UNIT 1 - MODULE 1: DIFFERENT FRAMEWORKS AND THEORIES ABOUT THE SELF PDF

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Reading 1: The Self by Chris Mcvittie & AndyMcKinlay A. Introduction 1. Plato (428-348 BCE) & Aristotle (ca 384- BCE) The self as the essential core of a human being Upanishads (6th Century) The self as part of ultimate reality of the nature and organization of life Philosophers of the Enlig...

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UNIT 1 – PERSPECTIVES ABOUT THE SELF

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MODULE 1: DIFFERENT FRAMEWORKS AND THEORIES ABOUT THE SELF Reading 1: The Self by Chris Mcvittie & Andy McKinlay A. Introduction 1. Plato (428-348 BCE) & Aristotle (ca 384-322 BCE) The self as the essential core of a human being 2. Upanishads (6th Century) The self as part of ultimate reality of the nature and organization of life 3. Philosophers of the Enlightenment Descartes, Locke, Hume, Leibnitz, Berkeley, and Kantall Discussed the self as part of their philosophical enquiries 4. William James The Principles of Psychology The self as comprising two separate entities but necessarily related aspects: The I and the me thus reflected two different elements of self that together comprised the person as an essential being, distinct from others, and cap able of introspecting and reflecting on participation in the social world. I center of introspection and reflection on experience - the person who made sense of past, present, and future encounters with the world in a form that rendered these encounters coherent and thereby allowed for continuity of being

Me - comprised the self as known through his/her interactions with others. - a collection of social selves that were based in and known through the person as a social being. - ‘aman[sic] has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him in their mind’

B. The Self and Mainstream Social Psychology 1. Cooley (1902) & Mead (1934) Took up the question of how an individual develops a social self by making sense of his/her interactions with others. 2. Gordon Allport (mid 1950s) newly introduced constructs such as selfimage, self-actualization, self-affirmation, and so on had been proposed, taken up in subsequent theories and in turn led to the emergence of further constructs.

the constructs ostensibly related to the self in offering a description of some related element, such as self-esteem, or related process, such as self-actualization. the idea of self was left largely implicit and superseded by a range of ‘hyphenated elaborations’, many of which potentially bore little relation to the self at all.

C. A Proliferation of Self-Related Constructs Not only have we lacked a single, universally accepted definition of “self”, but also many definitions clearly refer to distinctly different phenomena, and some uses of the term are difficult to grasp no matter what definition one applies’ The term self, instead of denoting a specific topic of study has been used in a multiplicity of ways that serve different purposes, with the production of an ever-increasing range of self-related constructs leading not to any more useful understanding of the self but to research into “the self” becoming ‘a conceptual morass’ D. The Self as Social Categorizer 1. Social Identity Theory The primary focus lies on how people are identified socially in terms of the social identities that they adopt at various times. These identities encompass readily recognizable features of a social landscape (e.g. memberships of social groups defined by gender, age, nationality, etc.) Individuals acquire social identities that locate them within a recognizable social world through psychological processes of: a. social categorization b. social identification c. social comparison The focus lies more on what people have in common with others than on what might make them distinctive. Seeks to examine social identity rather than self, and commonality through group memberships rather than distinctiveness, self nonetheless is important here for two reasons: a. SIT argues that the processes that lead to adoption of social identities are primarily motivated by an individual’s need to maximize self-esteem Taking up social identities that allow for favorable comparisons of that group with others will enhance self-esteem and thus people will seek advantageous comparisons and identities whenever they are available. b. The role for self, incorporated into SIT is developed further in SCT which aims to specify how and when individuals will

identify themselves in terms of social identities instead of personal identities or selves. 2. Self-Categorization Theory According to SCT, the shift away from personal identity or self occurs when people have accessible to them a relevant social identity and this identity is made salient by the context in which the person is at a given time. People come to see themselves more as exemplar members of a social group than as unique individuals and this process of depersonalization leads them to identify as group members instead of as individual selves. E.

Dualist and Essentialist Theories of the Self

Dualist - The self is a combination of (some) self-related dispositions and potential actions In mainstream approaches, individuals and society fall to be treated as separate and distinguishable entities. - The individual has to derive beliefs about others or perceive the available social categories in order to arrive at a point of identifying where he/she stands in relation to social life. - In each case, social phenomena are regarded as separable from the individual as self -

Essentialist - the self is a whole but one that plays a minor role when compared with social groups and social identities Accounts are essentialist in treating the psychological processes and properties involved as essential features of the individual. - Views that others might have of the self are treated as individually located beliefs or as the outcomes of cognitive processes.

For critical theorists, the dualist and essentialist elements of mainstream theorizing are neither sustainable nor borne out by careful examination of how people act in social life

F. Critical Approaches to the Self From a critical perspective, the focus of social psychological work lies not in the study of individuals and society as separate entities each with its own properties but instead on how people live their lives in a social world. The emphasis is on social interaction, in particular how people use language to negotiate and construct the meanings of everyday life as they engage as social beings

Two Main Approaches 1. Macro approach Primarily concerned with the study of how broader patterns of social structures and practices shape and are enacted in the interactions that people have with each other. Examples: a. Critical Discourse Analysis - Seeks to examine how dominant ideologies are produced and reproduced in language, and is designed to expose the inequalities that are sustained through social practices in order to effect change. b. Foucauldian Discourse Analysis - Emphasis on how language reflects the social and ideological practices of particular historical periods. - According to this argument, the discourses circulating within any specific period of time make available certain forms of being or subject positions that individuals take up and occupy 2. Micro approach Concerned with examining how people themselves use language to accomplish particular outcomes. Rooted from traditions of ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, and discursive psychology. Examine how individuals in talk-in-interaction deploy and work up discursive versions of people, events, and social phenomena. Emphasize the action orientation of discourse: discourse does not (merely) reflect what might be considered to be occurring elsewhere but instead is an active medium that people use to do things Discourse is never neutral; it is always being used to achieve certain outcomes, such as justifying one’s actions, accounting for events, complaining, blaming or criticizing others, etc. Erving Goffman (1959) Self was not a property of the individual but rather something that the individual performed in interaction with others. According to his argument, people in interactions seek to present themselves in ways that will guide the impressions that others form of them. At the same time, those with whom an individual is interacting attempt to gain information about and form an impression of the individual. Self is the outcome of the performance in accomplishing who others take the self to be. Self is a product of social interaction instead of a precursor for social action, attention focuses on how individuals understand their own and others’ performances, how these are achieved in everyday talk and the functions that selves fulfill in local contexts of production.

Reading 2: Essentialism vs. Social Constructionism in the Study of Human Sexuality by John D. DeLamater Essentialism A. Defining Essentialism 1. Classical Essentialism There are underlying true forms or essences There is discontinuity between different forms rather than continuous variation These true forms are constant over time.  Plato (428-348 BC) Concept of essentialism originated in his work The phenomena of the natural world were simply a reflection of a finite number of fixed and unchanging forms, or eide.  Middle Ages Thomists renamed eide to essences Constancy and discontinuity were the crucial properties of essences. That is, an essence does not change and is categorically different from another essence. The essentialists attributed continuous variation to the imperfect manifestation of the essences. Essentialism was the philosophical foundation for positivism in philosophy up to the twentieth century. Essentialism therefore dominated philosophical and scientific thought in the Western world. 2. Modern Essentialism Consists of a belief that certain phenomena are natural, inevitable, and biologically determined.  Darwin One of the first to partially reject essentialism His notion of change through evolution was fundamentally at odds with the notion of constancy in essentialism.  Popper (1962) Brought essentialism back into modern discourse on the philosophy of science, while at the same time rejecting it soundly. Essentialism is defined by two doctrines: a. "the best, the truly scientific theories, describe the essences or the essential natures of things—the realities which lie behind the appearances." b. "the scientist can succeed in finally establishing the truth of such theories beyond all reasonable doubt" B. Evolutionary Theories 1. Sociobiology defined as the application of evolutionary biology to understanding the social behavior of animals, including humans This modern application of evolutionary theory was inaugurated with the publication

of E. O. Wilson's Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975). Donald Symons applied this approach to understanding sexuality in his book, The Evolution of Human Sexuality (1979). 2. Evolutionary Theory Refers to the theory that all living things have acquired their present forms through gradual changes in their genetic endowment over successive generations. These gradual changes take place as a result of natural selection.  Darwin In addition to natural selection, Darwin posited a second process, sexual selection, that produced sex differences. Sexual selection includes two processes: a. members of one gender (usually males) competing with each other for mating access to members of the other gender and b. preferential choice by members of one gender (usually females) for certain members of the other gender.  David Buss Articulated a more complex evolutionary theory of sexuality, “sexual strategies theory” This theory distinguishes between short-term mating strategies (e.g., casual sex) and longterm mating strategies (e.g., marriage). Men and women confront some similar but also some different adaptive problems in short-term and long-term mating strategies. 3. Attraction According to evolutionary theorists, our mating preferences are the result of evolutionary forces; the preferences that evolved serve the function of maximizing the individual's reproductive success or fitness o i.e., the number of one's genes passed on successfully to succeeding generations through one's offspring. Short-term mating strategies constitute a larger component of men's sexual strategy than women's  Buss and Schmitt (1993) Men have an evolved preference for mates who are fertile, and the best cues to fertility are physical attractiveness Buss and Schmitt (1993). o e.g. clear skin, the absence of lesions, clear eyes, and lustrous hair. Youth is another cue to fertility and reproductive value, and men, according to the theory, also have an evolved preference for young women, regardless of the man's age. Women are generally more interested in longterm than short-term mating strategies. Short-term mating for women, however, may have some adaptive functions. o i.e. it can allow them to assess the merits of a man as a long-term mate. Women, according to the theory, want a longterm mate who is able and willing to provide

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resources (money, food, etc.) that can be used in the rearing of their offspring. Therefore, women value wealth, good financial prospects, and industriousness in a mate. Like men, they also value physical attractiveness as an indicator of health and fertility, but this may be a lesser factor than the man's command of resources. Gangestad and Buss (1993) Argued that this mechanism can also explain cross-cultural variations in mating preferences In cultures where more parasites are present, healthiness and pathogen resistance are even more important to assess in a mate than in cultures where there are few parasites. Therefore, physical appearance should be more important in selecting a mate in high- pathogen areas than in low-pathogen areas, and the cross-cultural data supported that prediction. This pattern was true for both men's and women's mating preferences.

Summary: 1. Physical attractiveness and youth should be key features that attract men to women. 2. Women are attracted to men who can provide resources and, to a lesser extent, men who are healthy and attractive. 4.  -

Sexual Orientation Inclusive Fitness Concept used in explaining the maintenance of same-gender sexual behavior in the face of evolutionary pressures. refers to the reproductive success of oneself and one's close relatives, i.e., the total of one's genes passed to the next generation through one's children, but also through one's siblings' children (who are also carrying some of one's genes) and other relatives' children. The notion, then, is that gay men and lesbians might contribute to the fitness of their siblings, nieces, and nephews, perhaps by helping in their rearing or contributing material resources, thereby maximizing their own inclusive fitness and the continued evolution of same-gender sexual orientations. C. Biological Theories Emphasizing Proximate Causes 1. Proximate Causes Have an immediate impact on behavior e.g. hormones 2. Ultimate causes deal with evolution and the particular circumstances of ancestral populations that led to the evolution of a particular trait or tendency. 3. Genetic Influences on Human Sexuality There has been considerable theoretical and research interest in the genetics of one of our two key topics (sexual orientation) but not the other (attraction).

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Studies seem to provide evidence of a genetic influence on sexual orientation in both men and women. They do not, however, provide evidence of complete genetic determination, which would require a concordance rate of 100% for identical twins.  Micro-level Analysis A particular gene on the X chromosome, named Xq28, explains some cases of male homosexuality (Dean Hamer, et. al.) Transmission is therefore from mothers to sons Increased incidence of homosexual orientation in maternal uncles, but not in fathers or paternal relatives. 4. Brain Factors Hypothesis: there are neuro-anatomical differences between the brains of gays and straights. The attempt has been to link these differences to male-female brain differences. Much research (conducted on animals) has focused on the hypothalamus and two clusters of cells (nuclei) in it: a. sexually dimorphic nucleus (SDN) b. interstitial nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus (INAH-1, INAH-2, and INAH-3)  LeVay’s Research (1991) Best known study investigating the hypothesis of hypothalamic differences in humans. He found that INAH3 was larger in heterosexual women than heterosexual men and that INAH3 in homosexual men was similar in size to that of heterosexual women (no lesbians were included in the study). The study can be criticized on a number of grounds: a. The sample size was very small b. All gay men in the sample, but only six straight men and one straight woman, had died of AIDS. c. The gay men were known to have been gay based on records at the time of death; the others, however, were just "presumed" to be heterosexual. Therefore, this study cannot be regarded as conclusive. 5. Hormones  Speculation: Some kind of hormone imbalance was responsible for homosexuality. Reasoning: gay men are low on testosterone and lesbians are low on estrogen or perhaps high on testosterone. Recent studies fail to show any differences in testosterone levels between male homosexuals and male heterosexuals. Fewer studies of hormonal differences between lesbians and heterosexual women have been conducted, studies showed no differences.

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Speculation: There might be differences between heterosexuals and homosexuals in other hormones (gonadotropins FSH and LH). Five of seven studies on LH levels in gay men compared with straight men showed no differences, and two showed higher LH levels in gay men There is not strong support for differences in LH levels. Are the Biological Theories Essentialist? All the biological theories—evolutionary, genetic, hormonal, and neuroanatomical—are based on the assumption, that there are two underlying true forms, heterosexuals and homosexuals. The theories rest on an assumption of discontinuity. i.e. that homosexuality and heterosexuality are two distinct and separate categories These theories rest on an assumption of the constancy over time of the two categories of homosexuality and heterosexuality. Sociobiology typically rests on an outmoded version of evolutionary theory that modern biologists consider naive (Gould, 1987). Thus, the very capacity for change over time (and with environmental conditions) that is so important in evolutionary theory has generally been ignored by modern sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists. Cultural Essentialism Although essentialism generally refers to views that are biologically deterministic, within gender studies there is also a cultural essentialist viewpoint. “The point of view that women and men do differ because of socialization and that women are at least equal to and possibly superior to men" illustrates the existence of cultural essentialism. Cultural Feminists “because of universal early childhood experiences, women are inherently relational, whereas men are autonomous and independent.” Chordorow (1978) argued that the initial close and intense bond between mother and infant must be smashed by the male in order to form a separate, independent, masculine identity, whereas the female can continue in close relatedness to her mother, who provides her with a feminine identity. These essential qualities of separateness in men and relatedness in women persist throughout life and are a result of universal cultural experience. Gilligan (1982) based her notion of women's different moral voice, with an emphasis on caring and relationships, on Chodorow's theorizing.

Summary: 1. These theories all argue for cultural determinism of essential qualities in females and males,

resulting from universal experiences in infancy and early childhood—namely, the early intense bond between mother and infant and the father's relative absence from these early relationships. These theories have been criticized for presuming universality and ignoring diversity in human experience.

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Summary: Essentialism Three distinct schools of thought on essentialism: a. Plato's classical essentialism b. Modern es...