THE

SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
OF THE SELF
 OVERVIEW
In the realm of sociology, the self interacts with the
social world. No one could live by himself or herself
alone. By extension, man will always look for someone
to commune with. The human person is a social being;
he or she will always seek others for commercial or
personal reasons.

In sociology, the self is a product of modern society

versus other constructs or archetypes.
OVERVIEW

When one talks about sociology, one talks about social norms
and social values. Social factors such as political system,
children, partners, school, location, education, economic
status, physical status, religion, wealth, family, and ethnicity
are also considered.
 GEORGE MEAD’S SOCIAL SELF
He illustrated the development of self
• He argued that the in the case of Genie.
self is not biological
but social. A girl who was confined in a room until she
reached the age of 13. She was found when
• Self is something that she was already 13 years old; she did not
is developed through know how to walk and speak. According to
social interaction Mead, she had no development of the self.
Even though her body developed normally
• The self is developed according to her age, she had not developed
as one grows and her “self” because of her isolation from the
ages. world.

Self, therefore, is constructed by directly engaging in the world

through interaction and through reflections on those interactions.
• Mead explained that self has two parts: (1) Self-awareness and (2)
Self-image.
• He proposed the idea that the self develops through social interaction;
the social interaction involves the exchange of symbols (i.e.,
language); and that understanding of symbols involves being able to
take the role of another.
• In order for interaction to prosper, each person involved must
correctly interpret the meanings of symbols and intentions of
others.
It can only succeed by the existence of common
symbols, but actually accomplished through the
process of role playing.
It is the process in which one
takes on the role of another by
putting oneself in the position of
the person with whom he or she
Role playing
interacts.
One’s response to the action of
another comes after putting oneself in Role playing
the position of another person.
Through role playing, the individual
develops a concept of self. By putting Role playing
oneself in the position of other one is
able to reflect upon oneself.
 The idea of the self can only be developed if the individual can get
outside in such a way that he or she can become an object to oneself. To
accomplish this, one must be conscious of oneself from the standpoint of others.
Therefore, the development of the concept of “self” lies in the ability “to wear
other people’s shoes.”
• Self is not inborn. Babies cannot interpret the
meaning of other people’s behavior.
• It is usually learned during childhood which
comes in three stages of development.
a. Preparatory Stage
b. Play stage
c. Game Stage
a. Imitation or the Preparatory Stage
- In this stage, a child imitates the behavior
of his or her parents like sweeping the floor.
b. Play Stage

- involves the child playing the role of others. For

example, the child may act as a teacher, carpenter, or
soldier.

- In doing these, he/she becomes aware that there is a

difference between himself/herself and the role that
he/she is playing
c. Game stage

The child comes to see himself/herself from the

perspective of other people. To play the game, the child
must be aware of his or her relationship to other people
and place himself or herself in their roles in order to
appreciate his or her particular role in the game.
“I” AND “ME” SELF

• For Mead, all humans experience

internal conversation.
• This conversation involves the I and me,
which he called phases of self.
• For him, self is essentially a social
process going on between the I and me.
 “I” AND “ME” SELF
I- is the phase of the self Me- is the self that results
that is unsocialized and from the progressive stages of
spontaneous. It is the acting role playing or role-taking
part of the self, an and the perspective one
immediate response to other assumes to view and analyze
people. I1t represents the one’s own behaviors. It is the
self that is free and unique. organization of the
It is the subjective part of internalized attitude of others.
the self. It represents the conventional
and objective part of the self.
“I” AND “ME” SELF
The Me is the organized set of
The I is the response of the attitudes of others which one
organism to the attitude of assumes. It is the socialized
others. It allows the aspect of the individual. It
individual to still express represents learned behaviors,
creativity and individualism attitudes, and expectations of
and understand when to others and society. It is
possibly bend and stretch developed through the
the rules that govern social knowledge of society and social
interactions. interactions that the individual
has experienced.
GENERALIZED OTHERS

• He described it as an organized community or

social group which gives to the individual his or
her unity of self.
• The attitude of the generalized other is the
attitude of the entire community
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY’S “LOOKING-
GLASS SELF”
• In this view, the self is
developed as a result of one’s
perceptions of other people’s
opinions.
• For instance, if parents or
teachers praise the child for his
or her artistic skills, the child
will infer that he or she is
artistic, thus boosting the child’s
confidence.
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY’S “LOOKING-
GLASS SELF”
• People are the way they are at
least partly because of other
people’s reactions to them and
to what they do.
• They are constantly picking up
feedback and incorporating it
into their sense of self.
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY’S “LOOKING-
GLASS SELF”
• It is a social construction as well as
a personal reality for it shows how
others influence the image people
have of themselves.
• The self, which is essentially an
individual’s awareness of one’s
social or personal identity is, for
Cooley, a social development
(Leano & Corpuz, 2012)
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY’S “LOOKING-GLASS SELF”

The self is built through social interaction which involves three

steps:

1. people imagine how - How do I appear to others?

they must appear to others;
2. They imagine the - What must others think of me?
judgment on that appearance; and
3. They develop - Revise how we think about ourselves.
themselves through the judgment
of others.
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY’S “LOOKING-
GLASS SELF”
• People imagine not only how others
see them and their actions but also
how others judge what they see,
whether with approval, doubt, or
hostility.

• As a result, the looking-glass self is

made up of feelings about other
people’s judgments of one’s behavior.
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY’S “LOOKING-
GLASS SELF”
• The self is consists of a composite
of the person’s more or less accurate
assessments of other people’s
judgment.
• For Cooley, this social self is the
central element of society. He
wrote, “the imaginations which
people have of one another are the
solid facts of society.
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY’S “LOOKING-
GLASS SELF”
• The concept of looking-glass self
provides an idea on how the self
develops in relation to the
perception of others. It should serve
only as a guide for reflection and
should not be taken to end up living
in accordance with other people’s
expectations.
Private Self, Public Self, and
Collective Self
Private Self

• Private Self, or individual self, is

the cognition that involves traits,
states, and behaviors. It is an
assessment of the self by the self.
For instance, “I am generous”
and “I am ambidextrous” show
one’s knowledge of his or her
attributes that differentiate him or
her from the others.
Public Self

• Public Self is the cognition concerning the

generalized other’s view of the self. It
corresponds to an assessment of the self by
the generalized other.
• For instance, “People think I am religious”
or “People think I am corrupt” shows one’s
relation with others at the role one assumes
in that relationship.
Collective Self

• Is the cognition concerning a view of the self

that is found in memberships in social groups
(e.g., family, co-workers, tribe, professional
organizations).

• For instance, a person may be identified as

feminist. Attributes of being feminist that are
similar with other feminists are emphasized
forming the collective self.
Social Identity Theory

• The Social Identity Theory was conceived by Henri Tajfel.

• Social Identity has been defined as the person’s sense of who he
or she is according to his or her membership to a certain group.

• Group membership, according to the social identity theory, is an

important source of pride and self-esteem.

• It gives a sense of social identity─a sense of belongingness to the

social world.
Social Identity Theory

• In this view, the world is divided into “us” and

“them” through the process of social
categorization forming the social groups. These
social groups developed by William Graham
Sumner are further divided into two─the in-
group and out-group.
Social Identity Theory

• An in-group is an • Out-group is a scorned

esteemed social group social group to which
commanding a one feels competition
member’s loyalty. or opposition.
• It is a group to which a • It is a group to which a
person belongs. person does not belong.
Social Identity Theory

• Social Identity Theory states that the in-group will discriminate

against the out-group to enhance its self-image.

• A person has an inherent feeling of enhancing the claim that

Filipinos are the most hospitable people in the world, Filipinos
increase their self-image by interacting with other Filipinos, the
in-group (the group one identifies with), and by discriminating
and holding prejudice against the out-group (the group one does
not identify with).
Tajfel and Turner (1986)
• Identifies three mental processes
involved in evaluating others as
“us” or “them” (i.e., in-group
and out-group).
Tajfel and Turner (1986)
• The first process is called social categorization.

• This is similar with how people categorize things, such as living and
non-living, solid, liquid, or gas, among others, in order to understand
and identify them.

• People also categorize other people in order to understand the social

environment.
Tajfel and Turner (1986)

• Social categories can be Christian or Non-Christian, first-world

countries or developing countries, capitalist or socialist, and
many others.

• With this, people learn things about themselves by knowing what

category they belong to.
Tajfel and Turner (1986)
• The second process is called social identification.
• After learning their category, people adopt the identity of
the group to which they have categorized themselves.
• For example, if you categorized yourself as Christian,
chances are you will adopt the identity of a Christian and
act in ways you believe Christians act.
Tajfel and Turner (1986)
• The last process is social comparison
• After categorizing themselves as part of the group and
have identified with that group, that tend to compare that
group with other groups.
• Here they might begin to discriminate and criticize the
other groups.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF

• Postmodernism is not a philosophy but more of a report on the

mindset of western culture in the latter half of the 20 century.
th

• In the postmodernist view, self is not the creator of meaning, nor

the center or starting point of sociological inquiry.

• For French philosopher Michael Foucault, the self is also seen as

a product of modern discourse that is socially and historically
conditioned (David, 2002)
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
• Anderson (1997) gives four basic postmodernist ideas about the
self, which address the issues of change and multiple identities.

• The first is multiphrenia which refers to the many different voices

speaking about “who we are and what we are.”

• In the postmodern world, you just do not get to be a single and

consistent somebody.

• When you are a family man, for instance, you are a husband, a
father, and an in-law at the same time.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
• When you go out of your house, you are a neighbor a
“kumpare,” a “ninong,” and a citizen.
• When you go to work, you are either a boss or an
employee, or a co-worker and a taxpayer.
• An individual plays so many roles.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
• Second is protean, a self capable of changing constantly
to fit the present conditions.
• You may not be at ease to talk with gays and lesbians as a
teenager, but now you are not bothered at all.
• A protean self is a manifestation that people do not have a
true stable self.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
• Third is de-centered, a belief that there is no self at all.
• The self is constantly being redefined or constantly
undergoing change.
• We are what we are described to be.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
• Fourth is self-in-relation, which means that humans do
not live their lives in isolation but in relation to people
and to certain cultural contexts.

• In this view, the person has no center, but is drawn in

many directions and is constantly changing and being
defined externally by his or her various relations with
other people.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF

• For postmodernists, there is no “I” as Mead maintained.

• The self is shaped by outside forces.
• The self is socially constructed.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
• What defines a person are the norms, values, languages,
arts, and culture of society.
• For postmodernists, people have no fixed identities which
are separable from their surroundings and which remain
the same even though certain characteristics and
conditions may change.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
• In traditional society, a person’s status is determined by
his or her role; in modern society, by fashion or style.
• As style and fashion change, a person adapts to these
changes or is left with identity in question. All that matter
is now (Wade, 1999)
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF

• Foucault describes it as “the self that turned into a text, a

complex narrative of accomplishments suffused with
discourses.”
• The self is a text written from moment to moment
according to the demands of a multitude of social
contexts.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF

The postmodern social condition is dominated by two

realities:

1. The rise of new media technologies

2. The dominance of consumerism.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
• Lyon (1997) argued that the predicament of the self in
postmodern societies is complicated by the advent of
electronic-mediated virtual interactions of cyberselves
and the spread of information technology.
• This phenomenon disrupts the self from the traditional
constraints of time and space.
• In addition, Green (1997) posited that the self is
“digitalized” in cyberspace.
POSTMODERN VIEW OF THE SELF
• In the essay “Email and Memory,” the consequences of
digitalization of the self appear thus:
“Every little piece of information that you post on the Internet—the
message you write, the websites you visit, the files you download,
the email address you contact, the book, tapes, CDs, and airplane
tickets you order on the Internet, and the credit card numbers you
give—all these become raw data from which someone out there can
piece together an identity, a virtual version of who you are.”
ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

One of the most influential

American Sociologist of the
20th century, introduced a
theory, which he referred to
as the dramaturgical model of
social life.
 ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

• For him, social interaction may be compared to a theater

and people to actors on a stage where each plays a variety
of roles (Grossman, 2018)
• In this theory, he posited the idea that as people interact
with one another they are constantly engaged in
impression management—a process in which people
regulate and control information in social interaction.
 ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

• This can only be realized when all people involved in the

interaction are working to ensure that all parties have the same
definition of the situation, that is, each person understands what
is meant to happen in that situation, what to expect from the
others involved, and how one should behave.

• This model of social life assumes that personalities are not static
because they change to suit the situation.
 ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
EVERYDAY LIFE
• Goffman used the imagery of theater in order to portray the nuances and
significance of face-to-face social interaction.

• For him, the self is a product of the dramatic interaction between actor
and audience.

• The self is made up of the various parts that people play, and a key goal of
social actors is to present their various selves in ways that create and
sustain particular impressions to their different audiences.
 ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

In theater, people play the part of

either an actor/performer or an
audience. The actor is the one who
gives meaning to himself or herself,
and to the situations. He or she has
all the creative and destructive
information about the situation or
the performance.
ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

The members of the audience

are those who largely accept the
definition of the situation or the
performance delivered or
presented by every actor.

They do not have the destructive

information about the
performance.
 ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

They are the ones who constantly

attribute meaning to the
performance and to the actors.
The performance refers to all the
actions of the actor (individual) in a
particular situation in front of the
audience.
ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

This performance delivers

impression to others, which
sends information confirming
the identity of the actor in a
given situation.

The objective of the

performance is to create a good
impression about the actor.
 ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

The setting can be an office, a room, a

restaurant, and any other places. Different
settings mean different audiences which then
require the actor to adjust his or her
performances depending on the setting.

The appearance consists of fixed attributes

like gender, age, citizenship, but it also
includes clothing props and other things.
 ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

The manner refers to the displayed behaviors

such as being generous, honest, patriotic,
courteous, and many others.

The audience will be confused and upset if

there is inconsistency between appearance
and manner.
ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN
EVERYDAY LIFE
KENNETH GERGEN’S SATURATED OR
MULTIPLICITOUS SELF

For Kenneth Gergen, the

saturated self is characterized by
constant connection to others, a
self that absorbs a multitude of
voices (sometimes contradictory)
and takes in a seemingly endless
streams of information.
 KENNETH GERGEN’S SATURATED OR
MULTIPLICITOUS SELF

• This saturation contradicts the notion of a singular, true, authentic

self, and instead gives way to a self consisting of “multiple” selves.
This is due to the splitting of the self into multitude of options,
which Gergen calls multiphrenia.

• That is, people establish multiple selves through absorption of the

multiple voices of people in their lives, either in real life or through
the media.
 KENNETH GERGEN’S SATURATED OR
MULTIPLICITOUS SELF

• This saturation contradicts the notion of a singular, true, authentic

self, and instead gives way to a self consisting of “multiple” selves.
This is due to the splitting of the self into multitude of options,
which Gergen calls multiphrenia.

• That is, people establish multiple selves through absorption of the

multiple voices of people in their lives, either in real life or through
the media.
 KENNETH GERGEN’S SATURATED OR
MULTIPLICITOUS SELF

• People then internalize these

different selves, thus creating a
seemingly endless pool of
selves that they can choose to
draw upon depending on the
needs of the current situation.
KENNETH GERGEN’S SATURATED OR
MULTIPLICITOUS SELF
 KENNETH GERGEN’S SATURATED OR
MULTIPLICITOUS SELF

• This saturation contradicts the notion of a singular, true, authentic

self, and instead gives way to a self consisting of “multiple” selves.
This is due to the splitting of the self into multitude of options,
which Gergen calls multiphrenia.

• That is, people establish multiple selves through absorption of the

multiple voices of people in their lives, either in real life or through
the media.
 KENNETH GERGEN’S SATURATED OR
MULTIPLICITOUS SELF

• The saturated self as a multiphrenic condition, in which one

experiences the vertigo of unlimited multiciplicity, does not only
apply to mere exposure to technology but also accounts for the
feeling of overload that results in a socially saturated condition.

• Gergen explained that options are not only endless, but are no longer
constrained by time or distance, and because of this, “the daily life
has become a sea of drowning demands, and there is no shore in
sight.”
 KENNETH GERGEN’S SATURATED OR
MULTIPLICITOUS SELF

• He gives a particularly compelling example of how social

saturation makes even a seemingly simple dilemma such as “what
should I do today?” into something complex and stressful by
describing a man contemplating about what to do with his free
Saturday.
 KENNETH GERGEN’S SATURATED OR
MULTIPLICITOUS SELF
• The man starts his day excited about having the freedom to choose
how he spends his time.

• He starts to think about what to do with the day, which turns into
thinking about things that need to be done, which leads him to
think of more things that needs to do, which reminds him of other
things he would like to do.

• His sense of having a free day becomes completely overwhelming

with all the options and obligations.
 KENNETH GERGEN’S SATURATED OR
MULTIPLICITOUS SELF

• Furthermore, because of technology, these options are all available

immediately, which leads to an endless list of things to do.

• This overwhelming list of potentials, Gergen described, feels what

the state of social saturation is like.

• This, for Gergen, social saturation brings with it a general loss of

true and knowable selves.