Reflective Capacity Of Self Essay

Self is a broader term. It is the totality of you including your physical self, self- concepts, self-esteem, identities, reputation and anything about you, which would indicate “who you are” (McConnell & Strain, 2007). Oyserman et al., (2012) identifies self as a warm feeling about me.
Humans, from the very begining of civilizations, were courious to understand who they are and to use the knowledge about them to understand the world. The famous philosopher John Locke once mentioned, “I think therefore I am” noticeably highlighting the importance of thinking for existence of people. Since people are pragmatic reasoners they are capable of simultaneously pursue both the acts of thinking and doing in order to influence their judgement and behaviour so

Reflective capacity of self includes the three aspects of thinking, be aware of thinking and taking the self as object of thinking (Khilstrom, 2003; Lewis 1990 cited in Oyserman et.al, 2012). Further Gecas (2011) identifies self as a “process of reflectivity which emanates from dialectic between I and Me” (2011:3). Here “I” refers to the self and “Me” refers when reflecting on the self as the object of thinking. He demonstrates the capability of self to consider itself as an object to categorize, classify, and names itself to contrast itself with other categories. This process is identified as the self categorisation in social identity theory and identification in identity theory (Stets & Burke, 2003).
Further from a sociological point of view the discussion of the self, initiates assuming a reciprocal relationship of self and the society (Stryker et al., 2011 ; Oyserman et.al, 2012; Gecas, 2011). Therefore in order to understand the notion of self, it is vital to understand the nature of the society and the relationship between self and society. In doing so, situational approach to self and society is instrumental to study in detail (Stets & Burke