UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

From the Perspective of

Sociology
 SOCIOLOGY
is one of the disciplines in the social
sciences which aims to discover the ways by
which the social surrounding/environment
influences people’s thoughts, feelings and
behaviour.

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GEORGE HERBERT
MEAD
MEAD’s SOCIAL SELF
Social Behaviorism is the approached used to
describe the power of the environment in shaping human
behaviour.
He described the self as a ‘dimension of personality
that is made-up of the individual’s self-awareness and
self-image’ (Macionis, 2012).
 MEAD’s SOCIAL SELF

STAGES EXISTENCE OF SELF CHARACTERISTICS

Preparatory Stage None Imitates another
Play Stage Developing Role-taking
Game Stage Present Generalized other
 ‘generalized other’
The term Mead used to explain the
behaviour of the person when he
sees/considers other people in the course of
his actions.
Theory of the Self
✘ The self is not present at birth but begins as a central
character in a child’s world.
✘ Children see themselves as the center of their
‘universe’ and is having difficulty understanding others
around them.
✘ As they grow and mature, there is a change in the self.
Begins to see other people and is now concerned
about people’s reactions. They are the significant
others who strongly influence his development (Schaefer,
2012).
✘ The formation of the self is not the end of the process
of socialization.
✘ It continues for as long as the person is alive.
✘ The self may change based on life circumstances that
have strong impact on it. Events such as death of a
loved one, disease or disability may reshape the self.
✘ Though a person may have no control over such events,
he has control over how he reacts and deals with it
which is still an important aspect of the self (Macionis, 2012).
Other sociological approaches to
understanding the self
 CHARLES HORTON
COOLEY (1864-1929)
 People learn who they are through their
social interaction with other people. Although
seeing oneself is based on contemplating one’s
personal qualities, the view of the self is also
significantly influenced by the impression and
perception of others.
He called this the looking-glass self or the self that is a
product of social interaction. Cooley believed that the
process of developing a self has three phases:

1. People imagine how they present themselves to

others.
2. People imagine how others evaluate them.
3. People develop some sort of feeling about themselves
as a result of those impressions.

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ERVING GOFFMAN
(1922-1982)
 He wrote how he observed that people
early in their social interactions learned to
slant their presentation of themselves in order
to create preferred appearances and satisfy
particular people.

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Impression management
the process of altering how the person
presents himself to others.

He sees similarities of real social

interaction to a theatrical presentation. This is
the reason for the label dramaturgical
approach to his view.
 Face-work
a phrase used to describe another aspect
of the self. This was usually observed in
situations where face-saving measures are
resorted to in the maintenance of a proper
image of the self in frustrating or embarrassing
situations.
 thanks!
Any questions?

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