PhilCST

PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

Understanding the Self

Chapter 1 – Defining the Self
The Self, Society, and Culture
 PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

The Self, Society, and Culture

• What is the Self?
 The self, in contemporary literature and even common sense, is commonly defined by the following
characteristics: “separate, self- contained, independent, consistent, unitary, and private”.
 Separate: it means that the self is distinct from other selves. The self is always unique and has its own
identity.
 Self- contained and Independent: because in itself it can exist. Its distinctness allows it to be self
contained with its own thoughts, characteristics, and volition. It does not require any other self for it to
exist.
 Consistent: has a personality that is enduring and therefore can be expected to persist for quite some
time. Its consistency allows it to be studied, described, and measured.
 Unitary: self is unitary in that it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a certain
person. It is like the chief command post in an individual where all processes, emotions, and thoughts
converge.
 PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

The Self, Society, and Culture

 Private- each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions, and thought processes within the self.
This whole process is never accessible to anyone but the self.
 PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

Story of Jon
• Consider a boy named Jon. Jon is a math professor at a Catholic school university for more than a decade
now. Jon has a beautiful wife whom he met in college, Joan. Joan was Jon`s first and last girlfriend. Apart
from being a husband, Jon is also blessed with two doting kids, a son and a daughter. He also sometimes
serves in the church as a lector and commentator. As a man of different roles, one can expect Jon to
change and adjust his behaviors, ways, and even language depending on his social situation. When Jon is
in the university, he conducts himself in a matter that befits his title as a professor. As a husband, Jon can
be intimate and touchy. Joan considers him sweet, something that his students will never conceive him to
be. His kids fear him. As a father, Jon can be stern. As a lector and commentator, on the other hand, his
church mates knew him as a guy who is calm, all- smiles, and always ready to lend a helping hand to
anyone in need.
• “The self is capable of morphing and fitting itself into any circumstances it finds itself in”.
PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

The Self, Society, and Culture

PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

The Self, Society, and Culture

 PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

The Self, Society, and Culture

• The Self and Culture
 Remaining the same person and turning chameleon by adopting to one`s context seems paradoxical.
However, the French Anthropologist Marcel Mauss has an explanation for this phenomenon. According to
Mauss, every self has two faces: Personne and Moi.
 Moi: refers to a person`s sense of who he is, his body and his basic identity, his biological givenness. Moi
is a person`s basic identity.
 Personne: is composed of the social concepts of what it means to be who he is. Personne has much to
do with what it means to live in a particular institution, a particular family, a particular religion, a particular
nationality, and how to behave given expectations and influences from others.
 In the story above, Jon might have a Moi but certainly, he has to shift personne from time to time to adapt
to his social situation.
PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

The Self, Society, and Culture

 PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

The Self, Society, and Culture

• The Self and the Development of the Social World
 How do people actively produces their social worlds? How di children growing up become social beings?
How can a boy turn out to just be like an ape? How do twins coming out from the same mother turn out
to be terribly different when given up for adoption?
 More than his givenness, one is believed to be in active participation in the shaping of the self. Most often,
we think the human persons are just passive actors in the whole process of shaping of selves. That men
and women are born with particularities that they can no longer change.
 PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

The Self, Society, and Culture

• Mead and Vgotsky
 For Mead and Vgotsky, the way that human persons develop is with the use of language acquisition and
interaction with others. The way that we process information is normally a form of an internal dialogue in
our head.
 Those who deliberate about moral dilemmas undergo this internal dialogue. “Should I do this or that?”.
“But if I do this, it will be like this”. “Don’t I want another option?”
PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

The Four Way Test

 PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

The Self, Society, and Culture

• Self in Families
 While every child is born with certain givenness, disposition coming from his parents` genes and general
condition of life, the impact of one`s family is still deemed as a given in understanding the self. The kind of
family that we are born in, the resources available to us, and the kind of development that we will have
will certainly affect us as we go through life.
 Without a family, biologically and sociologically, a person may not even survive or become a human
person. Go back to the Tarzan example. In more ways than one, the survival of tarzan in the midst of the
forest is already a miralcle.
PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

Types of Families
 PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

The Self, Society, and Culture

• Gender and the Self
 Another important aspect of the self is gender. Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to
alteration, change, and development. We have seen in the past years how people fought hard for the right
to express, validate, and assert their gender expression.
 Many conservatives may frown upon this and insist on the biological. However, from the point- on- view of
the social sciences and the self, it is important to give one the leeway to find, express, and live his identity.
 LGBT Community: also referred to as the gay community, is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, LGBT organizations, and subcultures, united by a common culture and social
movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality.
PhilCST
PHILIPPINE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
OLD NALSIAN ROAD, BRGY. NALSIAN, CALASIAO, PANGASINAN

LGBT Community