The Self from Various

Perspectives
Sociological Perspective
Comparisons of different societies on
how people viewed self:
• Pre-modern Society
• Centered on survival for people behaved according to social rules
and traditions while the family and environment provided
supervision.
• Choosing where to live, what line of work to do, and even who to
marry was very limited.
• Modern Period
• Individualism is dominant;
• Development of one’ self-identity is central;
• A person is free to choose where to live, what to do and whom to
be with.
Effects of Modernization
• Affects how an individual builds and develops his/her self-identity.
• Improved people’s living conditions.
• Decreased stability in tradition and traditional support systems.
Key Characteristics of Modernity
• Industrialism
• A social or economic system built on manufacturing industries.
• Capitalism
• A production system in which a country's trade and industry are
controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
• Institutions of surveillance
• Functions, in part, because of the extensive collection, recording,
storage, analysis and application of information on individuals and
groups in those societies as they go about their lives.
• Dynamism
• The quality of being characterized by vigorous activity and
progress.
Georg Simmel
• A sociologist, philosopher, and a critic.
• “People create social networks by
joining social groups”
• Social networks
• Ties or connections that link you
to your social groups
• Social group
• Having 2 or more people
interacting with one another,
sharing similar characteristics,
and whose members identify
themselves as part of the group.
Georg Simmel
• Organic Social Group
• Naturally occurring and highly influenced by the family.
• Organic motivation
• Joining groups because your family is also a part of it.
• Rootedness
• A positive effect of organic group.
• Rational Social Group
• Occurs in modern societies formed as a matter of shared
interest.
• Rational Motivation
• Joining rational social groups out of their free will.
George Herbert Mead
• A philosopher, sociologist and
psychologist.
• Well-known for his “Theory of
Social Self”
• Self
• A product of social interactions
and internalizing the external
views along with one’s personal
view about oneself.
• Not present from birth rather it
is developed over time through
social experiences and activities.
George Herbert Mead
• 3 stages in self development
• Language
• Gives the individual the capacity to express himself/herself.
• Play
• Enables the individual to internalize others’ perspectives
• Game
• Enables them to take into account societal rules and adheres to
it.
George Herbert Mead
• 2 sides of the Self
• “Me”
• The product of what the person has learned while interacting
with others and with the environment
• “I”
• The part of the self that is unsocialized and spontaneous.
• The individual’s response to the community’s attitude toward
the person
• Represents impulses and drives, does not follow rules
• Constructs a response based on what has been learned by the
“me.”
Charles Horton Cooley
• A sociologist best known for his
concept of the looking-glass self
• Self
• Grows out of society’s
interpersonal interactions
and the perceptions of
others.