Social Self

OBJECTIVES:
 To explore the theory of Mead on mind, self and society
 To understand the connection of the mind, self and the society
and the role of the society in shaping the self
 To identify the stages of self development
The Self and
Culture
SELF
• always unique.
• self-contained and independent because in itself it can exist.
• unitary in that it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run
through a certain person.
• is private. Each person sorts out information, feelings, and emotions,
and thought processes within the self.
-Social constructionist perspective: a merged view of 'the person'
and 'their social context' where the boundaries of one cannot easily be
separated from the boundaries of the other (Stevens 1996).
The Self and Culture
• According to French anthropologist Marcel Mauss, every self
has two faces: personne and moi.
• Moi refers to a person's sense of who he is, his body, and his basic
identity; his biological givenness.
• Personne is composed of the social concepts of what is means to be
who he is.
• Language has something to do with culture. It is a salient part of
culture and ultimately, has tremendous effect in our crafting of the
self.
• Does not specify the subject. Example: I love you = Mahal Kita
• Filipino language is gender neutral. Example: he, she = siya; El and Ella = siya
ACTIVITY
WHAT GESTURE?
 Self and the
Development of
the Social World
“The individual experiences himself as such not
directly, but only from the particular standpoints
of other individual members of the same social
group, or from the generalized standpoint of the
social group as a whole to which he
belongs…and he becomes an object to himself
only by taking the attitudes of other individuals
toward himself.”
(1934/1962: 138)
George Herbert
Mead
Mead and Vygotsky
• Human persons develop with the use of language acquisition and
interaction with others. The way that we process information is
normally a form of an internal dialogue in our head.
• Both Vygotsky and Mead treat the human mind as something that is
made constituted through language with others. A young child
internalizes values, norms, practices and social beliefs and mores
through exposure to these dialogues that will eventually become part
of his individual world.
 MEAD’S TRILOGY MODEL
OBJECTIVATION
SOCIETY: Social
consensus via INTERNALIZATION
significant shared ROLE TAKING:
symbols Ascertaining the
intentions of others.

EXTERNALIZATION ROLE
TAKING: Adapting the
intentions of others.
 The development of the self is dependent on learning to take

S EL F the role of the other.

S
E
L
F
 SELF
The “I” and the “Me”
I Me
 the organized set of attitudes of others which
• The response of the organism to the one assumes.
attitudes of the others
 socialized aspect of the individual
• allows the individual to still express  represents learned behaviors, attitudes, and
creativity and individualism and expectations of others and of society
understand when to possibly bend
and stretch the rules that govern  developed by the knowledge of society and
social interactions social interactions that the individual has
gained
Gender and
Family
• Humans learn the ways of living and therefore their selfhood
by being in a family.
• A family initiates a person to become that serves as the basis
for the person's progress.
• Some behaviors and attitudes, on the other hand may be
indirectly taught through rewards and punishments.
• One is who is he is because of his family for the most part.
 Gender
and the Self
• Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration,
change, and development.
• The gendered self is then shaped within a particular context of time
and space.
• The sense of self that is being taught makes sure that an individual
fits in a particular environment.
• Gender has to personally discovered and asserted and not dictated by
culture and society.
It is little more than an extension of his "organized self." More
precisely, through interaction the self takes on "generalized social
attitudes" toward a wider environment.

Society is thus maintained by virtue of humans’ ability to role-take

and to assume the perspective of generalized other
There can be no self apart from
society, no consciousness of self and
no communication.