Module 2: The Self From Various Perspectives - PDF

**MODULE 2 -- The Self from Various Perspectives** ================================================== **Self in Various Perspectives** Understanding the self is essential in every person\'s life. For you to better understand yourself, you must allow yourself to experience self-discovery and self-a...

**MODULE 2 -- The Self from Various Perspectives** ================================================== **Self in Various Perspectives** Understanding the self is essential in every person\'s life. For you to better understand yourself, you must allow yourself to experience self-discovery and self-awareness. **Self-discovery** is the process of learning, understanding, or knowing more about yourself and who you are, becoming aware of one\'s true potential, character, motives, and the like. **Self-awareness** is your knowledge of yourself and your worth as a person. An example of awareness is what you hope to gain from meditating. Self-awareness is a result of doing self-discovery. Knowing oneself is critical to being an effective team member as well as being successful in life, work, and relationships. Your personal identity influences everything you do, and it changes and evolves over time. This module will help us deepen our understanding and appreciation for who we are as a person, giving us the opportunity of exploring how we see ourselves through the lenses of our personal identity, skills and talents, roles, values, personal core, and how you meet your psychological needs. You will also be guided on how to respond to the pressures of changes and transitions in your life.  As we go along, you\'ll discover how your personal identity has been shaped by a variety of people and experiences, and rethink your values, interests, hopes for the future, as well as, your strengths and challenges. You will learn about how your psychological needs are the primary source that motivates and drives your behavior and the critical knowledge about change and how important it is in today's workplace to be adaptive and to embrace change as a personal and professional growth experience.  Our course, \'Understanding the Self\' provides us with this sense of purpose. ### **Concept and Nature of the Self: Who am I?** **What\'s in a name?  **Our names represent who we are. Our names signify us. However, the name is not the person itself no matter how intimately bound it is with the bearer. It is only a signifier. Self is thought to be more than just the name. Self is something that a person perennially molds, shapes, and develops. The self is not static. The sum total of your personality is your **S.E.L.F.**  What you are is a product of your **S**ocial, **E**nvironmental, and other **L**ife **F**actors. What is personality? It is defined as one that is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique.  The self is your total personality. Personality came from the Greek word \'persona\' which means *mask* worn by actors in the theater. We are all actors in the theater called life. As an actor, we wear masks. As an actor, we have roles to play. How many masks do you wear?  Your past makes up a big portion of what makes you what you are right now. But it doesn't define who you are today. You might have come to certain conclusions because of your parents, or have a deeper appreciation for something that you didn't have as a child. Your future can shape what motivates you in life. The root of all change starts with self-understanding. If you don't understand yourself, your efforts will be lost and spent on things that are actually not under your control. **How well do you know yourself? ** To gauge how well you know yourself.  let\'s put it on a short quiz by clicking this site and make sure to indicate your score in our chatbox:  **Issues of the Self** Self-understanding is a journey. There will always be new things to discover about yourself---and new paths to success as a result of that understanding. The way you look at yourself and your relationship with the world defines the kind of person you are.  Understanding this, allows you to examine who you are and more importantly creates who you want to be. Let\'s start with a basic definition of some of the key players that altogether mold us into what we are right now and thus, eventually examine how to create ourselves...To gauge the awareness of and ability to understand one\'s own actions, 'self-understanding is the only key to the successful resolution of any emotional problem.   There are several issues that address the question '**How do we become who we are?' **Such issues explained why we are what we are. **A.  Nature and Nurture** The nature versus nurture debate is one of the oldest philosophical issues within psychology. So, what exactly is it all about? Traditionally, people's answers have placed them in one of two camps: nature or nurture.  The one says genes determine an individual while the other claims the environment is the linchpin for development. \ \ **Nature **is often defined as genetic or hormone-based behaviors, traits, and dispositions. It refers to all of the genes and hereditary factors that influence who we are---from our physical appearance to our personality characteristics. **Nurture** refers to all the environmental variables that impact who we are, including our early childhood experiences, how we were raised, our social relationships, and our surrounding culture. while** nurture **is most commonly defined as environment, culture, and experience. While arguments about the predominance of either nature or nurture are still unresolved, we could settle for an eclectic standpoint of the issue: We can safely assume that the Self is **BOTH** a product of **Nature** and **Nurture.** **B. Self vs. Identity** **Self and Identity** are topics that remain popular not only among psychologists (authors of psychology articles) but also among other social scientists like sociologists, cultural anthropologists, economists, among others. Noticeably, the terms self and identity in various kinds of literature have been loosely interchanged by many authors. For many, there is a very thin conceptual and functional distinction between the two concepts and many people perceive them as synonymous. ***Self:  ***Based on the lexical definition, "the person that someone normally or truly is... or the entire person of an individual*"*. ***Identity*:  **Based on the lexical definition, refers to "the qualities, beliefs, etc., that make a particular person or group different from others... or the distinguishing character or personality of an individual" **C. Dimensionalities of the Self/Identity** A person\'s Identity is highlighted by a dominant trait that makes one distinguishable from others. Imagine, for example, a situation where you are trying to describe a person (whose name you cannot recall); you will find yourself thinking of remarkable traits that would make other people identify or even guess who you are talking about like you may start describing that this person is fat, tall, dark, and many other physical attributes. However, we may fall short of our descriptions since these descriptions might actually be unspecific or not so unique in describing the person. In most cases, the person\'s Identity can be best depicted using certain traits that would set them apart. So, in this case, several observable characteristics should be combined to describe the person effectively. **What is Philosophy?** ======================= #### **The Philosophical View of the Self** Some may argue that philosophy is the essence of education and without knowing your philosophy how can you learn, how can you teach, how can you live? In this module, philosophy will be discussed as an overview to aid in understanding the importance of philosophy as a teacher, educator, parent, or student. The word philosophy is derived from two Greek words. The first word, **Philo**, means "love." The second,** sophy,** means "wisdom." Literally, then, philosophy means "love of wisdom". Each individual has an attitude toward life, children, politics, learning, and previous personal experiences that informs and shapes their set of beliefs. Although you may not be conscious of it, this set of beliefs, or personal philosophy, informs how you live, work, and interact with others. What you believe is directly reflected in both your teaching and learning processes. This chapter explores the various philosophical views that influence the teaching profession.  The term \'philosophy\', as originally used by the Greeks, meant, "The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake." It also investigates the legitimacy of concepts by rational arguments concerning their implications, relationships as well as moral judgment. The philosophical framework for Understanding the Self was first introduced by the ancient great Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Likewise, the different views of other prominent philosophers regarding the nature of the self were discussed in this module. Noticeably, they were one in saying that self-knowledge is actually the prerequisite to a happy and meaningful life. ### **Nature of Philosophy** Philosophy is a way of thinking about anything in the world, the universe. It works by asking very basic questions about the nature of human thought, the nature of the universe, and the connections between them. One philosophical question that we will be focusing on is this: \"What is the self?\". **Philosophy **is a training guide for your mind, showing how you think in clear, analytic, and powerful ways. Studying philosophy in a serious and reflective way will change you as a person.** Learning to think philosophically **will inspire you to be more thoughtful, more open-minded, more attuned to the complexities and subtleties of life, more willing to think critically about yourself and all of life's important issues, and less willing to accept superficial interpretations and simplistic answers.  This is the special power of philosophy: to provide the conceptual tools required to craft a life inspiring in its challenges and rich in its fulfillment. Philosophy is not intended to limit your options or dictate your choices. Your responsibility as a student is to explore, to reflect, to think critically- and then to create yourself in the image you have envisioned. This part of the module is about the ideas discussed by philosophers (who think and write about ways of thinking) about the Self ### **What Philosophy says about the Self** The *Self* has been defined as "as a unified being, essentially connected to consciousness, awareness, and agency (or, at least, with the faculty of rational choice) ". Different philosophers have come up with more specific characteristics of the Self, and over time, these meanings have transformed from pure abstractions to explanations that hold scientific evidence. The Philosophy of the self has been defined through two distinct philosophical lenses:  **Empiricism -** derives explanations of the self from sensory and bodily responses. We know things because we have experienced them through our bodily senses.  **Rationalism** - there is innate knowledge; they differ in that they choose different objects of innate knowledge. Rationalism explains *self* from the standpoint of what is "ideal" and the "truth", not rooted in what is felt by the senses nor our body. **The Classical Antiquity - The Soul is Immortal**   **Socrates: ***"The unexamined life is not worth living" "Know thy Self"* Socrates was believed to be the first thinker to focus on the full power of reason on the human *self - *our existence in the universe, who we are, who we should be, and who we will become. For Socrates, the self exists in two parts: the physical body and the soul. The physical body is a tangible aspect of us. It is mortal (it dies), constantly changing, imperfect, transforming, disappearing. Our soul, which Socrates believed to be immortal, is eternal, unchanging, perfect, or ideal. Socrates believed that there was a soul first before a man\'s body. The soul has all the knowledge that is stored in his mind. However, once he came to the material world or the world of senses, he forgot most of what he knew. This resulted in a lack of knowledge or ignorance, which causes problems for men. Knowledge can be restored through the process of the dialectic method or Socratic method - an exchange of question and answer that ultimately aims to make a person remember all the knowledge that he has forgotten, including his former all-knowing self. Socrates' conviction is conveyed in his famous statement: *\"the unexamined life is not worth living.\" *The most important task one can undertake is to examine one\'s self, for it alone will give one the knowledge necessary to answer the question \'how should I live my life.\' Socrates explained: *\"...once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves, but otherwise, we never shall.\" *Socrates is, eventually, known as the \"father of Western philosophy.\" **Plato: ***"The first and the best victory is to conquer self." * Plato is a dualist; there is both an immaterial mind (soul) and a material body, and it is the soul that represents the self. Plato believed the soul exists before birth and after death. For him, one should care about his soul rather than his body. The soul (mind) is divided into three parts: **Reason **- our divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choices and achieve a true understanding of eternal; **Physical Appetite **- our basic biological needs such as hunger, thirst, and sexual; and **Will or Spirit **- is our basic emotion or passion, such as empathy, aggressiveness, love, anger. The three elements of our "self" are in a dynamic relationship with one another. Sometimes, they work in concert, sometimes in conflict. For instance, we may develop a romantic relationship with someone who is an intellectual companion (Reason) or with whom we are passionately in love (Spirit) and or with whom we find sexually attractive, igniting our lustful appetites (Appetite). In contrast, we may find ourselves in personal conflict with these three parts of our "self". For instance, we may be in a situation where we are torn between three different relationships; each appeal to a different part of our self: Reason, Spirit, Appetite. When conflict occurs, Plato believes it is the responsibility of our reason to sort things out and exert control, re-establishing a harmonious relationship between the three elements of ourselves. Plato believed that true and genuine happiness could only be achieved if we consistently make sure that our reason is in control of our Spirits and Appetites.**                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ** ** ** **Aristotle:  **The Soul Is Immortal Plato's idea of the truth about the human self was even more expounded and formalized by his prized student, **Aristotle**. While Plato emphasized the separation of ideal and phenomenal existence (or being), **Aristotle suggested that the ideal is subsumed in the phenomena.** Aristotle called the **ideal as "*essence***" and the ***phenomena as "matter**".* He also emphasized that the two co-exist and are co-dependent, **the essence provides meaning and purpose to the matter, and the matter provides substance and solidity to essence.** As we may already know, Plato is sure that the true self is the soul, not the body. And to be specific, the true self for Plato is the rational soul which is separable from the body. Aristotle's concept of the self is quite the opposite. Aristotle's concept of the self is more complicated. However, there is one main theme in Aristotle's narrative of the soul that guides us in understanding his concept of the self, that is, the human person is a "rational animal". In other words, for Aristotle, the human person is simply an animal that thinks. **The Middle Ages** **St. Augustine: Christianity** *"**Accepting God is the path to know thyself." ***** ** Augustine believes that man is created in the image and likeness of God, and he is essentially a soul whose goal is to be with God. Augustine\'s sense of self is his relation to God, both in his recognition of God\'s love, and his response to it. It is achieved through self-presentation then self-realization. Augustine believed one could not achieve inner peace without finding God\'s love and through faith and reason, our self seeks to be united with God. Augustine believes that God is transcendent, and everything created by God, who is all good, is good. **The Renaissance** **Rene Descartes:** ***"Cogito ergo sum (I think; therefore I am.)".*** \* *René Descartes is the \"founder of modern philosophy.\" Descartes\' principle, *cogito ergo sum *(Latin), is the keystone of his concept of self. For Descartes, this is the essence of self--- you are a \"thinking thing\" (I exist because I think: I think, therefore I exist). The mind is what matters. But what about your body? Descartes believes that our physical body is secondary to our personal identity. Descartes declares that the *essential self, *or the *self as a thinking entity, *is radically different from the *self as a physical body*. The *thinking self*---or soul---is a non-material, immortal, conscious being, independent of the physical laws of the universe. **The *physical body *is a mortal, non-thinking material that is fully governed by the physical laws of nature.** Further, your soul and your body are independent of one another. Each one can exist and function without the other. This, in a way, echoes the dualism of Plato.**                               ** ** John Locke: **\"*The Self Is Consciousness\"* John Locke is known for his theory that the mind is a ***tabula rasa***, a blank slate. Locke believed that we are born without thoughts, or our mind was empty and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience. According to Locke, our memory plays a key role in our definition of the self. He theorized that we are the same person as we were in the past for as long as we can remember memories from that past. It is our memory or our consciousness of our past that makes us that same person as we were in the past. Thus, to Locke, our conscious awareness and memory of previous experiences are the keys to understanding the self. It is our consciousness that makes possible our belief that we are the same identity at different times and in different places. **David Hume:*** \"There Is No "Self"* David Hume believed that the source of all genuine knowledge is our direct sense of experience. He believes in the existence of the mind, and what's inside the mind is divided into two: impressions and ideas. Impressions are those things we perceive through our senses as we experience them. Like when I see the sky, and my sense of sight tells me I am looking at a blue sky. That is now my impression. Ideas, on the other hand, are those things that we create in our minds even though we are no longer experiencing them. For example, even when I'm already inside my room and can no longer see the sky, I can still think of the idea of the sky, like it's a nice day, it's not likely to rain, maybe I can do the laundry, or maybe I can go out to the park. Whenever we think of simple ideas, it must have as a basis a simple impression. Hume\'s idea of the self follows this philosophical pattern. In his mind, he finds a stream of impressions and ideas, but no impression that corresponds to a self that endures through time. For Hume, the self keeps on changing, like how one looks, one feels, one thinks they constantly change. There is no permanent and unchanging self. A person is a bundle of perceptions. Thus, we cannot observe any permanent self because we continuously undergo change. In conclusion, there is no self. **Immanuel Kant:** \"*We Construct the Self\'* ** **Immanuel Kant refutes Hume's theory that there is no "self" and argues that it is possible to find the essence of the self. For Kant, man is a free agent, capable of making a decision for himself. Man is a free agent, for he is gifted with reason and free will to enable him to organize the data gathered by the senses. From these data and way that we organize them, we can build an idea of who we are.  According to him, the reason is the final authority of morality. Every human being has his inner self and outer self; · The inner self includes rational reasoning and psychological state while the outer self includes the body and physical mind, where representation occurs. **Sigmund Freud** \'*There Are Two Selves, One Conscious, One Unconscious*      Sigmund Freud is not a philosopher, but his views on the nature of the self have a far-reaching impact on philosophical thinking. He is a great influence in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis, the theory he founded. Freud believes that there are two levels of human functioning: the conscious and the unconscious. In his psychoanalytic theory, the conscious refers to all mental processes of which we are aware; the unconscious refers to mental processes that are not easily accessible to our awareness. Freud believes that even if the conscious self plays an important role in our lives, it is the unconscious self that has the dominant influence on our personalities. The unconscious contains basic instinctual drives that include aggressiveness, sexuality, and self-destruction; traumatic memories; childhood fantasies and unfulfilled wishes; thoughts and feelings that would be considered socially taboo. This unconscious level is characterized by the most primitive level of human motivation and functioning. Our most basic instinctual drives in the unconscious level seek immediate gratification or discharge. The impulses at this level are governed solely by the "pleasure principle." Our unconscious self exists and influences us throughout our life. **The Modern Times** **Gilbert Ryle: \"***The Self Is How You Behave\".* Gilbert Ryle simply focused on observable behavior in defining the self. No more inner selves, immortal soul, states of consciousness, or unconscious self: instead, the self is defined in terms of the behavior that is presented to the world. From Ryle\'s point of view, the self is best understood as a pattern of behavior, a person's tendency or disposition to behave in a certain way in certain circumstances. In short, the self is defined by the observable behaviors we project to the world around us. He contends that every human being has both a physical body and a non-physical mind which are ordinarily "harnessed together" while we are alive. However, after the death of the body, our minds may continue to exist and function. This "dualistic" conception of the mind and body is analogous to the dualism of Socrates and Plato who viewed the self as being comprised of a mortal body and an immortal soul, According to him, "**The self is the way people behave"**. The self is basically our behavior. This concept provided the philosophical principle, "I act therefore I am".  In short, the concept means the self is the brain **Paul Churchland: \"***The Self Is the Brain\".* When it comes to learning of human experience, the concept of dualism is that the mind and the body are separate. In other words, we do have a single brain and have a separate mind, too. Paul Churchland disagrees with the concept of dualism. Churchland asserts that since the mind cannot be experienced by the senses, it does not exist. It is the physical brain, not the imaginary mind, that gives us our sense of self. To Churchland, the self is the brain. He focused on the brain states rather than the mental states. Neuroscience is into the fore of understanding the self. When people want to ask what is going on with themselves, they might go for an MRI scan or CT scan to understand the condition of the brain and how it works. Churchland believes that the term "mind," our moods, emotions, actions, consciousness are deeply affected by the state of our brain that altered our actions, and physical state when they are manipulated,  **Maurice Merleau-Ponty: ***The Self is An Embodied Subjectivity* ** **Maurice Merleau-Ponty takes a very different approach to the self. His ideas suggest that there is unity in our mental, physical, and emotional disposition, and they all affect how we experience ourselves. For instance, when you wake up in the morning and experience your gradually becoming aware of where you are or how you feel, what are your first thoughts of the day? Perhaps something like, "Oh no, it's time to get up, but I'm still sleepy, but I have a class that I can't be late for." Note that at no point do you doubt that the "I" you refer to is a single integrated entity, but a blending of mental, physical, and emotional structure around a core identity: yourself. **Our self is a product of our conscious human experience**. The definition of self is all about one's perception of one's experience and the interpretation of those experiences. To Merleau-Ponty, the **self **as **embodied subjectivity.** He entirely rejected the idea of the mind and body dichotomy because, for him, man is all about how he sees himself. ### **What is Sociology?**  Sociology is the study of the role of society in shaping behavior. The sociological perspective of the self looks into self as a social construction, which means that who you are as a person is developed all through your lifetime under the influence of people. The self is shaped through interaction with other people. Through socialization, we develop our personalities and potentialities with the influence of our culture and society. Socialization takes place through the interaction with various agents of socialization, like peer groups and families, plus both formal and informal social institutions, like schools and clubs. While we were born with a genetic makeup and biological traits, who we are as human beings, however, develops through social interaction. Sociology is the study of the role of society in shaping behavior. It focuses on how different aspects of society contribute to an individual's relationship with his world. It tends to look outward (social institutions, cultural norms, interactions with others) to understand human behavior. This part of the module will be focused on the self as perceived by sociologists. We will look into the role of society in how we were shaped as to who we are today. ### **The Self as a Product of Modern Society among other Constructions** Now let us start to explore the "self" as a social construction. The classical sociological perspective of the self holds that, the self is a relatively stable set of perceptions of who we are or our identity is in relation to ourselves, others, and the social world. Our self is socially constructed in the sense that it is shaped through our interaction with other people. The sociological theories of the self try to explain how social processes such as socialization influence the development of the self. **Socialization** is the process of learning one's culture and how to live within it. In other words, it is the process whereby an individual learns to adjust to a group and behave in a way that is approved by the group. Through socialization, we develop our personalities and potentialities with the influence of our culture and society. As with socialization in general, we are not passive participants in this process but rather, have a powerful influence over how this process develops and its circumstances. The person can also be an agent of socialization. The self is constructed based on social roles through socialization agents (family, school, community, etc.). How people understand their sense of selves is closely tied to how they understand the world around them or their relationship with others. ### **The Self and the Social Agencies** Our development is largely influenced by the membership to crucial social groups that shape various aspects of our self; from our beliefs system, values orientation, and manifest behavior. Indeed, we are born into a family and toward the end of our lives, we evaluate our self in the context of our contribution to society, the quality of our social relationships, and how we have helped touch the lives of people we have directly encountered. At the beginning of life, we are surrounded by our **family**. It is the most pervading, influential social that group that impacts ourselves in the entire course of development. The conceptions we hold about our world, the values we uphold in making choices and decisions, and our habits and persistent behavior have been formed in the context of our respective families. Next to family, **schools** form a significant part of our social self. Our world perspectives go bigger as we get exposed to more people and a formal set of standards; but this time, we are expected to meet certain criteria of achievement and oftentimes, in collaborative learning conditions. We harness the knowledge that we get from our mentors and apply the socialization skills we got from our families in developing relationships with our school peers.  The information we glean from books, lectures of our mentors, insights from our classmates is assimilated and imbibed consequently in the inner recesses of our self. Aside from one's family and school, our **communities **also shape our social self to a large extent. From an anthropological and sociological perspective, our cultural beliefs and practices are influenced by what our communities and societies dictate. Values such as faith in God, respect for the elderly, task persistence & dedication, and love for our country are often the products of communal settings we belong to and societal expectations imposed on us. ### **Mead and the Social Self** ** ** George Herbert Mead is a well-known sociologist for his theory of the social self. It is based on the perspective that the self emerges from social interactions, such as observing and interacting with others, responding to others' opinions about oneself, and internalizing them together with one's feelings about oneself. For Mead, our self is not there at birth, but it is developed over time from social experiences and activities. George Herbert Mead believed that as we grow up, our beliefs about how other people perceive us start to become more important. Mead thought that this happens through three different stages: **the preparatory stage, the play stage, and the game stage:**  **A.  Preparatory stage - **Children interact with others through imitation. Children may play with pots and pans when a person is cooking or use a broom when their mothers try to clean but are not really true interactions. As children grow, they begin to focus more on communicating with others as opposed to simply imitating them. They get practice using symbols, things like words and gestures, and other forms of communication, or in other words, language. Then they later manage to master as they grow up. **B. The Play stage** - Children start to become more aware of the importance of social relationships. This is evident in children's tendency to pretend to play like other people. They play mommies or daddies or doctors or chefs, etc. And, whereas before they were incapable of taking on the perspective of others, now they are beginning to focus on role-taking or mentally assuming the perspectives of another person and acting based on their perceived point of view. This might seem like an imitation but goes way beyond it because the children are able to respond. They are not simply capable of mimicking social interactions; they are capable of creating them. **C. The Game stage **-children's understanding of social interactions becomes even more developed. Children begin to understand the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of what Mead referred to as the "generalized other," or the society as a whole. With this comes a full understanding of society. For instance, children begin to realize that people do not only perform in ways according to what they personally believe in but also based on what society expects of them. They start to understand that someone can take multiple roles, that people are not simply moms or doctors or chefs, that they portray other roles all at once. As children begin to acknowledge the generalized other, and also start to realize that people have multiple roles, they begin to understand that other people must have opinions about them and that those perceptions and opinions are influenced by how they act and what they say. As a response, they themselves begin to be influenced by these perceptions, and they start to be concerned about and more conscious of the reactions of others to what they do. However, they don\'t really care about the perceptions of everyone they come across. They are mainly focused on the perceptions of the significant others in their life.  Mead believed that this understanding led to the development of his concept of the "I" and the "me." For Mead, the "me" is our social self, and the "I" is our response to the "me." The "me" is how we believe the generalized others see us and what we learn through interactions with others. On the other hand, the "I" thinks about what those things mean. As an example, the "me" might understand that women in the Philippines typically marry in their 20's, but the "I" might wonder if that is best, if maybe it would be best if some wait longer and delay marrying or if they may be travel or enjoy more their singlehood for a few years. We can also look at the "me" as society's view and then the "I" as the individual identity stepping in, or our personal responses to what society thinks. Even though we see these two parts as conflicting, for Mead, who we are or our actual self is the balance of the "I" and the "me." ### **Cooley and the Looking-Glass Self Theory** One of the pioneer contributors to sociological perspectives was Charles Horton Cooley. He asserted that people's self-understanding is constructed, in part, by their perception of how others view them---a process termed "the looking glass self." For Cooley, we gradually figure out who we are as we grow up. You figure out what you look like by looking in a mirror. However, you figure out who you are through social interactions. The people you interact with become your "mirrors." You see what they think of you when you interact with them, and it changes the way you think of yourself. The process of discovering and experiencing the looking-glass self occurs in three steps: First, we imagine how we appear to others. Second, we imagine the judgment of that appearance. Third, we develop our self (identity) through the judgments of others. In practice, the process might look like this: Someone meets a group of new work colleagues for the first time. This individual believes she can easily demonstrate professionalism and competence to others. During this interaction with her new co-workers, the individual pays attention to her colleagues' body language, word choices, and reactions to the conversation. If these coworkers provide positive feedback, such as maintaining eye contact or offering a firm handshake, the individual's belief in her own professionalism will be upheld. However, if the colleagues provide negative feedback, such as looking away or leaving the conversation quickly, the individual might question how professional they truly are Now, let us try to walk through these steps. Step one, how do other people perceive us? Maybe they think we are smart or funny, or maybe someone comes to us and says, "Wow, I'm impressed with how you did well in school today!" But, a lot of these are just our interpretation or just imagined. So, that is where we base our perception. Possibly, more than what other people are saying. Step two is whether our perception is good or bad. This is our interpretation of the perception. Let us take an example. You may then think that people admire you and see you as a smart, diligent student. And then, the last step is our response. This changes how we see ourselves. Like, if we are getting a lot of positive interpretations or negative ones, it changes a specific way of how we see ourselves. As your response to your interpretation of how other people see you, you try to act smart every time you are in class. The looking-glass self describes the process wherein individuals base their sense of self on how they believe others view them. Using social interaction as a type of "mirror," people use the judgments they receive from others to measure their own worth, values, and behavior.  Cooley's theory is notable because it suggests that self-concept is built not in solitude, but rather within social settings. In this way, society and individuals are not separate, but rather two complementary aspects of the same phenomenon. The process of the looking-glass self is further complicated by the context of each interaction and the nature of the people involved. Not all feedback carries the same weight, for instance. People may take the responses from those whom they trust more seriously than those of strangers. Signals may be misinterpreted. People also usually take their own value systems into consideration when thinking through any changes to their behavior or views of self. Ultimately, the process of the looking-glass self is one of alignment. People constantly seek to create consistency between their internal and external worlds and, therefore, continue to perceive, adjust, and strive for equilibrium throughout their lives. ### **Self as Embedded in Culture** Clifford Geertz (1973), American Anthropologist, aim of most of his work is to provide an understanding and acknowledgment of "thick description" that exists within cultures; understanding other peoples' understandings of things. Cognitive Anthropology sees that culture is made of "psychological structures by means of which individuals or groups guide their behavior" Culture is public because the meaning behind the actions is public Culture is a context, where the behaviors that occur can be described thickly Geertz supported a semiotic approach that would aim to connect and gain access into other forms of cultures He ultimately wanted to try and make thick description possible Geertz argued that in order to interpret culture's symbols, we need to 1.** isolate its elements** 2. **find the relationships between those elements** 3. c**haracterize the whole system in a general way. ** When studying a case using a semiotic concept of culture and an interpretive approach it is necessary to take on a view of "ethnographic assertation as 'essentially contestable'". Developmental Psychologists Catherine Raeff (2010), believed that culture can influence how you view: relationships, personality traits, achievement, and expressing emotions. ##### **Relationships** Culture influences how you enter into and maintain relationships. For example, relationships may be seen as voluntary or as duty-based. In western societies, it is essential for a person to choose whom to marry while some eastern societies still practice arranged marriage. ##### **Personality traits** Culture influences whether (and how) you value traits, like humility, self-esteem, politeness, assertiveness, and so on, as well as how you perceive hardships or how you feel about relying on others. ##### **Achievement** Culture influences how you define and whether you value certain types of individual and group achievements. ##### **Expressing emotions** Culture influences what will affect you emotionally, as well as how you express yourself, such as showing your feelings in public or keeping it private. Anthropologists believe that culture is the full range of learned behavior patterns. Culture, as defined by Sir Edward B. Taylor, founder of cultural anthropology, **is a complex whole that includes knowledge, beliefs, morals, law, customs, arts, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a human as a member of society.** Culture is everything that makes up the way a group of people lives. It includes their beliefs, values, and traditions. The experiences we go through in life are facilitated by the culture we live in because culture provides the environment which allows all these experiences to take place.  There are two components of culture that are essential in understanding how the self is being influenced by it. **Material culture** consists of human technology - all the things that people make and use. These are the physical manifestations of culture. The goods and products we buy and the products we use are also included here.  **Non-material culture** includes intangible human creations like beliefs, values, norms, morals, rules, language, and organizations. This also helps shape our perspective of the society, of ourselves, and even of the material world. For example, the non‐material cultural concept of *religion *consists of a set of ideas and beliefs about God, worship, ethics, and morals. These beliefs, then, determine how the culture responds to its religious issues, topics, and events. Culture helps us define how we see ourselves and how we relate to others. Remember that we differ in many ways: language diversity, cultural diversity, gender diversity, religious diversity, and economic diversity. All these aspects of diversity work together to form our sense of self. Always remember that it is important for you to respect others\' cultures and acknowledge and understand that individuals may not develop a sense of self in the same manner. A family's cultural values shape the development of the child's self-concept. Culture shapes how we each see ourselves and others. For instance, some would now, take a moment to reflect on the influence your culture has had on your sense of self. To find yourself and truly know who you are, knowing your roots is just the foundation. Remember, culture influences us in more ways than we may know. So, take a moment and reflect on who you are, where you come from, and what you believe in. Self-reflection is the first step of self-discovery.  ### **What are the components of Culture?** Culture is made up of many elements which are interrelated and unified in order for all its aspects to function effectively: **Knowledge - **The total range of what has been learned or perceived as true. This body of information is accumulated through experience, study or investigation.  Culture includes natural, supernatural, technical (technological) and magical knowledge. **Social Norms - **Norms are rules or group expectations of how one should behave or act in certain situations. They define what behavior is required, acceptable, or appropriate in particular situations. Any departure from the norm is followed by some kinds of punishment or sanction. **Folkways - **Folkways are commonly known as the customs, traditions and conventions of society. They are the general rules, customary and habitual ways, and patterns of expected behavior within the society where they are followed, without much thought given to the matter. Folkways include innumerable group expectations like rules of eating, drinking, dressing, sleeping, dancing, and working, forms of greetings, rituals, and polite behavior in institutional settings. **Mores - **Mores are special folkways which are important to the welfare of the people and their values.  They are social norms associated with strong moral sanctions, they are the "must" and "should" of a society.  Observance of mores is compulsory. They embody the codes of ethics and standards of morality in a society.  Most of the mores have been enacted into laws. ** Laws - **Laws are formalized norms, enacted by people who are vested with government power and enforced by political and legal authorities designated by the government.  Laws are enforced by formal sanctions like fines, imprisonment, or death.