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1 PERSPECTIVES ABOUT THE SELF

SAS 1 SELF AND SOCIETY | MODULE 1
2 LEARNING OUTCOMES
After studying this module, you should be able to:
3 CONCEPTUALIZING SELF AND SOCIETY
MODULE 1: PERSPECTIVE ABOUT THE SELF
4 CONCEPTUALIZING SELF AND SOCIETY
◦The term ‘self and society’ may refer to the interaction of two distinct
elements, where each of the elements — self and society — possess
essential characteristics, which affect and specify social behavior.
◦But ‘self and society’ may also refer to the process of continuously
ongoing social interaction from which social behavior is performed.
◦This course is designed to elaborate on the second point.
5 INVESTIGATING THE SELF
6 PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERESTS
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PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERESTS ON THE SELF
◦The Principles of Psychology – William James (1890)
◦The self is comprised of two separate but related aspects:
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◦the I and me reflects 2 different elements of the self which comprise
the person, an essential being distinct from others and capable of
introspecting and reflecting
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The SELF in Mainstream Social Psychology:

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The SELF in Mainstream Social Psychology:
A PROLIFERATION OF SELF-RELATED CONSTRUCTS: EXAMPLE
◦Self-concept – personal knowledge of who we are (Carl Rogers)
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◦Components of self-concept
◦Self-image: they way we see ourselves
◦physical, social roles, personality traits
◦Tall | Brother | Dreamer
◦Self-esteem: the value we place upon ourselves
◦High or low based on self image
◦Ideal self: self we would like to be
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10 A PROLIFERATION OF SELF-RELATED CONSTRUCTS

1 Gordon Allport (1955)
◦observed the proliferation of the production of self-related constructs
in the study of the self;
◦this, however, did not contribute in the understanding of the self as the
self
◦this tradition replaced the idea of self by a range of hyphenated
elaborations
◦provided bits and pieces or specific constructs and not the self as a
whole
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11 A PROLIFERATION OF SELF-RELATED CONSTRUCTS
◦A study by Leary and Tangney (2003) on this proliferation revealed
that:
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◦‘not only have we lacked a single, universally accepted definition of
“self”, but also many definitions clearly refer to distinctly different
phenomena, and some uses of the term are difficult to grasp no
matter what definition one applies’
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12 A PROLIFERATION OF SELF-RELATED CONSTRUCTS:

CONSEQUENCES
13 THE SELF AS A
SOCIAL CATEGORIZER
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13 THE SELF AS A
SOCIAL CATEGORIZER
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15 SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY AND
SELF-CATEGORIZATION THEORY

16 SIT and SCT

◦Ask the question:
WHAT DO I HAVE IN COMMON WITH OTHER PEOPLE?
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◦People place themselves and others into social categories on the
basis of the underlying attributes that are particularly salient
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◦This process of social categorization shapes a range of attitudes,
emotions, and behaviors
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◦People switch social identities (sense of membership) given different
social context and social relations
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◦SELF (uniqueness) plays less prominent role in these approaches – it
becomes the default position when no social identity is salient for the
individual
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◦SELF only serves as the evaluator of perceptual clues and social
cues in fulfilling SIT
22 DUALIST AND ESSENTIALIST THEORIES OF THE SELF
23 These two characteristics are shared by the earlier perspectives
of the self.
24 DUALIST AND ESSENTIALIST THEORIES OF THE SELF
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24 DUALIST AND ESSENTIALIST THEORIES OF THE SELF

25 CRITICAL APPROACHES
TO THE SELF
26 For critical theorists, the dualist and essentialist elements of
mainstream theorizing are neither sustainable nor borne out by
careful examination of how people act in social life:

What we need is an entirely different approach to the study of self.

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◦the focus of social psychological work lies not in the study of
individuals and society as SEPARATE ENTITIES each with its own
properties but instead on how people live their lives in a social world
(Gergen, 2009; Sampson, 1993)
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◦In order to understand the self in society, the SELF SHOULD BE
CONSTRUCTED AND NEGOTIATED through discourse and
interaction with others
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29 CRITICAL APPROACHES ON THE SELF

◦“Adopting a critical approach allows us to see how people construct
themselves in everyday life and how the versions of self that they
propose are oriented to accomplishing social outcomes.
◦The selves that people make, and how they are taken up by others,
are ongoing projects, to be developed, reworked, or otherwise dealt
with as we live our lives as social beings.”
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30 APPROACHES:
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32 CURRENT TRENDS
33 Self in the virtual world
(construction and negotiation)