Social/Cultural Self: Socialization & Filipino Identity

Social/Cultural Self Objectives

• Introduce Filipino traditional concepts about the 'self'.
• Discuss renowned Filipinos who shed theories on self including beliefs and traditions.
• Explain the process and theoretical perspective of socialization.
• Identify agents of socialization.
• Demonstrate social responsibility during the pandemic crisis.

Nature of the Self with Society and Culture

• Humans need to socialize with others.
• Socializing helps build confidence and fosters respect through connection.
• John Donne (1572-1631) stated, "No man is an island," indicating that people are never truly alone.

Socialization Defined

• Socialization is a process of involving oneself with others, and becoming a part of a group.
• The group has acceptable ideals, desires, beliefs and ambitions.
• Socialization motivates an individual who performs similar productive aspirations in the community.

Theories of Socialization

• Reinforcement theory claims that individuals can be conditioned to act in any way if the appropriate rewards and punishments are repeatedly applied.
• Cognitive theory is concerned with the internal state of the individual including his perceptions, and his increasing abstract reasoning ability as he learns at varying ages, to participate in society.
• Symbolic interaction theory asserts that individuals create their own solutions to life's problems and that human communication is based on the symbols people attach meaning to.
• Interpersonal Theory (Harry Stack Sullivan's interpersonal, 1953):
  • Focuses on how people interact with each other.
  • Three key components:
    • Complementarity: People form relationships by responding to each other’s behavior and expressions.
    • Vector Length: Measures personality traits and mental health issues.
    • Circumplex Structure: How different traits relate to and intersect with each other.
• Socialization teaches individuals culture's values, norms, and skills while shaping their identity and sense of belonging.
• Socialization occurs through social relationships, where even young children actively participate, shaping their sense of self.

Processes of Socialization

• Cooperation: Interaction that occurs when people work together to achieve shared goals or promote common interests.
• Competition: Occurs when individuals or groups struggle to reach the same goal because of a scarcity of resources, it is regulated by shared rules.
• Conflict: A social process where groups consciously seek to block one another in achieving a desired goal or defeat one another. Involves a struggle over scarce resources not regulated by shared rules.

Factors Affecting Small Group Interaction

• Size:
  • Smaller groups = higher interaction
  • Larger groups = less interaction.
  • As the group size increases, members have fewer opportunities to share opinions and make decisions.
  • Leads to more impersonal, structured, and less satisfying interactions.
• Proximity:
  • The closer people are, the more likely they are to interact.
  • People tend to choose neighbors as friends over those living farther away.
  • Greater physical distance reduces the likelihood of forming friendships.
• Communication patterns: Interaction of group members can either be facilitated or retarded by patterns of communication.
  • All Channel Networks: Each person can interact with every other person with approximately the same ease where each participant has an equal ability to become the focus of attention.
  • Circle Pattern: Interaction is reduced where people can only speak to their neighbors, but does not give one person more power than others.
  • Wheel Pattern: Interaction produced, but also a single pivotal individual gains greater power in the group.

Agents of Socialization

• Family is the primary agent of socialization.
  • It is the first social structure that teaches individuals how to interact with society.
  • Provides essential social information.
• Studies show adolescents raised in authoritarian or permissive homes are more likely to face negative academic outcomes.
• Recommendations:
  • Parents adopt an authoritative-democratic style to boost academic success and parent-child relationships.
  • Parents treat children equally, regardless of gender.
  • Parents enforce consistent discipline.
  • Teachers regularly update parents on their children's school activities.
  • Parents create a secure, supportive, and loving home environment.
• Right to Life of the Unborn and the Mother
  • Human life begins at conception.
  • The unborn child is considered a separate being with the right to life, which the State must protect.
  • The unborn has the right to be born and live with dignity.
  • Section 12 ensures the protection of the unborn, preventing abortion from being legalized.
  • No law or decree can permit abortion, reflecting the Constitution's recognition of the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.
  • Apart from protecting the life of the unborn, the State also has a strong responsibility to protect the health and life of the mother.
  • If it is medically necessary to sacrifice the unborn to save the mother's life, it does not qualify as abortion.
• The school is the formal training to be acquired, contributing to individual moral, social, mental and vocational development.
  • Article II, Declaration of Principles and State Policies of the Philippine Constitution, states that: Both parents and the government are responsible for educating children.
  • The government should assist parents in preparing their children to become responsible citizens and future leaders.
  • The State cannot mandate that children attend only public schools, violating parents' rights to control their children's education since children are not solely the creation of the State.
  • The State has the authority to regulate schools, ensuring children attend, teachers possess good moral character, and essential subjects for good citizenship are taught, while prohibiting harmful content.
• Anti-Bullying Law:
  • Bullying in schools affects students in elementary, high school, and even college.
  • Bullying can seriously harm students' academic performance, personal lives, and social relationships.
  • Bullying refers to any serious or repeated actions, such as written, spoken, or electronic words, physical gestures, or a combination of these, directed at another student.
  • Actions cause fear of physical or emotional harm, damage to property, create a harmful school environment, infringe on the student's rights, or disrupt the school's activities.
  • Includes unwanted physical contact between the bully and the victim, any action that harms the victim's mental or emotional well-being, hurtful or false statements, or cyber-bullying.
• Effects of Bullying: Suicide, declined mental health, and even the use of drugs; depression and anxiety; increased feelings of sadness and loneliness; changes in sleep and eating patterns; loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy.
• Peers: Closed family ties are primary strengths for Filipinos with family members at home; however, this strength can be shaky due to parental absenteeism and barkadas.
  • Parental Absenteeism: One or both parents have transitory absence for years or months working away to find a living.
  • Barkadas: Groups of people from where an individual gets an emotional support, safety and approval.
• Reasons why adolescents engage in sexual intercourse: Carried away by passion; search for intimacy and closeness; satisfy curiosity; prove normality and forced partner; money and drugs; alcohol intoxication; early dating; peer pressure; fun or enjoyment, and rebellion

Problems with Delinquency

• Antisocial and nonlegal acts perpetrated by delinquents range from minor to grave offenses.
  • Vandalism
  • Damage to property
  • Truancy
  • Disobedience
  • Vagrancy
  • Defiance to parents and to persons of authority
  • Gambling accompanied by petty thievery
  • Thrill-seeking (e.g. gate-crashing)
  • Extortion and other sadistic acts
  • Acts of lasciviousness (which are crimes against chastity)
  • Alcoholism and drug addiction
• Mass Media
  • Various forms of communication that reach a large audience without any personal contact between the senders and the receivers of the messages.

Pandemic

• The COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
• The first case was identified on January 30, 2020, involving a 38-year-old Chinese woman confined at San Lazaro Hospital in Metro Manila.
• On February 1, a posthumous test result from a 44-year-old Chinese man turned out positive for the virus, making the Philippines the first country outside China to record a confirmed death from the disease.
• Social Responsibility: The self bears an identity in a social and political system.
• March and Olsen state to have a full obligation and responsibilities to that system as a young Filipino learner, scholar and citizen of the country.
• Quick Response (QR) codes were among headlines newsfeeds on September 16 2020.
• The province of Davao del Norte required that all residents cooperate since it is mandatory.
• Even during the gnashing threat of the corona virus pandemic our culture and its people strive to foster and protect each family members from the pangs of danger.
• Vaccination is a scientific and effective way of helping the body protect from harmful diseases, resistant to infections and boost one's immune system (WHO, 2020).
• Covid-19 vaccines are circulating in various medical centers, which the World Health Organization has widely explained as a means of protection from the outbreak of coronavirus disease.