LECTURE 2: THE SELF, SOCIETY, & CULTURE The Self & Culture - a child internalizes values, norms, practices,
- a child internalizes values, norms, practices, and social beliefs
WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXTERNAL REALITY
AND THE SELF?
How much of you are essential?
How much of who you are now is a product of society, community,
and family?
Has your choice of school affected yourself now? If you were born in a
different family and schooled in a different college, how different would
you be?
What is the Self?
The self is com m only defined as “ separate, self-contained,
independent, consistent, unitary, & private.” (Stevens, 1996)
Is the self actually a private entity?
The self is always affected by external circumstances that bump
and collide with it. It is ev er-changing and dynamic, allowing
external forces to take part in its shaping.
The social constructivist perspective, then
- explains that there is a strong relationship between the self
and external reality.
- argues that the person andtheir social context are merged,
one cannot easily be separated from the other. (Stevens, 1996).
- argues that the self is not static w hich stays constant
through and through. Rather, it is in a struggle with external
reality and malleable in its dealings with society.
- the self has a social life and can be influenced.
Therefore multifaceted.
How can people be multifaceted?
According to Mauss, every self has two faces: personne and moi
Moi – a person’s self of who he is, his body , his basic identity, his
biological givenness.
Personne – the social concepts of what it means to be himself,
what it means to live in a particular institution, a family, religion,
nationality, and how to behave given expectations & influences.
- the self (especially the Personne) morphs according to
different circumstances and contexts.
- the self is shaped by different aspects of culture such as
international relations, environmental/territorial concerns,
language/lingo, romantic relationships, etc.
The Self & the Development of the Social World
How do people actively produce their social worlds?
How do children growing up become social beings?
How do twins coming out from the same mother turn out to be
different w hen adopted separately?
More than his givenness, one is believed to be in active
participation in shaping the self.
Recent studies indicate that men & women in their growth &
dev elopment engage actively in shaping themselves.
Mead & Vygotsky
- “ the human mind is something that is made”
- the way that human persons develop is with the use of
language acquisition & interaction w/others.
- we process information in form of internal dialogue
- therefore the cognitive & emotional development of a child is
a mimicry of how it is done in the social world.
through exposure to dialogs that will become part of his individual
world.
Self in Families
- while every childis born w/ givenness, disposition coming
from his parents’ genes and general condition of life is a factor
in
forming self
- human beings are born virtually helpless and the dependency
period of a human baby to its parents is longer than most
animals.
- in becoming a fully realized human, a child enters a system
of relationships, most importantly the family. This is w here
the person learns how to live & their selfhood.
- it is what a family initiates a person to become that serves as
the basis for the person’s progress.
- the child learns language and behavior from its family.
- without a family, biologically and socially, a person may not
even survive or become a human person.
Gender and the Self
- gender is an aspect of the self that is subject to
alteration, change, and development.
- from the point of v iew of social sciences and the self, it is
important to give leeway to find, express, and live his identity.
- our gender partly determines how we see ourselves in the
world. Society often forces a particular identity unto us by
depending on our sex/gender.
- gender has to be personally discovered and asserted and
not dictated by culture and society.