MODULE 1 LESSON 2:
The Self from the Sociological and Anthropological Perspective
GEORGE MEAD’S SOCIAL SELF
➢ Self is not biological but social
(developed through social interaction)
SELF
➢ Self-awareness: conscious knowledge of
one’s own character, feelings, motives,
and desires
➢ Self-image: the idea one has of one’s
abilities, appearance, and personality
ROLE-PLAYING
➢ putting oneself in the position of the
person with whom he/she interacts
➢ develops a concept of self
3 STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
1. Imitation or Preparatory Stage: a child
imitates the behavior of his/her parents
2. Play Stage: the child playing the roles
of others
3. Game Stage: the child comes to
themselves from the perspective of
other people
“I” AND “ME” SELF
➢ I and Me – phases of self
• I
- unsocialized and spontaneous
- and subjective acting part of
the self
- for Mead, there is no “I” self
because self is shaped by
outside forces
• Me
- results from the progressive
stages of RP
- view and analyze one’s own
behavior
- internalized attitude of others
- conventional and objective
part of the self
GENERALIZED OTHERS
➢ organized community or social group
which gives to the individual his/her
unity of self
➢
➢ attitude of generalized other = attitude
of the entire community
SOCIOLOGICAL
LOOKING GLASS SELF
➢ Charles Horton Cooley
➢ self = a result of one’s perceptions of
other people’s opinions
➢ made up of feelings about other
people’s judgment of one’s behavior
➢ three steps:
1. People imagine how they must
appear to others
2. They imagine the judgement
on that appearance
3. They develop themselves
through the judgement of
others
➢ People also imagine how others judge
what they see, whether with approval,
doubt, or hostility.
POSTMODERNISM
➢ report of a mindset of western culture
in 20th century
➢ Michel Foucault – self is a product of
modern discourse that is socially and
historically conditioned
4 BASIC POSTMODERNIST IDEAS ABOUT THE
SELF (Anderson)
1. Multiphrenia: different voices speaking
“who we are and what we are”
2. Protean: capable of changing
constantly to fit the perfect conditions
3. De-centered: no self at all
4. Self-in-relation: humans do not live their
lives in isolation but in relation to
people and cultural contexts
➢ In traditional society: a person’s status
is determined by role
➢ In modern society: by achievement
➢ In post-modern society: by
fashion/style
➢ For Foucault, self is a text written from
moment to moment according to
 demands of multitude of social - Self-Categorization – one must
contexts identify himself/herself within a
➢ The postmodern social condition is group & differentiate from the
dominated by two realities: out-groups
o The rise of new media
technologies 3 FUNDAMENTAL SELVES
o The dominance of 1. Individual Self: traits, states, and
consumerism behaviors
2. Relational Self: one’s relationships
➢ Lyon – The predicament of the self in 3. Collective Self: one’s group
postmodern societies is complicated
by the advent of electronic-mediated
virtual interactions of cyberselves and IDENTITY STRUGGLES
the spread of IT. ➢ Anthony Wallace and Raymond
➢ Green – Self is “digitalized” in Fogelson
cyberspace ➢ discrepancy between the identity a
person claims to posses and the
ANTHROPOLOGICAL identity attributed to that person by
CULTURAL AND NATIONAL IDENTITY others
➢ Culture – “cultura” or cultus meaning
care or cultivation
❖ Personal Identity – see
themselves as an individual
❖ Collective Identity – see
themselves as a member of a
certain group

➢ Identity – “who the person is” or the

qualities & traits of an individual that
make him/her different from others
❖ Cultural Identity
- feeling of belongingness to a
certain culture group
- race, gender, nationality,
religion, ethnicity, language
- multidimensional
- Cultural Identity Theory: why a
person acts and behaves

➢ Nation – group of people built on the

premise of shared customs, traditions,
religion, language, art, history, etc.
❖ National Identity
- feeling of belongingness to one
state or nation
- Rupert Emerson: “a body of
people who feel that they are
a nation”
- shaped by:
o Material Culture –
national flag, emblem,
seal
o Non-Material Culture –
norms, beliefs, traditions