SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE.docx

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are, undergoes a transformation. \- Jiddu Krishnamurti **The Self as a Product of Modern Society** Sociology is the scientific study of human social life, groups, and societies with emphas...

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are, undergoes a transformation. \- Jiddu Krishnamurti **The Self as a Product of Modern Society** Sociology is the scientific study of human social life, groups, and societies with emphasis on modern industrialized systems. Sociology not only explores how things happen but also why they happen. Society has changed significantly through the process of modernization and these changes have affected the way individuals build up and develop their self-identities. In pre-modern societies life was only centered on survival, individuals behaved according to rules and traditions, the family and nearest environment provided people with social supervision and guidance on how to get through life. With modernization, the living conditions have improved and people\'s choices and freedom about what to do with their lives have increased. Everything is subject to change, and the changes happen much more rapidly than ever before in human history. Individuals therefore need to be constantly reviewing and modifying their identities in accordance with the changes within society and all decisions, no matter how small, affect the development of the self-identity. All consequences of modernization are ambiguous and have major impact on the individuals\' lives, the development of their self-identities and the relationships between people. The process of finding oneself is enforced upon all individuals a process of continuous transformation. Self-identification becomes a reflexive project of each individual in modernity. Individuals create and reform their identities through choice, and due to the reflexive nature of modern self-identification, everyday decisions and behavior become more relevant in this process than they were in traditional societies. Increased choice does not, however, mean that people have full control over their lives or the shaping of their identities. Reflexive self- awareness provides the individual with the opportunity to construct self-identity without the shackles of tradition and culture in one\'s self-understanding. From a classical sociological perspective, the self is a relatively stable set of perceptions of who we are in relation to ourselves, to others and to social systems. The self is socially constructed in the sense that it is shaped through interaction with other people. In modern societies --- by which we mean not \'societies today\" but societies where modernity is well developed --- self-identity becomes an inescapable issue. Even those who would say that they have never given any thought to questions or anxieties about their own identity inevitably have been compelled to make significant choices through their lives --- from everyday questions about clothing, appearance, and leisure to high-impact decisions about relationships, beliefs, and occupations. **ANTHONY GIDDENS: Modernity and the self** British sociologist, Anthony Giddens is known for his holistic view of modern societies. He acknowledges that previous conventions of selfhood have been uprooted, but discounts the post- modern possibility of self-dissolution. Giddens sees the contemporary self as \"dissolved or dismembered by the fragmenting of experience.\" One of the consequences of living in late modernity, Giddens believes is the threat of personal meaninglessness and existential isolation. The self is not a passive entity. It is a reflexive, re-appropriating and re-skilling body. Risk is an important feature of modern life. Giddens quotes from a book on self-therapy, \"If your life is ever going to change for the better, you will have to take chances.\" Risk is not only inherent in monetary investments but in investment in social relations as well. This goes with freedom of choice. In making our choices, we trust that we do the right thing, and nothing bad will come from it. Thus, in modern life, trust is intimately related to risk. In a small pre-modern community where, one knows other people intimately, he does not have to trust them because they are completely familiar. It is only if they are not familiar that trust becomes a prerequisite meaningful behavior. Giddens added that the plastic credit card is a symbol of both trust and risk in modern society. As Giddens (1991) puts it: What to do? How to act? Who to be? These are focal questions for everyone living in late modernity. All of us would answer either randomly or through day-to-day social behavior. Modernity has the following features: - The self is not something we are born with and it is not fixed. - Instead, the self is reflexively made thoughtfully constructed by the individual. - We all choose a lifestyle even if we would not call it one. - Relationships are increasingly like the \"pure relationship\" of equals where everything has to be negotiated and there are no external reasons for being together. - We accept that all knowledge is provisional and may be proved wrong in the future. - We need trust in everyday life and relationships or we would be paralyzed by thoughts of unhappy possibilities. - We accept risks, and choose possible future actions by anticipating outcomes. Social changes brought about by changes in how individuals view life which in turn stem from social influences and observations do happen in a modern society. These developments are also a product of changes in the laws, but the demand comes from the level of everyday lives. The mass media is also likely to influence perceptions of individuals. The news and factual media give information about the findings of lifestyle research and actual social changes in family life. Information and ideas from the media do not merely reflect the social world but contribute to its shape and are central into modern reflexivity. **THE REFLEXIVE PROJECT OF THE SELF** If the self is \"made\" rather than inherited or just passively static, what form is it in? What is the thing that we make or create of ourselves? Giddens says that in the post traditional or modern order, self-identity becomes a reflexive project - an endeavor that we continuously work and reflect on. We create, maintain, and reverse a set of biographical narratives the story of who we are and how we came to be where we are now. Self-identity, then, is not a set of traits or observable characteristics. It is a person\'s own reflexive understanding of his biography. Self-identity has continuity - that is, it cannot be easily completely changed at will- but that continuity is only a product of the person\'s reflexive beliefs about his own biography. A stable self-identity is based on an account of a person\'s life actions, and influences which makes sense to himself and which can be explained to other people without much difficulty. It explains the past, and is oriented towards an anticipated future. The question of self-identity is b6und up with the fragile nature of the biography which the individual relates about himself. A person\'s identity is not to be reflected in the behavior or reactions of others but in the capacity to keep a particular going and is consistent. It must continually integrate events of his life which occur in the external world, and sort them into the ongoing story about the self. A self-identity is not an objective description of what a person is \"like\" and not what others would expect to be. The ability to maintain a satisfactory story is paramount to believe in oneself and command the respect of others. A strong narrative which can explain everything that has happened and in which one plays a heroic role is what is expected. Pride and self-esteem are based on confidence in the integrity and value of the narrative of self-identity. Lifestyle choices can also influence one\'s self-identity. The choices one makes in modern society may be affected by the weight of tradition on the one hand, and a sense of relative freedom on the other. Everyday choices of what to eat, what to wear or who to socialize with are all decisions which position one\'s self as one kind of person and not another. As Giddens says, *\"The more modern the setting in which a person moves, the more lifestyle concerns the very core of self-identity, its making and remaking. "*A person might have more than one lifestyle, each one reserved for the social group or associates he is with at a certain time. **CHARLES HORTON COOLEY: The Looking Glass Self** Charles Horton Cooley, an American sociologist, is best known for his image of the \"looking-glass self.\" Just as a mirror reflects a reverse image, a person\'s perception of himself/ herself is never direct. Rather he/she sees himself/ herself reflected back in the reactions of others. According to Cooley, man\'s idea of himself come from three concepts --- his imagination on how he appears to others, how he thinks others judge his appearance, and how he feels about all these. In other words, his sense of self is more like a process than a fixed object. It is developing continuously as he interacts with others, whose opinions of him are ever shifting. For example, a child who hears only positive feedbacks from his parents may get confused when a teacher\'s reactions indicate a less than satisfactory performance. Cooley\'s looking-glass imagery, however, does not imply that the child or the adult is a passive receiver of impressions. On the contrary, a person actively manipulates the reactions of others, selects which cues to follow, and judges the relative importance of others. Not all reflected images influence the self-process. In general, man tends to accept impressions that reinforce a basic identity and to resist those do not. **GEORGE HERBERT MEAD: The self, \"Me\" and "I"** One of the most important sociological approaches to the self was developed by American sociologist, George Herbert Mead. He presented the self and the mind in terms of a social process. He claims that there are series of actions that go on in the mind to help formulate one\'s complete self. Mead\'s theory of the self is based on the perspective that the self emerges from social interactions such as observing and interacting with others, responding to others\' opinions, and internalizing about one\'s self. According to Mead, the self is not these from birth, but it is developed over time from social experiences and activities. Mead\'s self is not a mere passive reflection of social norms (standards). Rather, the self is dynamic, always in the process of formation, ever capable of change. He distinguished two aspects of self: the \"ME\" and the \"I.\" The \"ME\" is considered the socialized aspect of the individual. The \"ME\" is the social self and the \"I\" is the response to the \"ME.\" The \"I\" is the person\'s impulses. The \"ME\" represents learned behaviors, attitudes, and expectations of others and of society. The \"ME\" is considered a phase of the self that is in the past which has been developed by the knowledge of society and social interactions that the individual has gained. The \"I\" therefore, can be considered the present and the future phase of the self. The \"I\" represents the individual\'s identity based on response to the \"ME.\" The \"I\" says okay. Society says, \"I should behave and socially interact; I think I should act the same as others or perhaps different, and that notion becomes the self. The \"I\" and the \"ME\" have a didactic (instructive) relationship, like a system of checks and balances. The \"ME\" exercises societal control over one\'s self and prevents someone from breaking the rules or boundaries of societal expectations. The \"I\" allows the individual to express creativity and individualism, and understands when to bend and stretch the rules that govern social interactions. **The \"I\" and the \"ME\" make up the Self.** **CREATING A SELF** Role-taking is the key mechanism through which people develop a self and the capacity to be social. Role- taking is the process through which we place our self in the role of another in order to see our own self and in order to see how they want us to act. The self is a perspective. A perspective is always a meaning-creating position. It is a viewpoint from which to consider our behavior and give them meaning and by definition, perspective is something other than the object. In this case, the self is the perspective and the object is our actions, feelings or thoughts. Taking this perspective, the self is how all these personal qualities and behaviors become meaningful objects. Mead identified four stage-processes by which the self is developed. 1\. Before the self begins to form there is the **preparatory stage** where infant dependency and forced interaction are manifested. When babies are hungry, tired or wet, they cannot take care of themselves. Instead they use \"unconventional gestures\" that may not mean the same to the sender and hearer. The babies cry and the caregivers must figure out what the baby needs. Parents tend to vocalize their behaviors. Babies eventually discover that if they mimic their parents, they will get their needs met sooner. This is the beginning of language acquisition which allows the child to symbolize and eventually symbolically manipulate their environment, including self and others. **Language** develops self by allowing individuals to respond to each other through symbols, gestures, words and sounds. Language conveys other\'s attitudes and opinions towards somebody. Emotions such as anger, happiness, and confusion are also conveyed. 2\. The second stage in the process of self-formation is the **play stage**. During this stage, the child can take the role of certain significant others --- those upon whom he depends for emotional and often material support. These are the people with whom he has long-term relations and intimate ties. At this stage, children must literally play at being some significant others in order to see themselves. A child literally gets outside of him in order to see the self. Children play at being Mommy, Daddy, or Teacher. The child will hold a doll or teddy bear and talk to it as if she were the parent/ teacher. She is seeing herself from the point of view of the parent/ teacher. As the child acts toward herself as others act, she begins to understand self as a set of organized responses and becomes a social object to herself. **Play** develops self by allowing the child to take on different roles, pretend and express expectations of others. Play develops his self-consciousness through role playing. During role playing, the child is able to internalize the perspective of others and develop an understanding of how others feel about themselves and others in varied social situations. 3\. The next stage in the development of self is the **game stage**. During this stage, the child can take the perspective of several others and can take into account the rules of society. Children at this stage can role-take with several people and are very concerned with social rules. But they still do not have a fully formed self. That does not happen until they can take the perspective of the \"generalized other\" which provides him with a self. **Games** develop self by allowing individuals to the rules of the activity. Self is developed by understanding that there are rules in which one must abide by in order to win the game or be successful at an activity. 4\. The **generalized other** (stage) refers to sets of attitudes that an individual may take toward him- or herself. The generalized other allows the individual to have a \'less segmented self as the perspectives of many others are generalized into a single view. It is through the generalized other that the community exercises control over the conduct of its individual members. Up to this point, the child has only been able to role-take with specific others. The self is now complete at this stage. **ERVING GOFFMAN: The Presentation of the Self** For Erving Goffman (1922-1983), a Canadian-American sociologist, personality or self-identity is actually a self-presentation, that is, an impression that we present to others. The self, then, always risks being rejected and every encounter becomes a drama in which we \"manage\" the impression we give so that others will accept who we claim to be. In his book, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life, Goffman (1959) showed how carefully we construct a presenting self as the \"real me\" in order to influence the reactions of role partners and to control the situation. In this view, a self exists for every situation. Goffman mentions a virtual self or possible self that awaits us in every role what society expects of us in that role. Whatever our innate (inborn) tendencies and abilities are, each role offers us an opportunity to become a particular type of person. As Goffman quotes: \"We are all actors trying to control and manage our public image; we act based on how others might see us.\" Some possible selves are not very appealing to our self-image. For example, some homemakers may reject the identity offered by that role, and some students who have part-time jobs at fast-food counters may resist being thought of as \"hamburger helpers\". In this case, there may be a gap between self-image and the virtual self-in-the-role. Goffman used the term role distance to describe the space that a person places between the real self and the self-in-the-role. People use several distancing techniques to warn others not to take them as the virtual self that is implied in the role. Some students who have had temporary jobs like waiters, utility person, cashiers and the like, who may consider their status as inferior to their true status, have probably let others know that they are really college students or on their way to better situations. Perhaps they brought a textbook to the job site so that no one could possibly take them seriously in such a role**. Role distance** protects the self and offers some freedom for the expression of personal style. In many situations, however, we have little choice but to become the self-in-the-role. **JEAN BAUDRILLARD: The Consumer Society** From his book, The Consumer Society, French sociologist Jean Baudrillard described how commodities, media, and technologies provide a universe of illusion and fantasy in which individuals become empowered by consumer values, media ideologies, and technologies like computers which provide worlds of cyberspace. His main focus is upon consumerism. It is consumption rather than production that is the main driver of society, that needs are constructed rather than innate. For Baudrillard, the entire society is organized around consumption and display of commodities through which individuals gain prestige, identity, and social standing. Objects always say something about their users. The more prestigious one\'s commodities are --- houses, cars, clothes, properties and the like the higher one\'s standing in society is. He further analyzed how the commodity and commodification permeates social life and how it dominates the individuals\' thoughts and behavior. For him, reification --- the process whereby human beings become dominated by the value of things and become more like the things they value --- governs their social life. This is a way of inserting oneself within the consumer society and working to differentiate oneself from the others. According to Baudrillard there are four (4) processes by which an object obtains value. These are: 1\. **The functional value of an object** ---its instrumental purpose, its utility value. A pen, for instance, writes, a refrigerator cool. 2\. **The exchange value of an object**--- its economic value. One pen may be worth 5 pencils and one refrigerator may be worth the salary earned for three months of work. 3\. **The symbolic value of an object**--- a value that a subject assign to an object in relation to another subject, between a giver and a receiver. A pen might symbolize a student\'s school graduation gift or a commencement speaker\'s gift or a diamond ring may be a symbol of marital love. 4\. **The sign value of an object** --- its value within a system of objects. A particular pen may, while having no added functional benefit, signify prestige relative to another pen. A diamond ring may have no function at all, but may suggest particular social value, such as taste or class. Baudrillard claims that commodities are bought and displayed as much for their sign value rather than their use value.