SELF SOCIETY AND CULTURE • Personne-has much to do with what it
means to live in a particular institution,
SELF -In contemporary literature is defined as:
separate, self-contained, independent,
consistent, unitary, and private.
Separate
 Distinct and unique from other self
 One cannot be other person
Self-contained and Independent
• In itself it can exist
• It doesn't need other self to exist
• Self contained with its own thoughts,
characteristics, and volition.
Consistent
• Self's traits and characteristics are more
or less the same
Unitary
• Center of all experiences and thoughts
that run through a certain person.
Private
• Each person sorts out information,
feelings, emotions, and thought
processes within the self.
Self In Society
Social constructivists argue that the self should
not be seen as a static entity that says constant
through and through because the self is always
subjected to influences here and there.
The Self and the Culture
According to Marcel Mauss. (French
Anthropologist), every self has two faces: Moi
and Personne
• Moi-refers to a person's sense of who
he is, his body, his basic identity, and
his biological givenness.
family, religion, nationality, and how to
behave given the expectations and
influences from others
Life of Jon
Consider a boy named Jon. Jon is a math
professor at a Catholic university for more than
a decade now. Jon has a beautiful wife whom
he met in college, Joan. Joan was Jon's first and
last girlfriend. Apart from being a husband, Jon
is also blessed with two loving kids, a son and a
daughter. He also sometimes serves in the
church too as a lector and a commentator. As a
man of different roles, one can expect Jon to
change and adjust his behaviors, ways, and
even language depending on his social situation.
When Jon is in the university, he conducts
himself in a matter that befits his title as a
professor. As a husband, Jon can be intimate
and touchy. Joan considers him sweet,
something that his students will never conceive
him to be. His kids fear him. As a father, Jon can
be stern. As a lector and commentator, on the
other hand, his church maters knew him as a
guy who is calm, all- smiles, and always ready to
lend a helping hand to anyone in need.
The Self and the Development of the Social
World
• George Herbert Mead
• Lev Vygotsky
Self in Families
"The kind of family that we are born in, the
resources available to us (human, spiritual,
economic), and the kind of development that
we will have will certainly affect us as we go
through life."
Gender and the Self
• Gender is one of those parts of the self that is
subject to alteration, change, and development.