General Education

1. THE SELF,
SOCIETY,
AND
CULTURE

2. From Body and Soul
to Body and Mind
The importance of the relationship
between the self and the external
world

3. “What is the relationship
between external
reality and the self?
3

4. In the famous Tarzan story
● A little boy named Tarzan was left in
the middle of the forest;
● He never had an interaction with any
other human beings but apes and
animals;
● His sole interaction with them made
him like one of them.
4

5. ● Disappointedly, human persons will
not develop like human persons
without intervention.
● After all, our “selves” are not special
because of the soul infused into us.
● We may gifted with intellect and the
capacity to rationalize things;
● Our growth and development, our
“selves” are truly products of our
INTERACTION WITH EXTERNAL
REALITY.
5

6. How would
remember in
one word your
elementary
self?
6

7. How would
remember in
one word your
high school
self?
7

8. How would
remember in
one word your
college
self?
8

9. Want big impact?
Use big image.
9

10. WHAT IS THE SELF?
“ Separate, self-
contained,
independent,
consistent,
unitary, and
private.”
(Stevens, 1996)
10

11. 1. SELF AS SEPARATE
a. Self is distinct
from other selves.
b. It is always
unique and has
its own identity.
c. One cannot be
another person
even twins; 11

12. 1. SELF AS SELF-CONTAINED
AND INDEPENDENT
a. Its distinctiveness
allows it to be self-
contained with its
thoughts,
characteristics, and
volition;
b. It does not require
any other self for it to
exist;
12

13. 3. SELF AS CONSISTENT
a. It has a personality
that is enduring and
therefore can be
expected to persist
for quite some time;
b. Its consistency
allows it to be
studied, described,
and measured.
13
a. Consistency also
means that a
particular self’s
traits,
characteristics,
tendencies, and
potentialities are
more or less the
same.

14. 4. SELF AS UNITARY
a. It is the center of all
experiences and thoughts
that run through a certain
person;
b. It is like the chief
command post in an
individual where all
processes, emotions, and
thoughts converge.
14
.

15. 5. THE SELF AS PRIVATE
a. Each person SORTS
OUT information,
feelings, and
emotions, and
thought processes
within the self;
b. This whole process
is never accessible to
anyone but the self.
15
The self is isolated
from the external
world;
It lives within its own
world;
There is a potential
clash between the self
and the external
world.

16. 5. THE SELF AS PRIVATE
a. For the self, WHAT
IT MIGHT BE, WHAT
IT CAN BE, AND
WHAT IT WILL BE;
b. The self is always at
the mercy of external
circumstances that
bump and collide in
it.
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It is ever changing
and dynamic,
allowing external
influences to take
part in its shaping.

17. VIBRANT RELATIONSHIP OF SELF AND
THE EXTERNAL REALITY
a. This perspective is
known as the
SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTIONIST
PERSPECTIVE;
b. They argue for a
merged view of “the
person” and “their
social context.” 17
Their boundaries of
one cannot easily be
separated from the
boundaries of other.
(Stevens, 1996)

18. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISTS’
ARGUMENT:
a. The self should NOT
be seen as a STATIC
ENTITY that stays
constant through
and through.
b. Rather, the self is
seen as something
that is in
UNCEASING FLUX 18
In constant struggle
with external reality,
and is MALLEABLE in
dealings with society;
The self is always in
participation with
social life and its
identity subjected to
influences here and
there.

19. SELF IS TRULY
MULTIFACETED
A boy named John;
1. A math professor for
more than a decade
now;
2. He has beautiful
wife Joan who was
John’s college
girlfriend and his
first and the last; 19
John has two doting
kids, a son and a
daughter;
John serves as a
lector and a
commentator in the
church;

20. SELF IS TRULY
MULTIFACETED
As a man of different roles,
one can expect John to
change and adjust his
behaviors;
and even the language
depending on his social
situation;
When John is in the
university, he befits his title
as a professor;
20
As a husband, John can
be intimate and touchy;
Joan finds him sweet,
something that his
students will never
conceive him to be;
His kids fear him. As a
father, John can be stern;
His church mates knew
him as calm, all-smiles
guy ready to lend a
helping hand to anyone in
need.

21. “Having different roles is normal,
acceptable, and expected.
The self is capable of morphing
and fitting itself into any
circumstances it finds itself in.
21

22. ● .
22
THE SELF
AND
CULTURE

23. ● Remaining the same person and turning
chameleon by adopting to one’s context
seems paradoxical;
● To Mauss, every self has 2 FACES:
PERSONNE and MOI;
● Moi refers to a person’s sense of who he is,
his body, and basic identity;
● Personne is composed of the social
concepts of what it means to be who he is. 23
French anthropologist,
MARCEL MAUSS

24. ● Personne has much to do with
what it means to live in a
particular institution, a particular
religion, a particular family, a
particular nationality, and how to
behave given the expectations and
influences from others.
24
French anthropologist,
MARCEL MAUSS

25. “How will you identify the
PERSONNE and MOI of John
from the previous story.
25

26. “How do you observe the
behaviors of Filipinos here
and abroad?
26

27. ● In the Philippines, many people violate
jaywalking rules where a common Filipino
treats the road, even national ones, as his
basically his and so he just simply crosses
whenever and wherever;
● When Filipino visits another country with
strict traffic rules like Singapore, you will
notice how suddenly law-abiding the said
Filipino becomes.
27
PERSONNE OF FILIPINO
CROSS-CULTURALLY

28. ● Filipinos tend to consider their territory
as a part of who they are;
● “Tapat mo, linis mo.”
● Filipinos most probably do not consider
national roads as something external to
who they are.
● IT IS PART OF THEM AND THEY ARE
PART OF IT; 28
The Self simply morphed
according to the circumstances
and contexts.

29. ● However, when he is in the
foreign territory where nothing
technically belongs to him. He
has to follow rules or else be
apprehended;
29
The Self simply morphed
according to the circumstances
and contexts.

30. ● Mahal kita = I love you
● The Filipino brand of this articulation
of love, unlike English, does not
specify the subject and the object of
love; who loves and who is loved;
● In Filipino language, there is no
distinction between the lover and the
beloved. They are one.
30
Another aspect of Social
Constructivism: LANGUAGE

31. In Filipino, “mahal” can mean both
“love” and “expensive”,
Love is intimately bound with value,
with being expensive and being
precious;
Something expensive is VALUABLE;
Someone we love is valuable to us.
31
Another aspect of Social
Constructivism: LANGUAGE

32. The Sanskrit origin of the word LOVE is
“lubh” which means DESIRE;
Technically, LOVE IS A DESIRE.
Another interesting of our language is its being
GENDER-NEUTRAL;
English, Spanish, and other languages, there is a clear
distinction between 3rd person female pronoun: HE and
SHE, EL, and Ella. We both it “siya”. 32
Another aspect of Social
Constructivism: LANGUAGE

33. ● .
33
THE SELF AND
THE
DEVELOPMENT
OF THE
SOCIAL WORLD

34. “So, how do people actively
produce their social worlds?
34

35. 35
“Language as both a
publicly shared and
privately utilized symbol
system is the site where
individual and the social
make and remake each
other.” (Schwartz, White,
Lutz, 1993)

36. ● Human persons develop with use of
language acquisition and interaction with
others;
● The way we process information is
normally form of an internal dialogue in
our head;
● So cognitive and emotional development
of a child is always MICMICRY of how it
is done in the social world, in the
external reality where he is.
36
MEAD and VYGOTSKY

37. ● Human mind is made, constituted
through the language as experienced in
the external world and as encountered
in dialogues with others;
● Imagine a child internalizing his
dialogue script while he is playing.
● Notice how children eventually become
what they watch?
● Notice how children can easily adopt
ways of cartoon characters they are
exposed to? Dora for example. 37
MEAD and VYGOTSKY

38. ● .
38
THE SELF IN
FAMILIES

39. ● Sociologists focus on the different institutions
and powers at play in the society;
● The impact of the family is still deemed as a
given in understanding the self;
● Human beings are born virtually helpless and
the dependency period of a human baby to its
parents for nurturing is relatively longer than
most other animals.
39
THE MOST PROMINENT:
FAMILY

40. ● Learning, therefore, is a critical in our
capacity to actualize our potential of
becoming humans;
● Becoming a fully realized human, a child
enters a system of relationships, most
important of which is the family;
● It is what a family initiates a person to
become that serves as the basis for this
person’s progress.
40
THE MOST PROMINENT:
FAMILY

41. ● If a child lives with criticism, he learns to
condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns
violence.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be
shy.
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel
guilty.
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42. ● If a child lives with encouragement, he learns
confidence.
If a child lives with praise, he learns to
appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns faith.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like
himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
he learns to love the world. But if a child lives
with prayer, he learns to love God.
(Dorothy Law Nolte)
42

43. ● .
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GENDER AND
THE SELF

44. ● Gender is one those LOCI of the self
That is subject to alteration, change, and
development;
● In the past years, we have seen 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;
● It is important, point of view of social sciences,
to find, express, and live his identity. 44
GENDER AND SELF

45. ● This forms part of selfhood that one
cannot just dismiss;
● As who he is by taking note of
gender identities;
● Oftentimes, society forces a
particular identity unto us
depending on our sex/and or
gender.
45
GENDER AND SELF

46. ● In the Philippines, husbands for most of
the part are expected to provide for the
family;
● The eldest man in the family is expected
to head the family and hold it in;
● Nancy Chodorow, a feminist, argues on
mother’s role having tendency to imitate
the same and reproduce the same kind
of mentality as women as care providers
in the family;
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GENDER AND SELF

47. ● The gendered self is then shaped
within a particular context of time
and space’
● The sense of self that is being taught
makes sure that an individual fits in
a particular environment;
● Gender has to personally discovered
and asserted and not dictated by
culture and the society.
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GENDER AND SELF

48. Want big impact?
Use big image.
48