MODULE 2: Self from the Perspective of Sociology

*Sociological Perspective on Self- Classical sociological perspective, the Self is a

relatively stable set of perceptions of who we are in relation to ourselves, others, and to
social systems. The self is socially constructed in the sense that it is shaped through
interaction with other people.
*Charles Cooley’s theory of the “looking glass self.”
The three principal elements:
Element 1- The imagination of his judgment of that appearance,
Element 2- The imagination of our appearance to the other person
Element 3- Some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification

The thing that moves us to pride or shame is...the imagined effect of this reflection upon
another’s mind.... We are ashamed to seem evasive in the presence of a straightforward
man, cowardly in the presence of a brave one, gross in the eyes of a refined one, and so
on. We always imagine, and, in imagining, share the judgments of the other mind. A man
will boast to one person of an action—say some sharp transaction in trade—which he
would be ashamed to own to another.” To put it more simply, the way you imagine other
people perceiving you affects the way you feel about yourself, which in turn affects your
attitude and even your appearance. And you may change the way you present yourself
depending on who you’re trying to impress or fit in with. I realized that the looking glass
self applies to my own life right at that moment. This drawing depicts the looking-glass
self. The person at the front of the image is looking into four mirrors, each of which
reflects someone else's image of him back to him.

Three activities develop the self:

1.Language develops self by allowing individuals to respond to each other through
symbols, gestures, words, and sounds. Language conveys others' attitudes and opinions
toward a subject or the person. Emotions, such as anger, happiness, and confusion, are
conveyed through language.
2. Play develops self by allowing individuals to take on different roles, pretend, and
express expectation of others. Play develops one's self-consciousness through role-
playing. During role-play, a person is able to internalize the perspective of others and
develop an understanding of how others feel about themselves and others in a variety of
social situations.
3. Games develop self by allowing individuals to understand and adhere to the rules of
the activity. Self is developed by understanding that there are rules in which one must
abide by in order to win the game or be successful at an activity.
Mead's theory of the social self is based on the perspective that the self emerges from
social interactions, such as observing and interacting with others, responding to others'
opinions about oneself, and internalizing external opinions and internal feelings about
oneself.
Mead develops William James' distinction between the "I" and the "me." The "me" is
the accumulated understanding of "the generalized other" i.e. how one thinks one's group
perceives oneself etc. The "I" is the individual's impulses. The "I" is self as subject; the
"me" is self as object. The "I" is the knower; the "me" is the known. For Mead the
thinking process is the internalized dialogue between the "I" and the "me."
The "I" is the response of an individual to the attitudes of others, while the "me" is the
organized set of attitudes of others which an individual assumes.

MODULE 3 Self: From the Perspective of Anthropology

ANTHROPOLOGY - Anthropology is the scientific study of the origins of humans,

how we have changed over the years, and how we relate to each other, both within our
own culture and with people from other cultures. Anthropology is the study of what
makes us human. Anthropologists take a broad approach to understanding the many
different aspects of the human experience, which we call holism. They consider the past,
through archaeology, to see how human groups lived hundreds or thousands of years ago
and what was important to them.
ROLES OF ANTHROPOLOGIST - Anthropologists study the concept of culture and
its relationship to human life in different times and places. They study other societies to
gain a clearer perspective on our own. They study the past to help interpret the present.
Students who major in anthropology are curious about other cultures and other times.
Anthropologists have most frequently employed the term 'identity' (self) to refer to this
idea of selfhood in a loosely Eriksonian way (Erikson 1972) properties based on the
uniqueness and individuality which makes a person distinct from others. Identity (self)
refers to qualities of sameness in relation to a person's connection to others and to a
particular group of people.

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Cultural anthropology brings us into contact with different ways of life and challenges
our awareness of just how arbitrary our own understanding of the world is as we learn
how other people have developed satisfying but different ways of living.

The Self embedded in Culture Theorists of culture and personality school argued that
socialization creates personality patterns. It shapes a person’s emotions, thoughts,
behaviors, cultural values and norms to fit into and function as productive members in the
surrounding human society. The study of culture and personality wanted to examine how
different socialization practices resulted in different personality types.

Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man Basic Premises

1. (marriage, economy, religion, etc.)
2. what makes people/cultures different, not the same;
3. Culture is the "accumulated totality" of symbolic patterns that appear in
different societies
4. what man is capable of and how he actually behaves, which in turn helps define
human nature

MODULE 4: Self from the Perspective of Psychology by William

James
Do psychologist read mind?
Why is it very interesting to study human behavior?
How well do you know your-self?
William James (1842–1910)
Philosopher and psychologist William James (1842–1910) was one of the first to
postulate a theory of the self in The Principles of Psychology. James described two
aspects of the self that he termed the “I Self” and “Me Self.” The I Self reflects what
people see or perceive themselves doing in the physical world (e.g., recognizing that one
is walking, eating, writing), whereas the Me Self is a more subjective and psychological
phenomenon, referring to individuals’ reflections about themselves (e.g. characterizing
oneself as athletic, smart, cooperative). Other terms such as self-view, self-image, self-
schema, and self-concept are also used to describe the self-referent thoughts characteristic
of the Me Self. James further distinguished three components of the Me Self. These
include: (1) the material self (e.g., tangible objects or possessions we collect for
ourselves); (2) the social self (e.g., how we interact and portray ourselves within different
groups, situations, or persons); and (3) the spiritual self (e.g., internal dispositions).

William James in his studies of Human thoughts concluded that thoughts have 5
Characteristics
1. All human thoughts are owned by some personal self
2. All thoughts are constantly changing or never static
3. There is continuity of thoughts as its focus shift from one object to another.
4. Thought deals with object that are different from independent of consciousness
itself.
5. Consciousness can focus on particular objects and not others

MODULE 5: SELF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

PSYCHOLOGY: SELF AS PRO-ACTIVE AND AGENTIC
Bandura defined human agency as “the human capability to exert influence over one’s
functioning and the course of events by one’s actions”.
Four core properties of human agency:
Intentionality- deals with the forming of intentions that “include action plans and
strategies for realizing them”.
Forethought- involves “the temporal extension of agency” by setting goals and
anticipating future events: It includes more than future-directed plans. People set goals
for themselves and foresee likely outcomes of prospective actions to guide and motivate
their efforts anticipatorily.
Self-reactiveness- broadens the role of the agent to be more than just “planners and fore
thinkers” and includes processes of self- management and self-motivation, as well as
emotional states that can undermine self regulation.
Self-reflection- refers to the self-examining nature of human agents. “Through self-
awareness, they reflect on their personal efficacy, the soundness of their thoughts and
actions, the meaning of their pursuits, and... [if needed] change existing life course
patterns”.

MODULE 6: THE WESTERN THOUGHT OF SELF

Individualist Self
• The individual identifies primarily with Self, with the needs of the individual
being satisfied before those of the group.
• Looking after and taking care of oneself, being self- sufficient, guarantees the
well-being of the group.
 • Independence and self-reliance are greatly stressed and valued.
• People tend to distance themselves psychologically and emotionally from each
other.
• Persons believe they have specific, distinctive attributes that set them apart
from the general population.
• Independence and self-reliance are greatly stressed and valued.
• One may choose to join groups, but group membership is not essential to one’s
identity or success.
• Individualist characteristics are often associated with men and people in urban
settings.

The principle of individuation, or principium individuation is, describes the manner in

which a thing is identified as distinguished from other things. For Carl Jung,
individuation is a process of transformation, whereby the personal and collective
unconscious is brought into consciousness (by means of dreams, active imagination or
free association to take examples) to be assimilated into the whole personality. It is a
completely natural process necessary for the integration of the psyche to take place. Jung
considered individuation to be the central process of human development.
In individuation psychique et collective, Gilbert Simond on developed a theory of
individual and collective individuation in which the individual subject is considered as an
effect of individuation rather than a cause. Thus, the individual atom is replaced by a
never-ending ontological process of individuation. Individuation is an always incomplete
process, always leaving a "pre- individual" left-over, itself making possible future
individuations.
An individual is a person or any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and
earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, individual means
"indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning
"a person." ("The problem of proper names"). From the 17th century on, individual
indicates separateness, as in individualism. Individuality is the state or quality of being an
individuated being; a person separated from everything with unique character by
possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires in comparison to other persons.

In the late twentieth century, researchers began to argue that the self is a cognitive and
social construction. Cognitive perspectives suggest that one’s self-representation affects
how one thinks about and gives meaning to experiences. Like James, psychologist Ulric
Neisser distinguished between one’s self-representation connected to directly perceived
experiences and that resulting from reflection on one’s experiences. The “ecological
self,” connections of oneself to experiences in the physical environment, and the
“interpersonal self,” connections of oneself to others through verbal or nonverbal
communication, comprise direct perception of experience. Neisser proposed that these
two types of self-representation develop early in infancy.

Regarding reflections on one’s experiences, Neisser identified three types of self-

representation that emerge in later infancy and childhood with cognitive and social
maturation. The temporally “extended self” is based on memories of one’s past
experiences and expectations for the future.

The “private self” emerges with the understanding that one’s experiences are not directly
perceived by others, but rather must be communicated to be shared. The “conceptual
self,” one’s overarching theory or schema about oneself based on one’s reflection on
experiences within social and cultural context, parallels terms such as self-concept and
self-schema. In a 1977 article, psychologist Hazel Markus showed that one’s self-
representation or self-schema guides information processing and influences one’s
behavior. A self-conceptualization is an understanding you have of yourself that’s based
on your personal experiences, body image, the thoughts you have about yourself, and
how you tend to label yourself in different situations. It can also be defined as an all-
encompassing awareness you had of yourself in the past; the awareness you have of
yourself in the present, and the expectations you have of yourself at a future time. Your
self-concept is built upon perception how you perceive yourself based on the knowledge
you have gained over a lifetime of experience. This perception you have of yourself is
based on the information you have gathered about your values, life roles, goals, skills,
abilities and much more.

MODULE 7: THE EASTERN THOUGHT OF SELF

Eastern/Oriental Thought of the Self Collectivist Self

• One’s identity is, in large part, a function of one’s membership and role in a group,
e.g., the family or work team.
• The survival and success of the group ensures the well-being of the individual, so
that by considering the needs and feelings of others, one protects oneself.
• Harmony and the interdependence of group members are stressed and valued.
• Group members are relatively close psychologically and emotionally, but distant
toward non group members.
• Collectivist characteristics are often associated with women and people in rural
settings.
Collectivism is a value that is characterized by emphasis on cohesiveness among
individuals and prioritization of the group over the self. Individuals or groups that
subscribe to a collectivist worldview tend to find common values and goals as
particularly salient and demonstrate greater orientation toward in-group than toward out-
group. The term "in-group" is thought to be more diffusely defined for collectivist
individuals to include societal units ranging from the nuclear family to a religious or
racial/ethnic group.
ARGUMENTS OF CONFUCIUS:
1. Personality (self) as such is not seen as inherently existing, but as something that is
being formed through upbringing and environment.
2. Every person is born with four beginnings, which do not encapsulate a concept of self
as yet, but which together, if put in the western framework of thinking, may be called
„pre-self‟, or „potential-self‟:
a. heart of compassion – leads to Jen
b. heart of righteousness – leads to Yi
c. heart of propriety – leads to Li
d. heart of wisdom – leads to Chih
A Self as such would develop out of these, and develop through practice of the
corresponding virtues
3. Personality (self), in the Confucian perception, is an achieved state of moral excellence
rather than a given human condition.
4. The concept of self also is deeply embedded within the family and society, and it is
only in that context that the self comes to be what it is.