I.
that is conducted separately from the society in
1. In William James’ conceptualization, what are
the two elements of the self?
Mainstream psychological interest in the self
stems in particular from the writings of William
James in his classic text The Principles of
Psychology (James, 1890). James provided what
became a highly influential and enduring
conceptualisation of the self as comprising two
separate but necessarily related aspects.
I - centre of introspection and reflection on
experience, the person who made sense of
past, present, and future encounters with the
world in a form that rendered these encounters
coherent and thereby allowed for continuity of
being.
Me - comprised the self as known through
his/her interactions with others, social self, or
more accurately for James, a collection of social
selves that were based in and known through
the person as a social being
2. What do the authors mean when they aver
that James’ conceptualization lead to a dualist
and essentialist understanding of the self?
That view, rooted in dualist and essentialist
assumptions, leads to an understanding of the
self that ultimately is internally inconsistent
and/or unsustainable. As we have seen,
however, the self is neither an enduring
individual product nor an individual endeavour
the performance in accomplishing who others
which we live. take the self to be.
3. In what the authors describe as a more III.
critical approach to understanding the self, how
1. How does power create the self?
are individual and social action conceptualized?
For Foucault, the self is the direct consequence
Adopting a critical approach allows us to see
of power and can only be appre- hended in
how people construct themselves in everyday
terms of historically specific systems of
life and how the versions of self that they
discourse. So-called regimes of power do not
propose are oriented to accomplishing social
simply control a bounded, rational subject, but
outcomes. The selves that people make, and
rather they bring the self into existence by
how they are taken up by others, are ongoing
imposing disciplinary practices on the body.
projects, to be developed, reworked, or
otherwise dealt with as we live our lives as 2. If the self is produced by power, how can
social beings. change, resistance, and self-creation occur?
4. Goffman’s work show how the self is Globalization (Global media culture and
performed through social interaction at the increasing rates of migration )
micro level. How is this understanding of the
Religion
self different from William James’
conceptualization of the self?
3. What is reflexivity and what is agency?
…self was not a property of the individual but
The reflexive process refers to the uniquely
rather something that the individual performed
human capacity to become an object to one's
in interaction with others. According to his
self, to be both subject and object. Reflexivity is
argument, people in interactions seek to
not a biological given but rather emerges from
present themselves in ways that will guide the
the social experience. According to Mead (1934,
impressions that others form of them. At the
p. 134), "It is by means of reflexiveness--the
same time, those with whom an individual is
turning-back of the experience of the individual
interacting attempt to gain information about
upon himself-that the whole social process is
and form an impression of the individual. All
thus brought into the experience of the
performances of the self therefore carry risks:
individuals involved in it."
any individual might not bring off a
performance successfully or a performance
might be taken up in a way that was not
anticipated. Regardless, self is the outcome of