What is Sociology?

Sociology is the study of social life, social

change, and the social causes and
consequences of human behavior.
 -American philosopher, sociologist, and
psychologist.
-He argued that the self is not biological but
social.
-Self, therefore, is constructed by directly
engaging in the world through interaction and
through reflections on those interactions.
-Self from experience as we learn to interpret
situations by “taking on the role of the other”
George -Mead theorized that the self has two parts: Self-
Herbert Mead awareness and Self-image.
(1863-1931)
 Development of Self
According to Mead, three activities develop the self:

• Preparatory stage - language develop • Game stage - develop self by allowing

self by allowing individuals to respond to individuals to understand and adhere
each other through symbols, gestures, to the rules of the activity.
words, and sounds.

• Play stage - develop self by allowing

individuals to take on different roles,
pretend, and express expectations of
others. It develops one’s self-
consciousness through role-playing.
Two Slides of Self: Me and I
• According to Mead’s theory,
the self has two sides or
phases: ‘Me’ and ‘I’
• The ‘I’, therefore, can be
considered the present and
future phase of the self. The
‘I’ represents the individual’s
identity based on response
to the ‘Me’
 "The self is born of society. The self is inseparable from
society and bound up with communication. It builds on social
experience. This is largely a matter of taking the role of other with
increasing sophistications, broadening out from significant others
to greater complexity"

-George Herbert Mead

The self is the human capacity to be
reflective and take the role of others.
• The self emerges from social experience. It is not part of
the body and it does not exists at birth.

• Social experience involves communication and the

exchange of symbols. People create meaning.

• To understand intention you must imagine the situation

from another person's point of view. By taking the role
of the other: the self is reflective and reflexive.
Stages in Mead's Theory on the
Development of the Self
• Generalized other:
the perspectives and expectations of a network of
others (or a society in general) that a child learns and then
takes into account when shaping his/her own behavior
 -American sociologist
-He is perhaps best known for his concepts of
the looking glass self, which is the concept that
a person’s self grows out of society’s
interpersonal interactions and the perceptions
of others.
-The concepts of the “looking glass-self” is
undoubtedly his most famous, and is known
and accepted by most psychologists and
sociologists today.
Charles Horton -The term “looking glass-self” was first used by
Cooley Cooley in his work, Human Nature and the
(1864-1929) Social Order in 1902.
Steps in Looking Glass Self:
• You imagine how you appear to the other
person.
• You imagine the judgement of the other
person.
• You feel some sense of pride happiness,
guilt, or shame.
Private self, Public self, and Collective
self
Private Self Public Self
• Is the cognition that involves • Is the cognition concerning the
traits, states, and behaviors. generalized other’s view of the self.
It corresponds to an assessment of
• An assessment of the self by the
the self by the generalized other.
self.
• For instance, “People think I am
• For instance, “I am generous” religious” or “People think I am
shows one’s knowledge of his or corrupt” shows one’s relation with
her attributes that differentiate others and the role one assume in
him or her from the others. that relationships.
Collective Self
• Is the cognition concerning a view of the self that is found in
memberships in social groups.
• For examples:
- family
- co-workers
- tribe
- professional organizations
• For instance, a person may be identified as feminist. Attributes of being
feminist that are similar with other feminists are emphasized forming the
collective self.
 The Social Identity Theory
• It is Henri Tajfel’s greatest contribution to psychology.
• Social identity is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership.
• Tajfel (1979) proposed that the groups (e.g. social class, family, football team etc.) which
people belonged to were an important source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us a sense
of social identity: a sense of belonging to the social world.
• Henri Tajfel proposed that stereotyping (i.e. putting people into groups and categories) is
based on a normal cognitive process: the tendency to group things together. In doing so we
tend to exaggerate:
1. The difference between groups.
2. The similarities of things in the same group. This is known as in-group (us) and out-group
(them). The central hypothesis of social identity theory is that group members of an in-group will
seek to find negative aspects of an out-group, thus enhancing their self image.
 Prejudiced views between cultures may result in
racism; in its extreme forms, racism may result in
genocide, such as occurred in Germany with the jews,
in Rwanda between the Hutus and Tutsis and, more
recently, in the former Yugoslavia between the
Bosnians and Serbs.
 Social categorization is one explanation for prejudice
attitudes (i.e. “them” and “us” mentally) which leads to
in-groups and out-groups.
Example of In-groups and Out-groups
• Northern Ireland: Catholics – Protestants
• Rwanda: Hutus and Tutsis
• Yugoslavia: the Bosnians and Serbs
• Germany: Jews and the Nazis
• Politics: Labor and the Conservatives
• Football: Liverpool and Man Utd
• Gender: Males and Females
• Social Class: Middle and Working Classes
THE SELF AS A PRODUCT OF MODERN
AND POSTMODERN SOCIETES
• In modern societies, the attainment and consistency of self-identity
are freely chosen (Lanuza, 2004). It is no longer restricted by
customs and traditions. This freedom offers infinite possibilities for
self-cultivation and improvement. However, in the rise of these
possibilities, problems such as alienation and dehumanization of
the self also emerge which hinder the full development of human
potentials. With this in mind, it is important to discover the
"authentic core" of the self so that the individual can work towards
self-realization.
• Post modern societies on the other hand continuously offer
changes in self-identity due to the demands of a multitude of
social contexts, new Information technologies, and globalization.
French sociologist Jean Baudrillard reveals the negative
consequence of postmodernity to society (Demeterio, 2013).
According to him, to consume is what postmodern society is all
about. These individuals achieve self-identity by consuming
prestige symbols. They seek a position in society through the
quality of prestige symbols that they can afford to consume.
• The practice we are living in right now where advertising, mass media,
and even social media can greatly influence the individuals to
consume goods, not because of the primary purpose it can give, but
because they can give feelings of power and goodness when
compared to others. Hence, a postmodern person cannot be satisfied
in his or her life and will continue to consume.
 -Canadian-born American sociologist, social
psychologist , and writer, considered by
some “the most influential American
sociologist of the 20th century”.
-We use impression management to
present ourselves to others as we hope to
be perceived.
-Each situations is a new scene and we
perform different roles depending on who
is present.
-In his theory of dramaturgical analysis, he
Erving Goffman argued that people live their live much like
(1922-1982) actors performing on a stage.
 Dramaturgy
• Focuses on how individuals take on roles
and act them out to present a favorable
impression to their “audience”.
 The self is a social construction
Frontstage Backstage
• People play different roles • When people engage in
throughout their daily back stage behavior, they
lives and display different are free of the
kinds of behavior expectations and norms
depending on where they that dictate front stage
are and the time of day. behavior.
 Agents of socialization
• Family – families introduce children to the expectation of society.
Socialization in different based on race, gender, and class.
• Mass media – the mass media function as socialization agents for
children and adults in several ways.
• Peer group – the influence of the peer group typically peaks during
adolescence. Peer group generally only affect short term interests
unlike the family, which has long term influence.
• Religion – children tend to develop the same religious beliefs as their
parents.
• Sport.
 Presentation of the self in everyday life

• Believe that meaning is constructed through interaction.

• Interaction order – what we do in the immediate presence of others.
• Goffman argues that people are concerned with controlling how
others view them, a process he called impression management.
 Kenneth Gergen
(1991)

-American social psychologist and emeritus

professor at Swarthmore collage.
Kenneth Gergen and the Saturated self
• Saturated self – characterized by constant connection to others, a
self that absorbs a multitude of voices and takes in a seemingly
endless stream of information.

• This saturation contradicts the notion of a singular true, authentic

self and instead gives way to a self consisting of multiple selves due
to the splitting of the self into multitude of options, which gergen
calls multiphrenia.
 THANKS FOR
LISTENING AND
WATCHING…!!!