Understanding the Self
ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE SELF
I. Sociological Perspective
- 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 such as Mead and
Cooley, the self does not depend on
biological predispositions; rather, it is a
product of social interaction.
Postmodern Society (Jean Baudrillard)
- 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
- a scientific study of social groups and
human relationships generates new
insights into the interconnectedness
between the self and other people.
- the self emerges as a product of social
experience.
Looking-Glass Self (Charles Horton Cooley,
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 that begins by
conceiving an idea of how a person
presents himself or herself to others.
- These perceptions are subjective.
Theory of the Social Self (George Herbert Mead)
- supports the view that a person develops
a sense of self through social interaction,
not the biological preconditions of that
interaction.
- Mead's theory of the social self explains
that the self has two divisions:
o The "I" is the subjective element
and the active side of the self. It
represents the spontaneous and
unique traits of an individual.
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o The "me" is the objective element
of the self that represents the
internalized attitudes.
- The full development of the self is
attained when the "I" and the "me" are
united.
- the self is not present at birth
- It develops only with social experience in
which language, gestures, and objects
are used to communicate meaningfully.
Mead details the development of the self in
a three stage process:
1. In the preparatory stage (O to 3 years
old)
o children imitate the people
around them, especially family
members with whom they have
daily interactions.
o They copy behavior without
understanding underlying
intentions, so at this stage, they
have no sense of self.
o During this stage, children are just
preparing for role-taking.
2. During the play stage (3 to 5 years old)
o children start to view themselves
in relation to others as they learn
to communicate through
language and other symbols.
o At this stage, role-taking is
exhibited; however, children do
not perceive role-taking as
something expected of them.
o The self emerges as children
pretend to take the roles of
specific people or significant
others, those individuals who are
important agents of socialization.
o At this stage, the self is
developing.
3. In the game stage (begins in the early
school years)
o children understand not only their
own social position but also those
of others around them.
o 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.
Understanding the Self
o This time, they can have a more
sophisticated look of people and
an ability to respond to numerous
members of the social
environment.
o During this stage, the self is now
present.
The Constitution of the Self (Gerry Lanuza, 2004)
- In modern societies, the attainment and
stability of self-identity are freely chosen.
- They are no longer restricted by customs
and traditions.
- Although 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 potential.
- Hence, there is a need to discover the
"authentic core" of the self for an
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 multitudes of social
THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE SELF AND
contexts, new information technologies,
IDENTITY
and globalization.
Edward Tylor
Jean Baudrillard's Critique of Postmodernity
- exposes the negative consequences of
postmodernity to individuals in society.
- For him, consumption structures the
postmodern society.
- Postmodern individuals achieve self-
identity through the prestige symbols
that they consume.
- Hence, the postmodern person has
become an insatiable consumer and
may never be satisfied in his or her life.
Martin Sökefeld (1999)
II. Anthropological Perspective
- is concerned with how cultural and
biological processes interact to shape
human experience. Culture and the self
are complementary concepts that are
to be understood in relation to one
another.
- possesses a holistic and integrated
approach in examining human nature
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- James L. Peacock (1986), "anthropology
encroaches on the territory of the
sciences as well as the humanities and
transcends the conventional boundaries
of both while addressing questions from
the distant past and the pressing present-
perhaps with implications for the future."
o This definition of anthropology
emphasizes that it is an academic
field for understanding the
interconnection and
interdependence of biological
and cultural aspects of the human
experience at all times and in all
places.
- Anthropology considers human
experience as an interplay of "nature,"
referring to genetic inheritance that sets
an individual's potentials, and "nurture,
referring to the sociocultural
environment (Haviland et al., 2013).
- Therefore, it can be understood that
both biological and cultural factors have
significant influence on the
development of self-awareness among
individuals within society.
- the most important contribution of
anthropology is providing insights into the
nature of the self, based on continuous
understanding of the basic elements of
culture (Peacock, 1986).
- British anthropologist
- defines culture as a complex whole
encompassing knowledge, beliefs, art,
morals, customs, and other capabilities
acquired by individuals as members of
society.
- culture is not the behavior itself but the
shared understandings that guide
behavior and are expressed in behavior.
- Culture provides patterns of "ways of life."
- German anthropologist
- believes that the concept of self is a
necessary supplement to the concept of
culture in anthropology and should be
regarded as a human universal.
- Culture and self, thus, become
complementary concepts that must be
understood in relation to one another.
Understanding the Self Module 3

In social anthropology, the concept of identity Personal Naming and Identity

is used mostly in the context of "ethnic identity"
- Personal naming is a universal practice
pointing out the sameness of the self with others,
with diverse cross-cultural variations.
that is, to a consciousness of sharing certain
- Names establish a child's birthright and
characteristics (e.g, language and culture)
social identity within a community or
within a group.
family.
Peacock (1986) - Names symbolically represent cultural
selves and differentiate individuals from
- believes that an individual is neither a
others.
robot nor an entirely independent self-
- Naming ceremonies mark significant
willed little god, but a cultural individual
social transitions, such as Aymara
existing in freedom. It also embodies that
Indians' ritual for social acceptance or
cultural mold in which he or she is cast in
Icelandic tradition of naming infants
his or her particular society and historical
soon after birth.
epoch.
o Aymara Indians do not consider
Two ways in which the concept of self is viewed an infant as a true human until a
in different societies: name is given. When the child is
around two years old and ready
- Egocentric view
to speak the Aymara language, a
o The self is seen as an autonomous
special ritual is performed to give
and distinct individual. Each
it a name.
person is defined as a replica of all
o Icelanders name their infants soon
humanity but is capable of acting
after birth. The baby receives the
independently from others.
paternal given name as its last
- Sociocentric view
name.
o The self is contingent on a
▪ sen – suffix added to boy’s
situation or social setting. This is a
name.
view of the self that is context-
▪ dottir – suffix added to girl’s
dependent, which emphasizes
name.
that there is no intrinsic self that
can possess enduring qualities. Rites of Passage and Identity Development

Christie Kiefer - Rites of passage prepare individuals for

new roles and transitions in life, including
- the Japanese possess a sociocentric
birth, puberty, marriage, and death.
view of the self, in which the membership
- Arnold van Gennep's three-phased
of a person in a particular social group
model (separation, liminality,
defines the boundaries of the self. The
incorporation) illustrates how individuals
interdependence between the person
transition between identities during rites
and the group is more valued than
of passage.
independence
- These rituals help individuals adjust to
o For Japanese, social interaction
new social dimensions and roles in
should be characterized by
society.
restraint.
Identity Struggles and Identity Crisis
Francis Hsu
- Anthony Wallace and Raymond
- Chinese American anthropologist
Fogelson coined the term "identity
- attributes a sociocentric view of the self
struggles."
to the Chinese.
- Identity struggles arise when there's a
- explains that the Chinese prioritize kin
discrepancy between the identity an
ties and cooperation.
individual claims and the identity
o the very essence of interpersonal
attributed by others.
relations is mutual dependence.
- Confusion in personal identity can occur
o The Americans are egocentric,
due to clashes between self-
and they believe that they should
identification and inherited collective
be assertive and independent.
identification.
- Golubovic suggests that external factors,
such as politics and ideology, can lead
Understanding the Self Module 3

to an identity crisis when universal values behavior patterns-customs,

are influenced. usages, traditions, and habit
clusters as has, by and large,
Maintaining a Stable Self in Multicultural
been the case up to now, but as
Society
a set of control mechanisms -
- Golubovic (2011) suggests that to attain plans, recipes, rules, and
self-identification, individuals must instructions-for the governing
overcome many obstacles, such as behavior, and
traditionally established habits and o man is precisely the animal most
externally imposed self-images. desperately dependent upon
- suggest that to maintain a relatively such extragenetic, outside-the-
stable and coherent self, members of the skin control mechanisms, such as
multicultural society have no choice but cultural programs, for ordering his
to internalize divergent cultural models behavior"
and should reject or suppress - man is defined by his genetic potentials
identifications that may conflict with shaped into actual accomplishments
other self-presentations. that are made possible by culture.
- Robbins (2012) considers human beings
Katherine Ewing's "Illusion of Wholeness"
as cultural animals, as they create the
- exhibits how individual selves throughout meanings of objects, persons, behaviors,
the world continuously reconstitute emotions, and events and behave in
themselves into new selves in response to accordance with meanings they assume
internal and external stimuli. to be true.
- the cohesiveness and continuity of self - Every aspect of human life is filled with
are only illusory. meaning, and shared meanings
- most important philosophical task of the contribute to a common culture.
postmodern man today is to "work on - Cultural differences arise when groups
yourself, just like in the Socratic message assign different meanings to life events
"know thyself" and things.
- The self is embedded within the cultural
THE SELF AS EMBEDDED IN CULTURE
context, reflecting how individuals
Clifford Geertz (1973) perceive and interpret their experiences
through the lens of their cultural
- American anthropologist
background.
- offers a reformulation of the concept of
culture that favors a symbolic
interpretative model of it.
- defines culture as a system of inherited
conceptions expressed in symbolic
forms by means of which people
communicate, perpetuate, and
develop their knowledge about and
attitudes towards life.
- proposes that it is necessary that humans
give meanings to their experiences so
that order in the world can be
established.
- Agrees with Max Weber's idea that
humans are suspended in webs of
significance they themselves have spun,
which are perceived as symbolic of
culture.
- Culture impacts the concept of man,
with Geertz suggesting that culture
shapes human nature.
- Geertz emphasizes two important ideas:
o culture should not be perceived
only as "complexes of concrete