Divine Word College of Bangued

Bangued, Abra
College Department

GE 1 MODULE 1 Lesson 3 Sociological Perspective of the Self

Intended Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this self-learning activity, you should be able to:

1. Recognize what sociology tells about understanding the self and others.
2. Discuss how individuals views the self as a product of socialization.
3. Explain George Herbert Mead’s theory of the social self.
4. Discuss the self as a product of modern and postmodern societies; and
5. Appreciate your own social experiences that have been particularly helpful in understanding the self.

Introduction:

In this lesson, you shall learn that we may be gifted with intellect and the capacity to renationalize things but at the
end of the day, our growth and development and consequentially, our selves are truly products of our interaction with
external reality.

Ponder upon these questions.

How much of you are essential? How much of who you are now is a product if your society, community, and
family? Has your choice of school affected yourself now? Have you been born into a different family and
schooled in a different college, how much of who you are now would change?

A. Motivation:

When you are asked the most difficult questions, who are you? what is the first answer that you would give?
most if not all would answer, My name is; I live in; I’m __ years old; My hobbies are; and so on. Basically, you would
give biological facts about who you are but from the perspective of sociology, your genetic make-up and biology do
not define who you really are because when you are born, society sees you as “barbarians” with no sense of self at
all.
Sociology is the scientific study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and
culture. It focuses primarily on the influence of social relationship on your attitudes and behavior. It is, therefore,
imperative to have a deeper realization about the sociological perspective of the self for you to be more sensitive and
tolerant of people different from you and most importantly for you to answer the difficult question “Who am I?”

B. Presentation:
What is the relationship between external reality and the self? How much of who you are now a product of your
society, community and family?

GE 1: Understanding the Self

This module is a property and is exclusively used by the DWCB College Department. Any duplication and reproduction, storing in
any retrieval system, distribution, posting or uploading online as well as transmitting in any form or means (photocopying& electronic
sharing) of any part, without prior written permission from the owner is strictly prohibited.
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 Divine Word College of Bangued
Bangued, Abra
College Department

What is the self?

In contemporary literature and even common sense, the self is commonly defined by the following
characteristics: “separate, self-contained, independent, consistent, unitary, and private.” (Stevens 1996)
Separate – the self is distinct from other selves. It is always unique and has its own identity. It cannot be
another person. Even twins are distinct from one another.
Self-contained and independent – the self can exist in itself. Its distinctiveness allows it to be self-contained
with its thoughts, characteristics, and volition. It does not require any other self for it to exist.
Consistent – it has a personality that is enduring and therefore can be expected to persist for quite some
time. Consistency allows the self to be studied, described, and measured. It also means that a particular
traits, characteristics, tendencies and potentialities are more or less the same.
Unitary – it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that runs through a certain person. It is the chief
command post in an individual where all processes, emotions, and thoughts converge.
Private – Each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions, and thoughts processes within itself.
This process is never accessible to anyone.
The self being private means that it is isolated from the external world. it lives within its own world. However, we also
see that this potential clash between the self and the external reality is the reason for the self to have unclear
understanding of what it might be, what it can be, and what it will be.
It is from this perspective then that one can see that the self is always at the mercy of external circumstances that
bump and collide with it. It is ever-changing and dynamic, allowing external influences to take part in its shaping.

So, what is the vibrant relationship between the SELF and EXTERNAL REALITY? This lesson is meant for you to
better understand that relationship. This perspective is known as the self-constructivist perspective.
 “Social constructivists argue for a merged view of “the person” and “their social context” where the
boundaries of one cannot easily be separated from the boundaries of the other” (Stevens 1996)
 Social constructivists argue that the self should bit be seen as a static entity that stays constant through and
through. Rather, the self has to be seen as something that is in unceasing flux, in a constant struggle with
external reality and is malleable in its dealings with society. The self is always in participation with social life
and its identity subjected to influences here and there. Having these perspectives considered should draw
one into concluding that the self is truly multifaceted.

The following are various sociological views of the self.

1. The Self as a Product of modern society among others.

According to Manheim, author of the book, Sociological Research and Philosophy, modernization is the destruction
of the self; in other words, modernization delocalizes the self. In premodern times people’s significant decisions were
not analyzed and thought of so much because choices were already prescribed by their traditions and costums. In
the modern societies, people frequently ask questions like what to do, who to be, and how to act.
The self who was once coherent, unitary, and consistent being, is now disappearing because of the influence of
modern societies; the self is becoming increasingly fragmented, fractured, and unstable.
Since modern societies keep progressing, you also need to reinvent yourselves from moment to moment with the
complex array and choices you face each day.
Clifford Geertz (1973) believes that the struggle for one’s individuality is only possible in modern society where
religion-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.
Modernization or the destruction of the traditional way of life “delocalizes” the self. This poses certain problems as:
a. The newfound freedom threatens the very authenticity of the self. (e.g. love)
b. Alienation (Marx) – human beings haunted by the very images they have created
c. Objectification of the body (e.g. medical practice)
d. Dehumanization of self

GE 1: Understanding the Self

This module is a property and is exclusively used by the DWCB College Department. Any duplication and reproduction, storing in
any retrieval system, distribution, posting or uploading online as well as transmitting in any form or means (photocopying& electronic
sharing) of any part, without prior written permission from the owner is strictly prohibited.
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 Divine Word College of Bangued
Bangued, Abra
College Department

For the individual to discover the “true” and “authentic” part of himself/herself to realize his/her potentials, there is a
need to abolish repressive social constraints.

2. The Self as a Necessary Fiction.

Nietzche (1844-1900) is a German philosopher and cultural critic who thought about true or real self is only a myth
that does not have any continuous identity or even a social self. For him, your society may have influenced your
experiences and behavior, but these are only temporal and have no enduring essence because the self is only a
necessary fiction.
Necessary fiction is defined as the belief that cannot be proven to be true but necessary to sustain life since people
need some sense of certainty in a world of constant change. Self, according to him is the sum of individual’s action,
thoughts and feelings. Self is nothing more than a metaphor, a representation of something abstract, symbolic. It is
possible for us to remember something even if we have not experienced it. Self as a continuity even if it is only in
memory.

3. Post Modern View of the Self

Self is a narrative, a text written and rewritten. Self is a story. It is dynamic, Self is a product of modern discourse that
is historically and socially imprisoned by what is acceptable by norms, etc. Self in post modernity is complicated by
electronic mediated virtual interaction of cyber-self such as change in appearance (in the cyberspace). According to
N. Green, self is “digitalized” in cyberspace, a virtual version of who we are. The self is seen in websites or social
media – fakebook, twitter, Instagram, etc.
The following are the manifestations:
1. Information technology dislocated the self; thus, self is “digitalized” in cyberspace.
2. Global migration produces multicultural identities.
3. Post-modern selves are “pluralized ’selves.
Social Construction of the 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. (Ikaw
ang may gumagawa ng kung ano ka) Self is acquired socially through language, like symbols. We construct
ourselves based on our social roles through the socialization agents -family, school, community, etc.

Four (4) Terms Postmodernists Use to Speak of the Self. (Walter Truett Anderson, writer)
a. Multiphrenia refers to the many voices in different cultures that tell who and what a person is. The idea of
“authentic self “with knowable characteristics recedes from view because of the many roles that a person
needs to do in conformity with the kind of society he/she is into. There is no authentic self but a
multidimensional self.
b. Protean, the popular notion “walang forever” may best describe this postmodern view of self because this
means that the self is capable of changing constantly to conform with the present circumstances. For
postmodernists, these changes are manifestations that there is no true, stable self.
c. Decentered Self is a belief that there is no self at all because self is constantly redefined and constantly
undergoing change. Self is not fixed and has no enduring meaning.
d. Self in Relations means that a person’s life is not lived of himself/herself but in relation to the people and to
certain cultural contexts. For other, to understand themselves, they must understand the context of their
lives.
4. The Self as an Artistic Creation.
Modernity and Identity says that in the post traditional order, self-identity is a reflexive project – an endeavor that
everyone continuously works and reflect on. It means you can create, you maintain, and you revise biographical
narratives of yourself for you to transform into a beautiful work of art. If for this reason you are weak, and you fail, the
failure does not define who you are. you can and may surpass everyone else the next season and continue being so
because the unity of the self is something that you must accomplish through conscious effort.

GE 1: Understanding the Self

This module is a property and is exclusively used by the DWCB College Department. Any duplication and reproduction, storing in
any retrieval system, distribution, posting or uploading online as well as transmitting in any form or means (photocopying& electronic
sharing) of any part, without prior written permission from the owner is strictly prohibited.
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 Divine Word College of Bangued
Bangued, Abra
College Department

Life is not a one-way path; there are various detours, curves and occasional accidents. These detours can actually
present opportunities for yourself to be reconstructed or rewritten the best way you want it to appear to the reader or
to the viewer. The important thing is you have created yourself an identity as an artistic creation.

MEAD and the SOCIAL SELF

One of the most important sociological approaches to the self was developed by American sociologist George
Herbert Mead. Mead conceptualized the mind as the individual importation of the social process. Mead presented the
self and the mind in terms of a social process. As gestures are taken in by the individual organism, the individual
organism also takes in the collective attitudes of others, in the form of gestures, and reacts accordingly with other
organized attitudes.
This process is characterized by Mead as the “I” and the “me.” The “me” is the social self and the “I” is the response
to the “me.” In other words, 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. The “me” is the accumulated understanding of the
“generalized other,” i.e. how one thinks one’s group perceives oneself. 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. The mind, or stream of
thought, is the self-reflective movements of the interaction between the “I” and the “me.” These dynamics go beyond
selfhood in a narrow sense and form the basis of a theory of human cognition. For Mead the thinking process is the
internalized dialogue between the “I” and the “me.”
Understood as a combination of the “I” and the “me,” Mead’s self proves to be noticeably entwined within a
sociological existence. For Mead, existence in a community comes before individual consciousness. First one must
participate in the different social positions within society and only subsequently can one use that experience to take
the perspective of others and become self-conscious.

George Herbert Mead’s theory of self 

 The self is social, it develops through social experience.
 It is not there from birth, but it is developed over time from social experiences and activities.
Stages of self:
1st stage (0-3)– Preparatory stage – children imitate people around them
No sense of self 

2nd stage (3-5)– Play stage – role taking –mentally assuming the perspective of another
The self is developing and emerges through pretend play.

3rd stage (5 – 8/9)– Game stage – can consider tasks and relationships simultaneously
The self has emerged.

3 activities that develop the self

There are 2 sides of the self:

“me” = the socialized aspect of the self 
learned behaviors, attitudes & expectations of others and of society = OBJECTIVE
 

GE 1: Understanding the Self

This module is a property and is exclusively used by the DWCB College Department. Any duplication and reproduction, storing in
any retrieval system, distribution, posting or uploading online as well as transmitting in any form or means (photocopying& electronic
sharing) of any part, without prior written permission from the owner is strictly prohibited.
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 Divine Word College of Bangued
Bangued, Abra
College Department

“I” = the present and future phase of the self 

the individual’s identity based on response to the “me” = SUBJECTIVE
If the “I” is synonymous to the “me” then the full development of the self is attained.

Agents of Socialization: Factors affecting the self

The Looking Glass Self: Our Sense of Self is Influenced by Other’s Views of Us.
The concept of the looking-glass self, states that part of how we see ourselves comes from our perception
of how others see us. (Cooley, 1902)
According to Cooley, the degree of personal insecurity you display in social situations is determined by what you
believe other people think of you. Cooley’s concept of the looking glass self, states that a person’s self grows out of a
person’s social interactions with others. The view of ourselves comes from the contemplation of personal qualities
and impressions of how others perceive us. How we see ourselves does not come from who we really are, but rather
from how we believe others see us. (Isaksen, 2013)
 Sometimes, the influence of other people’s appraisals of ourselves on our self-concept may be so strong that we
end up internalizing them.
 Labeling bias occurs when we are labeled, and others views and expectations of us are affected by the labeling
especially our self-esteem. If we are repeatedly labeled and evaluated by others, self-labeling may occur which
happens when we adopt others’ labels explicitly into our self-concept.
 The effects of this self-labeling on our self esteem appear to depend very much on the nature of the labels.
 Labels used in relation to diagnosis of psychological disorders can be detrimental to people who internalize
them.
 Internalized prejudice occurs when individuals turn prejudice directed toward them by others onto themselves
and it is found to predict more negative self-concept and poorer psychological adjustment in members of various
groups including sexual minorities.

Social Comparison Theory: Our Sense of Self Is influenced by Comparisons with Others
 Self-concept and self-esteem are also heavily influence by the process of social comparison.
 Social Comparison occurs 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
others.
 Social comparison occurs primarily on dimensions on which there are no correct answers or objective
benchmarks and this on which we can rely only on the beliefs of others for information.
 We also use social comparison to help us determine our skills or abilities – how good we are at performing a
task or doing a job.

C. Discussion:

The relationship of an individual and society is always a debatable issue. It is an issue whether you are
shaped by the elements of society you are born with, or you shape the society you are in. The different sociological
view of the self should make you realize that the self can be viewed in many ways. Having introduced of these views
I hope that it helped you understand yourself better and answer the most common difficult question, “who are you?”
Existence in the community comes before you can know yourself; that is what sociological perspective of
the self teaches. Social institutions such as family, church, and the community you live in are indispensable in
knowing who you really are.

GE 1: Understanding the Self

This module is a property and is exclusively used by the DWCB College Department. Any duplication and reproduction, storing in
any retrieval system, distribution, posting or uploading online as well as transmitting in any form or means (photocopying& electronic
sharing) of any part, without prior written permission from the owner is strictly prohibited.
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 Divine Word College of Bangued
Bangued, Abra
College Department

When you understand these views of the self, it will help you recognize how and why you act and say the
way you do. It will be easier to understand and adjust to other people’s behaviors and feelings. It will help you
develop compassion which will lead to a decision to be more kind and forgiving towards others.
After you have known how socialization works in all elements of society is, you are now ready to better understand
who you really are. You can reflect by asking yourself what attitudes and values you have that your family, friends,
the church, and your community have greatly influenced you.

D. Enrichment Activities:

In a separate sheet of short bond paper, do the following activities. Please do this activity by yourself. You may ask
help from anyone but do not let them do it for you.

1. If you are a piece of art, what would it be and why? Draw a picture of art you wish to become and write a
biographical essay about yourself. (You may search the internet for a sample)

2. To better understand Mead’s theory of the “I and me”, use your cellphone and take a selfie.
Answer the following questions:
a. Whom do you see in the picture?
b. Who took the picture?
c. What did you just do?
d. Briefly explain the role of the “I and me” in the act of taking a selfie.
e. What does the selfie represent?

3. Explain the concept of social comparison and why it is important to human behavior. Describe some aspects of
your self-concept that have been created through social comparison.

References:
A. Books

Brawner, Dalisay G., Arcega, Analisa F. (2018) Understanding the Self, C&E Publishing, Inc., Quezon City,
Philippines
Degho, Silverius Ega, Sagun-Degho, Grace, De Claro, Loressa Joy S., Lejano, Jacqueline B., (2018) Understanding
the Self, An Outcome-Based Workbook for College Students, Mutya Publishing House, Malabon City, Philippines
Villafuerte, Salvacion L.; Ph.D, Quillope, Al F. Ph.D, Tunac, Rudjane C.;MA, Borja, Estela I.; MAEd (2018).
Understanding the Self, NIEME Publishing House CO.LTD. Cubao, Quezon City Philippines

Prepared by:
Sarah Jane Bringas Lule, MAED
Faculty member, SASE
sjmblule.dwcb@gmail.com

GE 1: Understanding the Self

This module is a property and is exclusively used by the DWCB College Department. Any duplication and reproduction, storing in
any retrieval system, distribution, posting or uploading online as well as transmitting in any form or means (photocopying& electronic
sharing) of any part, without prior written permission from the owner is strictly prohibited.
6