Self - Cooley and Mead
Intro:
Meaningful reality requires
people to convey meanings to themselves
people to convey meanings to others
conveying meanings occurs symbolically
one must act towards oneself as if one was someone else
Self is : to be both object and subject of one's own thoughts, feelings, and actions.
The Self as Sentiment and Reflection, by Charles Horton Cooley
immediately excludes philosophers' discussions of self (Uuggghh!!! Why?)
establishes that he will be discussing the empirical self as apprehended by ordinary observation
"I" includes reference to other persons simply by the fact that language itself is social not private
"Where there is no communication there can be no nomenclature and no developed thought." p 152
looking glass self; we imagine how others see us; has three principles
"the imagination of our appearance to the other person"
"the imagination of his judgment of that appearance"
"some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification" p 153
The Self as Social Structure, by George Herbert Mead
self is an object to itself
self is "a social structure, and it arises in social experience" p 157
we experience ourselves from the perspective of other individuals in our social group or from the general view of the group as a whole
gesture are the beginning of communication; we first gesture with ourselves
"I" is one's reaction to one's experience of the attitude of his group
"I" appears in memory
"me" is our adjustment to the world present in our nature
language is more than gesture; language is significant symbol
because social stimuli affect us in similar way as it affects others
by this we understand the meaning of what we say to others
Play - to take the role of another and how he/she sees you
Game - to take the role of the group and how it as a whole sees you
"in the game then, there is a set of responses of such others so organized that the attitude of the one calls out the attitude of the others" p 159
this organization is thought of as the "rules of the game" p 159
2011, Inside social life, 6th ed. Cahill, S., & Sandstrom, K.L. eds. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
