UNDERSTANDING

THE
SELF
CHAPTER 1 – LESSON 2
• Little boy named Tarzan was left alone in the forest.
• Growing up, he never had an interaction with any other
human being: only apes and other animals.
• Tarzan grew up strangely like apes unlike any human.
• Tarzan became an animal, in effect.
• His interaction with animals made him just like one of them.

MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA

Department of Social Sciences
 WHAT CONCEPT OF THE
SELF C A N YOU FORMULATE
FROM THE STORY OF
TARZAN?
MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA
Department of Social Sciences
 L ESSON 3:

The Self in Contemporary Literature is commonly

defined by the following by the characteristics:

 Separate

 Self-contained and Independent

 Unitary

 Private

MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA

Department of Social Sciences
1. By Separate- it is meant that the self is distinct from other selves.
The self is always unique and has its own identity.

2. By Self-contained & Independent- bec. In itself it can exist. Its distinctness

allows it to be self-contained with its thoughts, characteristics,
and volition.

3. Self is unitary- it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that

run through a certain person.

4. The Self is private- The self is isolated from the external world . It
lives w/in its own world.
MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA
Department of Social Sciences
THE SELF F ROM THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PERSPECTIVE:
SELF AS A PRODUCT OF A M ODERN SOCIETY

What is the relationship

between the SELF and the
EXTERNAL WORLD?

MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA

Department of Social Sciences
 THE SELF ALLOW EXTERNAL INFLUENCES TO TAKE
PART IN ITS SHAPING.

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISTS ARGUE THAT:

• The self should not be seen as static entity.

• Rather, the self has to be seen as something that is in an
unstoppable series of change.
• The self is malleable in its dealings with society.
• The self is multi-faceted.
MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA
Department of Social Sciences
Hi, I’m
JOSHUA A | A |A
lawyer husband father

AS A
WHEN IN HUSBAND, AS A FATHER,
COURT, HE HE C A N BE HE C A N BE
C A N BE INTIMATE STRICT BUT
DEFENSIVE SWEET, A N D LOVING.
TOUCHY.
.

MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA

Department of Social Sciences
 THE SELF IS CAPABLE OF
MORPHING AND FITTING ITSELF
INTO ANY CIRCUMSTANCES IT
FINDS ITSELF IN.

MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA

Department of Social Sciences
THE SELF AND CULTURE
• Remaining the same person and turning chameleon by adapting
to one’s context seems paradoxical.
• Marcel Mauss (French Anthropologist) explained
this phenomenon: the self has two faces:
 Moi– person’s sense of who he is, his body and
basic identity, his biological giveness.
- is a person’s basic identity
– person’s way of living in a certain group / how he
 Personne

behaves in a certain situation.

(back to example Joshua) MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA

Department of Social Sciences
EXAMPLE…

• In Philippines, Filipinos violate jaywalking

rules.They basically just crosses the road
wherever, whenever.
• When the same Filipino visits another country with
strict traffic rules, like Singapore, you will notice
how suddenly law-abiding these Filipinos become.

MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA

Department of Social Sciences
THE SELF AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE SOCIAL WORLD
•HOW DO TWINS COMING OUT FROM
T H E S A M E M O T H E R T U R N O U T TO B E
TERRIBLY DIFFERENT W H E N GIVEN UP FOR
A D O P T I O N A N D GOT SEPARATED?

MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA

Department of Social Sciences
MEAD & VYGOTSKY
• Acc. to Mead, child assumes as the “other” i.e. role-playing w/
their toys, scripts and dialogs for their toys as they play with
them.
• Stage 1: The preparatory Stage
• Stage 2: The play Stage
• Stage 3: The Game Stage

• Acc.To Vygotsky, child internalizes real- life dialogs. A children eventually

become what they watch or can easily adapt ways of cartoon characteristics
 they
Theare
wayexposed to. persons develop is with the use of language
of human
acquisition and interaction with others.
MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA
Department of Social Sciences
THE SELF IN FAMILIES
-The impact of one’s family is still deemed as a given
in understanding the self.

• the genes
• the kind of family born and raised into
• Resources available (human, spiritual, economic)
• Kind of development

In becoming a fully realized human, a child enters a

system of relationships – most important of which is
FAMILY. MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA
Department of Social Sciences
FAMILY
• The child adopts the behavior in an environment she lives in
through.

Observation
Imitation
Internalization

Those who did not learn simple basic manners failed in

internalizing due to parental or familial failure to initiate them
in the world. MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA
Department of Social Sciences
GENDER AND THE SELF
 Oftentimes, the society forces us a particular identity
unto us depending on our sex or gender.

Example in Philippine Setting:

• Husbands – are expected to provide for the family.
• Wives – are expected to take care of the kids and do the
chores.
• Eldest in a family- expected to head the family and hold it.
MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA
Department of Social Sciences
DURING CHILDHOOD…

• Girls are given dolls and kitchen toys.This gives them the
mentality that women should take care of the chores.
• Boys are given guns.At early age, they have been taught
how to act like a man.They have been taught to be strong
and powerful.

MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA

Department of Social Sciences
 OUR BODIES AND CULTURE
Woman from Thailand wears Woman from Ethiopia with her
multiple neck rings Colorful lip and earlobe plates

 The self as embedded in culture. It describes both an attitude of our

body to incorporate techniques and social devices . MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA
Department of Social Sciences
 According to Thomas Csordas- For him religious
rituals and any other cultural symbols greatly
affect how the body is projected.

Example:
 Muslim women could not be seen wearing skinny
jeans, backless clothes, very short shorts, or any
revealing clothes why? It is bec. Their religion tells
them so.
 Some religions prohibit the cutting of the hair from
birth to death.
MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA
Department of Social Sciences
AND I…
THANK
YOU! MA. ANGELICA A. BEZA
Department of Social Sciences
 Ass. Place it on a
Short bond paper
(8.5x11)