MAN: THE SOCIAL SELF AND SOCIAL THINKING

Reporter: DARYL Y. PATANAO

Social Self Theory

George Herbert Mead’s work focuses on the way in which the self is developed. Mead’s theory
of the social self is based on the perspective that the self emerges from social interactions, such
as observing and interacting with others, responding to others’ opinions about oneself, and
internalizing external opinions and internal feelings about oneself. The social aspect of self is an
important distinction because other sociologists and psychologists of Mead’s time felt that the
self was based on biological factors and inherited traits. According to Mead, the self is not there
from birth, but it is developed over time from social experiences and activities.

The Self
Mead’s central concept is the self, the part of an individual’s personality composed of self-
awareness and self-image. Mead’s genius was in seeing the self as the product of social
experience.
First, said Mead, the self is not there at birth; it develops.
Second, Mead explained, the self develops only with social experience, as the individual
interacts with others.
Third, Mead continued, social experience is the exchange of symbols.
Fourth, Mead stated that seeking meaning leads people to imagine other people’s
intentions.
Fifth, Mead explained that understanding intention requires imagining the situation from
the other’s point of view.
The Looking-Glass Self
Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929), a symbolic interactionist who taught at the University of
Michigan, concluded that the self is part of how society makes us human. He said that our sense
of self develops from interaction with others. To describe the process by which this unique aspect
of the “humanness” develops, Cooley (1902) coined the term looking-glass self. Looking-glass
self is a self-image based on how we think others see us.
The looking-glass self contains three elements:
1. We imagine how we appear to those around us.
2. We interpret other’s reactions.
3. We develop a self-concept.
Note that the development of the self does not depend on accurate evaluations. Even if we
grossly misinterpret how others think about us, those misjudgements become part of our self-
concept. Note also that although the self-concept begins in childhood, its development is an
ongoing, lifelong process. During our everyday lives, we monitor how others react to us. As we
do so, we continually modify the self. The self, then, is never a finished product - it is always in
process, even into our old age.
Two Sides of Self: The “I” and the “Me”
Mead’s six point is that by taking the role of the other, we become self-aware. Another way of
saying this is that the self has two parts. One part of the self operates as the subject, being active
and spontaneous. Mead called the active side of the self the “I” (the subjective form of the
personal pronoun. The other part of the self works as an object, that is, the way we imagine
others see us. Mead called the objective side of the self the “me” (the objective form of the
personal pronoun). All social experience has both components: We initiate an action (the I –
phase, or subject side, of self), and then we continue the action based on how others respond to
us (the me – phase, or object side, of self).
MEAD: STAGES OF THE SELF
George Herbert Mead continued Cooley’s exploration of interactionist theory. Mead developed a
useful model of the process by which the self emerges, defined by three distinct stages: the
preparatory stage, the play stage, and the game stage.
The Preparatory Stage. During the preparatory stage, children merely imitate the people around
them, especially family members with whom they continually interact. As they grow older,
children become more adept at using symbols to communicate with others. Symbols are the
gestures, objects, and language that form the basis of human communication.

The Play Stage. Mead was among the first to analyze the relationship of symbols to
socialization. As children develop skill in communicating through symbols, they gradually
become more aware of social relationships. As a result, during the play stage, they begin to
pretend to be other people (significant others, people, such as parents who have special
importance for socialization).
Mead, in fact, noted that an important aspect of the play stage is role playing. Role taking is the
process of mentally assuming the perspective of another and responding from that imagined
viewpoint.
The Game Stage. In Mead’s third stage, the game stage, the child of about eight to nine years
old no longer just plays roles, but begins to consider several actual tasks and relationships
simultaneously. At this point in development, children grasp not only their own social positions,
but also those of others around them – just as in a football game the players must understand
their own and everyone else’s positions.
Mead uses the term generalized other to refer to the attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of
society as a whole that a child takes into account in his or her behavior. Simply put, this concept
suggests that when an individual acts, he or she takes into account an entire group of people.

SOCIAL THINKING / SOCIAL COGNITION

Social cognition is a sub-topic of social psychology that focuses on how people process, store,
and apply information about other people and social situations. It focuses on the role that
cognitive processes play in our social interactions. The way we think about others plays a major
role in how we think, feel, and interact with the world around us.
Social cognition is the encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing of information about members
of the same species; from a human perspective, it is simply the ability to think about and
understand others. Social cognition is a specific approach of social psychology (the area of
psychology that studies how people’s thoughts and behaviors are influenced by the presence of
others) that uses the methods of cognitive science. Because of this it has a heavy emphasis on
information processing: How do people process information about the people around them, and
how does that affect their own perceptions of the world?
The Development of Social Cognition
Developmental psychologists also study how social cognition develops over the course of
childhood and adolescence. As children grow, they become more aware not only of their own
feelings, thoughts, and motives but also of the emotions and mental states of others. As this
awareness increases, children become more adept at understanding how others are feeling,
knowing how to respond in social situations, engaging in prosocial behaviors, and taking the
perspective of others.
While there are many different theories that look at how social cognition develops, one of the
most popular focuses on the work of the psychologist Jean Piaget. According to Piaget, a child's
cognitive development goes through a series of stages.
During the earliest stages of development, children are very egocentric. They see the
world from their own perspective and struggle to think about how other people may view
the world.
As children grow older, children become increasingly adept at perspective-taking and
have an increased ability to think about how and why people act the way they do in social
situations.
A theory of mind refers to a person's ability to understand and think about the mental states of
other people. It is the emergence of a theory of mind that is critical to being able to consider the
thoughts, motives, desires, needs, feelings, and experiences that other people may have. Being
able to think about how these mental states can influence how people act is critical to forming
social impressions and explaining how and why people do the things that they do.
SCHEMAS
In schema theory, when we see or think of a concept, a mental representation or “schema” is
activated that brings to mind other related information, usually unconsciously. Through schema
activation, judgments are formed based on internal assumptions in addition to information
actually available in the environment.
Similarly, a notable theory of social cognition is social-schema theory. This theory suggests that
we have mental representations for specific social situations. For example, if you meet your new
teacher, your “teacher schema” may be activated, and you may therefore automatically associate
this person with wisdom and authority if that is how you have experienced past teachers.
When a schema is more “accessible,” this means that it can be more quickly activated and used
in a particular situation. Two cognitive processes that increase the accessibility of schemas are
salience and priming.
Salience is the degree to which a particular social object stands out relative to other
social objects in a situation. The higher the salience of an object, the more likely that
schemas for that object will be made accessible.
Priming refers to any experience immediately prior to a situation that causes a schema to
be more accessible.

REFERENCES:
Cherry, Kendra, “Social Cognition in Psychology – The Way We Think About Others”, accessed
on 08 March 2020, https://www.verywellmind.com/social-cognition-2795912
Henslin, James M., “Sociology – A Down-To-Earth Approach Core Concepts”.
Pearson Education. Inc. (2010). pp. 70-72
Lumen Boundless Psychology, Social Psychology, Social Cognition, accessed 08 March 2020,
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/social-cognition/
Macionis, John J., “Sociology” 13th Edition. Pearson Ed. Inc. (2010). pp. 118-119
Schaefer, Richard T., “Sociology” 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. (2005). pp 84-86
 SOCIAL PERCEPTION, GROUPTHINK AND SOCIAL INFLUENCES
Reporter: FEDERICO D. PALMES, JR.

I. INTRODUCTION
Society in general is complex in nature, this is the reason we have numerous studies
surrounding it. Each study represents its connection to other studies such as psychology,
anthropology and many others.
In this written report, the discussion is centered on human interactions and the influences
an individual may give or get through that interaction.

II. DISCUSSION
SOCIAL PERCEPTION
Social perception refers to identifying and utilizing social cues to make judgments about
social roles, rules, relationships, context, or the characteristics of others.
This domain also includes social knowledge, which refers to one’s knowledge of social
roles, norms, and schemas surrounding social situations and interactions. Tests of social
perception include videotaped scenes that require the viewer to make inferences and judgments
about ambiguous social situations based on limited verbal and nonverbal social cues.

GROUPTHINK
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in
which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant
decision-making outcome. It has been further defined as a mode of thinking that people engage
in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive group, when the members’ strivings for
unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.

Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical
evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints. Several conditions must take place for groupthink
to occur: the group must be isolated from outside influences; loyalty must prevent individuals
from raising controversial issues of alternative solutions; there must be a loss of individual
creativity and independent thinking; and the group must experience the “illusion of
invulnerability,” an inflated certainty that the right decision has been made. Typically the group
is under a high level of pressure to make a decision, and it lacks an impartial leader. These
factors can lead a group to make a catastrophically bad decision. Nazi Germany is often cited as
a prime example of the negative potential of groupthink because a number of factors, such as
shared illusions and rationalizations and a lack of individual accountability, allowed for a few
powerful leaders to enlist many otherwise “normal” people in committing mass acts of violence.
While groupthink is generally accepted as a negative phenomenon, it has been proposed
that groups with a strong ability to work together are able to solve problems more efficiently than
individuals or less cohesive groups.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Social influence refers to the way in which individuals change their behavior to meet the
demands of a social environment.
Discussed here are three forms of Social Influences.

COMPLIANCE
Compliance is the act of responding favorably to an explicit or implicit request offered by
others. Technically, compliance is a change in behavior but not necessarily in attitude; one can
comply due to mere obedience or by otherwise opting to withhold private thoughts due to social
pressures. According to Kelman's 1958 paper, the satisfaction derived from compliance is due to
the social effect of the accepting influence (i.e., people comply for an expected reward or
punishment-aversion).
IDENTIFICATION
Identification is the changing of attitudes or behaviors due to the influence of someone
who is admired. Advertisements that rely upon celebrity endorsements to market their products
are taking advantage of this phenomenon. According to Kelman, the desired relationship that the
identifier relates to the behavior or attitude change.
INTERNALIZATION
Internalization is the process of acceptance of a set of norms established by people or
groups that are influential to the individual. The individual accepts the influence because the
content of the influence accepted is intrinsically rewarding. It is congruent with the individual's
value system, and according to Kelman the "reward" of internalization is "the content of the new
behavior".

III. CONCLUSION
As an individual grow, the foremost influence that he/she can get is from his/her formative
years up to his adulthood or maturity, an individual will already have developed a distinct
character and attitude fused from the influences of the family and the immediate environment.
That person may carry it on even if he/she happens to move to another society with different
characteristics or culture. The influences that a person gets during the mature and adult years
may now have a lesser impact compared to those influences that one gets during the formative
years.

IV. REFERENCES
Lumen Boundless Psychology, Social Psychology, Social Influence, accessed 8 March 2020,
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/social-influence/
SlideShare, 6 August 2013, Social Perception, Kristine Joy Palencia, accessed 8 March 2020
https://www.slideshare.net/KristineJoeyPalencia/social-perception-25004384
WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA, 5 March 2020, Social Influence, accessed 8
March 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_influence
 INDIVIDUALISM VS. COLLECTIVISM
Reporter: JANE M. VERBA

Culture is one factor that can have an influence on how people think and behave. One
factor that cross-cultural psychologists often study involves the differences and similarities
between individualistic cultures and collectivist cultures.

What is Individualism?

The word “individuality” (derived from Latin word indīviduus, meaning “indivisible” or

“inseparable”) is commonly stipulated as the state or quality of being an individual who exists as
a distinct entity and possesses sum total of qualities and characteristics that form the individual’s
identity and distinguish the individual from others. However, the concept of individuality and the
doctrines in which it has been embodied are not easy to unravel.

Here, we are faced with an important distinction between the two concepts
“individualism” and “individuality”. From a technical viewpoint, the former is often depicted as
social and ethical phenomena of human relations and conduct, while the latter is often depicted
as a psychological phenomenon of mental growth. In this sense, not without exceptions,
individualism is a proper subject matter within the disciplines of sociology and ethics while
individuality is an appropriate subject matter within the discipline of psychology.
Nonetheless, each discipline has its own distinct concepts of individualism and individuality.
Moreover, each discipline can examine these concepts in interdisciplinary fashions. 

Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that

emphasizes the moral worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals
and desires and so value independence and self-reliance and advocate that interests of the
individual should achieve precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external
interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the government.
Individualism is often defined in contrast to totalitarianism, collectivism, and
more corporate social forms.

Individualism holds that a person taking part in society attempts to learn and discover
what his or her own interests are on a personal basis, without a presumed following of the
interests of a societal structure (an individualist need not be an egoist).

Individualistic cultures are those that stress the needs of the individual over the needs of
the group as a whole. In this type of culture, people are seen as independent and autonomous.
Social behavior tends to be dictated by the attitudes and preferences of individuals.

A few common characteristics of individualistic cultures include:

 Individual rights take center stage

 Independence is highly valued
 Being dependent upon others is often considered shameful or embarrassing
 People tend to be self-reliant
 The rights of individuals tend to take a higher precedence
 People often place a greater emphasis on standing out and being unique
In individualistic cultures, people are considered "good" if they are strong, self-reliant, assertive,
and independent. This contrasts with collectivist cultures where characteristics like being self-
sacrificing, dependable, generous, and helpful to others are of greater importance.

A few countries that are considered individualistic cultures include the United States,
Germany, Ireland, South Africa, and Australia.

What is Collectivism?

Just as the ideas of individualism developed during the time period of the Age of
Enlightenment, so too did the values and principles of collectivism.  For example, the
Enlightenment thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau discussed the idea of collectivism in his famous
work ‘The Social Contract’.  In it, Rousseau argued against the idea of class divisions in society
and the idea that people should be guided by self-interest alone. 

Similar to Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes also argued in favor of the concept of a social
contract in society.  Hobbes was a British philosopher who lived through the brutality of the
English Civil War.  During this time, he came to believe that basic human nature was evil and
greedy.  As srch in society with that belief that the monarchs job was to maintain order and
security.  In fact, he famously stated that without a strong government to maintain security, the
life of individuals would be “nasty, brutish and short”. As such, he was more concerned with the
common good of society as a whole than the impact it had on individual people.

Collectivism further developed in the 19th century with the ideas and writings of Karl
Marx.  Marx is one of the most influential philosophers of the last two centuries.  His writings
inspired revolutions in several countries and are still used today in support of worker’s rights and
other socialist principles.  His ideas are often associated with the timeframe of the Industrial
Revolution since he witnessed and expressed concern for the horrible working conditions of the
period. This was an important contribution to collectivism as an ideology because Marx was
supporting the ideas of collective interest, economic equality and public ownership.  Essentially,
he was arguing against right wing ideologies such as capitalism and classical liberalism and
wanted a classless society to replace it based on collective principles.

In collectivism, it is some sort of group rather than an individual who is at the centre of
all social, political, and economic concerns, and issues. Those who are proponents of this
ideology say that the interests and claims of groups (it may even be a state) supersede those of
individuals. Thus, a society being a group is considered to be superior to an individual. It is
treated as some sort of super-organism over and above individuals that make it. Collectivism
believes in the subjugation of the individual to a group, which may be family, tribe, society,
party or a state. Individual has to sacrifice for the collective good of the people. The proponents
of collectivism consider their stand to be superior to those of individualists as they are morally
superior thinking of the collective good of the group or the society.

A few common traits of collectivistic cultures include:

 Social rules focus on promoting selflessness and putting the community needs ahead of
individual needs
 Working as a group and supporting others is essential
 People are encouraged to do what's best for society
 Families and communities have a central role
 Greater emphasis on common goals over individual pursuits
In collectivistic cultures, people are considered "good" if they are generous, helpful, dependable,
and attentive to the needs of others. This contrasts with individualistic cultures that often place a
greater emphasis on characteristics such as assertiveness and independence.

A few countries that are considered collectivistic include Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan,
Venezuela, Guatemala, Indonesia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, and India.
Max Weber (1930) contrasted collectivism and individualism through the lens of religion,
believing that Protestants were more individualistic and self-reliant compared to Catholics, who
endorsed hierarchical, interdependent relationships among people. Hofstede (1980) was highly
influential in ushering in an era of cross-cultural research making comparisons along the
dimension of collectivism versus individualism. Hofstede conceptualized collectivism and
individualism as part of a single continuum, with each cultural construct representing an opposite
pole. The author characterized individuals that endorsed a high degree of collectivism as being
embedded in their social contexts and prioritizing communal goals over individual goals.

REFERENCES:
• https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-collectivistic-cultures-2794962
• https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-individualistic-cultures-2795273
• https://philossophy.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/individualism/
• https://www.historycrunch.com/collectivism-overview.html#/
• https://sites.google.com/site/sa4confucius/_/rsrc/1480426838553/home/collectivist-and-
individualist-societies/individualism%20and%20%20collectivism.jpg
 SOCIAL IDENTITY AND EMERGENCE OF SELF
Reporter: MRA LYME F. CORRECHE

SOCIAL IDENTITY
Social identity is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group memberships.
Social Identity Theory was developed by a British social psychologist Henri Tajfel and his
colleagues in the early 1970s.

Social Identity Theory

Tajfel (1979) proposed that the groups (e.g. social class, family, football team etc.) which people
belonged to were an important source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us a sense of social
identity: a sense of belonging to the social world.

We divided the world into “them” and “us” based through a process of social categorization (i.e.
we put people into social groups).

Henri Tajfel proposed that stereotyping (i.e. putting people into groups and categories) is based
on a normal cognitive process: the tendency to group things together. In doing so we tend to
exaggerate:

1. the differences between groups

2. the similarities of things in the same group

This is known as in-group (us) and out-group (them). The central hypothesis of social identity
theory is that group members of an in-group will seek to find negative aspects of an out-group,
thus enhancing their self-image.

We categorize people in the same way. We see the group to which we belong (the in-group) as
being different from the others (the out-group), and members of the same group as being more
similar than they are.

Social Identity Theory Stages

Tajfel and Turner (1979) proposed that there are three mental processes involved in evaluating
others as “us” or “them” (i.e. “in-group” and “out-group”. These take place in a particular order.

Categorization
Social Social Social
The first is categorization.Categorization Identification
We categorize objects Comparisonthem and identify them.
in order to understand
In a very similar way we categorize people (including ourselves) in order to understand the
social environment. We use social categories like black, white, Australian, Christian, Muslim,
student, and bus driver because they are useful.
Similarly, we find out things about ourselves by knowing what categories we belong to. We
define appropriate behaviour by reference to the norms of groups we belong to, but you can only
do this if you can tell who belongs to your group. An individual can belong to many different
groups.

Social Identification

In the second stage, social identification, we adopt the identity of the group we have categorized
ourselves as belonging to.

If for example you have categorized yourself as a student, the chances are you will adopt the
identity of a student and begin to act in the ways you believe students act (and conform to the
norms of the group).

There will be an emotional significance to your identification with a group, and your self-esteem
will become bound up with group membership.

Social Comparison

The final stage is social comparison. Once we have categorized ourselves as part of a group and
have identified with that group we then tend to compare that group with other groups. If our self-
esteem is to be maintained our group needs to compare favorably with other groups.

This is critical to understanding prejudice, because once two groups identify themselves as
rivals, they are forced to compete in order for the members to maintain their self-esteem.

EMERGENCE OF SELF
The term self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about, evaluates or
perceives themselves. To be aware of oneself is to have a concept of oneself.
Baumeister (1999) provides the following self-concept definition:
"The individual's belief about himself or herself, including the person's attributes and who and
what the self is".

M. Lewis suggests that development of a concept of self has two aspects:

(1) The Existential Self

This is 'the most basic part of the self-scheme or self-concept; the sense of being separate and
distinct from others and the awareness of the constancy of the self' (Bee, 1992).

(2) The Categorical Self

Having realized that he or she exists as a separate experiencing being, the child next becomes
aware that he or she is also an object in the world.

Carl Rogers (1959) believes that the self-concept has three different components:
• self-image, self-esteem or self-worth, ideal self

Self-image (how you see yourself)

How we see ourselves, which is important to good psychological health. Self-image includes the
influence of our body image on inner personality. At a simple level, we might perceive ourselves
as a good or bad person, beautiful or ugly. Self-image affects how a person thinks, feels and
behaves in the world.

Self-Worth/Self-Esteem
Self-esteem (also known as self-worth) refers to the extent to which we like accept or approve of
ourselves, or how much we value ourselves. Self-esteem always involves a degree of evaluation
and we may have either a positive or a negative view of ourselves.

Argyle (2008) believes there are 4 major factors that influence self-esteem.

1. The Reaction of Others

2. Comparison with of Others
3. Social Roles
4. Identification
5. Parents’ influence (Cooper’s research)

Ideal Self (what you'd like to be)

This is the person who we would like to be. It consists of our goals and ambitions in life, and is
dynamic – i.e., forever changing.

If there is a mismatch between how you see yourself (e.g., your self-image) and what you’d like
to be (e.g., your ideal-self) then this is likely to affect how much you value yourself.

A person’s ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in life and experiences of
the person. Hence, a difference may exist between a person’s ideal self and actual experience.
This is called incongruence.

Where a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of
congruence exists. Rarely, if ever does a total state of congruence exist; all people experience a
certain amount of incongruence. The development of congruence is dependent on unconditional
positive regard. Roger’s believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a
state of congruence.

Michael Argyle (2008) says there are four major factors which influence its development:

1. The ways in which others (particularly significant others) react to us.

2. How we think we compare to others
3. Our social roles
4. The extent to which we identify with other people

REFERENCES

 McLeod, S. A. (2019, Oct 24). Social identity theory. Simply psychology:

https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html
 McLeod, S. A. (2014, Feb 05). Carl Rogers. Simply psychology:
https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-rogers.html

 Turner, J. C., & Tajfel, H. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior.
Psychology of intergroup relations, 7-24.