Sociological Perspective: The Self as a Productive
Society
Sociological Perspective of the SELF is based on the
assumption on the human behavior influence by Group
of Life
A particular view of oneself is formed through
interactions with other people, groups, social
institutions.
George Herbert Mead
-Supported the view that the man develops a sense of
self through Social Interaction and not the biological
preconditions of interaction.
- He noted that what matters for our self-concepts is
not how others actually see us but the way we imagine
they see us.
Generalized Others| George Mead
- He described it as an organized community or social
group which gives to the individual his or her unity of
self.
• Role Playing by George Herbert Mead
- Since there is meaning in human actions, he infers
people's intentions and direction of action, which may
lead to understand the world from other's point of view
Two Divisions of Self | George Herbert Mead
- The I is the subjective element and active side of self.
It represents the spontaneous and unique traits of the
individual.
- The Me is the objective element of the self. It
represents the internalized attitudes and demands of
other people and the individual awareness of those
demands.
Development of Self | George Herbert Mead
1. Preparatory Stage (0 to 3 years old)
• Children imitate the people around them
• they copy the behaviour without understanding the
underlying intentions
• No sense of self
• Preparation for role taking
2. Play Stage (3 to 5 years old)
• Start od viewing themselves in relation to others as
they learn to communicate through language and other
symbols
• Role taking is exhibited; they do not perceive role
taking as expected of them.
•Self emerges
3. Game stage (starts in the early school years)
• Understanding social position of people around them.
• the self now present
Charles Cooley
- The looking- glass self should serve only as a guide for
reflection and not be taken to end up living in
accordance with other people's expectation.
Looking Glass| Charles Horton Cooley
- the self is the result of one's perceptions of other
people's opinion
Two Parts of Self
• Self Awareness
• Self Image
Social Interaction Three Steps| Charles Horton Cooley
1. People imagine how they must appear to others
2. They imagine the judgement on the appearance
3. They develop themselves through the judgement of
others.
Social Groups| William Graham Sumner
1. In-group is an esteemed social group commanding a
member's loyalty
2. Out- group is a scorned social group which one may
feel competition or opposition
Social Identity Theory| Henri Tajifel
- the person's sense of who he or she is according to his
or her membership to a certain group.
Group Membership according to Social Identity theory,
it is an important source of pride and self-esteem.
3 Mental Processes in Evaluating Others as "us" or
"them" | Tajifel and Turner
1. Social Categorization
2. Social Identification
3. Social Comparison
Post Modern View of Self
Private Self (Individual self) - cognition that involves
traits, states and behavior.
Public Self -cognition concerning the generalized other's
view of the self
Collective Self - cognition concerning a view of the self
that is found in memberships in social groups.
Postmodern Social Condition
Is dominated by:
1. The rise of new technologies
2. The dominance of consumerism
Postmodernist People
1. The self is shaped by outside forces.
2. The self is socially constructed
3. People have no fixed identities
4. A person's status is based on fashion ir style
Traditional society = role
Modern society = his achievements
Anderson's 4 Basic Postmodernist Ideas about self
1. Multiphrenia - family, husband, in-law
2. Protean - changing constantly to fit the current
situation
3. De centered - there is no self at all
4. Self in relation - humans do not live for isolation but
for relation
The Self from Anthropological Perspective
Identity Struggles
- term introduced by Anthony Wallace and Raymond
Fogelson
- characterized by discrepancy between the identity a
person claims to possess and the identity attributed to
that person by others.
- has to be done as soon as possible to avoid conflicts
Brian Morris's Anthropology of the Self
- self is not an entity but a process that orchestrates an
individual's personal experience
- the concept of "self" is defined as individual mental
representation of his or her person. As kind of self-
representation
- the concept of "other" in relation to self, is how one
perceives mental representations of others.
Cultural Identity Theory
- explains why a person acts and behaves the way she
or he does.
- a single person can possess multiple identities,
simultaneously making his or her part of many cultural
groups.
- the cultural categories that shapes one's overall
cultural identity prove of one's cultural identity should
be multidimensional
Individual Perception anchored on:
Race, gender, nationality, religion, ethnicity, language
Nation- is a group of people build on the precise and
shared customs, tradition, religion, language etc.
National Identity- refer to the identity or feeling of
belongingness to one state or nation.
Rupert Emerson- political scientist defines national
identity as " A body of people who feel that they are a
nation"
Identity refers to "who the person is" or the qualities
and traits of an individual that make him different from
others
Culture derived from Latin word cultura or cultus
meaning care of cultivation

Dialogical self-introduced by Hubert Hermans Personal Identity: the way she sees herself as an
individual
•It relational of self-concept
Collective Identity: the way he sees himself as a
• in Herman's view the autonomy of self intensely
member of a certain group
interwoven with external dialogical relationships with
actual others Marcel Mauss

• the self is constructed in the concept of internal - focused on the notion of the person as CULTURAL
relations, interpersonal relationships, and large social CATEGORY
system
- CULTURAL CONCEPTION or category of a particular
The theory regarded "Self" as " Society of Mind" community

Spatial Perspective: the self is engaged in a process of
positioning and counter positioning in globalizing
society
Temporal Point of View: self is part of process of
positioning and repositioning in collective history and
personal development.
INDIVIDUAL SELF, RELATIONAL SELF, COLLECTIVE SELF
Individual Self- cognitions related to traits, states and
behavior that are stored in memory
Relational Self- reflects cognition that are related to
one's relationship

Collective Self - reflects cognition that are related to

Internal I-Position: refers to how one functions in
himself or herself. one's group.

External I- Position: refers of how one identifies himself

or herself based on particular external factors.

Material Culture:

National Flag, Emblem, Seal

Non-Material Culture:

Norm, belief, Traditions

National Identity requires the process of Self

Categorization

Self-categorization- one must identify himself or herself

with an in group and differentiate himself or herself
from out groups.