The Role of Self and Its Impact on Social Interactions

This essay examines the multifaceted role of the self within a sociological framework, exploring how individuals navigate and internalize societal expectations through socialization. The essay delves into the impact of social institutions and the economy, particularly in a consumerist society, on shaping self-identity. It discusses how interactions with others and various societal factors like gender, ethnicity, and class influence the roles individuals play in their daily lives. The analysis extends to the postmodern era, highlighting the shift in influences on the self, from the authority of the modern state to the pressures of a competitive, commoditized world, and references key sociological concepts and theorists such as G.H. Mead, Beck, and others to support its arguments. The essay emphasizes that the self is not a fixed entity but a socially constructed element that evolves through interactions and experiences.

Running head: THE ROLE OF THE SELF
The Role of the Self
Name of the University
Name of the Student
Author note

1THE ROLE OF THE SELF
Answer 1: Discussion on the roles the played by the self in everyday life
Through socialization, an individual learns the minute aspects of life like how to talk to
elders and young ones, how to behave in public, how to respond to criticisms or abuses, how to
react to different genders and so on (Jenkins, 2014).
The authors argue that an individual expects to be respected for what he is from his most
intimate relationships is actually prearranged by the societal expectations (Billington, Hockey &
Strawbridge, 1998). Societal or social expectations as mentioned by the authors are the attributes
of the society given to an individual in the process of going up. The individual does not realize
that there is no such thing as the unique self. It is just the manifestation of experiences gained
through the systematic growth in the society.
The self is closely attached into not only social institutions, but also into the economy
particularly in a consumerist society (Beck, 2014). This defines what roles the self learns and
inhabits. It is not a one time learning process but a lifetime procedure.
In the daily life, the self meets and interacts with different people that help him
understand the complexities of life. It provides with the clear picture of how different social
elements work in a system and how he is expected to behave. Selfhood is a continuing progress
rather than an ultimate and absolute product. The society knows the self through interactions, as
mentioned by G.H. Mead (Kilpinen, 2013).
Brubaker and Cooper argue that the specific roles and individual learns and is expected to
perform is defined by the power of the modern state. The modern state, they claim, has the
authority to name, to identify, and to categorize how, where and what roles one has to inhabit.

2THE ROLE OF THE SELF
Socialization makes the individual realize that the self is not natural but a socially
constructed element; an element that is created and influenced by other elements. The roles an
individual plays in his everyday life is not fixed for everyone, rather it varies in accordance with
situation and people. In the modern world, other societal factors such as gender, ethnicity, race
and even class are the factors that influence the role of the self.
The postmodern era has redefined the roles individuals play in respect to their self and
the society as a whole. The factors that influence the self have changed from the modern state’s
authority to the race for survival in the competitive commoditized world.

3THE ROLE OF THE SELF
References:
Beck, U. (2014). RISK SOCIETY. Essential Concepts of Global Environmental Governance,
178.
Billington, R., Hockey, J., & Strawbridge, S. (1998). Personal identity. In Exploring self and
society (pp. 37-57). Macmillan Education UK.
Jenkins, R. (2014). Social identity. Routledge.
Kilpinen, E. (2013). George H. Mead as an Empirically Responsible Philosopher:
The’Philosophy of the Act’Reconsidered. George Herbert Mead in the Twenty-First
Century. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 3-20.