2 THE SELF, SOCIETY AND CULTURE

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP

BETWEEN EXTERNAL REALITY AND

THE SELF?

How much of you are essential?

How much of who you are now is

a product of society, community,

and family?

Has your choice of school affected

yourself now? If you were born in

a different family and schooled in

a different college, how different

would you be?

What is the SELF?

The self is commonly defined as

'separate, self-contained,

independent, consistent, unitary,

& private.[Stevens,1996]

Is the self actually a private entity?

The self is always affected by

external circumstances that bump

and collide with it. It is ever-

changing and dynamic, allowing

external forces to take a part in its

shaping.

The social constructivist

perspective, then

-explains that there is a strong

relationship between the self and

external reality.

-argues that the person and her

social context a remerged, one

cannot easily be separated from

the other.[Stevens,1996].

-argues that herself is not static

which stay constant through and

through. Rather, it is in struggle

with external reality and malleable

in its dealings with society.

-the self has a social life and can

be influenced, therefore

multifaceted.

The Self & Culture

According to Mass, every self has

two faces: Personne and Moi

Moi- a person's self of who he is,

his body, his basic identity, his

biological givenness.

Personne- the social concepts of

what it means to be himself, what

it means to live in a particular

institution, a family, religion,

nationality, and how to behave

given expectation & influences.

-the self [especially the Personne]

morphs according to different

circumstances and contexts.

-the self is shaped by different

aspects of culture such as in

external relations,

environmental/territorial

concerns, language/lingo,

romantic relationships, etc.

The Self & the Development of

the Social World

How do people actively produce

their social worlds?

How do children growing up

become social being?

How do twins coming out from the

same mother turn out to be

different when adopted

separately?

More than his givenness one is

believed to be in active

participation in shaping the self.

Recent studies indicate that men

& women in their own growth &

development engage actively in

shaping themselves.

Mead & Vygotsky

-"the human mind is something

that is made"

-the way that human persons

develop is with the use of

language acquisitions &

interaction w/others.

-we process information in form of

internal dialogue

-therefore the cognitive &

emotional development of a child

is mimicry of how it is done in the

social world.

-A child internalizes values, norms,

practices, and social beliefs

through exposure to dialogs that

will become part of his individual

world.

Self in Families

-while every child is born w/

givenness, disposition coming

from his parents genes and

general condition of life is in factor

in forming self

-human being are born virtually

helpless and the dependency

period of a human baby of its

parents is longer than most

animals.

- in becoming a fully realized

human, a child enters a system of

relationships, most importantly

the family. This is where the

person learns how to live & their

selfhood.

-it is what a family initiates a

person to become that serves as

the basics for the person's

progress.

-the child learns language and

behavior from its family.

-without a family, biologically and

socially a person may not even

survive or become a human

person.

Gender and the Self

-gender is an aspect of the self

that is subject to alteration,

change, and development.

-from the point of view of social

sciences and the self, it is

important to give leeway to find

express, and live his identity.

-our gender partly determines

how we see ourselves in the world

society often forces a particular

identity unto us by depending on

-gender has to be personality

discovered and asserted and not

dictated by culture and society.