GEC 101 (Understanding the Self)

The Sociological Self

What is Sociology?

➢ It is a social science that studies human societies, their interactions, and the processes that
preserve and change them.
➢ Study of human relationships and institutions

Human beings are complex creatures; however, when they interact and begin to form
relationships and societies, things become even more complicated. Are we more likely to act
differently in a group than we will when we’re alone? So, what are, or we are in relation to
how we connect with others?

What are we, especially as a product of modern society?

With modernization, the self becomes a “delocalized” self which is free to seek its own identity;
defining religion, theological tradition; free from customary constraints hence, deviating from
the traditional way of life.

For example, increased geographic mobility and long distance moves, especially among
adolescents result in the loss of established strong ties putting strains on the household and
family. The loss of established strong ties decreases social support and can lower productivity of
individuals, especially among adolescents.

While migration has also advantages such that an individual encounters a richer and a more
diverse culture, and tries to manage and adjusts to the host culture, in the long run, there are
traditional norms and practices being replaced by the new, yet, quite contradictory ones.
Religious and customary constrictions seem to be forgotten, and increasing deviations from
culturally approved ways of life tend to occur.

The experience is not only true among migrants, but also among individuals who are exposed to
new cultures in the digital world such as the social media that “dislocate”/ “delocalize” us from
our socio-cultural and religious world.

It is in that contention that we care encouraged to have the “filtering process. “ The “filtering
process” suggests that individuals usually filter or choose the new informations, beliefs, or
practices that are similar to theirs, and to what they believe is valuable, in order to minimize
conflicts.
But the reality is that we, as individuals, continue to move, and relate with one another. Or even
if we do not change locations, the social media has become a wide platform for social
interaction, albeit impersonal, yet, a lot of personal and close relationships develop especially
among adolescents being in the stage of forming identity (identity formation) separate from the
identity of their parents.

Social interaction, that is intercultural leads to a number of processes: cooperation,

That implies that, as individuals interact with people coming from various cultural backgrounds,
usually they resort to acculturation involving borrowing of culture traits and practices to adapt
to one another. Acculturation can lead to cooperation. Albeit, at times,people compete, or are
in conflict with each other/ with one another. Albeit, for stabler relationships, cooperate
dominates. Nevertheless, it is normal to be in conflict whenever interest or goals remain unmet,
and individuals strive to use any of the accommodation processes (e.g. domination,
compromise, mediation, arbitration, toleration, etc.). Albeit, one effective way of resolving
conflicts is by compromise where each party to the dispute makes some concessions and yields
to some demand of the other. Toleration operates on a “live-and-let-live” policy. The virtue of
toleration is implicit in Socrates’ method of allowing many diverse perspectives to be expressed.
In seventeenth century Europe, the concept of tolerance was developed as liberal thinkers
sought to limit the coercive actions of government and the Church. They argued that human
beings are fallible and should have epistemic modesty. Further, an individual knows his or her
interests best and requires tolerance by others in order to find the best way to live
(iep.utm.edu/).

Some conditions of the self in the Modern Society:

1) The newfound freedom threatens the very authenticity of the self (e.g. love). Some
individuals find it hard anymore to define “genuine” love for parents, siblings, friends,
classmates, and opposite sex. Although, for the individual to discover the “true” and
“authentic” part of one’s self is to realize her potentials, thus, the need to abolish repressive
social constraints. But still important to retain developmental restrictions ( cultural idea and
belief for what is right and wrong, what is socially approved and disapproved as guide to
behavior)

2) Alienation (Marx) – human beings haunted by the very images they have created ( a need to
create enabling environment for “developed” self).

The society offers norms/ guideposts of behaviors for individuals, yet, there are individuals
who feel alienated because they see themselves being marginalized and sidelined. With
modernization, there are newly imposed norms ( by norm entrepreneurs) that cascade to
the communities, and become internalized by individuals, which in the end, tends to further
alienate them from the society. For example, on violent extremist ideology and activities ( is
being introduced from outside/ by foreign ideology bringer, and welcomed by some
individuals “inside”/ in our community.
 Violent extremism, which involves encouraging, condoning, justifying, or supporting the
commission of a violent act ( mass killing, bombing public places and buildings, etc.) to
achieve political, ideological, religious, social, or economic goals), is extremely opposing the
traditional values of life, peace and harmony in the society. Individuals who engage in acts
of atrocities are being run after by the state. Their being tagged as “bandits” lead them to
feel alienated. Nevertheless, the humane and effective way of addressing violent extremism
is not by waging wars being usually bloody; but by negotiation process where all
stakeholders gather together to talk and arrive at a solution beneficial for everyone
particularly the marginalized individuals and groups.

3) Objectification of the body (e.g. medical practice)

4) Dehumanization of self.
This entails viewing ourselves or others as being incapable of higher-level processes like self-
control, and is closer to how we think about robots and other things that don’t have
emotions. With Artificial intelligence, humans tend to reduce their value and usefulness/
utility.

These are some of the challenges encountered by the individuals in this modern society.

The question is, “who am I?”, “what am I?” amidst all these encounters in the modern world.

It is with hope that we are able to maintain our “humane” characters toward others: our family
members, neighbors, co-Filipinos, co-inhabitants of the planet earth. As “social beings,” we have
a responsibility to care for each other, to protect one another, and to consider other peple as
our co-equal. Therefore, any thoughts and activities of “unpeace” needs to be refrained from
and avoided, and behaviors and activities that reinforce one another’s personhood and
development need to be reinforced and advocated.

End