The Emergence of the Self

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-166
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Scheff ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Behavioral Problems ◽  
Safe Zone ◽  
The Self ◽  
Role Taking ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday

The need for integration may be the singie most important issue facing social science, the humanities and their subdisciplines, especially given the scope of the social/behavioral problems facing humanity. One path toward integrating disciplines, sub-disciplines, and micro-macro levels is suggested by Spinoza's idea of part/whole methodology, moving rapidly back and forth between concrete instances and general ideas. Any discipline, sub-discipline or level can serve as a valuable stepping-off place, but to advance further, integration with at least one other viewpoint may be necessary. This essay links three hitherto separate subjects: role-taking, meditation, and a theory of emotion. The idea of role-taking plays a central part in sociological social psychology. Meditation implies the same process in terms of a self able to witness the ego. Drama theories also depend upon a witnessing self that establishes a safe zone for resolving intense emotions. All three approaches imply that the everyday ego is largely automated. In one of her novels, Virginia Woolf suggests three crucial points about automated thought: incredible speed, how it involves role-taking, and by implication, the presence of a witnessing self.

scholarly journals Role-taking, Emotion and the Two Selves

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Scheff
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Safe Zone ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Role Taking ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Everyday

This note links three hitherto separate subjects: role-taking, meditation, and theories of emotion, in order to conceptualize the makeup of the self. The idea of role-taking plays a central part in sociological theories of the self. Meditation implies the same process in terms of a deep self able to witness itself. Drama theories also depend upon a deep self that establishes a safe zone for resolving intense emotions. All three approaches imply both a creative deep self and the everyday self (ego) that is largely automated. The creativity of the deep self is illustrated with a real life example: an extraordinary psychotherapy experiment appears to have succeeded because it was based entirely on the intuitions of the therapist. At the other end from intuition, in one of her novels, Virginia Woolf suggested three crucial points about automated thought: incredible speed, role-taking, and by implication, the presence of a deep self. This essay goes on to explain how the ego is repetitive to the extent that it becomes mostly, and in unusual cases, completely automated (as in most dreams and all hallucinations). The rapidity of ordinary discourse and thought usually means that it is superficial, leading to greater and greater dysfunction, and less and less emotion. This idea suggests a new approach to the basis of ‘mental illness’ and of modern alienation.

Experiments in social science

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Experimental Design ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Hawthorne Effect ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Control Factors ◽  
The Social

Within social science the experiment has an ambiguous place. With the possible exception of social psychology, there are few examples of strictly experimental studies. The classic study still often cited is the Hawthorne experiments, which began in 1927, and is used mainly to illustrate what became known as the ‘Hawthorne Effect’, that is, the unintended influence of the research itself on the results of the study. Yet, experimental design is often taken within social research as the embodiment of the scientific method which, if the social sciences are to reach the maturity of the natural sciences, social research should seek to emulate. Meeting this challenge meant trying to devise ways of applying the logic of the experiment to ‘non-experimental’ situations where it was not possible directly to manipulate the experimental conditions. Criticisms have come from two main sources: first, from researchers who claim that the techniques used to control factors within non-experimental situations are unrealizable with current statistical methods and, second, those who reject the very idea of hypothesis-testing as an ambition for social research.

scholarly journals The Social Psychology of the Black Lives Matter Meme and Movement

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 543-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Wayne Leach ◽  
Aerielle M. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dual Pathway

Since the 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a string of publicized police killings of unarmed Black men and women has brought sustained attention to the issue of racial bias in the United States. Recent Department of Justice investigations and an expanding set of social science research have added to the empirical evidence that these publicized incidents are emblematic of systemic racism in the application of the law. The Black Lives Matter meme and movement are prominent responses to racism that have animated intense interest and support, especially among African Americans. We summarize recent social science research on Black Lives Matter. As a first step toward understanding the social psychology of the meme and the movement, we apply the dynamic dual-pathway model of protest to Black Lives Matter. Examinations of the dynamics of real-world movements such as Black Lives Matter may enrich psychology conceptually, methodologically, and practically.

scholarly journals Research Tools for Evaluating the Effects of a Vocational Horticulture Program on the Self-development of Female Inmates

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-308
Author(s):  
Melanie M. Migura ◽  
J.M. Zajicek
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Locus Of Control ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Quantitative Evaluation ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Self ◽  
Female Inmates ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Development

Quantitative evaluation of horticulture vocational-therapy programs is becoming more and more critical as professionals in the area of people-plant interactions try to document the value of their programs. Evaluation tools to assess self-development of individuals studying such factors as self-esteem, life satisfaction, and locus of control have long been used in the social science disciplines. Many of these tools, either in their original forms or with some adaptations, can be successfully used to measure changes in self-development of individuals participating in horticulture programs.

Accuracy, bias, self-fulfilling prophecies, and scientific self-correction

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Jussim
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Perception ◽  
Person Perception ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Perceptions ◽  
Expectancy Effects ◽  
The Social

AbstractIn my Précis of Social Perception and Social Reality (Jussim 2012, henceforth abbreviated as SPSR), I argued that the social science scholarship on social perception and interpersonal expectancies was characterized by a tripartite pattern: (1) Errors, biases, and self-fulfilling prophecies in person perception were generally weak, fragile, and fleeting; (2) Social perceptions were often quite accurate; and (3) Conclusions appearing throughout the social psychology scientific literature routinely overstated the power and pervasiveness of expectancy effects, and ignored evidence of accuracy. Most commentators concurred with the validity of these conclusions. Two, however, strongly disagreed with the conclusion that the evidence consistently has shown that stereotypes are moderately to highly accurate. Several others, while agreeing with most of the specifics, also suggested that those arguments did not necessarily apply to contexts outside of those covered in SPSR. In this response, I consider all these aspects: the limitations to the tripartite pattern, the role of politics and confirmation biases in distorting scientific conclusions, common obstructions to effective scientific self-correction, and how to limit them.

scholarly journals Role of Self-esteem and Social Support on Emotional Behavioral Problems Among Adolescents

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Namood-e Sahar ◽  
Maira Saman ◽  
Yusra Sarwat ◽  
Kiran Zaman
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Behavioral Problems ◽  
Significant Negative Correlation ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Self ◽  
Sampling Techniques ◽  
The Social ◽  
Convenience Sampling

Abstract The present study aimed to find out the role of self-esteem and social support on emotional behavioral problems among the adolescents. The sample consisted of adolescents (N=300) comprising of 150 boys and 150 girls selected through purposive and convenience sampling techniques from different schools of Islamabad. All the research instruments demonstrate significant internal consistency (r > 70). Self-esteem and social support were found to have a significant negative correlation with emotional behavioral problems (EBP) such as increased self-esteem and social support could significantly decrease EBP among adolescents as hypothesized. Regression analysis also supported the association and demonstrated that study variables account for about 23% of variance in EBP. Findings of the study can be applied for introduction of programs to increase the self-esteem and improve the social support in order to minimize the emotional behavioral problems among the adolescents.

scholarly journals The Everyday Life of a European Man: Knausgård’s Literary Project as Social Imagination

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Odile Heynders
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
The Self ◽  
Western World ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Social Imagination ◽  
Modern Subject ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Crucial Part

Between 2009 and 2011, Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård published a monumental novel project in six parts (over 3,500 pages) in which he described the minutiae of daily life: family troubles, ordinary routines, everyday discourse, drinking, strolling through town and so on. The literary project became a media sensation with translations in many languages, readers all over the Western world, and a lot of interviews and reviews to be found online. Why were the books so successful; what is it in them that engages readers? Drawing on theories of sociologist C. Wright Mills and philosopher Henri Lefebvre, this article argues that this ambitious as well as paradoxical literary project sheds light on the social and cultural position of the late modern subject in a European middle class. Knausgård in his self-narration creates an Everyman, while at the same time fashioning a self as an obsessed artist that is everything but ordinary. In a crucial part of the final book, Knausgård shows us Adolf Hitler as a bitter young man, but also as someone ‘whose youth resembles my own’. Here the self-positioning relates to ongoing European history as well as to the lack of historical perspective in our current age.

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