Professional Documents
Culture Documents
William James
>empirical self refer to all of the various ways people answer the question"who am i?"
>the empirical self of each of us i all that he is tempted to call by the name of 'me'
1. Material self
2. Social self
3. Spiritual self
Material self refer to tangible objects,people or places that carry the designation 'my' or
'mine'( your possessions, your home, your body)
Material self consists of all the materialistic items belongs to that person. (Family
members, house, own body parts are included in the materialistic self. In empirical self a
person is always known as hinself or herself.
The use of economic goods in social communication and the potential role of
materialism in such communication
A. Bodily self
The bodily component of the material self requires little explanation. A person speaks of
my arms ormy legs. These entities are clearly intimate part of who we are.
The body is the innermost part of the material self in each of us and certain parts of the
body seem more intimately ours than the rest. The clothes comes next. The old saying
that the human person is composed of three parts-- sould, body, and clothes-- is more
than a joke.
But our sense of self is not limited to our bodies. In includes other people, pets,
possessions, places (hometown) and the products of your labors( my painting)
B. Extracorporeal (beyond the body) self
Rosenberg (1979) has referred to the extracorporeal self as the extended self
It is not the physical entities themselves, however, that comprise the material self.
Rather, it is our psychological ownership of them (Scheibe, 1985)
Roland Barthes
• studies the concept of semiology
• people assert their identities through objects
• objects are reflections of the wider loves of communities and individual
"I have therefore i am"
Comparing ourselves with others will lead us to constantly feeling dissatisfied and never
happy with what we have. This is also what consumerism wants because it makes
people active consumers on a regular basis. Thus, consumerism, not only affects our
behavior, it also affects our thinking process
FACTORS
Material Possessions
·signify aspects of one's sense self and identity
·one's sense of self and identity is influential on how an individual chooses to purchase
his/her wants and he/she makes economic decisions that will address his/her personal
and social needs