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Understanding of the self only arises in relationships, in watching yourself in relationship to

people, ideas, and things; to trees, the earth, and the world around you and within you.
Relationship is the mirror in which the self is revealed. Without self-knowledge
there is no basis for right thought and action.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Sociological perspective of the self is based on the assumption that human behavior is
influenced by group life. A particular view of oneself is formed through interactions with other
people, groups, or social institutions. This chapter draws on the principles of well-known
sociologists to foster student understanding concepts of sociology and how sociology
impacts students' everyday lives, and provide a pathway to self-understanding of "who you
are” and “what you are" in contemporary society. For sociologists like:

- Mead and Cooley, the self does not depend on biological predispositions; rather, it is
a product of social interaction. The sense of self emerges as the individual partakes
in the society. While the individual seeks for solid and stable self-identity in modern
society, the postmodern individual tries to avoid fixation and keeps the options open
for self-improvement.
- French sociologist Jean Baudrillard posits that in the postmodern society, the self
is found in the prestige symbols of goods consumed by people. The postmodern
person has become an insatiable consumer.Therefore, if people desire to be satisfied
with things in life, they should not be persuaded by the postmodern culture of
advertisement and mass media which suggest false needs.

Sociology as a scientific study of social groups and human relationships generates new
insights into the interconnectedness between the self and other people. Hence, sociologists
offer theories to explain how the self emerges as a product of social experience. The
looking-glass self by Charles Horton Cooley and the theory of the social self by
George Herbert Mead are helpful in understanding how a person views himself or herself
as he or she interacts with the social environment that includes family, school, peer groups,
and mass media.

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Sociologist Charles Horton Cooley in 1902 introduced the looking-glass self to highlight
that the people whom a person interacts with become a mirror in which he or she views
himself or herself. Self-identity or self-image is achieved through a threefold event which
begins by conceiving an idea of how a person presents himself or herself to others, how he
or she analyzes how others perceive him or her, and how he or she creates an image of
himself or herself. Since these perceptions are subjective, a person might have wrong
interpretations of how other people evaluate him or her. It would be critical if he or she thinks
that others judge him or her unfavorably because he could develop a negative self-image
(Kendall, 2013; Macionis, 2015; Schaefer, 2014).
Another sociologist, George Herbert Mead, supports the view that a person develops a
sense of self through social interaction and not the biological preconditions of that
interaction. Mead's theory of the social self explained that the self has two divisions:
the “I” and the "me." The "I" is the subjective element and the active side of the self. It
represents the spontaneous and unique traits of the individual. The "me," on the other hand,
is the objective element of the self that represents the internalized attitudes and demands of
other people and the individual's awareness of those demands. The full development
of the self is attained when the "I" and the "me" are united. According to Mead, the self is
not present at birth. It develops only with social experience in which language,
gestures, and objects are used to communicate meaningfully. Since there is meaning in
human actions, a person infers people's intention or direction of action, which may lead him
or her to understand the world from others' point of view-a process that Mead labels as role-
taking. Then he or she creates his or role and anticipates how others will respond. When he
or she performs his or her own particular role, he or she becomes self-aware. The self
continues to change along with his or her social experience.In other words, no matter how
much the world shapes a person, he or she will always remain a creative being, and be able
to react to the world around him or her (Kendall, 2013; Macionis, 2015).

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Mead details the development of the self in a three-stage process:
1. In the preparatory stage (0-3 years old), children imitate the people around them,
especially family members with whom they have daily interaction. But they copy behavior
without understanding underlying intentions, and so at this stage, they have no sense of self.
During this stage, children are just preparing for role-taking.

2. During the play stage (3 to 5 years old), children start to view themselves in relation to
others as they learn to communicate through language and other symbols. At this
stage, role-taking is exhibited; however, children do not perceive role-taking as something
expected of them. The self emerges as children pretend to take the roles of specific people
or significant others, those individuals who are important agents of socialization. At this
stage, the self is developing.

3. In the game stage (begins in the early school years; about 8 or 9 years old) children
understand not only their own social position but also those of others around them. At this
stage, children become concerned about and take into account in their behavior the
generalized others which refer to the attitudes, viewpoints, demands, and expectations of
the society which includes cultural norms and values that serve as references in evaluating
oneself. This time, they can have a more sophisticated look of people and an ability to
respond to numerous members of the social environment. During this stage, the self is now
present.
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THE SELF AS A PRODUCT OF MODERN AND POSTMODERN SOCIETIES

Gerry Lanuza's (2004) article, "The Constitution of the Self," discusses the relationship
between society and the individual. According to him, in modern societies the attainment and
stability of self-identity are freely chosen. It is no longer restricted by customs and traditions.
While this newfound freedom offers infinite possibilities for self-cultivation, problems such as
alienation and dehumanization of the self also appear which hinder the full development of
human potentials. Hence, there is a need to discover the "authentic core" of the self for the
individual to freely work towards self-realization. Whereas the dissolution of traditional values
and communities in modern society has led the individual to construct a solid and stable
self-identity, the postmodern individual welcomes all possibilities for self-improvement. In
postmodern societies, self-identity continuously changes due to the demands of a multitude
of social contexts, new information technologies, and globalization.

French sociologist Jean Baudrillard exposes the negative consequences of

postmodernity to individuals in the society (Demeterio, 2013). For him, consumption
structures the postmodern society. The postmodern individuals achieve self-identity through
prestige symbols that they consume. Individuals seek for a position in society through the
quality of prestige symbols that they can afford to consume. The cultural practices of
advertising and mass media greatly influence individuals to consume goods not for their
primary value and utility but for the feeling of goodness and power when compared with
others. Hence, the postmodern person has become an insatiable consumer and may never
be satisfied in his or her life. For example, if a person buys an expensive cellular phone not
merely as a useful communication device, but because of its prestige symbol, he or she will
desire to buy a new cell phone when he or she learns that a new and more prestigious
model has come out in the market, or when he or she discovers that other people are using
more expensive mobile phones. Therefore, the self may be in a never-ending search for
prestige in the postmodern society.