Sociological Perspective: The Self as Product of Society PDF

Sociological Perspective The Self as a Product of Society Sociological perspective of the self is based on the assumption that human behavior is influenced by group life. A particular view of oneself is formed through interactions with other people, groups, or social ins...

Sociological Perspective The Self as a Product of Society Sociological perspective of the self is based on the assumption that human behavior is influenced by group life. A particular view of oneself is formed through interactions with other people, groups, or social institutions. For sociologists like Mead and Cooley, the self does not depend on biological predispositions; rather, it is a product of social interaction. The sense of self emerges as the individual partakes in the society. While the individual seeks for solid and stable self identity in modern society, the postmodern individual tries to avoid fixation and keeps the options open for self-improvement. French sociologist Jean Baudrillard posits that in the postmodern society, the self is found in the prestige symbols of goods consumed by people. The postmodern person has become an insatiable consumer. Therefore, if people desire to be satisfied with things in life, they should not be persuaded by the postmodern culture of advertisements and mass media which suggest false needs. Sociology as a scientific study of social groups and human relationships generates new insights into the interconnectedness between the self and other people. Hence, sociologists offer theories to explain how the self emerges as a product of social experience. The looking-glass self by Charles Horton Cooley and the theory of the social self by George Herbert Mead are helpful in understanding how a person views himself or herself as he or she interacts with the social environment that includes family, school, peer groups, and mass media. Sociologist Charles Horton Cooley in 1902 introduces the looking-glass self to highlight that the people whom a person interacts with become a mirror in which he or she views himself or herself. Self-identity or self-image is achieved through a threefold event which begins by (1) conceiving an idea of how a person presents himself or herself to others, (2) how he or she analyzes how others perceive him or her, (3) and how he or she creates an image of himself or herself. Since these perceptions are subjective, a person might have wrong interpretations of how other people evaluate him or her. It would be critical if he or she thinks that others judge him or her unfavorably because he or she could develop a negative self-image (Kendall, 2013; Macionis, 2015; Schaefer, 2014) Another sociologist, George Herbert Mead, supports the view that a person develops a sense of self through social interaction and not the biological preconditions of that interaction. Mead’s theory of the social self explained that the self has two divisions: the “I” and the “me.” 11  The “I” is the subjective element and the active side of the self. It represents the spontaneous and unique traits of the individual. The “me” is the objective element of the self that represents the internalized attitudes and demands of other people and the individual’s awareness of those demands. The full development of the self is attained when the “I” and the “me” are united. According to Mead, the self is not present at birth. It develops only with social experience in which language, gestures, and objects are used to communicate meaningfully. Since there is meaning in human actions, a person infers people’s intention or direction of action, which may lead him or her to understand the world from other’s point of view – a process that Mead labels as role-taking. Then he or she creates his or her own role and anticipates how others will respond. When he or she performs his or her own particular role, he or she becomes self-aware. The self continues to change along with his or her social experience. In other words, no matter how much the world shapes a person, he or she will always remain a creative being, ad be able to react to the world around him or her (Kendall, 2013; Macionis, 2015). Mead details the development of the self in a three –stage process: 1. Preparatory stage (0-3 years old) – children imitate the people around them, especially family members with whom they have daily interaction. But they copy behavior without understanding underlying intentions, and so at this stage, they have no sense of self. During this stage, children are just preparing for role-taking. 2. Play stage (3-5 years old) – children start to view themselves in relation to others as they learn to communicate through language and other symbols. At this stage, role taking is exhibited; however, children do not perceive role- taking as something expected of them. The self emerges as children pretend to take the roles of specific people or significant others, those individuals who are important agents of socialization. At this stage, the self is developing. 3. Game stage (begins in the early school years; about 8 or 9 years old) – children understand not only their own social position but also those of others around them. At this stage, children become concerned about and take into account in their behavior the generalized others which refer to the attitudes, viewpoints, demands, and expectations of the society which include cultural norms and values that serve as references in evaluating oneself. This time, they can have a more sophisticated look of people and an ability to respond to numerous members of the social environment. During this stage, the self is now present. 12 THE SELF AS A PRODUCT OF MODERN AND POSTMODERN SOCIETIES Gerry Lanuza’s (2004) article, “The Constitution of the Self,” discusses the relationship between society and the individual. According to him, in modern societies the attainment and stability of self-identity are freely chosen. It is no longer restricted by customs and traditions. While this newfound freedom offers infinite possibilities for self- cultivation, problems such as alienation and dehumanization of the self also appear which hinder the full development of human potentials. Hence, there is a need to discover the “authentic core” of the self for the individual to freely work towards self-realization. Whereas the dissolution of traditional values and communities in modern society has led the individual to construct a solid and stable self-identity, the postmodern individual welcomes all possibilities for self-improvement. In postmodern societies, self identity continuously changes due to the demands of multitude of social contexts, new information technologies, and globalization. French sociologist Jean Baudrillard exposes the negative consequences of postmodernity to individuals in the society (Demeterio, 2013). For him, consumption structures the postmodern society. The postmodern individuals achieve self-identity through prestige symbols that they consume. Individuals seek for a position in society through the quality of prestige symbols that they can afford to consume. The cultural practices of advertising and mass media greatly influence individuals to consume goods not for their primary value and utility but for the feeling of goodness and power when compared with others. Hence, the postmodern person had become an insatiable consumer and may never be satisfied in his or her life. For example, buying expensive mobile phones not merely as a useful communication device, but because of its prestige symbol, and then desiring to buy a new one when you learn that a new and more prestigious model is out in the market, or when you discover that other people are using more expensive ones. Therefore, the self may be in a never- ending search for prestige in the postmodern society. 13