Sociological Perspectives on the Self

Self as a Social Construct

  • The self is derived from the idea that society, which participates in shaping it, is a social construction.
  • Through language, individuals privately and publicly utilize or share symbols within their interactions. This creates patterns that shape and influence who they are, how they behave, and how they think.

The Self and Society

  • The self is isolated from the external world in some descriptions, but sociology asserts that humans cannot be understood apart from their social context.
  • Sociological imagination: society creates opportunities for people to think and act, but also limits their thoughts and actions.
  • In 1996, Steven (as cited by Alata, EJ et al., 2018) characterized the self as separate, self-contained, independent, consistent, unitary, and private.

Sociological Theories of the Self

The Looking Glass Self — Charles Cooley

  • Individuals develop their concept of self by looking at how others perceive them.
  • The self is socially constructed through the following steps:
    1. An individual imagines how they appear to others in a social situation.
    2. They imagine others’ judgments of that appearance.
    3. They develop feelings (pride or shame) and respond to those perceived judgments.

The Self-Development Theory — George Herbert Mead

  • Prerequisite: self-awareness arises from viewing ourselves from the perspective of others.
  • If social interaction is absent in early life, it becomes difficult to see oneself as others would see them.

Mead’s Stages of Self-Development

1) Preparatory Stage: Children imitate actions of others (e.g., family) but cannot imagine how others see things.
2) Play Stage: Children attempt to take on the role of other people by acting out adult behaviors, dressing like adults, etc.
3) Game Stage: Children learn about multiple roles and how these roles interact; they understand complex interactions among people with different purposes (e.g., in a restaurant, roles like taking orders, washing dishes, cooking, etc.).
4) Generalized Other: Children develop an understanding of common behavioral expectations of the general society; self is being developed in this stage.

The Self and Culture

  • The self is not static; it is malleable and constantly interacting with external reality.
  • Through ongoing interaction, the self is made and remade; society is dynamic, and so is the self.

The Moi and Personne Self

  • Marcel Mauss proposed that every self has two faces: the personne and the moi.
  • Across cultures, various personae illustrate what it means to be someone (e.g., in the Philippines, part of the Filipino personne is tied to territory; language is a key aspect of identity).
  • Personne: composed of social concepts of what it means to be who one is; related to living within institutions, family, religion, nationality, and behaviors expected by others.
  • Moi: refers to a person’s sense of who they are, their body, and their basic identity; the biological givenness of the self.

The “I” and the “Me” Self

  • George Herbert Mead characterized the self as two aspects: the “I” and the “Me.”
  • The self develops from social processes and the interaction between these two facets.
  • In addition, Lev Vygotsky emphasized language acquisition and social interaction as crucial for human development; the mind is constituted through language experienced in the external world.
  • I: the impulsive, spontaneous response to the attitudes of others.
  • Me: the socialized self, the organized set of attitudes of others that one has internalized.
  • The social self (Me) is the part that responds to the attitudes of others, while the I represents the initiating, creative impulse.
  • Through language and social interaction, one learns about the Me (the knower learns about the known) and continuously develops self-awareness.

Self in Families

  • The family is the basic social institution and the primary provider of a child’s needs (human, social, economic).
  • It is the main avenue for teaching the basic skills needed to fit into society and for actualizing one’s potentials.
  • A child learns ways of living and selfhood by being with the family.
  • Rewards and punishments indirectly teach behaviors and attitudes.
  • Family socialization also plays a crucial role in learning gender roles; gender partly determines how one sees oneself in the world.