CHAPTER 2 | Sociological Perspective: The Self as a Product of Society

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:

a. recognize what sociology tells about understanding the self and others;

b. discuss how individuals view the self as a product of socialization;

c. explain George Herbert Mead’s theory of the social self;

d. discuss the self as a product of modern and postmodern societies; and

e. appreciate your own social experiences that have been particularly helpful in understanding the self.

Movie Time Check out the movie [Disney’s] Tarzan. (Opening scene link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz9GIaXO2wE&list=PLP0NFra9Eo55zLYuxUyKOc
W31SOzO89ky&index=1

In the famous Tarzan story, the little boy named Tarzan was left in the middle of the forest.
Growing up, he never had an interaction with any other human being but apes and other animals.
Tarzan grew up acting strangely like apes and unlike human persons, Tarzan became an animal, in effect.
His sole interaction with them made him just like one of them. Disappointedly, human persons will not
develop as human persons without intervention. This story, which was supposed to be based on real life,
challenges the long-standing notion of human persons being special and being a particular kind of being
in the spectrum of living entities. After all, our selves are not special because of the soul infused into us.
We may be gifted with intellect and the capacity to rationalize things but at the end of the day, our
growth and development and consequentially, our selves are truly products of our interaction with
external reality.

Understanding of the self only arises in relationship, 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. 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 selfidentity 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 advertisements 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.

Sociologist Charles Horton Cooley in 1902 introduces 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 (1) conceiving an idea
of how a person presents himself or herself to others, (2) how he or she analyzes how others perceive
him or her, (3) 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 or she could
develop a negative self-image (Kendall, 2013; Macionis, 2015; Schaefer, 2014)

Check out these videos about the looking-glass self:

Looking Glass Self (Sep 25, 2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukSScFhVrBM
The Looking Glass Self (Feb 7, 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC5o1-wealw
I Am Not What I Think I Am - Jay Shetty (April 12, 2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=2nzBWfjdHcI

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” 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
other’s point of view – a process that Mead labels as role-taking. Then he or she creates his or her own
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, ad be able to react to
the world around him or her (Kendall, 2013; Macionis, 2015).

Mead details the development of the self in a three –stage process:

1. 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. Play stage (3-5 years old) – children start to view themselves in relation to others as they learn to
communicate through language and other symbols. At this stage, roletaking 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. 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 include 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.

Check out these videos about Mead’s theory of the social self:
George Herbert Mead The Self Me & I (May 6, 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=V1goKuFKyCc

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, selfidentity continuously changes due to the demands of
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 had become an insatiable consumer and may never be satisfied
in his or her life. For example, buying expensive mobile phones not merely as a useful communication
device, but because of its prestige symbol, and then desiring to buy a new one when you learn that a
new and more prestigious model is out in the market, or when you discover that other people are using
more expensive ones. Therefore, the self may be in a never-ending search for prestige in the
postmodern society.

Activity:
Myself Through the Years

My Elementary Self My High School Self My College Self

Similarities in all stages my “self” Differences in my “self” across Possible reasons for the
the three stages of my life differences in me

References: Go-Monilla, M. J. A. and Ramirez, N. C. (2018). Understanding the self. C & E Publishing, Inc.
Alaya, E. J. P., Caslib, B. Jr. N., Serafica, J. P. J., and Pawilen, R. A. (2018). Understanding the Self. Rex
Book Store, Inc.