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GEC 1 LESSON 2 The Self, Society and Culture
GEC 1 LESSON 2 The Self, Society and Culture
Teacher: Perlita P. McDonald Saturday – BSBA 1A-1 @BSE –A1-1- 3:00 – 6:00 pm
Lesson Objectives:
1. explain the relationship between and among the self, society, and culture;
2. describe and discuss the different ways by which society and culture shape the self;
3. compare and contrast how the self can be influenced by the different institutions in the society; and
4. examine one’s self against the different views of self that were discussed in class.
INTRODUCTION
In the famous story of Tarzan, the little boy named Tarzan is left in the middle of the forest.
Growing up, he never had an interaction with any other human being but apes and other
animals. Tarzan’s grew up acting strangely likes ape and unlike human persons. Tarzan became
an animal in effect. His sole interaction with them made him just like one of them.
Human persons will not develop as human persons without interventions.
We maybe gifted with intellect and the capacity to rationalize things, but at the end of the day,
Our growth and development and consequentially, ourselves are truly products of our intention
with external reality.
Jon is a math professor in a Catholic University for more than a decade now. Jon has a beautiful wife
Joan, which he met in college. Joan was Jon first and last girlfriend. Apart from being a husband, Jon is
also blessed with two doting kids , a son and a daughter. He also sometimes serves in the church too as
a lector and a commentator. When Jon is in the university, he conducts himself in a matter that befits his
title as a professor.
1. Moi refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body. And his basic identity; his biological givenness.
This is a person’s basic identity.
2. Personne is composed of the social concepts of what it means to be who he is. It means to live in a
particular institution, a particular family, a particular family, a particular religion, a particular nationality,
and how to behave given the expectation and influences from others.
If a self is born into a particular society or culture, the self will have to adjust according to its exposure.
Recent studies, however, indicate that men and women in their growth and development engage
actively in the shaping of the self
Cognitive and Emotional Development of a child is always a mimicry of how it is done in the social world,
in the external reality where he is in.
Human mind as something that is made, constituted through language as experienced in the external
world and as encountere in dialogues with others.
Notice how little children are fond of playing role play with their toys?
Notice how they make scripts and dialogues for their toys as they play with them?
Self in Families
The kind of family that we are born in and the resources available to us (human, spiritual, economic) will
certainly affect us and the kind of development that we will have as we go through life.
Learning, therefore, is critical in our capacity to actualize our potential of becoming humans. In trying to
achieve the goal of becoming a fully realized human, a child enters a system of relationships, most
important of which is the family
Human persons learn the ways of living and therefore their selfhood by being in a family.
Without a family, biologically and sociologically, a person may not even survive or become a human
person
Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change, and development
People fought hard for the right to express, validate, and assert their gender expressions
“I am nothing but a miserable but a miserable crushed worm, whom no one wants, whom no one loves,
a useless creature with morning sickness, and a big belly, two rotten teeth, and a bad temper, a battered
sense of dignity, and a love which nobody wants and which nearly drives me insane”
Society forces a particular identity unto us depending on our sex and/or gender
The eldest man in a family is expected to head the family and hold it in.
Men are taught to behave like a man, like holding in one’s emotion, being tough, fatalistic, not to worry
about danger, and admiration for hard physical labor.
QUEERS DEMAND
The sense of self that is being taught makes sure that an individual fits in a particular environment. This
is dangerous and detrimental in the goal of truly finding one’s self, self – determination, and growth of
the self. Gender has to personally discovered and asserted and not dictated by culture and the society.