SELF, SOCIETY, AND
CULTURE
What is the Self?
● The self is separate, self-contained, independent, consistent,
unitary, and private (Stevens, 1996).
● The self live in its own world however, the potential clash between
the self and external reality is the reason for the self to have a clear
understanding of what it might be.
● The self is always at the mercy of external circumstances that
bump and collide with it.
MARITES
The Self and Culture
● French anthropologist Marcel Mauss believed that the self has two faces:
❏ Moi - basic identity, sense of who he is, biological givenness
❏ Personne - social concept of what it means to be who he is
● Language also plays an important aspect in social constructivism (a
concept that exist not in objective reality, but as a result of human
interaction)
❏ E.g. “Mahal kita” and “I love you”
The Self and Development of the Social World
● Mead and Vygotsky assert that the way human persons develop is with the
use of language acquisition and interaction with others.
● For Mead, the child assumes the “other” through language and role play. It is
where the child delineates the “I” from the rest.
● For Vygotsky, he believed that the child internalizes real-life dialogs that he
has had with his parents, caregiver, and playmates.
Self as a Cognitive Hobbies
Construct
Family SELF Religion
❏ Self, identity, and self-concept
are not fixed in one time frame.
❏ Self-schema - organized system
or collection of knowledge Nationality
Based on Carl Rogers’ concept of self-schema
Theory of Symbolic Interactionism
Symbolic Interactionism tells us that human action and interaction are
understandable only through the exchange of meaningful communication or
symbols.
G.H. Mead (1934) argued that the self is created and developed through human
interaction (Hogg and Vaughan, 2010).
Three reasons why self and identity are social products:
1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing. Society helped in creating the
foundation of who we are.
2. We need others to affirm and reinforce who we think we are.
3. What we think is important to us may also have been influenced by what is
important in our social and historical context.
Self-awareness
● The ability to distinguish your own beliefs from others
● Carver and Scheier (1981) identified two types of self that we can be aware
of:
1. Private Self - internal standards/private thoughts and feelings
2. Public Self - public image/geared toward having a good presentation of
yourself
Self-awareness
Other three self-schemas
● Actual Self - who you are at the moment
● Ideal Self - who you like to be
● Ought Self - who you think you should be
One has to find solution to such discrepancies to avoid agitation, dejection, and
other negative emotions.
Social Comparison
● Learning about ourselves, the appropriateness of our behaviors, social
status by comparing aspects of ourselves with other people.
❏ Downward Social Comparison - creating positive self-concept by comparing
ourselves to those who are worse than us
❏ Upward Social Comparison - comparing ourselves with those who are
better off than us
Self-evaluation Maintenance Theory
● Discrepancy between two people in a relationship
● Feeling threatened when someone out-performs us, especially if that person
is close to us
Narcissism and Self-esteem
● Narcissism - overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness
● Self-esteem - confidence in one’s own worth or abilities
The Self in Western
and Eastern
Thoughts
● An ancient Chinese belief
system, which focuses on the
importance of personal ethics
and morality
Confucianism ● The identity and self-concept
of the individual are interwoven
with the identity and status of
his/her community
● “Subdued Self” - cultivated self
in Confucianism
● Chinese philosophy attributed
to Lao Tzu
● Living in the way of Tao or the
universe; rejects hierarchy and
Taoism strictness brought by
Confucianism
● The ideal self is selflessness
but not forgetting about the
self, it is a living balanced-life
with society and culture
● A religion founded by
Siddhartha Gautama (The
Buddha)
● The self is seen as an illusion,
born out of ignorance, of trying
Buddhism to hold or control things, or
human centered needs; thus,
the self is also the source of all
these sufferings
● Attain the state of Nirvana -
realization of non-self and
emptiness
Individualistic
Culture Collectivist Culture
WESTERN CULTURE EASTERN CULTURE
References:
❏ Arcega, A. Brawner, D. (2018). Understanding the Self. C&E Publishing, Inc.
Quezon City, Philippines.
❏ Alata, E.J.P. Casilib, Jr. B. N. Serafica, J. P. J. and Pawilen R.A. (2018).
Understanding the Self. Rex Book Store. Manila, Philippines.
❏ Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self, and Society: From the standpoint of
a Social Behaviorist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
❏ Steven, Richard. 1996. Understanding the Self. California: SAGE
Publications.
