PART 1 THE SELF FROM Various Perspective - B. Sociology PDF

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PART 1 THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVE - B. SOCIOLOGY...

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A Self – Instructional Module on the Self from Various Perspective – Sociological Perspective I.

Module Overview It is defined as the reflexive self to mirror and think, how one is in interaction with other persons. From a sociological point of view, the self-reflects through a mechanism that includes the self-efficacy, identity, self-conception and self-esteem of the individual evolves in contact with others. Self-deceiving and self-disagreement play a vital role in preserving a positive and true self-conception in order to regulate conflicting viewpoints. The interactions of gifted adolescents and young adults show how many people's reactions affect the representation of themselves. Charles Cooley (1864–1929) was one of the founders of sociological insights. He claimed that the self-intelligence of individuals is partially dependent on their assumed perception of others — a phenomenon regarded as a "looking glass self" (Cooley 1902). Then, George Herbert Mead (1863–1931), who was a practitioner of social interaction, researched the self, a distinct personality of an individual. In order to engage in this process of “self,” an individual has to be able to view him or herself through the eyes of others. That’s not an ability that we are born with (Mead 1934). We strive to place ourselves in someone's shoes by socializing and to see the environment from a viewpoint of another. It allows one to feel self-conscious as we gaze upon ourselves from the "wrong" viewpoint. Therefore, a person grows, grasp and know the growing behavioral standards in general society of the standardized others. At that stage of development, the individual will understand how one or even more others see himself — and thus have "a self" from a sociological point of view. In this module, the learner learns better the sociological perspectives that are valuable and important to the "self.".

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Desired Learning Outcomes At the end of this module, the students are expected of the following:   

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Discuss the different representations and conceptualizations of the self from various disciplinal perspectives Examine the different influences, factors and forces that shape the self Compare and contrast how the self has been represented across the different disciplines and perspectives

Learning Contents and Learning Tasks

What is SOCIOLOGY? • • •

Is the study of human social relationships and institutions. Emphasize the careful gathering and analysis of evidence about social life to develop and enrich our understanding of key social processes Pioneering contributors to sociological perspectives of the self

Pioneering Contributors to Sociological Perspectives of the Self A. Charles Cooley  a sociologist who believed that the influence of groups within a society had a strong impact on human behavior.  proponent of the “looking glass self” theory which states that our self-concepts and identities are a reflection of how other people perceive us. 3 Elements of Self-idea 1. our imagination of how others see our appearance; 2. our imagination of the other’s judgment of our appearance; and

3. some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification, determined by our imagination of the other’s judgment of us. B. George Mead  An American sociologist best known as a founder of American pragmatism  A pioneer of symbolic interaction theory  Mead's theory of the self-maintains that the conception a person holds of themselves in their mind emerges from social interaction with others. The SELF – Is a product of social interaction – Is a social structure and it arising in social experience – It exists in the activity of viewing oneself reflexively – “Role-taking”: taking the standpoint of others TWO COMPONENTS OF SELF ACCORDING TO MEAD “ME” – Represents the expectations and attitudes of others (the "generalized other") organized into a social self. – Is the self as object, – Anticipated responses with respect to self “I” – – – –

Is the response to the “me,” or the person’s individuality. Is the self as subject. Is the responses of the person to the organized attitude of others. Contains creativity ang spontaneity parts of the self.

3 WAYS TO DEVELOP THE SELF 1. LANGUAGE allows individuals to take on the “role of the other” and allows people to respond to his or her own gestures in terms of the symbolized attitudes of others. 2. IN PLAY, individuals take on the roles of other people and pretend to be those other people in order to express the expectations of significant others. 3. IN THE GAME, the individual is required to internalize the roles of all others who are involved with him or her in the game and must comprehend the rules of the game.

How Mead Matters Today Many of us today live in a culture that encourages us to think of ourselves as essentially and uniquely individual, cut off from or even opposed to the larger societies in which we live. When we hear people say things like, “I don’t care what other people think about me,” we get a glimpse into common (mis)conceptions of what it means to be a self. But Mead’s theory of the self convincingly shows us that this way of thinking is wrongheaded. What others think of us, the perspectives of others we gain from being a part of the conversation of gestures, are absolutely necessary for us to even have a sense of self. We think of ourselves as individuals, to be sure, but we are only able to do so by virtue of being a part of a larger social community. Arguably no other social theorist argues this point more brilliantly and systematically than George Herbert Mead. The Conversation of Gestures and Significant Symbols For Mead, the gesture is perhaps the most important entryway into understanding social interaction and communication. A gesture, according to Mead, is an act by an organism that calls out a response in another organism. All living organisms inhabit, he argues, a conversation of gestures, calling out meaningful responses to and from one another. Mead uses the example of a dogfight to exemplify what he means by the conversation of gestures. The act of a dog snarling at another dog calls out for a response from the other dog to, for example, snarl back or retreat. The response from the second dog, in turn, calls out a further response from the first dog, and so on and so forth.

Mead argues that humans similarly live in a conversation of gestures, but that our conversation also includes significant symbols. Significant symbols, he states, are gestures that arouse in us the same feelings that they are meant to arouse in those they are directed at. With significant symbols, Mead argues, we take the perspective of others toward the symbol as our own, like when we learn to feel patriotism when looking at the national flag or when we take the perspective of both buyer and seller into account when bargaining over the price of a commodity. Once internalized, significant symbols are also what allow thinking—a silent conversation with ourselves in which we think over and through multiple perspectives to address a problem or issue.

C. Erving Goffman (1922-1982)  A major Canadian-American sociologist who played a significant role in the development of modern American sociology.  He is widely known and celebrated as a major figure in the development of the dramaturgical theory.  He believed that when we are born, we are thrust onto a stage called everyday life, and that our socialization consists of learning how to play our assigned roles from other people.  Dramaturgy is the idea that life is like a never-ending play in which people are actors. INDIVIDUAL SELF VS COLLECTIVE SELF Individual Self The individual self-highlights one's unique side. It consists of attributes (e.g., traits, goals and aspirations, experiences, interests, behaviors) that differentiate the person from others. This selfrepresentation is relatively independent of relational bonds or group memberships. The individual self is achieved by differentiating from others (i.e., the individual self contains those aspects of the self-concept that differentiate the person from other persons as a unique constellation of traits and characteristics that distinguishes the individual within his or her social context). This form of self-representation relies on interpersonal comparison processes and is associated with the motive of protecting or enhancing the person psychologically (Brewer & Gardner, 1996; see also Markus, 1977; Sedikides, 1993). The individual self-comprise unique attributes, the relational self-comprises partner-shared attributes, and the collective self-comprises ingroup-shared attributes. All selves are fundamental components of the self-concept, with each being important and meaningful to human experience and with each being associated with health benefits. Collective Self The collective self consists of those aspects of the self that are based on memberships in social groups or categories. It refers to a perception of self as an interchangeable exemplar of some social category rather than a perception of self as a unique person. The collective self is based on impersonal bonds to others that are derived from the shared identification with a social group. Those bonds do not necessarily require close personal relationships between group members. The collective self-concept is composed of attributes that one shares with members of the group to which one belongs (the ingroup). That is, it includes those aspects of the self-concept that differentiate ingroup members from members of relevant outgroups. Commonalities with groups may be based on stable characteristics, such as race or gender, or on achieved states, such as occupation or party membership.

Collective Self Background Marilynn Brewer and Wendi Gardner suggested a theoretical framework that encompasses three levels of self-definition: personal self, relational self, and collective self. The collective self refers to the representation of self at the group level (e.g., “I am a student of psychology”). It corresponds to the concept of “social identity” as described in social identity theory and self-categorization theory. Recently the term collective self has been preferred to the term social identity, as all aspects of the self are socially

influenced. The collective self can be distinguished from the personal self and the relational self. The personal self-concerns the definition of self at the individual level (e.g., “I am smart”); it refers to characteristics of the self (e.g., traits or behavior) that one believes to be unique to the self. The relational self alludes to the interpersonal level; it is derived from relationships with significant others (e.g., “I am a daughter”). The term collective self-corresponds to the interdependent self as defined by Hazel Markus and Shinobu Kitayama in their analysis of cultural differences between self-concepts in Japan and the United States. The relational self refers to people to whom one feels emotionally attached, such as close friends or family members. In contrast, the collective self may include people whom one has never met but with whom one shares a common attribute, such as occupation or gender....