Lesson 2

LESSON 2:
THE SELF, SOCIETY,

AND CULTURE
The Self, Society, and Culture
◦ Thinkers just settled on the idea that there are two

components of the human person and whatever
relationship these two have is lees important than the fact
that there is a self.
◦ Shifted their focus on the relationship between the self and

the external world.
What is the relationship between external
reality and the self?
Recall the Tarzan Story

The Self, Society, and Culture
◦How much of who you are now a

product of your society, community,
and family?
What is the SELF? Example: Story of Jon
CHARACTERISTICS OF SELF:
1. SEPARATE
2. SELF-CONTAINED
3. INDEPENDENT
4. CONSISTENT
5. UNITARY
6. PRIVATE
The Self and Culture
◦ According to 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.
PERSONNE- composed of the social concepts of what it
means to be who he is.
THE SELF AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE SOCIAL WORLD
◦ So how do people actively produce their social worlds?
◦ How do children growing up become social beings?
◦ More than the givenness (personality, tendencies, and propensities, among

others), one is believed to be in active participation in the shaping of the self.
◦ Recent studies, however, indicate that men and women in their growth and
development engage actively in the shaping of the self.
◦ “Language as both a publicly shared and privately utilized symbol system is
the site where the individual and the social make and remake each other”.
The Sociological View
(Mead and Vygotsky)
◦ For Mead and Vygotsky, the way that human persons develop is
with the use of language acquisition and interaction with others.
◦ Both Vygotsky and Mead treat the human mind as something that is
made, constituted through language as experienced in the external
world and as encountered in dialogs with others.
Lev Vygotsky
◦ Zone of Proximal Development- refers to the difference

between what a learner can do without help and what he/she
can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled
partner.
◦ A child internalizes real-life dialogs that he has had with

others, with his family, his primary caregiver, of his playmates.
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
Herbert Mead
Mead’s Theory of Social Behaviorism

◦ Sociologist George Herbert Mead believed that people develop
self-images through interactions with other people. He argued
that the Self, which is the part of a person’s personality consisting
of self-awareness and self-image, is a product of social
experience.
He outlined four ideas about how the self
develops.
◦ The Self Develops Solely Through Social Experience.
Mead rejected Freud’s notion that personality is
determined partly by biological drives.
◦ Social Experience Consists Of The Exchange Of
Symbols. Mead emphasized the particularly human use of
language and other symbols to convey meaning.
He outlined four ideas about how the self
develops.
◦ Knowing Others’ Intentions Requires Imagining The Situation From Their
Perspectives. Mead believed that social experience depends on our seeing
ourselves as others do, or, as he coined it, “taking the role of the other.”
◦ Understanding The Role Of The Other Results In Self-Awareness. Mead
posited that there is an active “I” self and an objective “me” self. The “I” self is
active and initiates action. The “me” self continues, interrupts, or changes action
depending on how others respond.
◦ Mead believed that the key to self-development is understanding the role of the
other.
Self in Families
◦ While every child is born with certain givenness, disposition

coming from his parents’ genes and general condition of life, the
impact of one’s family is still deemed as a given in understanding
the self.
GENDER AND THE SELF
◦ Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change, and
development.
◦ A wonderful anecdote about Leo Tolstoy’s wife, Sonia Tolstoy illustrates that
our gender partly determines how we see ourselves in the world.
◦ Nancy Chodorow, a feminist, argues that because mothers take the role of
taking care of children, there is a tendency for girls to imitate the same and
reproduce the same kind of mentality of women as care providers in the
family.
SONIA TOLSTOY NANCY CHODOROW

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LESSON 2:

THE SELF, SOCIETY,

◦ Thinkers just settled on the idea that there are two

◦ Shifted their focus on the relationship between the self and

Recall the Tarzan Story

◦How much of who you are now a

◦ More than the givenness (personality, tendencies, and propensities, among

◦ Zone of Proximal Development- refers to the difference

◦ A child internalizes real-life dialogs that he has had with

Mead’s Theory of Social Behaviorism

◦ While every child is born with certain givenness, disposition

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