THE-SELF-SOCIETY-and-CULTURE

Sociology

• Is the scientific study of human life, social groups, whole societies and the human world whose subject matter is our own behavior as social beings in relationship with many other people (Giddens, A. & Sutton, P. W., 2016).

• IS THE STUDY OF HUMAN SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS.

Self

• Classical sociological theory states that the ____ is a set of relatively stable perceptions of one’s identity in relation to oneself, others and social system.

Crossman (2020)

According to _____ , Individuals play an important role in the process of socialization, they have significant impact on the development and consequences of this process.

What are the Agents of Socialization?

• Family

• Age

• Gender

Family

• Plays an important and crucial role in the person’s development. We are different things to our family. And these positions within the family network influences how we define ourselves to the people around us.  

Age

• Contributes to these relationships and our identity. Young children are dependent on elders while older children seem to be more independent and may serve as caretakers to the younger siblings. 

• As a person ages, our identities and position in the family network change.

• Children become adult children of their parents, and the list goes on and on….

Gender

• It is basically how a person expresses their biological sex according to cultural definitions 

What are the other Agents of Socialization that influenced the Self?

SCHOOL

PEERS

CHURCH

COMMUNITY

Social Constructions of the self

• Self is not discovered; it is made through the socialization process.

• Self is acquired socially through language, like symbols

George Herbert Mead

• Was born in South Hadley, Massachusetts to a successfully middle class and intellectual family. His father HIRAM, pastor and chair of theology at Oberlin College, his mother ELIZABETH served as President of Mount Holyoke College for several years. 

• His theory on the social self suggests that the self is formed through social interactions, such: observing and engaging with others, responding to external opinions about oneself and internalizing feelings about oneself. 

•  He believed that the self is not innate but develops gradually through social experiences and activities

1879-1883 in Oberlin College

When and where did George Mead enrolled himself to a college and received his bachelor’s degree in?

1887 in Harvard

At what university did George Mead studied psychology and psychology with renowned pragmatists and Philosopher, William James?

Whilhelm Wundt

Who was the famous psychologist George Mead studied with for his 2nd bachelor’s degree in Germany?

Sense of Self

It arises as we begin to taking the perspectives of others toward ourselves, internalizing them as our own perspective and viewpoint on “who am I?”. The self then is an emergent product of social experience. 

Charles Horton Cooley (1902)

He invented the theory of the “Looking glass self” where one grows out of his or her relationships to others through the process of role taking. (George Herbert Mead)

Role taking

It  is imagining oneself in the place of the other. In this way, Mead noted, the child learns to see herself as if through the eyes of others; first, significant others then the generalized other. 

Generalized other

These are expected responses of a corrected and personified community (Blumer, 1969; Mead, 1934).

Significant or “Particular” others

It is a person who influences one, because of an emotional bond with him or her (Mead, 1934) such as: parents.

Self and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist

What was the title of the book George Mead wrote most of his ideas on the self?

symbolic interaction

It is the idea that verbal and non-verbal communication contains symbols or meanings (Miller, 1973). It covers simple gestures such as: smiling, frowning, making a fist are all symbols that mean a lot of things.

• Preparatory Stage

• Play Stage

• Game Stage

What are the three stages of social development? (George Herbert Mead)

Preparatory stage

• Children learn to imitate those in their environment. This is the reason why adults are very careful not to use foul words.

• occurs in childhood. In this stage children learn to imitate and mimic the behavior of those around them. They do not yet understand the meaning of their actions, but instead, they learn to repeat actions they see others perform.

Play Stage

• Children becomes skillful users of symbolic interaction.

• occurs in early childhood. In this stage children begin to take on roles of specific people, such as: doctor, teacher in their play activities. This role-taking enables children to see themselves from the perspective of others, thus beginning to develop a sense of self-awareness.

Game stage

• Children learn to take on multiple roles, they now become students, sons, daughters, leaders and friends. They now consider taking multiple roles and enacting them in their lives (Gelles & Levine, 1999).

• It is the process of ‘taking the role of the other’ whereby we construct our identity based on what others think is the norm within a group. 

• Primary socialization

• Secondary socialization

• Organizational socialization

What are the types of socialization?

Primary socialization

A type of socialization where we learn from our parents like: values, attitude, actions appropriate as member of that group and culture.

Secondary socialization

This is a type of socialization where learning the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within a larger society.

Organizational socialization

This is a type of organization where it is the process of acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to assume an employee’s organizational role. 

Margaret Mead

• They have a nature-nurture debate on the side of nurture.

• Her famous theory of imprinting found that children learn by watching adult behavior.

Vygotsky

• Argued that higher mental abilities could only develop through interaction with more advanced others. They proposed that children are born with elementary mental abilities such as memory and perception and that higher mental functions develop from these through the influence of social interactions. 

Charles Horton Cooley

• in his work Human Nature and the Social Order, introduced the concept of the Looking Glass Self that influenced Mead’s work on the social self. He stated that how we form images of ourselves is a reflection of how others see us.

1. What we imagine of how others see us

2. How we think others judge us

3. What we feel about those judgements

What are the three parts of the looking glass self?

The looking glass self

• Is a concept that a person’s self grows out of society’s interpersonal interactions and the perception of others.

• Is important when we are forming impressions of ourselves (Schaefer, 2008).

Culture

It is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [a human] as a member of society.

Sir Edward B. Taylor

He is the founder of Cultural Anthropology

Anthropology

• It is the inclusive study of humans, its culture and society, and its physical development (Heacock, 2009).

Sociocultural Anthropology

• It analyzes the nature of individual cultures, describe differences between cultures and study cultural change and social transformation processes.

Archeology

• It is a study of how people lived in the past. Archeologists learn from things people leave behind or artifacts like pottery, tools, relics, ceramics, weapons, or anything made or used by humans.

Biological Anthropology

•  It is the study of human biology, including how people adapt to where they live and how bodies changed over time (human evolution). Physical anthropologists also study non-human primates.

Cultural Anthropology

• It is the study of how people live their lives in the present and how they may have lived in the past, including the tools they used and the food they produced and consumed. It is also related to sociology and social psychology.

Linguistic Anthropology

• It is the study of how people speak and the words they use and how their language developed and evolved. Linguistic anthropology also studies the evolution of language and how it changed what people think and how people change their language.

The SELF IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL VIEW

• The self is also seen as a social construct, shaped by cultural and societal norms and values. However, anthropologists may also consider the self as a product of individual experiences and interactions with the environment.

The Self and Person in Contemporary Anthropology

The very foundation of the self in anthropology is understanding man considering its cultural context. In anthropology the self refers to a set of implicit cultural values that we try to adhere to and use them to guide our lives. 

Person / Personhood

• It is a bundle of roles, norms of behavior, expectations, responsibilities, obligations that situate a human being in social life such bundles are defined by specific cultural criteria and principles that are primarily related to gender, sexuality, age, class, birth order and other kinship identities as well as other identifications such as: class and labor divisions.

Self

• It is a dynamic process by which a person experiences and identifies his specificity as a human in tension with being a person. Which suggests that uniqueness is formulated differently in different culture- consciousness, soul, mind, unity of soul-body etc.  

Culture

• The self is one interpretation of being human, among others. The most influential in terms of self-development is family’s history, referring to the ____ one has been raised in. 

• Material Culture

• Non-material Culture

What are the two components of culture?

Material Culture

Consists of human technology and all the things that people make and use.

Non-material culture

Inclusive of the intangible human creations that include beliefs, values, norms and symbols. 

December 6, 2017

 When did the Australian parliament finally passed the law legalizing same-sex marriage in their country?

(The decision prompted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to explain the decision, proudly saying that…. "This is Australia: fair, diverse, loving and filled with respect for everyone.")

Catherine Raeff (2010)

She is a developmental psychologist, who stated that culture can influence how you, your peers and families’ view your relationships, personality traits, achievements and expressing emotions.

Relationships

Culture is an influential factor in how you enter  and maintain ________. This influences how adults encourage children to form _________. 

Personality Traits

whether you value and how you value traits like humility, politeness, assertiveness, sympathy and self-esteem. Culture also influences how you perceive hardship and how you feel about relying on others.

Achievements

 it influences how you define success and whether you value individual and group achievements.

Expressing Emotions

culture influences how feelings are expressed, whether you consider feelings private or public, openly or discretely. 

Leslie White

According to them..

“In this sense, culture is the entire way of life followed by people and everything learned and shared by people in society. “

Cognitions

For anthropologists, culture is based on the premise that all learned behavior is, in the final analysis, a product of how people think about things.

Schema

Anthropologists speak of cognitive models of culture or…?

Mental Map

This model views culture as a _________, which guides people in their relation to their surroundings and to other people. 

T.S ELIOT : Thomas Stearns Eliot

“Each person may have a slightly different map, each family has a somewhat different version which is passed on to the next generation.”

Cultural Relativism

• is the view that ethical and social standards reflect the cultural context from which they are derived. Cultural relativists uphold that cultures differ fundamentally from one another, and so do the moral frameworks that structure relations within different societies.

• Absolute

• Critical

What are the two Cultural Relativism categories?

Absolute

This category maintains that everything occurring within a culture is beyond questioning and should not be challenged by outsiders. An extreme example of this is the Nazi party’s belief that the Holocaust was justified.

Critical

this involves questioning cultural practices and understanding who accepts them and why. Critical cultural relativism also acknowledges the presence of power dynamics in cultural practices. 

Western

In this perspective, the philosophers tend to use a lot of logic, reasoning and categorization. They tend to break down the ideas as much as they could. They also focused on the ideas in parts rather than the whole idea. 

This philosophy also focuses on finding the differences in ideas.

This was also built on the idea of difference and separation so they will not try to settle for common ground.

Eastern

In this perspective, philosophers focus to look at an idea as a whole. Rather than breaking down ideas and concepts into categories. Eastern philosophy preferred to generate the ideas and show how they reflect the same truths.

It focuses on similarities.

They usually find common ground, a perfect example of this is the Ying and yang. Yin symbolizes feminine, dark, cold and yielding while Yang symbolizes masculine, bright and advancing. 

Individualism

In this view of the self,  people are autonomous and are focused on achieving their personal goals over the goals of their in-group.

Collectivism

In this view of the self, it explains that a person sees himself as an integral part of the communal group, be it his nuclear family, his friends, or even his co-workers.