Key Differences between the Cognitive and Social Perspectives in Conceptualizing the Self
In the study of human development and self conceptualization, psychologists and sociologists alike have come up with a variety of perspectives and theories. These perspective and theories which have served as tools in testing their ideas and concepts have helped them in understanding the organization and course of human development.
To gain further insight into the conceptualization of self at many angles, two perspectives shall be discussed in detail all throughout the course of the discussion in this paper. These are the Cognitive and Social Perspectives in self conceptualization.
Cognitive Perspective
One of the most well-organized theories on how self is conceptualizes is by the use of the cognitive perspective. Furthermore, the perspective also touches Erikson’s psychosocial theory.
Erik Erikson identified 8 developmental stages throughout the whole life cycle. In his view, for each stage of development, some kind of psychosocial crisis is likely to occur. If a person is provided with a social and psychological environment wherein he could develop, he could, in ways more than one, effectively conceptualize himself.
Another theory suggests that from infancy to childhood, children are presented with the idea with who they are or how they think of themselves.
According to some references, a man who has not completed the transition from the early cognitive stage of development to the modern and more complex cognitive perspective may never be able to realize the self. He is torn between two very different levels of values and attitudes so much that some psychological problems may set in. He operates on two levels of values and attitudes or two sets of standards, each pulling against the other. His responses and reactions towards self conceptualization may become irrational.
Social Perspective
A society is not only a group of people living together in a definite territory, but it is a social system of long established relationships of a certain way of life which people in it recognize and follow.
People often need to be part of something, or to belong somewhere. Therefore, they choose to live in communities and huddle together. One of the most important reasons for joining together is the feeling of gregariousness. “It is the desire or tendency of people to want to be with other people, particularly people of their own kind.” (, 1962).
(1992) said that human beings are open social systems, and thus differentiate themselves from inanimate systems in two ways. First and foremost, human beings are considered the basic building block within organization. This goes to say that organizations are social systems and not machine or biological systems. Second, human organizations are very complex, in fact far more complex than any other types of systems that exist (, 1992).
Unless one knows almost exactly how an individual will behave, act or react under a certain situation, there will be chaos in an organization. This is the reason why organizations have rules, regulations, and policies for the human resource to follow. Otherwise, harmony and success in the field of the organization cannot take place effectively. The rules, regulations, and policies in the workplace are necessary because in most cases the employee’s orientation in the home may be varied and their behavior may not conform with an organization’s expectations. Furthermore, employees or managers may not always play their roles in the same way at all times. But the successful management of the organizational setting may be largely attributed to the leader’s ability to maintain order and discipline.
Differences
According to , and (1980), health is the optimum level of independence in each activity of living which enables the individual to function at his or her maximum capacity. (1995) defined mental and social of wholeness or integrity of the individual, his or her parts and modes of functioning. , and (1986), states that mental and social health is a relatively stable state of maximum wellness which equates with independence. (1980) pointed out that mental and social health is defined by cultures and individuals to denote behaviors that are of high value and low value. (1966) defined mental and social health as the ability to function independently regarding fourteen fundamental activities of daily living. According to (1982), mental and social health is a varying state of wellness and illness which is influenced by physiological, psychological, socio-cultural and developmental factors. These are just a few of the meanings of health as described by some authors.
These are some of the similarities presented by many authors on the similarities of these perspectives. However, they also have many differences. As societies increasingly come to expect their citizens to manage their own self conceptualization, the individual is required to ‘police their body’. In sociology, sociology of the self emerged as a rapidly expanding area following the impact of post-modernist theory. In the present collection, two readings focus on ‘the self the first it examines the significance of the self to consumerism, and emphasizes the important role that consumerist notions of the self have in conceptualization issues.
In the field of sociology, empirical research has continually provided evidence of the way social and material circumstances influence the pattern of self conceptualization, apart from the undoubted influence of medical concepts and knowledge. The popular notion that ‘knowledge is power’ is often taken to mean the reverse: that under postmodern conditions power is little more than knowledge and ‘truth claims’. However, the idea that we live in a period of ‘post-scarcity values’ where such discursive processes hold sway, flies in the face of the continuing effects of economic deprivation in contemporary societies-as reflected in the continuing debates about income differentials and social status and their impact on self connceptualization, even where absolute poverty is less evident. Unless such sources of power are recognized postmodern ideas threaten to become little more than a gloss on the continuing trend of widening social inequalities ( & , 1998).
Within cognitive perspectives the emphasis on self has become paramount. The individual is encouraged to ‘adopt instrumental strategies to conceptualize oneself’ with ‘cognition’ being supported and structured through the production of ‘stylized images of the self’ in the advertising and entertainment media. In the context of cognition and psychology the prime purpose of individuals’ maintaining their ‘inner self’ through control of their diet, exercise and unhealthy behaviors ‘becomes the enhancement of the appearance of the outer self’. Clearly, the cognitive perspective is incapable of generating satisfactory strategies and solutions to the inevitable deterioration and decay which accompany ageing and death insofar as its logic is to avoid these realities and instead sell us the illusion of a forever happy, pain-free life which we can achieve by buying into regimes of self maintenance ( & , 2001).
The increasing emphasis on the label of self, then, has been at the expense of the labels of both crime and sin and has been narrowing the limits if not weakening the jurisdiction of the traditional control institutions of religion and law. The cognitive mode of response to deviance is thus being applied to more and more behavior in our society, much of which has been responded to in quite different ways in the past (, 2002). In our day, what has been called crime, lunacy, degeneracy, sin, and even poverty in the past is now being called wrong self conceptualization, even co far as mental illness, and social policy has been moving toward adopting a perspective appropriate to the imputation of illness. Chains have been struck off and everywhere health professionalism has been raised to legitimate the claim that the proper management of deviance is “treatment” in the hands of a responsible and skilled profession. The labels of sin and crime being removed, what is done to the deviant is likely to be said to be done for his own good, done to help him rather than punish him, even though the treatment itself may constitute a deprivation under ordinary circumstances.
Incorporating knowledge of self into lifestyle serves as prevention against the development of indifference. Optimal locations for assessment of healthy mental and social practices and status could be done by oneself. The early identification of potential or actual problems is the best way to avoid more serious problems. Similarly, in other settings, individuals who have personal problems such as uncertainty may require assistance in planning and compliance strategies. A professional may educate the families and provide information about community resources. A means, such as telephone numbers, of contacting a professional for follow up questions should always be part of counseling about self conceptualization for individuals.
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