SocSc 11

Self
– Interactions with the world and is located and constructed in social spaces
from the micro to the macro
– Develops through its dynamic interactions with the world and through a
process of reflexivity across time
– Because there is a process of reflexivity (when someone tries to make
sense of something its encountering), it reformulates what you think and
how you feel about things

Guiding Framework
". Chronosystem (changes over time)
$. Macrosystem (Social and Cultural Values)
%. Ecosystem (Indirect Environment)
&. Mesosystem (Connections)
'. Microsystem (Immediate Environment)
CHILD ^^^

Three Approaches
". Connected “Self” by Alejo
– Explores the Filipino concept of look as inner world with deep connections
to the external world
– Loob as a resource or energy that animates or fuels human action
– Integrates thoughts/feelings/actions
– Highlights the relevance of social relation and connection in giving
meaning to our existence
$. Demarcarted “Self” by Hermans
– Looks at the self and identity in the context of globalisation
– Way for understanding
– The impact of (cultural) contact and encounters in our identity making
– The process of personal development
– The pursuit of identity and differentiation
%. Systems Approach by Brodenbrenner
– Explains the complex elements working on individuals
– Looks at the interaction of context, social processes, personal
characteristics at varying points in time
– Illustrates how individuals engage the development

Globalizing World: Implications to Self and Identity

Understanding the Self in an Increasingly Compressing World
*societies and culture accelerates interdependence

The youth are going in - and are at the forefront of - and age of unprecedented
globalisation
– Globalisation: a process by which diverse societies and culture come int
contact due to…
– Trade
– Economics
– Exchange of goods between countries
– Migration
– People moving from one place to another either for a short period of
time or resettling
– The exchange of information not only of via mass media, but most
importantly - computer-mediated interactive communication technologies
(CMICT) comes to fore
– You donʼt need to physically move to another place for something to
have an impact on you
Globalisation has a profound implication for the self and identity during the life-
course
– Our identities get reshaped by globalisation and it happens all throughout life
– From the moment you were born and the choices your parents make for
you already has a say on the type of individual you will be in the future

Globalisation and Internet communication as one of its manifestations is not

something “outside” penetrates deeply into the inner domains of the self

Globalizing World
One Central Feature
– Opening of borders between different cultures and communities
GROUND CONDITIONS: WORLD OF CONTRADICTIONS
– Despite increasing interconnections of economies, ecologyʼs, demographics/
populations, politics and militaries
– Individuals and groups are separating from each other
– Based on interest and demarcation of identity
– shows to us that the experience of globalisation is not very homogenous (its
not the same for everyone)
Cultural contact opens opportunities for peopleʼs lives

Shaping the self: The case of Edward Said

– Influential scholar of multicultural identity
– Exposes unequal reactions of power in the spread of modern human
knowledge
– Exposed how English penetrated local social lives and marked as the language
 –
of success and power globally
– Contradiction: Said is an Arab whose education was a product of the British
colonial and American imperial power

Embodied Tension: Positive and Negative Implications of Globalisation on the Self

English language was not simply a subject to be learned at school in which the
pupil could excel or fail. It was rather a prescribed form of communication
associated with differences and even clashes between

Power relations and cultural domination do not simply surround the self as
something outside the skin, but infiltrate its most personal and inner domains

Outcome of Contact: Dichotomous Views

– Defensive localisation contamination anxiety
– Protection and affirmation of oneʼs self & identity
– Bond with my kind
– Attach to identify markers, I.e., religion, nation, ethnicity

Dynamic View
– Incorporation of locality
– Accommodation of diversity
– Cultural specificities
– Promotion of locality at the global level
– Combines homogenisation and hetroginzation
– Complementary and interpenetrative
– GLOCALIZATION - “Hybridity”

Globalisation and Loxalisation

>Two sides of the same coin and here to stay shaping the self
– On going process
– From globalisation to hybrid identities
– Global and local identities: biculturality and hybridity
– Hybridity, innovation, and creativity
– Openness, dialogue, and development
– Problems: identity confusion, difference and distance, homophile and
heterophily
*you have global identity but you remain local

Requirements for Innovation and Renewal

> Openness: for the social positions of other groups, cultures. And communities as
a pat of a globalising society; for the development of demarcated self of individual
person
 – Innovation and renewal of self and identity are indispensable for further
development of the self
– Renewal of self renews society (with the self being part of society and society
being made up of many selves)

Homophily vs Heterophily
Homophily
– Contact between similar people is higher that those who are not alike or like-
minded. Help creates network ties of every time: marriage, friendship, work,
advice, support, information exchange and transfer, co membership, etc.
– Negative: people hover around same race, ethnicity, and mindset creating
groups of the same interest
Heterophily
– Tendency to communicate with people with dissimilar views, values,
experiences, ethnicity
– Disadvantage: likely to cause message distortion, delayed transmission,
restriction of communication channels and cognitive resonance (can create
misunderstanding)
>sources of innovation and creativity
>facilities cultural interface
>the point is for the SELF to balance both approaches of communication

Compressed social space

– We cannot avoid meeting people significantly different from us
– Product of: immigration waves, international military operations, worldwide
economic and financial crisis, international terrorism
– Impact: moves people from the centre of their cultures to the interfaces
between them for better or worst, good and bad
– Positive: innovation, cross fertilisation, cooperation, creativity
– Negative: exploitation, alienation, aggression, localisation

Implications of the Global-Local Nexus

". Many “I: positions, that may lead to a “cacophony of voices” in the self
$. Increasing participation in a diversity of local groups and cultures on a global
scale, the many “I” becomes more complex, loaded, as it is with differences,
tensions, opposition, and contradictions
%. Given the speed and unpredictability of global changes, the repertoire of “Is”
receives more “visits” by unexpected positions
&. As a result, increasing range of possibilities and the increasing speed of
globalisation, there more larger and bigger position leaps

Self: A Mini Society

– Intercultural processes affect human development profoundly
 – Self and identity: do not develop in isolation from sociocultural contexts but
lived as a product of historical and sociocultural phenomena

-END OF HERMANS-

Themes in Systems Perspectives

". Interdependence and reciprocity
– Individual can only be understood in the context of his or her environment;
elements are interdependent, reciprocally related
– “Environment” is phenomenologically experienced
– Interdependent parts, each part has a role or function
– Just like body parts that need to work in harmony to sustain human life
– For society to exist overtime, its institutions, such as the family, religion,
education, etc. should function as an integrated whole
$. Complex systems are comprised of subsystem
– Nested subsystems; simultaneous membership in multiple subsystems
%. The systems interact in dynamic processes, transactions and interactions, etc.
– Not linear; environment -> self
– Not single-cause
Process-Person-Context-Time (PPCT)
Proximal Process
– The engine of self development
– Progressively more complex reciprocal interaction between an active,
evolving, bio psychological human organism and the persons objects, symbols
in its immediate external environment… interactions occur on a fairly regular
basis over extended periods of time
Person
– Demand
– Personal “stimulus” characteristics that influence interactions because of
expectations
– Elements of oneʼs social location/position
– gender
– Age
– Race
– Resource
– Mental, emotional, social, material affordances and opportunities (or the
lack thereof), e.g. intelligence, skills, education, family life
– Force
– Differences of temperament, motivation, drive, persistence, etc
Context
– Subsystems in bronfenbrennerʼs bioecological systems
– Microsystem
– Patterns of activities and interactions experienced by individual in
 –
immediate setting
– Parent-child; student-child
– Mesosystem
– Exosystem
– Settings that do not directly involve the individual but in which events
occur that affect or are affected by the individual
– Macrosystem
– Culture, socio-economic class, religion, government policies and
programs
– Chronosystem
– Life transitions experiences over the course of historical time and
sociohistorical events across time
– Micro-time
– Macro-time

The Self of Thoughts, Feelings, Sensations & Behaviour

– To understand the self as a holistic being with interconnected thoughts
feelings, sensations, and behaviours

The Thinking Self

Main Point: Two Systems
System 1 (that part of your thinking that is being dominant when you are doing
something repeatedly - as in di mo na siya iniisip)
– Fast
– intiuitive
– Emotional
– Automatic
– Less cognitive effort (due to practice)
System 2 (basta how you think when you are not used to doing something;
overthinking and overanalysing)
– Slow
– Deliberate
– Reflective
– Analytic
– Complex
– Effortful
– Reflective

System 2
– Takes control of your system 1 so that it acts accordingly or something
Main Points: Two Systems
– Highlight that both systems have respective functions and that one is not
necessarily better than the other
– Encourage students to reflect on situations which employ systems 1 and 2
thinking

Interactions of Systems 1 & 2

Scenario 1: When there is a problem to be solved

Cognitive Biases
– Highlight Implications
– Thinking may be prone to systematic errors
– Some beliefs might not be based on evidence, but we continue to consider
them as “truths
– Even though you know what the objective reality is, it does not change the
way you see the lines
". Peak End Rule
– Experiencing self: lives through the moment
– Remembering self: writes, reads, and replays your autobiographical
history
– People judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its PEAk and
its END
– Total sum of pleasantness or unpleasantness is entirely disregarded
*short period of intense joy or long period of moderate happiness?
*short of intense but tolerable suffering or longer period of moderate pain
$. Representativeness
– People think in categories or groups
– Cognitive strategy to shortcut the thinking process
– Having shared characteristics suggest belongingness to the same
category
– Same quality and performance
– If the generic product is marketed and packaged in a branded way
%. Anchoring and Adjustment
– decision is based on
– Anchor based on a reference point
– Adjust the anchor (either higher or lower)
– In making judgements under uncertainty, people start with a certain
reference point (anchor), then adjust it insufficiently to reach a final
conclusion
*”How old is person A?”/“What is person Aʼs weight?”/“Was Mahatma Gandhi
more or less 144 years old when he died?

Guarding Against Cognitive Biases

 – Recognise the signs that you are in a cognitive minefield, slow down, and ask
for help from System 2
– Identify practise and tasks that you do and the kind of thinking they demand
– Listen to understand it, rather than listen to answer it]

Paul Ekman
– Clinical Practice
– Depression
– Research
– Papua New Guinea: Facial expressions are universal
– Studied patients who claimed they were not depressed and later
committed suicide: microexpressions
– Current research
– How to respond to othersʼ emotions
– Working with Dalai Lama
*inspired FACIAL ACTING CODING SYSTEM - the first and only comprehensive tool
for explaining facial expressions

Emotion What For Is it

". Deal with inter-organismic encounters, i.e. (a) between people, (b) between
people and other animals **
$. Primary function of emotion is to mobilise the organism to deal with the
personal encounter
Main Points: Emotions and its Features
". Antecedent
– Cause, trigger
$. Cognitive
– Thought processes
– Interpretation of an event
%. Physiological
– Biological reactions
– Role of the nervous system (brain and neurotransmitters) in emotions
&. Behavioural
– Expressions and responses

BASIC EMOTIONS (Ekman)

Antecedent Condition
– Events contexts, or situations that trigger an emotion
– Universality of antecedent events elicit the same emotions across cultures
– Cultural differences
Cognitive Appraisal
– Thoughts and beliefs can impact how you feel and how you behave
– Stimulus —> arousal (e.g. heart pounding/sweating/running away) —>
 –
cognitive label —> emotion
2 Reactions
>Physiological
– Distinctive patterns of biological activities for each basic emotion
– The role of
– Autonomic nervous system
– Central nervous system
– Neurotransmitters and hormones
>Emotional Expressions (Behavioural)
– Display rule
– Cultural rules that dictate how emotions should be expressed, when and
where expression is appropriate
– May require people
– To overtly show evidence of certain emotions even if they do not feel
it
– To disguise their true feelings

Main Points: Emotional Experience as a Process

A. Activating Event
– Actual event
– Clientʼs immediate interpretations of event
B. Beliefs
– Evaluations
– Rational
– Irrational
C. Consequences
– Emotions
– Behaviours
– Other thoughts

Sociocultural Dimensions of Emotions and Feelings

Through personally experienced, it is worthy to look at
– Sociohistorical forces shaping this internal state of the feeling self
– Locating its expression in conjunction with social ties bonds, relations, and
interactions
– Cultural construction of emotions and feelings, what it means, how it gets
expressed, and how one learns about it
– Situating “harmful” emotionally loaded behaviour in its sociocultural context
through a case study

Conceptual Handles
For analysing culture and society
– Sociological imagination
 – Social integration
– Social facts
– Collective consciousness
– Construct

WORLD BEHIND THE TEXT

Historical-Critical Method
– Looking at the text in terms of its historical context
– Textual criticism, source criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism
*there will never be only one interpretation
> Criticism - you study the text itself
> Hermeneutics - interpretations
Human Sciences Approach
– Looking at the text in terms of its psychological, sociological, and
anthropological context
e.g. patriarchy