SOCIOLOGY

Social reality

We rely on others to provide a ______ to help us determine what to think, feel, and do (Hardin & Higgins, 1996).

Delocalized

is free to seek its own identity; defining religion, theological tradition; free from customary constraints hence, deviating from the traditional way of life.

Clifford Geertz

believes that the struggle for one’s individuality is on possible in modern society where religio-theological traditions are gradually replaced by rational and scientific calculations; and the intimate personal affiliations are replaced by exceedingly impersonal associations brought about by urbanized way of life.

Nietzsche

the sum of individual’s action, thoughts and feelings. Self is nothing more than a metaphor, a representation of something abstract; symbolic. Self as necessary fiction.

narrative, rewritten, story, dynamic

Self is a ________, a text written and _______. Self is a _______. It is __________. Self is a product of modern discourse that is historically and socially imprisoned by what is acceptable by norms, etc.

Social Construction of Self

Self is not discovered; it is made through the socialization process. But, individuals are not just hapless victims of socialization. The individual is an active, strategizing agent that negotiates for the definition of himself.

Nietzsche

The unity of the self is not pre-given but accomplished through conscious effort- transform self through beautiful work of art. Individual must fashion, care and cultivate themselves.

Rorty

Contingencies of selfhood – conceal the “ugly” by reinterpreting the overall aesthetic contours of the self.

Self Creation and Collective Identity

Memories (photographs, videos) play significant role in creating the self and identity. Memory and forgetting are most important powers in recreating a person’s identity. Another important aspect of this view of the self is that self creation is formed within “imagined communities”.

Self Creation and the Struggle for Cultural Recognition

This is a challenge of self-identity amidst recognition of racial and ethnic identities. Self creation is necessarily grounded on collective solidarities.

Beyond Self Creation

The quest or search for self-identity is a product of modern society but this is complicated by the socio-cultural sensibilities of postmodernity, new information technologies and globalization, reconfiguring ourselves as to gender, sex, ethnicity, and creating one’s own style, signature. 

George Herbert Mead

American sociologist best known as a founder American pragmatism, a pioneer of symbolic interaction theory, and as one of the founders of social psychology. 

Me

represents the expectations and attitudes of others (the “generalized other”) organized into a social self. Object. Known.

I

the response to the “me", or the person’s individuality. It is the essence of agency in human action. Subject. Knower.

Stage 1: The Preparatory Stage 

starts from the time we are born until we are about age two. In this stage, children mimic those around them.

Stage 2: The Play Stage

From about age two to six. Children play pretend and do not adhere to the rules in organized games.

Stage 3: The Game Stage 

From about age seven onwards. Children can begin to understand and adhere to the rules of games.

Looking-Glass Self

Cooley's concept states that the part of how we see ourselves comes from our perception of how others see us. Also, a person’s self grows out of a person’s social interactions with others. 

Labeling bias

occurs when we are labeled, and other’s views and expectations of us are affected by that labeling

Self-labeling

when we adopt others’ labels explicitly into our self-concept, affecting self-esteem.

Internalized prejudice

When individuals turn prejudice directed toward them by others onto themselves.

Social comparison

when we learn about our abilities and skills, about the appropriateness and validity of our opinions, and about our relative social status by comparing our own attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those of others.

The Preparatory Stage, The Play Stage and The Game Stage

Mead's Three Stages of Development of Self