress.
 The last region is the off stage where actors meet members of the audience independently
(Crossman, 2018).
KENNETH GERGEN'S SATURATED OR MULTIPLICITOUS SELF

 For Kenneth Gergen, the saturated self is characterized by constant connection to others, a self that absorbs a
multitude of voices (sometimes contradictory) and takes in a seeming endless streams of information.
 This saturation contradicts the of a singular, true, authentic self, and instead gives way to a self-consisting of
"multiple" selves. This is due to the splitting of the self into multitude of options, which Gergen calls
MULTIPHRENIA.
 That is, people establish multiple selves t through absorption of multiple voices of people in their lives, either in
real or through the media. People then internalize these different selves, thus creating a seemingly endless pool of
selves that they can choose to draw upon depending on the needs of the current situation. ln his book The
Saturated Self, Gergen (1991) wrote:
 “ Emerging technologies saturate us with the voices of humankind-both harmonious and alien. As we absorb their
varied rhymes and reasons, they become part of us and we of them. Social saturation furnishes us with a
multiplicity of incoherent and unrelated languages of the self. For everything we "know to be true" about
ourselves, other voices within respond with doubt and even derision. This fragmentation of self-conceptions
corresponds to a multiplicity of incoherent and disconnected relationships. These relationships pull us in myriad
directions, inviting us to play such variety ot roles that the very concept of an "authentic self" with knowable
characteristics recedes from view. The fully saturated self becomes no self at all."
 Today's technology has become a major outlet for people to create and experiment with
multiple selves. Through mediums such as the internet and video games, people are able to
construct idealized versions of who they are by selectively representing various aspects of
their selves like self-promotion on the internet Buffardi & Campbell, 2008).
 For example, people report that they create online avatars in order to represent idealized
versions of themselves (Bessiere, Seay, & Kiester, 2007)
 The SATURATED SELF AS A MULTIPHRENIC condition, in which one experiences
the vertigo of unlimited multiplicity, does not only apply to mere exposure to technology but
also accounts for the feeling of overload that results in a socially saturated condition.
 Gergen explained that options are not only endless, but are no longer constrained by time
or distance, and because of this, "the has become a sea of drowning demands, and there is no
shore in sight"
 Simply put, the saturated self is stressed. He gives a particularly compelling example of how
social saturation makes even a seemingly simple dilemma such as “What should I do today”
into something complex and stressful by describing a man contemplating about what to do
with his free Saturday.
 The man starts his day excited about having the freedom to choose how he spends his time.
He starts to think about what to do with the day, which turns into thinking about things that
need to done, which leads him to think of more things that he needs to do, which reminds
him of other things he would like to do. His Sense of having a free day becomes completely
overwhelming with all the options and obligations.
 Furthermore, because technology, these options are all available immediately, which leads to
an endless list of things to do. This overwhelming list of potentials, Gergen described, feels
what the state of social saturation is like. Thus, for Gergen, social saturation brings with it a
general loss of true and knowable selves.
1. How should you develop your
self image? Is it based on your
ACTIVITY 1 own evaluations of yourself or is
it based on how you believe
others perceive you? Explain
your answer.
ACTIVITY 2
Instruction: Reflect on what makes up your private, public, and collective self. Write your answer
in the table below.

Private Self Public Self Collective Self


ACTIVITY 3

• Instructions: At home, identify five traits My own view My friends’ view My classmates’ view

which you believe you possess and write Example:


I am generous.
Example: I am generous
according to my friends
Example: I am generous
according to my
these in the first column of the table. The (attach a supporting classmates.
evidence)
second column must have the same traits
you identified in the first column, but
provide some pieces of evidence coming
from another person’s printed messages
or post from Facebook, cards, and the
likes (must be pasted or written on the
second column ) to support your claim.

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