The Individual and Society

Instincts vs. Social Forces

• Instincts- the idea that human beings are driven by built in urges

• Social forces- the invisible pressures that emerge because we live together

Seeing theoretically

• Theory is a way of seeing

The Thomas Theorem

• If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences. -Thomas and Thomas

• Self and society are not separate

• You have as many selves as you have people interacting with you, as they reflect back to you

Selves in time

• History, body and story

• Sense of self shifts in response to experience and language available to you. The stories we can tell about ourselves are limited to the cultural scripts we have available at the time

• We live through and by stories

• The self is not a thing its a process and a narrative project