G E d 10 1 :

Understanding the Self

THE SELF FROM

THE PERSPECTIVE
OF SOCIOLOGY &
ANTHROPOLOGY
Lesson 3
First Semester
SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF

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WHAT IS 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 behavior.
• It presents the self as a product of
modern society.

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Sociologists are concerned about the
following questions:
• How does the society influence
you?
• How do you affect the society?
• Who are you as the person in
the community?

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 “Not only the self is entwined in the society; it
owes society its existence in the most literal sense”
- Theodor Adorno

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GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
• Social Behaviorism is the approach he
used to describe the power of the
environment in shaping human behavior.
- The self emerges from social
experience. It is not part of the
body and it does not exists at birth.

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 STAGES OF SELF-FORMATION

Play Stage Game Stage

Preparatory Stage Children begin Children are now aware
Children imitate “role-taking” in of their position in the
significant others to which they relationship to the other
learn meaning mentally assume numerous social
behind symbols, the perspective of positions in society.
gestures and another and - Taking into account the
language. respond from that societal rules
view-point.
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Mead identified the two phases of self:
1. Me Self - the phase which reflects the attitude of the generalized other
- the "me" is the social self
- Mead defines the "me" as "a conventional, habitual individual
2. I Self - the phase that responds to the attitude of generalized other or the
“I”.
- the "I" is a response to the "me
- the “I” as the “novel reply” of the individual to the generalized
other.

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CHARLES HORTOON COOLEY
• He made use of the socio-psychological
approach to understand how societies
work.
• Cooley coined the term “looking-glass self” –
self is a product of social interaction.

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 I am not what I think I am
I am not what YOU think I am
I am what I think YOU think I am
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ERVING GOFFMAN
• He used the concept of Dramaturgical
Approach - the idea that life is like a never-
ending play in which people are actors.
• He coined the term “impression management”
to refer to our desire to manipulate others’
impressions of us. According to Goffman, we
use various mechanisms, called Sign Vehicles,
to present ourselves to others.
1. Social setting
2. Appearance
3. Manner of interacting

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ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF
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“What man is now is the
product of his past”

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WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY?
• Anthropology is a field of the social sciences
that focuses on the study of man.
• The field looks into man’s
physical/biological characteristics, his social
relationships and the influences of culture.
• Subfields of Anthropology:
Archaeology (fossils and artifacts)
Linguistic Anthropology (language)
Biological Anthropology (genetics)
Cultural Anthropology (culture)
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 There is an old debate regarding the relative contributions of genetic inheritance and
environmental factors to human development.

NATURE NURTURE
Refers to genetic inheritance which sets Refers to socio-cultural environment
the individual potential which influence the individual

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 CULTURE
described as a group of people’s way of
life.
Theory of Cultural Determinism – human
nature is determined by the ideas,
meanings, beliefs and values learned as
members of a society.

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 SYMBOLS
the words, gestures, pictures or objects that
have recognized or accepted meaning in a
particular culture

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 HEROES
persons from the past or present
who have characteristics that are
important in culture

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 RITUALS
activities participated by a group of people for
the fulfilment of desired objectives and are
concerned to be socially essential

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 VALUES
considered to be the core of every culture

These are unconscious, neither discussed or observed,

and can only be inferred from the way people act and
react to situations.

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