Hello everyone, for today we are going to talk about another perspective in understanding the self and today we're going to adopt the lens of sociology or the study of groups of people and how do these groups that we belong to affect how we behave, our values, our beliefs, and how do these groups define our identity. So, let's get started. Today we're going to talk about the sociological self. Okay, so now let's open the discussion with one interesting quote here.
So it says here this quote that not only the self is entwined in society, it owes society its existence in the most literal sense. So if we're going to take a careful look at what this quote is trying to tell us, basically it's telling us that the self will not exist without a society. So I think that raises a lot of questions. This is debatable, but this is the perspective of sociology.
And we can understand their perspective because in their perspective, it's very important for them to understand groups of people and how do these groups affect the individual. On the other hand, when we get to psychological self, we're going to start with the individual. There's more importance given to the uniqueness of the individual than the characteristic or the shared characteristic of the group that he belongs to.
But if we're going to use the lens of sociology in this discussion, basically it's telling us that without the society, there will be no self. Okay, so you Maybe that's not true. That will not apply all the time.
Because imagine if somebody grows in the absence of parents, in the absence of immediate family. But I think there will be a very low chance that something like that would happen. Maybe something like that would happen in the movies or in cartoons, but not in real life.
So I would guess that all of us here listening to this lecture, belongs to a certain society. Hence, we cannot disprove what this theory or what this quote is trying to tell us. Because all of us belong in the society at some point in our life.
And right now, believe it or not, whoever you are, there is influence by the society that you belong in. The question here is that we may not be. Are you conscious about your characteristics that came from the society that you belong in?
Okay, and sometimes we only get conscious about these shared characteristics when we are exposed to another culture. Okay, so say for example, during the first time that you learned how to speak English, I'm assuming that all of you, that your first language is Filipino. Okay, in the first time that you learn to use English or to speak English, you're looking for the frontal parts. of po and opo.
Okay because in our culture it's very important that you use po and opo for you to sound respectful especially when talking to adults. However, when you learn how to speak English such words or such concepts do not exist. Okay so now you're conscious that this is something that makes me a Filipino.
These words are absent in the US or in English-speaking countries. So if such word or such concept is absent in their culture, then perhaps they don't pay that much attention to that behavior, to that value, or to that belief. So it would be more interesting if I have some international students because you can share a lot about your culture of origin. See, for example, maybe there will be some of you who came from Japan. And if you're Japanese, I know that you're very respectful because in your culture, respect is very, very important.
That's why you have honorifics to adults and even to those who are younger than you. Okay, but going back to the English language, there's no such thing as a word before you say the name of your older brother or older sister. But for them, it's complete. normal to address their older siblings by diversity. So you see not only the self is entwined in society but Rather, does it owe society its existence?
Okay? Not just for me, not just literally, but also figuratively. And we are not conscious about everything that the society has contributed to our personality. So right now, ask yourself, what are the things that you learned from your culture that you're proud of? And what are the things that you're not so proud of?
What are the... If you're going to reset the Filipino culture, what are the characteristics or what are the traditions that you want to change? Again, that will be a very, very interesting discussion. Say, for example, going the concept called Filipino time or being late in most of your appointments or crab mentality.
Maybe you're not so conscious about it, but ask yourself right now. To what extent has crab mentality affected my day-to-day behaviors? Okay, and it's also important to think as time goes by, how did your views as a Filipino or as an individual change in response to your culture?
Did you simply adapt the views of your culture or are you aiming to change the mainstream culture? Okay, so this quote here opens the floor. for a good number of discussions.
Let me share another example to you. In social psychology, typically we begin the discussion by asking the students to write five sentences that are fill in the blanks and the format is I am blank. And what they observe is that if you belong to an eastern country. People are more likely to say things like, I am a student, I am a member of my family, I am a member of my organization, I am a Filipino. But when they ask the same questions to those who belong to Western cultures, their answers are typically about themselves, not about the groups that they belong to.
They are more likely to say things like, I am going to be an artist. I am responsible. I am intelligent. I am a psychology student.
Both sentences from both Eastern and Western contexts define the self, but the way that these sentences define the self differs. Because when a Westerner defines himself or herself, the definition comes from within, while on the other hand, when... Easterners define the self, the definition comes from both outside and inside. But I would say most Filipinos would anchor their definition of the self from the outside.
We are so attuned to what people around us think. We cannot disregard what they think. We cannot disregard their opinions. Of course, you have to consider what your family have to say about you. You have to consider about the values of the society.
You cannot just pursue a goal. that is against the beliefs of the society that you belong to or else you will be considered someone who is not part of the society. You have to consider the feelings of the people around you okay and that's just part of our culture that defines who we are.
I'm not saying that it's positive all the time but that's basically how we define ourselves most of the time and it's very rare for us. to be very individualistic. So I've said a word, Westerners adopt what we call an individualistic culture while Easterners adopt what we call collectivistic culture. So we are one of the cultures that are very collectivist. We live with our family members until we get old because that is just normal for us.
However, this may also lead to some negative outcomes but That's a discussion for another day. Of course, we also have what we call toxic Filipino cultures. But anyway, let's talk about what I put on the slide here. So, what is the core value of a person?
So, you might say that that can be loyalty, being hardworking, intelligence, helping, good citizenship. But according to one perspective, which is the perspective of Filipino psychology, psychology is which was led by Dr. Virgilio Enriquez. According to his perspective, according to our perspective, because we all So the Filipino psychology, kapwa is the core value of the Filipino.
Hence, we do not define ourselves just by looking inside. We define ourselves by looking outside. And the way that we define ourselves is in terms of our shared identity with others.
Because by definition, kapwa is the shared identity. Okay? For a Filipino, everyone is considered a kapwa.
There are two types of kapwa in this theory, ibang tao and hindi ibang tao. When we say ibang tao, these are the other people that you're not so close to. This person may be a stranger or someone you know from school that you were never able to interact with.
Well, on the other hand, we also have what we call hindi ibang tao or these are the people who are close to us like our family or our close friends. Okay, and here's one important implication of this theory. Basically, this theory is saying that even though we consider everyone as kapwa, there are levels of pakikipagkapwa. Hence, I will consider someone as close to me and someone as not close to me.
But you can make your way through the hierarchy. The more you interact with each other, the closer you get to each other. the more you improve your relationship and the closer you are to each other the more that you anchor your identities okay from the perspective of each other say for example in your family if you're very close to the every members of your family you are more likely to have the same beliefs the same values the same attitudes and it's very hard to break those collective values So basically, that's the most important thing for us according to this viewing. The kapwa, and the kapwa is not limited to family or friends. Kapwa includes even a stranger.
Okay? So, our core value is not the self. The self is not the most important concept for us. But rather, it's our connection with other people.
Again, everything that we do, we do not just think about ourselves, but rather, we also think about... what others would feel was a product of modern society. The East.
Unlike what I've been saying earlier that we are very Eastern, apparently that's not always the case because some theories would argue that we are influenced by both the East and the West. Okay, so compare our culture with other Asian countries Okay, it seems to me like we're the most Americanized in comparison to other Asians We're the country that speaks English a lot Okay, even kids in our country learn English at a very young age okay, and that and sometimes It's one of the things that We use to define a person or to define the worth of the person. Sometimes we have this implicit belief that if a person doesn't know how to speak English, then he is not that smart or he is not that intelligent. Unfortunately, that's the case.
But I wonder, how do you think things would differ if we were not colonized by the colonizers in the past? How are we going to look like? Are we going to use the bye-bye in English? instead of the alphabet?
What would be our values? Are we going to have our American first names and our Spanish surnames. Okay, so basically, that's how the society influences.
The next is that, how do you affect the society? So I think the first one is more observable than the second one because it's hard for an individual to affect the society. So it's hard to call for a change, especially if a certain belief has been there for quite some time. Say for example, unfortunately here in the Philippines, we have a very negative attitude towards mental illness. As a mental health professional, it's our mission to change the view of the public about mental health and convince them that mental health is just as important as physical health.
However, we are not there yet. We have a lot of steps to take. before the person affects the society as a whole. So it's not a single step process, but rather it will take a lot of years to change an existing culture.
And who are you as a person in the community? So how do you define yourself? Are you part of the young ones who is going to make a change in the society? Or are you part of the young ones who are going to make a change in the society? or do you identify with the older ones and you say that there's nothing that we can do with the problems in this country okay so who are you as a person in the community what is your role what do you want to be okay what what is um what is your contribution to the society what is your profession okay are you a student leader are you a student of psychology are you a student of tourism are you a student of business etc okay so Basically, in the sociological perspective, we consider not only how the society affects us, but how the person tries to influence the bigger society.
Sociology posits that socially formed norms, beliefs, and values come to exist within the person, thus developing the identity. When we get to other perspective, you will learn that the self-developed, from different in different stages and there are different theories like Sigmund Freud would talk about sexual stages some would talk about cognitive stages like P and J but in the sociological perspective the development of the person is highly influenced by three important things first the norms so what is considered normal in your society Okay, what is acceptable? In your society, is it acceptable if you have two or more spouses?
Or should you stick to one partner in your life? Okay, so the norms affect what we consider normal and what we consider as not normal, what is desirable and what is undesirable. It affects our beliefs.
Sometimes we pressure ourselves because we do not conform to the beliefs. Say for example, Filipinos will have a very negative attitude towards mental illness. Did that affect your personal belief as well? Or are you one of those who try to change this negative idea about mental illness and you want to replace it with a positive attitude towards mental health and mental illness? Okay, so we may not be conscious about all the beliefs that we hold because sometimes we have been able to incorporate these beliefs without being conscious about them.
Sometimes these messages were transmitted to us subliminally. Okay, say for example, you will learn from TV, from the television that when someone cries you should tell the person stop crying. However, Psychology would have to disagree with that. Because if you say to a person, stop crying, then you're saying to the person that it's not right to express your emotions.
What is your belief about gender expression? Do you believe that men should not cry? Do you believe that men should not be quote-unquote weak?
And finally, values. So what is important to you? We should question the beliefs that we hold or the values that we have Because times are changing, okay?
The value... superiority and dominance in the family. But I think we should value we should value health, mental health. We should value the opinion of our children.
We should value the opinion of the younger ones in the society. We should value the... A lot of things that our previous generations had taken for granted or they have ignored. And hopefully, the changes that we propose will be able to help the future generations in developing a healthier personal identity. Since we have already mentioned values in the previous slide, now I will talk about some Filipino values that we have and at the same time we're going to critique some misconceptions, some beliefs about the meanings and definitions of these values.
The first is the Filipino value of hiyah. okay say for example when your classmate is giving you food or giving you something you feel yeah okay when you're going to recite and then you didn't you don't know the answer you will feel yeah okay so is it works that contain the word yeah and the english language doesn't doesn't have direct translations for them say for example we have the variants called We have the variant such as nakakahiya, napahiya, pahiyain, kahihiya. Okay? And hiya is not something that we should be ashamed of, but rather, hiya is a positive attitude because of hiya, you know how to behave in a certain situation. Hence, when you're in front of a visitor because of hiya, you won't, you won't...
behave in a rude manner okay and hiyah is not the same as shame or guilt but rather in filipino psychology hiyah is sense of propriety or behaving in the right way so that's our perspective about hiyah maybe that's not the same with the perspective that you that you are used to okay the next is utang na loob or in english depth of gratitude However, in comparison to its English translation, utang na loob is not necessarily a debt. You don't have to pay for it. Unlike in the movies that we watch that are in English, they typically say, I owe you one.
And then when they do something for that person, they would say, Now we're even. Now I don't owe you anything. But here in the Philippines, we don't hold such values.
But rather, for us, we continually love each other without saying, I owe you one. because we do not count how many times we owe each other we just help each other and it's not necessarily a debt because we know that a debt cannot be quote unquote repaid in one shot but rather in order to repay the debt of gratitude you need to continually show um good relationship with the first with that person okay the next is pakikiramda or attention to non-verbal cues so pakikaramdam basically is related to hiya so pakikaramdam allows you to behave in a manner that is appropriate with the situation it allows you to help persons in need without telling without them telling you that they need help it allows you to to volunteer without anybody telling you to volunteer it allows you to do things even in the absence of verbal cues. It's about body language and awareness to body language and awareness to non-verbal cues. Say for example, if you are a tourist here in the Philippines and the family that welcomed you prepared food for you, it would be very offensive to them if you don't eat the food that they have prepared.
And that's not something that they would tell you. because for us it's something that's implicitly understood they don't need to tell you to they don't need to force you to eat their food but at the same time if you say no to the food that they prepared then they will take it negatively okay next is pakikisama or having good interpersonal relationship with other people It's hard to explain this in English but it's about maintaining good relations. For example, going outside with your workmates on Friday nights or spending time with your friends.
helping each other basically those are the little things that maintain good relationship with each other the next is the gandahang loob or being doing good to other people helping okay and finally what i've talked about earlier which is kapwa or pakikipagkapwa which is our core core value okay and for us everyone is a kapwa meaning that regardless if we're close or not Okay, I'm going to help you. I'm going to make sure that you're okay. I'm going to treat you as someone that I should value.
Okay, so that's the value of kapwa or pagkipagkapwa. Now, if our definitions of ourselves has a lot to do with the society that we belong to, we should also take note that Our society modernizes and modernization has significantly changed society and this influences how we develop our self-identity. See for example back then women were viewed as inferior to men but now that's not the case hence women's definition of themselves have changed as well okay back then in evolutionary psychology basically Our role is just to survive and to feed our family and to survive every day.
But now, because the society has modernized, we have bigger roles. You're not just studying to survive, but rather you're studying to contribute to your current generation, but also to the future generations. So as society evolves, our definition of the self evolves alongside with it. Okay, so this affects how, say for example, African American people have changed their definition of the self. The same goes for LGBT.
The same goes for discriminated individuals. Say for example, people who have disabilities, people who have mental illnesses. So as the society has changed, the way that they identify themselves has also changed.
And I hope that... we're going to the right path and according to Giddens here are four sociological characteristics of a developing society industrialism or the extensive use of material power and machinery capitalism competitive product markets and labor power institutions of surveillance massive increase in power enriched by institutions particularly by the government Okay, so think about it. Is our society as competitive as other societies? Or are we lagging behind? Do we possess these characteristics to the extent that other societies possess them?
Okay, another characteristic is dynamism, having vigorous activity and progress. So are we continually progressing or are we regressing? So these... are the characteristics of a progressive society. However, there are a lot of perspectives that define what a modern society is.
This is very sociological. And these views may change as a society continually modernizes. Say for example, one of the characteristics of a modern society would be industrialism, extensive use of machinery and power, and capitalism, competitive labor power. Have you ever asked yourselves, why do we work for eight hours?
Can't we just work for six hours? Okay, so maybe that's because we have considered that these characteristics define a modern society. However, other societies in the world are going to show you that that's not always the case. See, for example, I've heard that there are some European countries that give more leeway to their employees. They give more bonuses, more rest days, paid vacations.
That's why their employees are happier. They learn to value themselves. They're not so tired with work.
And they would say that they have a better quality of life over there compared to their country of origin. So, maybe it's time for us to rethink these characteristics and offer our own ideas so from the What defines a modern society? I guess it would not be the same with this but rather we would go back at the end of the day we would go back to the value of Kappa and extend the existing Yume. Since we are talking about the society, it's important for us to talk about belonging to a group. Okay, so there's what we call social group.
So when we say that you belong to a group A group is characterized by having two or more people interacting with one another, sharing similar characteristics, and whose members identify themselves as part of the group. So you cannot call yourself a group if you're just alone. Even in Facebook, you cannot create a group with no other member.
And a group must interact, the members must interact with each other. See for example, If you're riding the train, then there are a lot of people inside the train, but you're not necessarily a group. But rather, social psychologists would call you a crowd. And a crowd differs from a group because a group interacts with each other. Say for example, when you're doing group work.
But if you're part of the crowd, I don't think that you almost all the time. you interact with the other members. What if you just happen to be in the same car or in the same train but you are not interacting? Hence, although you're part of the crowd, they do not define you or you do not define them because you barely know each other.
Okay? And one more important thing is that a group should share similar characteristics. So say for example, maybe you're a group of students, a group of Filipinos, a group of mothers, a group of doctors. However, not all groups share the same characteristic. Some groups are more diverse.
Say, for example, the workforce. An international workforce may be composed of groups or individuals from different groups, multiracial companies, okay, multinational companies working with foreigners. different languages different cultures okay so the most common group that we have here in the philippines would be our circle of friends or our barcada and according to filipino social psychologies the barcada is very important because but the group of people but the social network talks about your connection with the members say for example you're connected to your friends that's the social group and your social network is Friendship.
Friendship connects you with your friends. Blood ties connects you with your family and your relatives. But guess what?
Here in the Philippines, according to Filipino social psychologists, in our culture, even if someone is not part of the family, there's a way for a person to be a part of our family. When someone is invited to be a godfather to someone say for example in baptism in Christ okay so for example we're close friends and you're having a child and your child's going to be baptized you can invite me as your child's nido or godfather or in other culture they call they are referred to as secondary parents In the Filipino context, that is viewed as a way for you to be a part of a family. And that is one way for a person to express that you are important to his family, that even though you do not share the same surname, he would appreciate your influence to their child as a secondary parent, eventually as a friend or as a mentor of that person, of the child. Okay?
So a group can be organic or rational. So when we say that a group is organic, that is a naturally occurring group. Say for example, your family.
So you cannot make yourself, being part of a family is not by choice, but rather you are born to be a part of that family. You're immediately a member of that group. So the good thing about an organic group is that it gives feeling of rootedness. When we say rootedness, That refers to belongingness. So we are proud that we belong to a certain family.
We are proud that we have good relationships with our family, that we have brothers, we have siblings, we have sisters who are going to help us, and that we value our family. whatever we do okay however on the other side of the equation the negative side of this is that the organic group doesn't allow doesn't really allow freedom in freedom of expression hence there are things that you want to change however you can't immediately change them because those beliefs have been held by your family for quite some time okay say for example If your family endorses a certain political candidate, it may be hard to persuade them to change their favorite candidate because they have been supporting the same candidate for quite some time. And that basically results to greater conformity. When we say conformity, sometimes you change your attitude or you change your decision to fit the attitudes of the people around you. say for example you will not really like person a but because your family likes person a you also like person a next we have what we call rational groups and we say rational groups these are made up of people from different places so form is a matter of shared self-interest so for example joining a club joining joining an organization joining a group outside your school this is a matter of choice say for example you join the organization because you believe that you share a common belief which is your mental health advocates okay so the positive side of being in a rational group is that it allows you to express yourself okay it allows you to be who you are because you are with the people who share the same belief that you have so basically from the things that we have been discussing so far You learn that we learn a lot by watching or observing other people around us and we carry those Beliefs and learnings with us and that defines who we are.
The question is can we also quote-unquote Watch ourselves, okay, if you can observe other people and learn from them Can you also see yourself? Can you also See yourself from the perspective of others. And what do I mean by that? There's a theory known as looking-glass self from sociology. And when we say looking-glass self, this is a perspective that says that the self is a product of internalizing the views of other people.
Say for example, this is the person, okay? And his definition of himself doesn't come from the self, but rather it comes from the people around him. So that's how his dad sees him, basically like a saint. That's how his girlfriend sees him, a normal individual.
But his older brother sees him somewhat differently. But his ex-girlfriend sees him as someone who is evil. So basically, the danger in Looking Glass Self is that we rely on the opinions of other people about us. So what if they do not have a good opinion about our personality? then what's going to happen is that we're also going to look at ourselves negatively.
So maintain a balance between looking at the opinions or considering the opinions of other people and considering your own opinions about yourself. In the perspective of me, of George Herbert Mead, here are three stages of how the sociological self develops. The first stage is language.
So basically we learn language, we learn how to express ourselves because in the absence of language, how are we supposed to express ourselves and how are we supposed to comprehend what others are saying? So if we don't know the language, then how can we understand what other people are telling us? What are the values that they are sharing to us? So I'm just curious, what if you're trying to learn a new language? Say for example, studying a language is part of your curriculum observe yourself are you also learning new values okay so that's an interesting discussion okay language allow us not only to express ourselves but also to comprehend what others are saying okay so it allows you to influence the society and it allows the society to influence you the next stage is the play stage which is characterized by role-playing and assuming the role of others.
It's very important from the perspective of sociology that you consider the perspective of other people. And this is done by when as children you learn how to roleplay. Your teachers have told you to roleplay.
They have told you to pretend as someone else. Because when we play certain roles, we tend to adapt certain beliefs in order for us to embody that role. It allows us to learn how it feels to be a teacher.
how to be a policeman how to be a doctor etc okay and that is a great influence in how we develop the self because in order for the self to develop he or she must understand the perspective of other people okay and eventually you don't have You don't only have to consider the perspectives of other people, you also have to consider the perspective of the society as a whole in the game stage. Or knowing the rules of the game. Basically, what the game stage is telling us is that in order for us to function in the society, we must understand its rules.
That's why we have laws, we have policies, we have regulations, we have code of ethics. basically guide us in what we do. And that's how our sociological self develops. That's how we mature. So let's end our discussion with this.
The two sides of the self. So George Herbert Mead sees the person as an active process and not just a reflection of the society. Just like what I was telling to you earlier, we do not just rely on what other people have to say about us, but rather... we also actively search for who we are and we define ourselves by joining the groups that share our beliefs okay and now let's take a look at the two sides of the self so for me the two sides are the i and the me so when we say i that's how the person sees himself while the me is how others see us okay so say for example typically clients our clients who come into psychotherapy or counseling they would say we would ask them why are you here they would say my teacher sent me here okay that's a typical that's a typical answer okay why are you here my parents told me to go here but sometimes we replace the question or we replace We try to rephrase how they answer.
We ask them, so that's what they want you to do. Now I want you to answer, what is it that you want to achieve? Okay, don't tell me about what they want, about what they want to do to you, but rather tell me what is it that you want to achieve.
And they change their answer to, I went here because I want to feel better. So why did you take that course? because my parents told me to do so, then I will ask the person. So if that's what your parent told you to do so, I would like to consider what is it that you want?
What is your real goal? If your parents are the one who told you about this goal, then if you're the one who will be given a choice, what is it that you really want? They would change the sentence and they would say that, I really want to pursue a career in another field. Okay, so sometimes awareness is all we need in becoming conscious that we do not only define ourselves, but sometimes being so collectivist, we allow others to define us to the extent that we forget that the self is still separate, although it is connected to the society.
So here's the major takeaway that I want you to have from this lecture. Although the self is connected to the society, do not forget that you are a separate entity and that you are free to have your own beliefs, your own goals, your own values. Sometimes it's good to conform, sometimes it's not. Okay?
And you are rational enough to know when to adapt the beliefs that society is trying to is trying to society is trying to share with you and you're also rational enough to know that you should hold your own beliefs in certain instances so that is it for this discussion of the sociological self thank you