The Self as a Product of

Modern Society Among

other Constructions
Modernization
Social Group
Mead and the Social Self
TOPIC

1 Modernization

2 Social Groups and Social Network

3 Mead and the Social Self

4 Two Sides of Self: The “I” and “ME”

Introduction
Have you ever asked your self:
Why am I affected when someone stared at me as if I
did something wrong?
Why does others perspective affects me so?
How does the society influence me? Does it or not?
Who am I in this society? In our neighborhood?
Modernization
Modernization has significantly changed the society, and this has affected how an
individual builds and develops his or her self-identity
Improved our living by having freedom to choose.
Pre-modern society was centered on survival.
People behaved according to social rules and
traditions with the family and the immediate
environment
KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERNITY:
1. Industrialism – extensive use of material power and
machinery
2. Capitalism – a production system involving both
competitive product markets and the commodification
of labor power.
3. Institutions of Surveillance – massive increase in
power and reach by the institutions, esp the
government
4. Dynamism – vigorous activity in progress. Full of
possibilities. Always changing
Social Groups and Social Network
George Simmel expressed that people create social networks by joining social
groups. A social group is described as having two or more people interacting
with one another. Meanwhile, social network refers to the ties or connections
that links one another. (e.g. Family = blood relation; Barkada = friendship)

ORGANIC GROUP RATIONAL GROUP

Naturally occurring, highly Occurs in modern society.

influenced by the family
You join to these groups
because your family is also a
part of it or organic
motivation. Rootedness
Formed as matter of
shared-interest. Implies
freedom. Rational
motivation. Tenuous.
 LANGUAGE
Self-development and language are intimately tied.
Developing Through shared symbols, gestures and sound, language
gives the individual the capacity to express him/herself. It
the Self sets the stage of self-development
PLAY

ROLE-PLAY or assume the perspective of others. Role-

playing enables the person to internalize some of other’s
perspectives

GAME
Just like role-play but also able to take into account societal
rules and adheres to it. According to Mead, self is
developed by understanding the rule and one must abide
by to win the game or be successful
TWO SIDES OF THE SELF: THE I AND ME
MEAD sees the person as an active process, not just a mere reflection of the
society.

ME I

Product of what the person Part of the self that is

has learned while interacting unsocialized an spontaneous.
with others Presents the impulses and
Comprises of learned behavior, drives.
attitudes and even Does not blindly follow rules. It
expectations. understands when to bend or
Exercises control over the stretch rules. It constructs a
social self. response based in what has
been learned by the “me”
The Self and the Person in
the Contemporary
Anthropology
A unit but unitary
Implicit and Explicit aspects of the Self
The Self Embedded in Culture

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TOPIC

1 A unit but unitary

2 Implicit and Explicit aspects of the Self

3 The Self Embedded in Culture

A Unit but Unitary
Katherine Ewing (1990), described the
self as encompassing the “physical
organism, possessing psychological
functioning and social attributes.” This
definition of the “self” as implicitly and
explicitly existing in the mind
compromised of psychological,
biological, and cultural processes.
TWO ASPECTS OF THE SELF
Joseph LeDoux (2002) conceptualized the implicit and explicit
aspect of the self.

EXPLICIT IMPLICIT

THE aspect of the self that you The aspect that is not readily
are consciously aware of. available to the consciousness

This can be traced in Sigmund Freud’s Level of Consciousness.

“The self is not STATIC; it is added to and subtracted from by
genetic maturation, learning, forgetting, stress, ageing, and disease.
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 Cultural psychologist distinguished how the self was
The Self constructed

Embedded These are independent and interdependent constructs.

Construal is an interpretation of the meaning of something;
in Culture hence, in this sense, the meaning of “self”

The independent construct is characteristic of

individualistic culture, such as North America and Europe.

The interdependent construct is characteristic of

collectivist culture in East Asia stressing the essential
connection between individual to other people.
 Culture influences…
Developmental psychologist Catherine Raeff (2010), believed that culture can influence how you view:

RELATIONSHIPS PERSONALITY TRAITS

How you value traits like, self-
How you enter into and maintain
esteem, politeness, assertiveness,
relationship. Relationship can be
how perceive hardship or how
voluntarily or duty-based.
you rely on others

ACHIEVEMENT EXPRESSING EMOTIONS

How you define success and What will affect you emotionally, as
whether you value certain types well as how you express yourself, such
of individual and group as showing your feelings in public or
achievements keeping it in private
 The Self As a
Cognitive Construct

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TOPIC

1 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

2 Harter’s Self-Development Concept

3 William James and the Me-Self; I-Self

4 Real and Ideal Self-Concepts

What is Psychology?

Psychology is the scientific study of how people

behave, think and feel.
Jean Piaget
A clinical psychologist known for his pioneering work in child development. He pioneered
“theory of cognitive development”, comprehensive theory about
the development of human intelligence.
Piaget observed how children processed and made sense of the world
around them and eventually developed a four-stage model of how the
mind processes new information encountered.
THREE BASIC COMPONENTS OF COGNITIVE THEORY:
1. SCHEMAS/ SHEMES – building blocks of knowledge.
Schemes are mental organizations that individuals use to
understand their environment and designate action.
2. ADAPTATION – It involves the child’s learning processes to
meet situational demands.
3. STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT – They reflect the
increasing sophistication of the child’s thought process
ASSIMILATION and ACCOMODATION
 STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
STAGE AGE CHARACTERISTIC OF STAGE
SENSORIMOTOR 0-2 The child learns by doing; looking, touching, sucking. The child
also has a primitive understanding of cause-and-effect
relationships. Object permanence appears around 9 months
PREOPERATIONAL 2-7 The child uses language and symbols, including letters and
numbers. Egocentrism is also evident. Conservation marks the
end of the preoperational stage and beginning of concrete
operations
CONCRETE 7-11 The child demonstrates conversation, reversibility, serial
OPERATIONS ordering, and a mature understanding of cause-and-effect
relationship. Thinking at this stage is still concrete.
FORMAL 12+ The individual demonstrates abstract thinking at this stage is
OPERATIONS still concrete.
HARTER’S SELF DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT
Psychologist, author, and professor, Dr. Susan Harter (1999) detailed the emergence of
self-concept and asserted that the broad developmental changes
observed across early childhood, later childhood, and adolescence
could be interpreted in Piagetian framework.

• EARLY CHILDHOOD. The child describes the self in

terms of concrete, observable, characteristics such
as physical attributes (I’m…), material possessions
(I have…), behavior (I love…), and preferences (I
like…)
• MIDDLE TO LATER CHILDHOOD. The self is
described in terms of trait like constructs (e.g.,
smart honest, friendly, shy) that would require the
type of hierarchical organizational skills
characteristic of logical thought development.
HARTER’S SELF DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT
Psychologist, author, and professor, Dr. Susan Harter (1999) detailed the emergence of
self-concept and asserted that the broad developmental changes
observed across early childhood, later childhood, and adolescence
could be interpreted in Piagetian framework.

• ADOLESCENCE. This is the emergence of more

abstract self-definitions, such as inner thoughts,
emotions, attitudes, and motives.
• EMERGING ADULTS. The marked characteristic of
“self” for emerging adults is having a vision of a
“possible self”. It is the “age of possibilities”
WILLIAM JAMES AND THE ME-SELF; I-SELF
“The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook” – The Principles of Psychology
written in 1890.
I-SELF is the pure ego. It is the subjective self. It is the
“self” that is aware of its own actions. The I-self
characteristically has four features:
• A sense of being the agent or initiator of
behavior. My actions have an impact
• A sense of being unique. This is how I am
different from everything in my environment.
• A sense of continuity. I am the same person from
day to day.
• A sense of awareness about being aware. I
understand what is going on in me and around
me; and I know I understand it.
WILLIAM JAMES AND THE ME-SELF; I-SELF
The Me-self is the self that is the object. It is the “self”
that you can describe, such as your physical
characteristics, personalities, social role or
relationships, thoughts, feelings. James called it the
“empirical self”. Empirical self is “based on,
concerned with, or verifiable by observation or
experience rather than theory or pure logic”
1. Material – physical appearance and extensions of
it such as clothing, immediate family and home;
2. Social – social skills and significant interpersonal
relationships; and
3. Spiritual – personality, character, defining values
Personality Development and the Self-concept
Carl Ransom Rogers, an American psychologist and among other founders of
the humanistic approach to psychology

Rogers based his theories of personality development on humanistic

psychology and theories of subjective experience. “All behavior is
motivated by self-actualizing tendencies and these tendencies drive you
to reach your potential”. He believes that the world a person exists in is the
center of constant changes, and the person reacts to these changes. As a
result of this constant reaction with the environment and others, an
individual forms a structure of the self or self-concept – an organized, fluid
conceptual pattern of concepts and values related to the self. If the person
holds a positive self concept , he or she would tend to feel good about
himself or herself, and would generally see the world as a safe and positive
place. If the person holds a negative self-concept, then he or she may feel
unhappy with who he/she is (Kirschembaum & Henderson, 1989)
Ideal Self vs. Real Self
Roger’s further divided the self into two categories: the ideal self and real self .

IDEAL SELF REAL SELF

THE person that you’d rather be; it is your
concept of the “best me” who is worthy of THE real self is the person
admiration. The idealized image of the self
that the individual has developed based you actually are. It is how you
on what you have learned and behave right at the moment
experienced. It could include:
1. Notions influenced by your parents
of a situation. It is who are
2. What you admire in others you in reality – how you think,
3. What the society sees as acceptable feel or act at the present.
4. What you think is in your best interest

Dumbledore and the Mirror of Erisseth.

The importance of
Alignment
Roger’s said that there is a need to achieve
consistency between the ideal self and the
real self. According to Roger’s “IF THE WAY I
AM IS ALIGNED WITH THE WAY I WANT TO
BE, THEN I WILL FEEL A SENSE OF MENTAL
WELL-BEING OR PEACE OF MIND”
Congruence vs.
Incongruence
The higher the congruence –the higher the
self-worth and health productive life.

Incongruence could lead to maladjustment –

the inability to react successfully and
satisfactorily to the demands of one’s
environment.
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