The SELF,

SOCIETY AND
CULTURE
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The relationship
between the
SELF and
External Reality

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What is the Self?
○ Self is always unique and has its own identity
○ Self is self-contained and independent
○ Self is unitary in that it is the center of all
experiences and thoughts that run through a
certain person
○ Self is private
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Social Constructionist
Perspective
○ Argued that the self should not be seen as a static
entity that stays constant through and through.
Rather, the self has to be seen as something that is
in constant struggle with external reality and is
malleable in its dealings with society.
○ Self is always in participation with social life and its
dealings with society
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Scenario:
○ John is a math professor in a Catholic university for
more than a decade now. Jon has a beautiful wife
Joan, which he met in college. Joan was Jon’s first
and last girlfriend. Apart from being a husband , Jon
was also blessed with two kids, a son and a daughter.
He also sometimes serves in the church as a lector
and a commentator. When Jon is in the university, he
conducts himself in a matter that befits his title as a
professor.
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○ Are we being hypocritical in doing so?
○ Are we even conscious of our shifting
selves?
○ Is the behavior of Jon acceptable and
expected?

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○ We ourselves play different roles, act in
different ways depending on our
circumstances.
○ This is not only normal but it is also is
acceptable and expected
○ The self is capable of morphing and
fitting itself into any circumstances it
finds itself in.
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 The Self and Culture
○ Marcel Mauss
● French Anthropologist

● Every self has two faces

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● Moi – refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his
body and his basic identity; his biological
givenness. This is a person’s basic identity

● Personne – is composed of the social concepts of

what it means to be who he is. It means to live in a
particular institution, a particular family, a particular
religion, a particular nationality and how to behave
given the expectation and influences from others.

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 Culture +
Environment ○ Our personne can be
illustrated better cross-
Others
culturally
Self

○ Language is another
interesting aspect of the
social constructivism

○ If a self is born into a particular society or culture, the

self will have to adjust according to its exposure 11
The Self and the Development
of the Social World

○ Recent studies, indicate that men

and women in their growth and
development engage actively in the
shaping of the self
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 Mead and Vygotsky
○ Human persons develop with the use of language
acquisition and interaction with others. The way that
we process information is normally a form of an
internal dialogues in our head
○ Cognitive and Emotional Development of a child is
always a mimicry of how it is done in the social world,
in the external reality where he/she is in
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 ○ Human mind as
something that is
made, constituted
through language as
experienced in the
external world and as
○ Notice how little children are fond encountered in
of playing role play with their toys? dialogues with others.
○ Notice how they make scripts and
dialogues for their toys as they
play with them?
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 Self in Families
○ The kind of family the we are born in and the resources
available to us ( human, spiritual, economic) will certainly
affect us and the kind of development that we will have as
we go through life.
○ Learning, therefore, is critical in our capacity to actualize our
potential of becoming humans. In trying to achieve the goal
of becoming a fully realized human, a child enters a system
of relationships, most important of which is the family.
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○ Human persons learn the ways of living
and therefore their selfhood by being in a
family
○ Without a family, biologically and
sociologically, a person may not even
survive or become a human person

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Gender and the Self
○ Gender is one of those loci of the self
that is subject to alteration, change and
development
○ People fought hard for the right to
express, validate and assert their gender
expressions 17
Sonia wrote this letter when
she was twenty-one
○ “I am nothing but a miserable crushed worm,
whom no one wants, whom no one loves, a
useless creature with morning sickness, an a
big belly, two rotten teeth and a bad temper, a
battered sense of dignity and a love which
nobody wants and which nearly drives me
insane”. 18
 Society forces a particular identity unto
us depending on our sex and/or gender
○ Husbands are expected to provide for the family
○ The eldest man in a family is expected to head the family and
hold it in
○ Mothers role of taking care of children
○ Young women are encouraged to act like fine ladies, are
trained to behave in a fashion that befits their status as women
in society
○ Men are taught to behave like man, like holding one’s emotion,
being tough, fatalistic, not to worry about danger and
admiration for hard physical labor 19
○ The sense of self that is
being taught makes sure
that an individual fits in a
particular environment.
This is dangerous and
detrimental in the goal of
truly finding one’s self, self-
determination and growth
of self. Gender has to
personally discovered and
asserted and not dictated
by culture and the society.
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THANKS!
Any questions?

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Activity!