LESSON 2: THE SELF FROM THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD’S SOCIAL SELF

 Self is not biological, but social. (social interaction)
 It has two parts: self-awareness and self-image
 Through role playing, the individual develops a concept of self
 There are three stages of development:
 Preparatory stage - imitation
 Play stage - pretend play
 Game stage - generalized other, multiple roles, the child see himself from the perspective of others
 Generalized other is an organized community or social group which gives to the individual his/her unity
of self. The attitude of the generalized other is the attitude of the entire community.

CHARLES HORTON COOLEY’S LOOKING GLASS SELF

 Individuals base their sense of self on how they believe others view them. Using social interaction as a
type of “mirror,” people use the judgments they receive from others to measure their own worth, values,
and behavior.
 People are constantly picking up feedback and incorporating it into their sense of self.
 The self is built in three steps:
 People imagine how they must appear to others
 They imagine the judgment on that appearance
 They develop themselves through he judgment of others
 It 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
 The cognition that involves traits, states, and behaviors
 An assessment of the self by the self (I am generous, I am trustworthy)
 Public self
 The cognition concerning the generalized others’ view of the self
 An assessment of the self by the generalized others (People think that I’m generous, I’m religious)
 Collective self
 The cognition concerning a view of he self that is found in memberships in social groups.
 For instance, a person maybe identified as feminist. Attributes of being feminist that are similar
with other feminists are emphasized forming the collective self.

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY

 Conceived by Henri Tajfel
 The person’s sense of who he/she is according to his/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
 IN-GROUP and OUT-GROUP by William Graham Sumner
 In-group, esteemed social group commanding a member’s loyalty. It is a group to which a person
belongs.
 Out-group, is a scorned social group to which one feels competition or opposition. It is a group to
which a person does not belong.
 Tajfel and Turner’s three mental processes:
 Social categorization - in order to understand the social environment
 Social identification - after categorizing, people adopt the identity of the group to which they have
categorized themselves. (Christian - will adopt identity and will act in ways you believe they act)
 Social comparison - after categorization and identification, people tend to compare that group with
other groups. Here they might begin to discriminate and criticize the other groups.
ERVING GOFFMAN’S PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERDAY LIFE
 He used the imagery of theater in order to portray the nuances and significance of face-to-face social
interaction.
 Front Stage, Back Stage, and Off Stage
 In stage drama, as in everyday interactions, according to Goffman, there are three regions, each
with different effects on an individual’s performance: front stage, backstage, and off-stage. The
front stage is where the actor formally performs and adheres to conventions that have
particular meaning for the audience. The actor knows he or she is being watched and acts
accordingly.
 When in the backstage region, the actor may behave differently than when in front of the audience
on the front stage. This is where the individual truly gets to be herself and get rid of the roles that
she plays when she is in front of other people.
 Finally, the off-stage region is where individual actors meet the audience members independently of
the team performance on the front stage. Specific performances may be given when the audience is
segmented as such.

KENNETH GERGEN’S SATURATED OR MULTIPLICITIOUS SELF

 Today's ever-expanding communication technologies force us to relate to far more people and
institutions than ever before, in a multiplicity of forms—on the telephone, in person, across time and
space. And each of these demands a different conception of ourselves. More than at any other time in
history, each of us is not one self but many. Challenging the way we view ourselves and our
relationships.