Tuesday, 18 August 2015

Contemporary Social Psychological Theories,
Ed. Peter J Burke, Stanford University Press, 2006,
Chapter 5 "Identity Theory" (pp. 88-110), page 89

Setting out some basic ground for Identity Theory, Jan Stets makes a number of assertions:

The self arises in social interaction and within the larger context of a complex, organised, differentiated society. Since the larger context is complex, organised and differentiated, so too must we characterise the self, thus the dictum that "self reflects society".

While we can all agree that the society in which we live is endlessly complex and organised, and similarly that people are complex, I'm not so sure how far we would all be happy to go in assuming that our selves are simply the product of society and not a 'given' from the start.