Lesson 2: The Self, Society, and Culture

Friday, 18 September 2020 5:21 PM

Constructivism
The self is a construction. It is a result of interactions with the environment and how we respond to
society's expectations.

Social Constructivism
The self is always in participation with social life and its identity subjected to influences here and there

The Self and the Culture

Marcel Mauss- French Anthropologist

Every self has two faces: personne and moi

Moi: a person's basic identity
Personne: composed of the social concepts of what it means to be who the person is

The self morphs according to the circumstances and contexts

Men easily transform from being sweet, docile guys when trying to woe and court a particular woman
and suddenly change when finally in a relationship with the woman.

Other things as parts of our "self"

Territory

"Tapat ko, linis ko."

Famous Filipino celebrities abroad
• Ex: Kris Aquino making a cameo in the movie "Crazy Rich Asians"; Catriona Gray being the Miss
Universe 2018; Margielyn Didal winning the gold medal in skateboarding at the 2018 Asian Games

LANGUAGE as the mediator for development (Mead and Vygotsky)

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

Children internalizes values, norms, - Children internalize real-life dialogs that

practices, and social beliefs and more
through exposure to dialogs that will
eventually become part of their individual
world
• Happens when children assume the "other"
through language and role-play
The "I" and the "Me"
• "I"- the self in relation to what the society
expects
• "Me"- individual identity; response to the
social self
they had had with others; with their family,
their primary caregiver, or their playmates
- Private speech- the use of language for
self-regulation by children
- Language is used to plan, guide and
monitor behavior
- Zone of Proximal Development
- The range of tasks that are too difficult
for the child to master alone but that can
be learned with guidance and assistance
from adults or more-skilled children

LANGUAGE: An Aspect of Social Constructivism

Filipino language is somehow gender-neutral

In English, Spanish and other languages, the distinction is clear between a third person male and their
person female pronoun
• He and she; el and ella
• In Filipino, it is plain "siya" - no specification of gender

Language has something to go with culture

It is a salient part of culture and ultimately, has a tremendous effect in our crafting of the self

Summary:
The self is a construct that is defined by the society, and by our responses to the social
expectations
According to Marcel Mauss' theory on moi and personne, people know basically who they are,
but they may play different role based on their circumstances or the contexts
Language as a tool aids our development of the self
• It is an important social construct that can define a person