Sociological Perspectives of Self

1. Let’s Review
LESSON 1

2. Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
St. Augustine
St. Thomas
Descartes
Locke
Hume
Kant Freud Churchland
Ryle Merleau-Ponty
WHO THOUGHT SO?

3. Sociological Perspectives
of Self
Lesson 2

4. Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
● Identify the sociological perspectives about the self
● Demonstrate critical and reflective thinking in showing
different aspects of the self; and
● Examine yourself using the different sociological theories

5. Reflect
● Who belongs to your social circle?
○ Name at least three people who play a major
role in your life.
● Whose view matters to you the most? Why?

7. Sociology
● Social science that deals with interactions and
relationships among individuals in a group or in
groups.
● In sociology, the self is a product of contact with the
social world.

9. Aspects of Self from a Sociological Standpoint
Private
Self
Public Self
Collective Self

10. Sociologists and
their Views of the Self

11. The Sociologists
Charles Horton
Cooley
George Mead Henri Tajfel
Ervin Goffman Kenneth Gergen

12. George Mead’s Theory of the Social Self
● based on the perspective that the self emerges
from social interactions, such as:
○ observing and interacting with others,
○ responding to others' opinions about
oneself,
○ and internalizing external opinions and
internal feelings about oneself

13. Activities that develop the Self
According to Mead, the self is not there from birth, but it is developed over time
from social experiences and activities.
Three activities develop the self:
1. Language
2. Play
3. Games

14. I and Me: Phases of the Self
Two sides or phases: 'I' and 'me', which have a didactic/ conversational
relationship.
● The 'I' is the phase of self that is unsocialized and spontaneous.
○ represents the individual's identity that is unique and free.
○ acting part of the self, an immediate response to other people.
● The 'me' is considered the socialized aspect of the individual.
○ the organization of the internalized attitude of others, gained from the progressive stages of
role-playing or taking.
○ represents learned behaviors, attitudes, and expectations of others and of society.

15. ME
Social, conforming
I
Creative, active,
responsive
SELF
Created by the interactions of the I, Me
and Generalized Other
GENERALIZED OTHER
View points, attitudes, expectations
of society as a whole

16. Charles Horton Cooley’s Looking-Glass Self
● Is a social psychological concept.
● In this view, the self is developed as a
result of one’s perception of other people’s
opinions.
○ For example, if the 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.

17. Three Steps on How the Self is Built
The self is built through social interactions
which involve three steps:
1. People imagine how they appear to
others;
2. They imagine the judgment on that
appearance; and
3. They develop themselves through the
judgment of others.

18. Henri Tajfel’s Theory of Social Identity
Social identity -- the person’s sense of who he or she
is according to his or her membership to a certain
group.
Group membership, according to this 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.

19. In this view, the world is
divided into “us”, the in-group
and “them”, the out-group.
● The in-group is an
esteemed social group
commanding a member’s
loyalty.
● The out-group is a
scorned group to which
one feels competition or
opposition.

20. Three Psychological Processes involved in
evaluating group membership:
1. Social Categorization
2. Social Identification
3. Social Comparison

21. Three Psychological Processes
● Social Categorization
○ This is the cognitive process where people are classified into
categories to understand the environment.
○ Social categories can be based on religion such as Christian or
non-Christian or political orientation such as Democratic or
Communist.

22. Three Psychological Processes
● Social Identification
○ This is the process of adopting the identity of the group to which a
person categorized him/herself.
○ For example, if you categorize yourself as Christian, you will
adopt the identity of a Christian and act in ways you believe
Christians act.

23. Three Psychological Processes
● Social Comparison
○ This is the process of comparing the in-group with the out-group.
○ The emphasis is on the differences between one’s group and
other groups.
○ Here, individuals might begin to discriminate and criticize other
groups.

24. Erving Goffman and the Dramaturgical Model of Social Life
Dramaturgical Model -
The model that compares social interaction to a
theater, wherein people are actors on a stage and
each plays a variety of roles.
Impression management – a process people
engage on, in which they regulate and control
information in social interactions

25. Six Components of the Dramaturgical Model
1. Persona
2. Performance
3. Staging
4. Teams
5. Role
6. Personal Style

26. The Six Components
1. Persona – the different personality ‘masks’ we wear in
different situations, for different people.
❖ For instance, the way we behave with our family at home
is different to how we would behave with our professors in
school.

27. The Six Components
2. Performance – refers to how we wear our persona or
personality mask.
❖ For instance, we might be ‘sincere’ in how we behave or
we might be ‘cynical’ and not really believe in our
performance.

28. The Six Components
3. Staging – refers to what we need for our “performance”:
a certain “location”, “props/objects” and/or
“costume/dress”. These form the context for our
performance.
❖ For instance, if we were to present ourselves as studious
and knowledgeable, we would wear eyeglasses, often
bring books and go to the library always.

29. The Six Components
4. Teams – refers to who we ‘perform’ with and who is there
when we stage our performance.
❖ For instance, when we go to out for recreation, we often
do so with friends. When we adopt a ‘work persona’, we
go with our workmates.

30. The Six Components
5. Role - refers to the individual ‘jobs’ or responsibilities we have in a
‘team’.
✔ We wake up as a son or daughter within a family.
✔ We go downstairs and clear up last night’s mess playing the role as
cleaner to help other family members.
✔ We act as a comforter to an upset friend in the neighborhood.
✔ We then chat happily to other friends.
✔ We arrive at college and work hard as one of the new college
students.

31. The Six Components
6. Personal Style - the unique, individual aspects of
ourselves we bring to teams, roles, persona. This
is what makes us different to others.

32. Three Interaction Regions
OFF STAGE

33. Three Interaction Regions
1. The FRONT STAGE – situations where we consider the reactions and
responses we will get from the people around for the way we behave
1. The BACK STAGE – situations we are comfortable with, when we can be our
natural selves
1. The OFF STAGE – instances after the situation wherein we learn how others
perceive our behavior and actions relative to the “performance” others have
witnessed

34. Kenneth Gergen and the Saturated Self
Saturated Self – characterized by constant connection to
others, a self that absorbs a multitude of voices
(sometimes contradictory) and takes in a seemingly
endless stream of information
● This saturation contradicts the notion of a singular,
true, authentic self and instead gives way to a “self”
consisting of “multiple” selves due to the splitting of
the self into multitude of options, which Gergen calls
multiphrenia.

35. Technology and Multiphrenia
● Today’s technology has become a major outlet
for people to create and experiment with multiple
selves.
❑ Internet
❑ Video Games

36. TO DO:
ASSIGNMENT NO. 2