The Self-Concept: Social Product and Social Force

This chapter presents some of the systematic empirical research that has addressed each of the questions. It attempts to illustrate the diversity of self-concept elements in order to convey a sense of how rich and complex the self-concept actually is. The sociology of the self-concept takes as its subject matter the analysis of the self-concept as a social product and a social force. In contrast to the interactive-situated self-concept approach, the social structural-biographical approach stresses the stable, persistent features of both society and personality. The social structural-biographical self-concept approach is interested in understanding how patterned features of society operate to shape various aspects of the self-concept and how the self-concept, in turn, influences society. A landmark development in the history of the sociology of the self-concept was the publication in 1934 of George Herbert Mead's Mind, Self and Society. Along with social interaction and social identity elements, social contexts have an important bearing on the self-concept.