Self

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the philosophy of the self as a sociological construct. Specifically, the paper discusses the debate over the self and how it relates to and /or is constructed by its environment. Some of the theories of self, including the internal and external levels that exist, are looked at as well as the theory of symbolic interactions (SI), in which symbols are seen as the basis of social life.

From the Paper:

"Needless to say, the self as sociological construct and pattern certainly can be seen as an interactional and changing component of the environment. In some sense the understanding of the self is part of the debate between nature and nurture. It becomes a debate over genetic propensities and sociological interactions that create the self. This has made researchers in many fields relinquish many well worn truisms when it comes to understanding what we mean by the term self. In fact, the more we learn about the sociology of the self, the more we learn that the traditional way of labeling self as either innate or learned has certainly lost some of its meaning. Research into concepts like language acquisition, which is certainly a learned behavior but which children process so quickly that there must be some innate predisposition to acquire it, adds fuel to this fire. (Scheff 1990) Is it in the way that language is taught or some hardwiring within that is responsible? The same conundrum exists when analyzing the self."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Alexander, Jeffrey C., Gary T. Marx, and Christine L. Williams, eds. 2004. Self, Social Structure, and Beliefs: Explorations in Sociology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Bain, S. K., Choate, S. M., & Bliss, S. L. 2006. Perceptions of Developmental, Social, and Emotional Issues in Giftedness: Are They Realistic?. Roeper Review 29: 41-47.
• Bendle, Mervyn. 2003. "Subjectivity: Theories of the Self from Freud to Haraway." Journal of Sociology 39:179+.
• Callero, Peter L. 2003. "The Sociology of the Self." Annual Review of Sociology 29:115+.
• Demorest, Amy. 2005 .Psychology's Grand Theorists: How Personal Experiences Shaped Professional Ideas. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,

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