User:Kt fahy

Week one- the social self lecture ideas
Social self as i would desribe it is the construction of an individual according to the external influences of their society in terms of various effectors such as cultural norms and beliefs etc. however even when trying to define it in my own terms there are so many other things that could be included it is therfore hard to pin down the self is a reflection of many things be it internal beliefs or a showing of larger social influences such as a persons culture for example wearing a certain kind of religious dress which shows a belonging and therefore a showing of certain norms and values. this is an example of socialization people being intergrated with in society and this can also lead them into certain social identities such as a worker or a mother these i believe to be more social identites but there are also other idnetities such as the bio. of gender and environmental such as student, these all show socialization of some sort i feel for example. society has a set of practises about how a mother should behave in regard to how she should behave and care for her child, the gender constraint shows how society 'teaches' the rules of how to behave as male or female as the idea of gender itself is a technological term.

we can show ourselves in many ways but these are not ridgid constraints the self also alows us to show a changing of beliefs and it also allows us to show people who 'we are' by things such as clothes and styles that we go by.

so far i can see that there is the self but there are branches of the self that interlink however they are also very catagories notions to what parts is which. this raises the question to me; are we truely an individual or are we a product of our society? looking at it now what i want to find out is to what degree does it affect us i so far from doing studies in sociology and psychology have always been of the belief that an person is an individual who has their own set of working about how and who to be and these have come from other influences but is ultimately their own formulation- if you catch my drift. but looking at it now it may seem as though we are so bound by this idea of a cultural and social self. it is clear that humans as a species are ment to interact are social beings but its starting to seem asthough influences can sometimes define who we are more then we do ourselves.

Week two- culture Vs nature
This is the idea that there is the self and there is culture and that they both need each other. i enjoy looking at the effects of culture and from being a sociology student you have a pined way of looking at sociology that it can be several different form but mainly described as being the umberella term of 'the big c' and from now looking at it psychological perspective it seems as though it is just a general term where you dont really have to look at the strands. social constructivism seems to state that culture gives a sence of self which i belive to be an important statement. my reflection of culture on the self is that culture allows us in many ways to relfect our own ideologies through mediums which our culture provides such as art, music, literature but also through doing this an individual can also reflect and teach a culture to others and therefore allows a culture to continue and flourish. but culture is another way that humans can feel part of a society linking back to the idea of a human as a social being in need of intergration. looking into the idea of socialization this is where it comes into the arguement of nature Vs nurture or Culture Vs Nature.

we do have a system of beliefs with in cultures that are passed on and are seen as the correct ways of doing things however there is the over riding sence of nature which could choose to go against the grain of what culture or nurture teaches. for example effeminate traits in men this is seen culturally as an undesirable trate and one that is aimed to be avoided by teaching boys from a young age to play hard sports to make them seem more masculine however it has been seen in case studies that young male boys showing effeminate characteristics and continuing to display them even when trying to be discouraged from being so, as they describe it as being natural to them and the way they are. could this therefore be seen as biological or natural that nature didnt 'teach'and can't change?!